Guess you never spent time programming the //e or older ][ and ][+. Seriously, you think the gs was slow? Compared to what I started with in college (the //e), the gs was rocking.

Always amazing how people think they're the first generation to deal with or discover things or face issues and have no clue what things were like before them.

I didn't get anything banned, but I left for similar reasons. I think they were going with cheap mods who probably had poor English skills (because they were from whatever country where labor was cheapest by the hour). But in many ways my issue was the opposite: The answers that were getting in the newsletter and getting all the attention and were not getting banned were the ones giving advice that would get people evicted, arrested, or just in court because it would make it easy for the landlord to sue to them or for tenants to sue them as a landlord.

That's been going on for years. It was a problem back when I was active and one of many reasons I left, even though I was a Top Writer (or whatever that title is) in one category. Top Writer? Yeah, still meant not getting much in terms of newsletter mentions when compared to the people giving answers that, if followed, would land people in court, or jail, or out on the street when evicted.

The vast majority of the ones I saw like that were political or dealing with anti-vax or other conspiracy theories.

At one time you could go to Quora for good answers and intelligent discussion on those answers. It's been a good while since that was the case. They've been pushing popular or flame-bait answers for a good while over factual or quality answers. I used to work as a landlord and would work hard to write good answers to questions so I could actually help people. I got thanked for them, but the answers to similar questions that kept showing in my feed, ones that were getting all the views and reactions, were usually inaccurate and often even advised people to do things that they could get sued or sent to jail for. I'd report inaccurate answers or bad advice that could get some arrested for larceny or worse and nothing happened.

Quora hasn't been about answers or helping people or exchanging information for at least several years. If it goes tango-uniform and the bigshots behind it lose their stock equity and get loans called in and lose houses and yachts, it's nothing more than poetic justice.

And yet they're providing internet to many who couldn't get it or get a reliable connection through other sources. There are things I can do with a business I've wanted to start for several years that I couldn't do until Starlink came out of beta and I could get it. Considering that employment and income goes up in areas when good internet becomes available and that they're helping groups as well as individuals be a part of something many people have taken for granted for over 20 years now, ignoring their impact on peoples' lives is ignoring most of the story.

Wise County, VA - look it up. Backwater. Rural. For many homes no internet at all, for many others, no reliable internet. Wise County Schools had no reliable connection to use the internet in instruction in classrooms or to help kids learn to use what most kids these days take for granted. Starlink came in and worked with them directly to help them get real internet they could use in their classrooms and for the kids to use for doing homework.

When you can see that the public schools in a rural county like Wise is now able to start catching up to the 21st century that most of the US is in, that kind of makes the concerns about observatories take on a different perspective. I'm not happy that issue is there and, from early on, when they saw it was going to be an issue, they started working out how to de-emphasize it quickly. But when it comes to educating children so they can take part in the 21st century economy and actually use Google and other internet resources, it's worth weighing the gain and loss

Think about those kids who can finally do ANYTHING on the internet next time you sit down and stream any program you take for granted now days.

I spent two years on Viasuck, then 2 1/2 years on cellular internet, and now Starlink. If I ran a business, one of the LAST services I'd trust to confirm credit cards is traditional satellite internet like Viasuck. Approximately 1/2 second latency for any transaction and if there's a serious storm, there's no service. I wouldn't count on it for anything that I need to go through within the next hour. And, having dealt with their CSRs on the phone, and seeing what kind of people they depend on to do installs and so on, I wouldn't count on them for anything that involves data that matters. Even with my records, and their connection records, it took me over an hour to convince them that my connection being dropped every hour (yep, once an hour) was something they needed to look into. I got told, by multiple people, that my modem was on their latest software so I couldn't be having any problems. I said, "Okay, how do you explain hourly outages that last from 2-20 minutes?" The answers to that were either denial (even though it was in their records) or just making shit up.

Traditional does not have a place. While they did, they were hiring incompetent people. Now that there are other options for most of us, their income is going down. That's not going to make improve the knowledge or skill of their employees or their technical operations as a service improve when income drops. Viasuck will survive because they've bought a network that can do more than geostationary internet. Otherwise, they're providing 20th century technology to the 21st century and there isn't a place for that.

The article puzzles me. In my research, I found Comcrap and others will run 300' from the road for free, then they charge you. Our house is just at 1/3 of a mile off the road and it was going to cost us $17,000 (approximately) if we COULD get Comcrap. While some of each bill may go to infrastructure, that does not include last mile stuff for people out of their range or in neighborhoods where the resident density is not high enough for them to consider ir profitable. People here have lots of at least a few acres, so in the 1 mile of road they won't cover, instead of having lots that are a few hundred feet wide without much yard and a lot of residents, houses here are much more spread out, so they don't want to bother with us.

In this county, we're just outside of Richmond, VA. Most of the county is heavily populated. Comcast and Verizon (with FiOS) are both making millions each year off this county. I think the county (as many have) dropped the ball on this. I think the franchise agreement that lets them come in here and set up their cables and dig and so on should require them to submit plans that will target 100% residential coverage of the county within the next 5 years. It should be at THEIR expense. They're making so much off this county, they should be willing to be good citizens of it and give back as well as take. The federal government is now making money available to them. That money should go to the citizens. We should be able to apply and get enough to pay for them running the line to our house or something like that. It should not just go to the cable and internet companies who have treated people like shit or ignored them for decades because they didn't want to run the lines out.

And addressing the line being yours or theirs: You don't want to own it. I say that has someone who has had to trench and bury cable and who, recently, had to find a break in 500' of power line that was 2' underground for the whole way. If something goes wrong, how will you fix it? How will you find the break in several hundred feet of underground data cable? (With a power cable, you can *sometimes* use a ground fault locator, but that may not work so well for a data line.) If it's theirs, maintaining it is their responsibility. Which is one more reason the customer should not have to pay and the should be required to run the line. It costs them money, but it's the responsibility that comes with the territory.

We started with ViaSuck, which was abysmal and the consumer service reps were almost outright hostile and the worse educated of any I've dealt with - even after having dealt with Comcast! Toward the end we were losing the signal at the bottom half of every hour and I called in about it. I had proof and records and the ignorance and attempts to blame it on other causes were astounding! but it was close to the end of the contract, so I researched and found a good cellular broadband solution. The only problem was they would not tell us what our datacap was for the month so we had to limit what we streamed because of that - we had no idea when or if we'd get a notice about that. Also, there were times it slowed up a LOT and when I watched 2 hours of the Tour de France when it took place (with NO other streaming that month), they compensated by throttling everything else for us. Not perfect, but they really were trying.

Starlink? I moved out here in 2017. At that time there was Netflix and Amazon. Maybe Hulu. Since then streaming has exploded, but most people were living with it as it happened. For me, it was a shock. My wife and I can watch 3-4 hours of SF shows, in HD, every night if we want. No data cap, good connections, fast connections - it's like suddenly moving to paradise. Reminds me of when, at my old house, I dropped Comcrap and went to FiOS - except 10x better.

The problems? We lose it in heavy storms. The updates are automatic and happen between midnight and 4 AM, and I work nights, so there are times I lose 5 minutes during updates. Also, every now and then, the signal drops for 10-20 seconds or so. Otherwise, it's just freaking amazing compared to the options when you can't get a good ISP.

Agreed. In 2015 we bought 24 acres, mostly wooded. While I knew people on the left had Comcrap and people on the right had it, I later found out that it was in a 1 mile gap and Comcrap was refusing to serve customers in the gap. To get Comcrap, IF they would come out to us, would have cost at least $17,000. I knew that going in because I researched it. While we were stuck with ViaSuck for a while, as soon as I had time, I upgraded to cellular internet and, now, we have Starlink. It wasn't great internet, but I made sure I knew the options ahead of time and made plans.

If they didn't, I have no sympathy for them.

Your parents must be so proud of the troll you've become!

You got squat. Thanks for wasting my time.

Then prove it.

This would be much more useful if it contained actual links to any stories.

The gullibility one needs to think that anything substantial was said is almost beyond imagination.

They said a lot, all of it nothing but sound and fury and what was left was a pack of lies.

Anyone who would buy any of this would be eager to buy swamp land in Florida.

I'm guessing this makes transparent aluminum overrated.