Okay, so I pulled the group up in Google groups (much more convienient than a newsreader) and checked out a few pages of posts. I agree with Mako, it looks like more flames and wankery than real discussion. And...Deathy is still there, and apparently hasn't changed a bit.  

I also accidentally found an ATT Facebook page. Hmm.

That's what I thought too. I don't think the group ever really recovered after the G1 vs BW mess. IIRC, once the classic group split off, everything kind of died and most of the old guard scattered.

 

The sad thing is, I think there's still room in the fandom for ATT to grow and update itself into a "dreaded message board format." When I still posted there, I know a lot of the founders scoffed at the idea of a message board. For some reason, they kept holding onto the idea that the newsgroup was a superior format.

 

Hehe, ATT is where I hooked up with this crazy fandom.

At the time I felk like a new-kid because I wasn't on the original email-list-serve version of "the fandom," now I feel like I'm an ancient, because ATT is still where my little fandom heart lives.

Not ATT as it exists now, but some idealized version as it existed then.

Trannies. (The unfortunately named annual fan awards) Urac "Ratbat" Sigma's Top 10 Lists and variant anatomy. Raksha's Con-Quest essays. Fine-grain academic discussion of every frame and nuance of the G1 'toon. Pre-ebay auctions.

Good stuff. Miss those days. Too damned many people, topics, websites, things to keep track of thes days.

But, TFW is the only fansite I care to visit, so I love you lot too  

D/L

 

Is it this here? http://groups.google.com/group/alt.toys.transformers
Looks like a bulletin board but without all those fancy things we know and love and even without categories and subforums?

I never knew newsgroups were by Google.

Several years ago I downloaded a newsreader programm because I heard that you could download everything from newsgroups. But I never got it to work.

 

Mu:

Ack! I mean Nak! Nak! Nak!  

They're not by Giggle, Giggle just has a portal, which I do use for want of a Real Reader. It's not that I couldn't go out and get one, it's just that I'm a lazy bus.  

a.t.t. is Usenet, pure and simple. I hang out there (Greetings, Ultra Magnotron), as well as Here and at the Other Forum, and occasionally That Forum and That Other One As Well. Of course This forum is my favorite (I say, with nose of sincerest brown), but sometimes I get a hankering for different flavors of dialogue, y'know?

Variety is the opiate of a scoundrel...

Text is fine. Most of the info here is conveyed by text, right? I mean, you're reading this, not staring at my awesome handcrafted avatar. Graphics do have their virtues, of course. I probably would have a harder time making a photocomic on a.t.t.

 

Google Groups is just one of several different ways to access Usenet.

It's like saying "I never knew that TFW2005 was by Internet Explorer".  

 

Usenet is just one part of the Internet, just like the World Wide Web or email. The Internet is more than just websites.

 

Ah good old Usenet. I frequented many groups back in the day.

 

Oops. I FAILed  

Seems I need to do more research about this Usenet.


edit:
Now I'm enlighted. Sounds really like stoneage. Funny that people still use it. I mean, I thought this before, but now I think it even more. But interesting backstory.

 

No interest in returning. As someone earlier stated, some of the guys on there had egos that were waaaay too big and acted condescending to everyone. Newsgroups need to go the way of the rotary telephone. That said, I did enjoy it at times in the past, but no interest in returning.

 

DU:

The inflated egos - and there was a small zeppelin fleet of those - had mostly died and gone to robot heaven, thank goodness. There's been some recent unpleasantness, but a.t.t. had generally been pretty nice lately.

 

That's good to hear, but I think I'll just keep it here for now. I feel like I've moved past a.t.t. at this point, but glad others are still enjoying it.

 

DU:

TFW is indeed a good place to be.  

 

That is very nice of you, but I'm going to do what I can revive ATT. I just need to reach some fans who are willing to give it a second chance.

...perhaps I can reach a bigger audience on Youtube. Honestly, there is no reason ATT has to die.

 

I glance over ATT every now and then when I have nothing to do.

Sorry, but newsgroups don't really do it for me.

 

There's no reason why it has to live. Preserve the community, by all means. But clinging to an outdated, inferior delivery mechanism is silly. It's not like you're meeting in an old meeting hall built in the 1600's - it's the internet.

It's like keeping the old gym socks you used to wear in high school for nostalgia purposes.

 

Tm:
A lot of us are hanging on to plastic toys from 1984.  

 

But you don't use fax machines and dial-up to tell each other how much you like them.

 

Newsgroups are not outdated. They're not obsolete. They are a perfectly fine method of communication. They're just as current and valid as the TFw2005 message boards.

 

N:

Only 'cause you don't answer my calls, Nevermore.  

But really, it's just another place to sit down and talk about stuff. You don't always want to eat at Vapiano, do you?