Blogphen

Is it wrong to cry over a newsgroup?

For those of you who don’t know the inner workings of what used to be NTL (UK Internet service provider and telco), the ISP branch of the company ran for many years Usenet servers with local newsgroups in the ntl.* hierarchy. One of those groups was ntl.talk, in which was a tight, close-knit community whose members (for the most part!) got on famously.

As Lethe puts it:

We’ve seen many a young man and woman come in here Khyle - sometimes with more of a bang than a whimper - to talk computers, contribute to whatever was of interest here, groan about the rigours of school and family and, with deepening interest and seriousness, enter the demanding world of higher education. It has been our privilege to listen and advise when asked, to be affectionately amused and to hear about the first experiences of sometimes daunting places of work . We thank you Khyle for sharing such key aspects of your life with us.

Now, NTL recently re-branded as Virgin Media (having purchased Virgin Mobile and Telewest/Blueyonder) and have railroaded through two communities, trying to amalgamate the two, on Blueyonder’s terms. It may seem childish, but us ex-NTL weren’t overly happy with that decision.

Today, however, Virgin Media decided to shut down ntl.talk for good. Just a quick notice (which they got wrong, they were in such a hurry to get rid of us) and then made it completely read-only. This place has been such a source of inspiration for me amongst other things that’ve gone on in my life and it was just so saddening to see it (essentially) gone for good, I couldn’t help but have a quick weep.

In other news, I’d like to apologise for the lack of updates. Those of you who know me will know I’ve been seeing a counsellor lately. It’s been one helluvan uphill struggle but things seem to be improving for me. I’d rather not go in to explicit detail here (there are still some odd ends to tie up) but perhaps in time.

Since coming back to Uni, I actually for the first time feel able to smile and bounce up stairs (though depending on how little sleep I get!!). It’s been spurred on not only by finding ways to actually chat to flatmates (I managed to get involved in a vicious circle with people without being able to talk about it) but also the prospect that I actually have a future here - the time it took us to get a house next year was nagging in the back of my mind for months - there was a period where I was considering purposefully failing the first year so I didn’t have to worry about anything.

There’s now only 2 and a half weeks before I’m back home. Whilst I know I’m not meant to think in those sorts of terms, I just can’t wait as it’ll be a chance to relax! This term we’ve been absolutely bombarded with coursework - I had 2 deadlines Monday, 1 today and another 2 on Friday. We had 3 last week and although there aren’t any deadlines next week, our lecturers have said some will be given out (to be in during the last week!). Not fun!

Other than that, there’s not been a huge amount happening. Went home twice this term (I needed it with what I’ve been going through) and went to see Shell and Karl the weekend before last for a nice geeky weekend with some London Geocaching! Off to see steev (Pluto..nium) the weekend after next - no idea what’ll happen but should be good anyway! Just got to figure out how to get up there (and when!) and if I can sort of cheat and use my bus pass all the way to Carmarthen instead of just within Swansea!

Anyway, someone prod me when it’s updating time next!

Hyphen