silly question time

[keroro gunsou]

i miss reading my usenet news groups, so i got myself forte agent to do so. now my isp offers a newsrc for my usage, but it's VERY restricted and limited in what groups it has to offer. no alt. groups, very limited rec. groups. what i am looking for is a FREE service that gives pretty unrestricted access to alt.binaries and rec.arts groups. i am open to suggestions.

god i miss alt.pave.the.earth

[charlie]

1. I used Motzarella for years

http://www.motzarella.org

They were quite good. Not blazing fast of course, but uncommonly dependable. Most free servers get overloaded regularly, but Motzarella managed to have consistent throughput. Updates were quick, so realtime conversations were possible. Its complement of hierarchies is extensive (including rec.arts and alt.pave.the.earth).

Unfortunately though, no binaries.

[keroro gunsou]

5. unfortunately...

alt.binaries was the deal breaker. i liked searching the mp3 groups for obscure stuff and remixes...

now if i could just find a server that had 'em :cry:

[charlie]

6. As Roy notes below

Free and good are definitely exclusive when it comes to news servers. You can give this a try:

Want to try our servers without opening an account? Configure your news client to use public.teranews.com with no user name or password. You get full read access (no posting) to the same server, but your download speeds will be capped at 128kbit.

http://www.teranews.com

No idea how many connections they allow, though. You'll probably have to keep at it for a while before you get in.

[keroro gunsou]

9. thanks.

no wrries about the bandwidth. i'm patient.

[Why Syzygy]

2. Is this the same thing?

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.pave.the.earth/topics?pli=1

ed: Probably not.

[charlie]

3. No, that's it

Usenet readers have a plethora of tools you don't get with a web interface though, so the experience is quite a bit different. Also, posts with Google headers can be a red flag in some groups and you can be gratuitously harassed or ignored when you try to participate in discussions.

[RoyGBiv]

4. Free and Unrestricted don't go together ...

You might find a free source somewhere, but you wouldn't have it for long because it would either shut down or drop the group you want or have a horrible propagation rate ... or something.

ISPs are dumping Usenet en mass.

Other than Google Groups, which, as I'm sure you know, is just plain different than the Usenet experience, the days of finding a reliable open Usenet server are long gone.

For reading the text groups, you can get really cheap access, but not free.

[charlie]

7. "ISPs are dumping Usenet en mass."

It shows in the marked decrease in traffic and increase of the spam to message ratio in the groups I enjoyed. And true to form, the longtime trolls carry on, enjoying the smaller pools to piss in. I finally gave up on Usenet.

[RoyGBiv]

8. Yup ...

Also goes some way toward proving that the stated reason for dumping Usenet was utter crap.

That filth has completely taken over. As more and more legitimate groups are abandoned, the purveyors infiltrate them to use as their momentary repository.

I still "do" Usenet, but ya have to go deep into the hierarchy to find decent discussions nowadays, and with binaries, you have to have a robust kill-filter.

OnEdit: FWIW, if all a person does is browse text based groups, Giganews now offers a tier for 2.99/mo. You're limited to 3GB/mo transfer, ten simultaneous connections, and no SSL, but that'll do the job for text. Importantly, headers do not count toward the monthly total.

They actually have excellent, graduated services for those with different needs. Hell, the unlimited, 20 connections, SSL, and 260 day binary retention is only $30/mo. People that don't collect NZBs and spend all month downloading binaries could get away with their $8 or $12 per month plans, 10GB and 35GB respectively.

I've used Giganews for years. It's actually the Internet service I've used the longest, continuously. I think I signed up in 1999 or so. Before that I used Newsguy for a couple years, which was fine, but they developed some problems with propagation, and at the time I was moderating a SOC. group and needed as close to 100% as I could get, so I switched. I've never had a problem with Giganews.

[charlie]

10. If Usenet wasn't dying

I'd probably get a Giganews account. They've had a sterling reputation for as long as I can remember.

I've been fortunate, in that the groups that interested me weren't too obscure and I didn't need access to binaries, so when I required a third party service, free servers were adequate. In Japan I used individual.de for years, only switching to motzarella when they went commercial. Over here, motzarella provided backup for my Cox account, and a near fulltime replacement for Roadrunner's lousy service.

However, this sudden reduction in Usenet traffic has outsized the influence of misanthropes in unmoderated groups. The guys nobody ever liked are now bigfoots, tormenting the remaining regulars and driving off tentative visitors. It's dispiriting. And hardly worth the trouble anymore.

[RoyGBiv]

11. My hope ...

Yes, I allow myself that with some things, although I'm sure there's some rose tint on these glasses.

My hope is that, at length, Usenet goes through a "reset" period. It'll be hellish for awhile waiting for that to happen, and it may never happen, but well ...

As we've discussed before, Usenet started to die at the moment it became popular, more specifically when AOL had it front and center and started distributing all those free signup discs everywhere. I wrote a thing about it once ... can't remember if I posted it here. It was a fictional musing called The Long December.

When the only place you could get Usenet access was through a educational or some other government institution, it was awesome. And then came the Long December.

[charlie]

12. That would be grand

Sometimes I also think it's possible, that Usenet will return to being too arcane, too archaic for most, just a rumor of a distant backwater that requires weird rituals and totems for entry.

I hate to say it though, but I think the fly in that ointment is Google. As long as they continue to make Usenet just another web portal, mix news posts in their search results, the door stays open for the AOLian hordes.

But who knows? I'm so often wrong, I'll hang on to that hope for something better.