HN Explorer

Does anyone still use Usenet?

5 points by gen3 ↗ HN
I recently bought some bandwidth hoping to look around, but I am having a hard time finding any community with content. Did I just arrive to the party late? (Newsgroups that you used to follow would also be appreciated.)

7 comments

[ 4.0 ms ] story [ 31.1 ms ] thread
pwg
Yes. The following groups have some activity in them:

comp.lang.tcl, comp.misc, alt.os.linux.slackware, sci.crypt, comp.os.linux.misc.

Many of the comp.lang.* groups have activity.

Simulacra
I tried accessing newsgroups for the first time in 20 years but was unable to find a way in without paying. Is there a free way into Usenet?
gen3
I just spent a couple dollars for a "block" Since I'm just downloading text, I don't imagine to burn through it quickly.
simonblack
Yep.

This is my newsgroup list: Some of these groups have posts practically every day, some have posts that are few and far between.

        1  aus.computers.linux                     
        2  comp.os.coherent                        
        3  comp.os.cpm                             
        4  comp.sys.northstar                      
        5  comp.os.linux.misc  
        6  alt.os.linux.mint  
        7  alt.autos.mercedes                      
        8  alt.os.linux.debian
My NNTP server is eternal-september, my articles-downloading software is slrnpull.

My local handling of articles is a partial installation of cnews, my news-reader software is a slightly modified version of tass, both of which were originally components of my Coherent software installation.

pasttense01
The major use of Usenet currently is for file-sharing of copyrighted media. It's safer than torrents if you only want to download--since for torrents you are also uploading.