Usenet

[Nick1911]

Anyone know of a free usenet server I can connect into?  I use to use the servers provided by Road Runner, till they decided that they could get rid of the servers without angering too many people.  Their proposed solution?  Buy access from a third party.  Great - here I thought I paid Road Runner for those services!  Guess not!   

[mtnbkr]

What about google groups?

Haven't used Usenet in nearly 10 years, it was a complete cesspool before I "discovered" web based subject forums like TFL (to name one we'd all know).

Chris

[GigaBuist]

Slashdot did a story not too long ago about Verizon dumping the alt.* tree entirely.

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/15/1258238

I'm sure if you look through the comments you'll find some suggestions on where to go for pay service.

[Werewolf]

Google provides indirect access to usenet. I haven't used google in a while for that because it's a real hassle but it is doable if your ISP doesn't provide usenet service.

Better have a thick skin and a tolerance for stupidity if you add usenet to your reading list, though. Usenet can be useful but one has to know how to quickly filter out the drek for it to be so.

[Manedwolf]

What about google groups?

Haven't used Usenet in nearly 10 years, it was a complete cesspool before I "discovered" web based subject forums like TFL (to name one we'd all know).

Chris

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[Nick1911]

Google provides indirect access to usenet. I haven't used google in a while for that because it's a real hassle but it is doable if your ISP doesn't provide usenet service.

Better have a thick skin and a tolerance for stupidity if you add usenet to your reading list, though. Usenet can be useful but one has to know how to quickly filter out the drek for it to be so.

Yea, I've been on it for a while.  The metalworking group has some really sharp people in it.

I'm not really a fan of using google groups because I know that most worthwhile posters (myself included) filter google groups posts out, since 98 out of 100 are spam.

[mtnbkr]

Not to mention the neverending flamewars and trolls.  The mountain bike group I used to frequent is STILL beset by a particular troll. 

Chris

[BryanP]

These days Usenet is (mostly) a file distribution system.  If that's what you're after I suggest a Giganews account. 

[Vodka7]

Giganews is comparatively expensive.  Usenetprovider, Easynews, and dozens of other providers offer similar services for much, much cheaper.

Giganews does have amazing retention, however.  I think they're up to four or five *years* for text-only groups.  And they have SSL, which most others don't.

Your best bet may be to purchase a chunk of transfer with no expiration date.  I have the unlimited DSL plan from AstraNews (~70 day retention for binaries, much higher for text groups, maxes out my connection at 750k/s), but they also offer 25gigs for $10.  And for a text-only user, it'd take you forever and ever to use up 25 gigs.

Providers used to offer text-only plans, which worked out to just a few bucks a year, but I guess Google News killed that off.  I checked some of the bigger providers for you and couldn't find anything.