Goodbye Newsgroup!

Meta
1

I was too late and found a closed NNTP server.
Yet I want to share a final goodbye and welcome to this new channel.
What I wanted to share on the NG was this:

Goodbye Newsgroup! Welcome Discourse

More than a decade I spend here (on the NG),
many many hours reading replying and contemplating
everything related to Rhino and much more.
Few days have gone by that I did not check for new posts:
Opening Thunderbird meant first checking this NG, and only
after reading and replying here, I hit SHIFT+F5 to get my emails.

This communications channel was the main means
to gain a deep knowledge of all the possibilities Rhino offers,
learn of it’s strengths, weaknesses, caveats, workarounds, bugs,
inconsistencies, ambiguities, hidden secrets …

_testmoocow still being my favorite (Thanks Jeff!)

I developed myself as a self employed “3D-modeler” with a tool
at my disposal that can do magic as far as my clients are concerned.

This channel more than anything made me learn to express myself in English

This channel introduced me to scripting, and WOW how much that has enriched me!

A special thanks to all at RMA for their dedication and their way of doing business.
It’s amazing to be able to have such direct communication with you; the developers
of these programs. The amount of (inside) knowledge you are willing to share is
beyond believable for anyone who did not experience it themselves.

It is because of that, that people come back here, that makes people contribute
and share their own knowledge and time to help out others. Many without any direct
or indirect gain, but the joy of helping out and sharing.
So even more thanks for all those that helped me and others; in some way or another
That made me enjoy this newsgroup!

So let’s continue all of this in this new channel!
http://discourse.mcneel.com/
See you at the other side!

-Willem

2

I love it. jim’s last post on the newsgroup was this: [quote=“jim”]

Do you actually believe that after years of being too incompetent to
fix the search function and too incompetent to direct users to
the news group and too incompetent to come up with a efficient
and effective replacement that suddenly they are going to
develop the competence to modify the newsgroup so that it
works read only?
[/quote]

And guess what? The newsgroup is read only already. Ha! His one last prediction about the transition was dead wrong.

3

Thanks Willem -
Direct engagement with users is one of the most enjoyable aspects of this job and is one of the primary reasons I work at McNeel. I firmly believe it is necessary to be able to make a product that actually helps people get their job done.

4

Well, the day has finally come; the Rhino nntp newsgroup is now a part of internet history.

Fourteen years ago, someone informed me of its existence (it wasn’t heavily advertised back then) and I made my first timid newbie post (well, I had been using Rhino already for more than a year). Someone answered me - I think it was Mikko - and little did I suspect at the time where that small beginning was going to lead me…

Rhino has quite literally changed my life. Where I am now and how I got here has a great deal to do with Rhino - and a lot of my involvement with Rhino is due to the newsgroup… Via the newsgroup I became part of the community, and the community became part of me. A very large part of me. The knowledge and understanding that I gained here is inestimable, and the friendships I have made are precious.

So I just want to say a huge personal thanks to everyone who contributed on the newsgroup over the years and made it such a special place to be, and to all those who are already working hard to shape and build our community’s new home. Thanks especially to everyone @McNeel for an incredible piece of software, unbelievable support, and for fostering the atmosphere of comradeship, respect, and joy that we feel here.

You all form the most amazing group of people I have ever met.

The newsgroup is dead, long live the newsgroup! :angel:

–Mitch

5

Yeah, I was thinking that post might have contributed to the NG closing a day early. I won’t lie, I like that “Alas, poor Newsgroup” is the last non McNeel thread on there :slight_smile:

Thanks to the innumerable masses of people who offered their help and support to me and everyone on the newsgroup. I hope to see (almost) all of them here. For the past 10 years or so I’ve made a fool out of myself over there, and it seems I’m certainly off to a good start doing the same here :wink2:

6

Mitch, can we put that on the box? (The check is in the mail.)

Thanks back, and as far as I can see so far this forum is going to work just fine - I don’t see a big break in continuity for the Rhinistsic community.

-Pascal

7

If he won’t let you, I’ll say the same thing and you can quote me. :wink: It’s so true. I had completely given up on trying to make 3D CAD work for me when someone showed me Rhino. Boom… it all made sense and I’ve never looked back. I’d give up my welding tools before giving up rhino, it’s that important to what I do now. Thanks.

8

Discourse is actually the second iteration of the (official) Rhino discussion forum. Anyone remembers the mailing list which was in existence at least during the pre 1.0 WIP builds?

9

-Pascal[quote=“feklee, post:8, topic:587”]
nyone remembers the mailing list which was in existence at least during the pre 1.0 WIP builds?
[/quote]
Yep.

-Pascal

10

What about the failed experiment…was it “alt.3d.rhino?” that lasted about a 1/2 day?

11

Yeah, I had the same problem… Brian was too quick - or I was too slow :wink:
So I guess this is it… Goodbye newsgroup (thanks for 15 nice years) - hello Discourse :sunny:

Philip

12

Same happened while i’ve been trying to send my last nntp post. Fortunately, the “web based ng” still worked the first time i used it. Today it displays this:

Goodbye newsgroup - hello Discourse.

c.

13

It is fun to think back about how far we’ve come since 1996 when I first started working for McNeel. The listserv to newsgroup to discourse transition is but one of many. Rhino has grown incredibly over the years thanks to your participation (that is all of you both reading and not reading). As I reflect on the incredible, yet steady growth that has defined the Rhino project, I feel proud to be involved.

Here’s to you, Rhino user community!

14

Cheers!

:beers:

-Willem

15

I just missed the 3 year anniversary of Discourse replacing news.mcneel.com. Then I noticed that news.mcneel.com wasn’t online. I guess nobody else noticed either.

I’ll call that success!