Is Usenet actually dead?

Opinion pieces in Wired and AG's grandstanding by throwing babies out
with bathwater notwithstanding, a query from a cow-orker caused me to
wonder: is there still anyplace to get a Usenet feed from these days
that isn't {Giga,Super,etc}News? I want to pull maybe 30 or 40 tech
groups into my own server for the 5 or 6 people in my IT group.

In lieu of How It Used To Be, does anyone have data or anecdotes on
which of the commercial providers will let me run a server in-house?

Off-list is fine; I can summarize if anyone really cares anymore. :slight_smile:

Cheers,
-- jra

Avi Freedman runs a decent service.

   Gadi.

* Jay R. Ashworth:

Opinion pieces in Wired and AG's grandstanding by throwing babies out
with bathwater notwithstanding, a query from a cow-orker caused me to
wonder: is there still anyplace to get a Usenet feed from these days
that isn't {Giga,Super,etc}News? I want to pull maybe 30 or 40 tech
groups into my own server for the 5 or 6 people in my IT group.

You should be able to get the Big 8 (without any binary junk) fairly
easily. Finding someone who manages your subscriptions using GUP (or
even manually *gasp*) could be more difficult, though, so receiving a
subset is likely not an option.

(I haven't got a Big 8 feed to offer, I'm sorry. The regional ISP I use
offers an NNTP feed managed by GUP.)

Some offlist chatter suggests it might not be that difficult; I'm
investigating more deeply and will report what I can. :slight_smile:

How much *is* Big8 a day these days, though, a gig? I have a 10MBs
hose...

Cheers,
-- jra

"Jay R. Ashworth" <jra@baylink.com> writes:

How much *is* Big8 a day these days, though, a gig? I have a 10MBs
hose...

If trends have continued since last I looked at it, very manageable
after you take out the binaries. Insignificant if you could figure
out a way to get rid of the flames and spam. :slight_smile:

-r

Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:19:44 -0400
From: Robert E. Seastrom

If trends have continued since last I looked at it, very manageable
after you take out the binaries. Insignificant if you could figure
out a way to get rid of the flames and spam. :slight_smile:

Usenet - binaries - flames - spam = pretty close to "actually dead"

:wink:

Eddy

We operate a transit box, and there are still quite a few of them out
there. Pushing hundreds and hundreds of megs.

http://news.anthologeek.net/

From: Edward B. DREGER [mailto:eddy+public+spam@noc.everquick.net]
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 2:48 PM
To: Robert E. Seastrom
Cc: nanog@nanog.org
Subject: Re: Is Usenet actually dead?

> Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2008 09:19:44 -0400
> From: Robert E. Seastrom

> If trends have continued since last I looked at it, very

manageable

> after you take out the binaries. Insignificant if you could

figure