newsgroups - are they dying out?

[gtmtnbiker]

I haven't used newsgroups since the late 90s. Afterdawn published an article http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2010/05/07/microsoft_discontinues_newsgroup_support?utm_source=newsletterENG&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20100513 where Microsoft is announcing they are shutting down their newsgroups. It made me wonder how much newsgroups are still being used.

Does anyone use newsgroups for discussion? Do people still transmit a lot of pirated material via the newsgroups or has that migrated to torrents/file servers?

[Krooner]

Newsgroups are still the fastest safest and best way to download large files. unfortunately that's about all they're good for as far as conversations go as they're choc full of spam! It's a shame, I loved newsgroups.

[RCBH928]

I never used them...

No matter how much they explain it to me...
I never understood what a newsgroup is, what is usenet, what is bbs system(whatever its called), and why is it faster to use usenet to download files, when I am having the same internet connection with other websites.

[fastbilly1]

BBS = Bulletin Board System - they were pretty much forums before forum software existed. Now they are rarely used.

Newsgroups are like BBS's but are more structured and more robust. They also do not feature a central server - you have to "dial" into BBS's. Newsgroups are spread over many servers and are all updated frequently. Typically this means, instead of relying on someone elses paltry upload speed, you will have a dedicated servers upload speed. So safer since they are not centralized and faster since the data should be close to you geographically. However they are costly.

And my newsgroup info might be off - its been over a decade since I last toyed with them.

[Hatta]

Newsgroups aren't dying out, they're being killed by short sighted ISPs who think eliminating USENET servers is going to save them money. My ISP (COX) is discontinuing USENET service this summer.

Yes, a lot of discussion still goes on on USENET. Especially in the comp. and rec. hierarchies. Comp.sys.Apple2 is still the best place to discuss the apple2.

And yes, there's lots of file trading in the binary hierarchies. It's good for the causal downloader, as you don't have to seed anything to get access. It's good for ISPs, as they only have to download a USENET file once. If 100 customers want a 4gig ISO, they just transfer that data across the public internet once. If 100 customers want the same 4gig ISO via bittorrent, the ISP has to transfer that data over the public internet 100 times.

Some would say that web forums have replaced the need for USENET today. I'd disagree. Web forums are no more a replacement for USENET than forum PMs are a replacement for email. It's so much nicer to be able to use a simple client that will support threading, sorting, filtering, searching, tagging, etc etc for all your discussions. Anyone who thinks web forums are better than USENET simply never used it in its heyday, or they never used a good client at least.

Sure SPAM is a problem, but moderated news groups exist and work fine. The real problem is that ISPs are shutting it down, one by one. Before long this great distributed network of content that once existed will be entirely hosted by Giganews. Sad.

[Hobie-wan]

I used to fetch quite a few large things from usenet when I had time warner cable. Then I stopped being such a bad person. After my last move, I was on AT&T DSL. I still browsed some of the picture groups for cool Fantasy and sci-fi art every now and then, but AT&T killed newsgroups a few years ago as well. I guess I don't miss them that much, but if I was using a discussion group I'd have been a lot more annoyed at having to then go pay for dejanews or something.

[RCBH928]

Can some one write a guide on using usenet

I really want to test this thing out...

I am really looking forward to download stuff, since I have 12 GB/month limit, I can't share on torrent. PLus my upload speed sucks.

But I imagine that the web has a much larger selection than on usenet

[gtmtnbiker]

Can some one write a guide on using usenet

I doubt anyone on this board wants to take the time to write a guide. What's the point?

Instead, I suggest that you google, read, google, and read some more. After reading some, ask some questions if things are unclear. By then you have done your "homework"

So start with "how do I download from newsgroups" and start reading....

[RCBH928]

ok, but any one can confirm that there is an active community with latest info and files on usenet?

because I don't want to get into a new thing that is as good as dead