[RANT] Alt.food.wine through the looking glass

Dave wrote:

:P Peace

(eyeballs with goofy smile and tongue hanging out)

or

Look at it sideways, Dick ;-)

Mark Lipton

I'm sure that if anyone is sufficiently motivated, the site could be shut down quite easily. The easiest target would be the hosting company if there is one. I am sure they would not be interested in contributing to the legal fees necessary to test copyright law.

Thanks Dave. That gives a useful summary.

But, as I hinted at in my initial post of this thread, it is easier to argue that usenet is copyright in the UK, because you do not have to demonstrate a creative element. So the "artistic and dramatic" works bit, referred to in the FAQ, is not relevant over here.

It is a violation of copyright, no? In the US, copyright exists once the words are "fixed in a tangible medium" (like a web server). It is not necessary to register, nor (iifc) is it necessary to use the (c) stuff either (though it helps).

Jose

Curious. Most of the Internet sites, that I have begun to frequent are not portals, but full fora. This is odd to me, as I have not seen anything like this. Is this a site that has no traffic?

I've been spending much time on Chowhound, on their wine board, as has Midlife (don't tell him I told you so though!), and I often refer folk to AFW, but alas, most folk on the Internet have no clue what the Usenet is. Most have never heard of it, and fail to direct their browser's news reader mini-app. to it. Oh well, their loss.

One observation, based on several Hawai`i Usenet NG's is that the Internet is replacing the Usenet. I have to admit that with the wine, I've done that to some degree. Several good NG's have ceased to exist, because someone (usually a newspaper - remember those?) has moved the traffic to their Web site.

I still try to get by here, but have not done so in far too long.

Mark,

Interesting link. I wonder what it is all about.

Hunt

PS I saw that you made it to Chicago. Any AZ trips in your future? I have an overflowing cellar and need some winos to help me out. I cannot even reach my PNs now, as there are cases stacked to the ceiling that all have to be moved. I drink as quickly as I (and my liver) can, but have not made a dent.I still have to make room for my Turley, Insignia, Biale and Benovia allocations and do not know where I'll put them. You really need to swing through AZ man. Can't promise a James Beard Award-winning chef this trip, but will do my best.

Curious indeed! Their wine forum certainly had little traffic, which probably explains this attempt to 'seed' it with traffic from afw. Now, though, I see some legitimate and knowledgeable people replying to

I didn't realize that Chowhound had a wine board. I hope that it doesn't suffer the same problems that many of their food boards do. You will find several of us from afw (myself, Dale, Bill S., Michael P.) also on Robin Garr's Wine Lover's Discussion Group, a long-standing web forum on wine. My first allegiance is to here, though.

Usenet is a part of the Internet, but the Web has been supplanting newsgroups for the past 15 years now. It's sad in a way, because I find this format so much easier to deal with than most web-based forum software, but de gustibus...

Yeah, rub salt in the wound, Hunt. No plans to return to AZ any time soon, but we'll see. Andrew is now 3 1/2 and a good traveller, so we might make it out to your neck of the woods for a Thanksgiving or something.

1. Usenet is not the Internet.

The Internet is a wide-ranging network, parts of which are subsidized by various governments. It carries many kinds of traffic, of which Usenet is only one. And the Internet is only one of the various networks carrying Usenet traffic.

Salut/Hi Paul Arthur,

le/on Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:43:02 -0500, tu disais/you said:-

I am not sure what relevance that has, or even why you made the comment.

Many people equate "the internet" with what is often called the world wide web, regarding usenet and email as being different animals. But as Mark said

- both accurately and concisely usenet is PART of the Internet. Along with ftp, mail and the web. They may all use different access protocols but they are all part of the one umbrella entity.

Paul, forgive my semantic sloppiness. Usenet per se ceased to exist with UUCP in the last decade. What we call "Usenet" these days is more properly "newsgroups," which employ the NNTP protocol as set out in RFCs

Sorry 'bout the confusion, Mark Lipton

Usenet is not part of the Internet, as the Internet is only one of the networks involved in its distribution. Furrfu, it's right in the bit you quoted.

While the vast majority of Usenet peering is indeed done over the Internet, there are still bits of Usenet that aren't on the Internet. There are even some bits that don't use NNTP, though they're becoming scarcer than hens' teeth.

Actually, it's one of their best boards. Some get out of hand quickly, but Wine seems to be fairly laid back. There are some good posters there, and while they do get some of the same questions over, and over, it's a pretty good group. There are fewer TNs, but some good, insightful food/wine pairing advice. Since I've been doing a lot of restaurant reviews lately, it's easy to just click over to "Wine." I still miss hanging out here though, especially with the great folk, who frequent. I'll try to do better at getting by. For whatever that is worth.

Well, actually the Usenet is the old ARPANET and the nttp protocol is not quite the same as the http protocol. The Web is definitely a part of the http protocol. I was on the ARPANET back when it was defense, academia and some aspects of industry. All we had were Wang smart monitors back then. Unfortunately, most of our engineers spent time with the early text-based adventure games. From time to time, Union Carbide would shut the connections (~10baud, IIRC) down, so we'd get back to work...

You know that the door is always open, provided that we're in town. Travel seems to have taken over, BUT, the housekeeper knows where the wine cellar keys are, and, while I do not think that she'd be as good a host/hostess, as I, I'm sure that you could find some good stuff to drink. You'd have to move a few dozen cases to access it, but trust me, it's in there!

Andrew 3 1/2? Hard to believe. BTW, I still owe you a big thank you for the Restaurant Gary Danko rec. Shortly after your trip, we did it and Michael Mina's back to back. My wife's corporate folk were in awe that we did both of these on the same trip, as they only get by about once per year, and they are all in SF. That trip, I gave the nod to MM's by a very slim margin. Wife went with RGD by about the same margin, so it was technically a "draw."

Got one for you: not THAT far south of you (just outside of Knoxville, TN) that you would love - Blackberry Farm. It is a lodge with "cabins," and the food and wine are spectacular. Think Inn at Little Washington. We got to tour one of their cellars of 140,000 bottles. Cannot speak too highly of it. Now my wife demands that we do a trip to Blackberry Farm each year!

Take care, Hunt