USENET in 2009

[Garrett Wollman]

<<On Sat, 13 Dec 2008 19:18:34 -0500, SteveOrdinetz <hykker@wildblue.net> said:

> It's been years since I've read any usenet newsgroups.  Most ISPs 
> don't offer them anymore, and there's so much spam, trolls & flame 
> wars that the few legitimate posts get lost in the shuffle. 

There's no need to get USENET from your ISP.  There are many NSPs
(news service providers) which provide high-quality USENET access for
very small fees (a few are entirely free of charge).  But I don't know
of any broadcasting-oriented newsgroups beyond rec.radio.broadcasting,
which died with its moderator, Bill Pfeiffer (who unfortunately didn't
have a rich mama to provide a legacy).

There are numerous quite successful newsgroups (I read several
regularly).  A good NSP will have reasonably effective spam filters,
and the trolls can easily be filtered with a good newsreader.
Unfortunately, newsreader technology has really gone backwards over
the past several years; the newsreader I use, trn, remains a great
improvement on its successors.

-GAWollman