ISPs, Newsgroups, etc. ...OH MY!!!

[Jeffrey Watts]

On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 9:36 AM, Leo Mauler <webgiant at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Did you even READ the link I posted, where the American Federation for the BLIND (yes thats right, ACTUAL BLIND PEOPLE) says that your suggested alternatives DON'T WORK?

No I didn't, and I didn't because this is not a discussion about blind
people and how they interact with the Internet.  This was a discussion
about how big ISPs are turning off Netnews services and whether or not
that's because they're The Man or because USENET is outdated tech, not
used by enough people, and costs too much to support.

> You're essentially saying that blind people should be forced to give up their bus passes and ride bicycles instead, and when I try to point out that this is stupid, you say "red herring red herring red herring".

Your arguments are a red herring because THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH
THE ORIGINAL DISCUSSION.  They're a red herring because you're basing
your entire argument based upon the experiences of blind users, which
are a tiny percentage of the total traffic on Netnews, and while
affected by these changes, are not CAUSAL, nor are they PARTY to them.

Your concerns, while a valid concern for the blind community
(apparently), don't make USENET News technically sound, they don't
make it not be a resource hog, and they don't make it not be a den of
virii, spam, and porn.  You can argue how important Netnews is to you,
but that's not a valid basis for debate.

I'm still scratching my head about the Aioe thing.  If there's a free,
public NNTP server out there why are you crying so much about this?
Sounds like there are some like-minded folks out there who you can
News it up with.

> No, I'm suggesting that communities are creating message boards with topics that blind people may be interested in, but writing those message boards in FLASH and not providing an alternative.

Okay, I've never heard of any message board written in Flash.  Perhaps
some really bored guy wrote one once, but I highly doubt there are
major communities using it.  If there are Flash ads on the page you
can prevent them from loading.  Yes, this will prevent you from using
sites like Youtube.  Sorry.

But here's the real question: what does that have to do with News
being shut down?  You already have that problem, and as the Internet
grows Netnews will not, so more and more content will only be found on
the web.  Again, this is a red herring.  It is not a germane point.

> What, you think topics involving things which have an element of sight don't interest the blind?
>
> What, you mean the SINGLE message board the American Federation for the BLIND found was compatible with their screen readers?
>
> And thats only if you can get past the CAPTCHA which will prevent the blind user from getting a user account.  Usenet NEWS has no such stupid CAPTCHA.

You need to get a serious grip.  You've gone so far off the deep end
on this issue.  Instead of either debating the original discussion or
taking it off on a reasonable, collegial tangent, you've chosen to
instead freak out on the list and rant at people that haven't attacked
you and aren't your enemy because you may be personally affected by
this change.

Perhaps instead of just yelling at everyone about it, maybe you ought
to start a _reasonable_, _mature_ conversation about how to make
websites blind-friendly?  Perhaps you could then actually add to the
conversation instead of just derailing it.

Good day sir.
Jeffrey.

-- 

"He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy
from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a
precedent that will reach to himself." -- Thomas Paine