accessibility to “normal” people … we need to have a big-name provider offer free access with no strings attached; no walled garden, no caveats.

This is the point I have been arguing over on the subreddit with a user who is looking at it merely from a technical angle instead of from a regular end-user angle. I have been suggested options like browser extensions.

My answer:

The problem is access + bandwidth. What is easier?

• finding https://news.example.org/g/comp.lang.c/Axxxxxxxxxxx49z on Google/DDG and clicking through
• browser extensions + register for (free) account on Eternal September?

Would you know, by just looking at Google Groups, that it provides access to Usenet discussions? They have done all they can to obfuscate the matter.

Even though I called it a “plan B” in my post on r/UsenetTalk, I did qualify it with a “or A, if you wish.” I did that because I don’t truly believe in the idea of a back up community.

A community either exists, or it doesn’t.

This Black Friday, I am thinking of making the primary deals post here, with a link from reddit.

I get a “No Posts” message on my group. The default sort method is “Active.” And mods have no way of modifying group settings to change it to something sensible.

Yet another example of user-hostility in software design with Lemmy. The hit-or-miss nature of syncing across instances is another big irritant.