Usenet – Let's Return to Public Spaces

Re:Usenet – Let's Return to Public Spaces by yori on Thursday February 13, 2020 @08:38AM (#22317606)

Has Usenet really died? I still see many active newsgroups with posts appearing daily.

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Re:Usenet – Let's Return to Public Spaces by _kst_ on Thursday February 13, 2020 @02:21PM (#22320541)

I'm surprised I had to scroll down this far to see this. Usenet is still very much alive. It's not what it once was, but I regularly participate on several technical newsgroups that are still fairly active. The signal-to-noise ratio is not great, but killfiles (filters) can help with that.

I use the https://www.eternal-september.org/ free NNTP server. There are others.

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Re:Usenet – Let's Return to Public Spaces by dredmorbius on Thursday February 13, 2020 @09:26AM (#22317935)

"Yes, Usenet still exists, technically. In terms of active use, outside a very few limited newsgroups (mostly peers of technical mailing lists), it's dead to today's Internet users."

https://old.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/3c3xyu/why_use...

(From one of the primary sources linked in TFA.)

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Re:Usenet – Let's Return to Public Spaces by smhenderson on Thursday February 13, 2020 @09:25AM (#22317930)

Forgive my ignorance but how/where do you get to it? It's been so long since I even tried I'm not sure where to begin anymore.

Thanks!

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Re:Usenet – Let's Return to Public Spaces by pwg on Thursday February 13, 2020 @03:38PM (#22321216)

Here is a long list of clients:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Usenet_newsreaders

And you can get free access to the text groups (no alt.binaries.*) from, at least, either of:

Eternal September:

https://www.eternal-september.org/

AIOE

https://www.aioe.org/

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Re:Usenet – Let's Return to Public Spaces by smhenderson on Thursday February 13, 2020 @04:05PM (#22321429)

Thanks, after I posted this I had a look at eternal-september that another poster also mentioned in a different thread.

I decided I don't have time today but bookmarked it for some other time.

Checking the list of clients I was pleased to see Claws on there, that also took me back. Might have to give it another look, it's been a while.

thanks again, I appreciate the feedback!

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Re:Usenet – Let's Return to Public Spaces by thom on Thursday February 13, 2020 @10:00AM (#22318195)

I suspect just as many users get just as much value today out of Usenet as they did in the early 90s, it just seems failed by comparison to explosive growth of the web.

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Re:Usenet – Let's Return to Public Spaces by rjsw on Thursday February 13, 2020 @09:08AM (#22317800)

I still use it every day too.

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Re:Usenet – Let's Return to Public Spaces by kreddor on Thursday February 13, 2020 @09:21AM (#22317892)

I was a usenet user back in the day, but I don't actually know how I would access it now. Is there any other way than using a commercial provider? My ISP certainly doesn't provide access and haven't for I don't know how long.

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Re:Usenet – Let's Return to Public Spaces by rjsw on Thursday February 13, 2020 @09:37AM (#22318013)

I use the free server at Eternal September [1] It only carries the text groups, no binaries (so no pOrn).

[1] https://www.eternal-september.org/

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Re:Usenet – Let's Return to Public Spaces by lunias on Thursday February 13, 2020 @09:30AM (#22317954)

Me too! Well, maybe not every day, but most days. Usenet rules.

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