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You can still access USENET if you have an account on <https://www.eternal-september.org/ https://www.eternal-september.org/>. <https://news.individual.net http

You can still access USENET if you have an account on <https://www.eternal-september.org/ https://www.eternal-september.org/>. <https://news.individual.net https://news.individual.net> works, too, but I think it costs ten euros a year.

pwg 4y ago
At least eternal-september and nntp.aioe.org are free access -- but both have text only newsgroups, no binaries groups.
- bitwize 4y ago
  There's a reason for that. Binaries groups were historically dens of piracy and CSAM. They consume HUGE amounts of traffic and hosting them presents liability issues to the providers.
  - nisegami 4y ago
    Usenet binary groups still exist and are heavily used for piracy.
  - Arubis 4y ago
    > dens of piracy and CSAM Tangential, but fascinating that we've binned these categories together. The latter is likely orders of magnitude more harmful to society.
    - bitwize 4y ago
      Indeed, but I was just listing them as "two major illegal things that binaries newsgroups are used for", not tie them together or relate them in a jejune "four horsemen of the infocalypse" kind of way.
    - cies 4y ago
      I'd argue that piracy is beneficial to society. Copyright (and most of IP-law) is a scam at this point. 10y is enough on any IP-thingy (to have a head start on the rest of the market); but that's just my opinion. Yeah looking at you Mickey Mouse.
    - corrral 4y ago
      The former's arguably net-beneficial, in a world with effectively eternal copyright terms. It's shouldn't be possible for Disney to own so much of the last ~100 years of popular media, for example, because most of that should no longer be ownable.
    - Taywee 4y ago
      It's not about "harmful to society" in this case, but more "illegal, attracting attention from entities that make hosting the service much more painful and difficult". More than once, I've had thoughts about developing some sort of discussion platform, but binned it because the thought of hosting it and having to deal with the not-fun problems of reducing spam and handling illegal content made it entirely untasteful. At least spam reduction can be done entirely on my own terms, but illegal content requires me to then coordinate with external companies or agencies, report content, figure out how to deal with and purge the content (or quarantine and hang onto it hand it over when requested), and live with the the pain of having to field DLNAs and other copyright claims. I obviously have different feelings about piracy than I do about CSAM, but from a hosting perspective, both are just big pain points that make hosting a service where people can share non-text content a pain in the ass.
- beej71 4y ago
  It sounds like that would be fine with the OP who is looking for tech community and discussion.
emmelaich 4y ago
https://www.techradar.com/au/best/best-usenet-providers https://www.techradar.com/au/best/best-usenet-providers (of 2022) Seems to be oriented toward binaries though.

pwg 4y ago

At least eternal-september and nntp.aioe.org are free access -- but both have text only newsgroups, no binaries groups.

bitwize 4y ago
There's a reason for that. Binaries groups were historically dens of piracy and CSAM. They consume HUGE amounts of traffic and hosting them presents liability issues to the providers.
- nisegami 4y ago
  Usenet binary groups still exist and are heavily used for piracy.
- Arubis 4y ago
  > dens of piracy and CSAM Tangential, but fascinating that we've binned these categories together. The latter is likely orders of magnitude more harmful to society.
  - bitwize 4y ago
    Indeed, but I was just listing them as "two major illegal things that binaries newsgroups are used for", not tie them together or relate them in a jejune "four horsemen of the infocalypse" kind of way.
  - cies 4y ago
    I'd argue that piracy is beneficial to society. Copyright (and most of IP-law) is a scam at this point. 10y is enough on any IP-thingy (to have a head start on the rest of the market); but that's just my opinion. Yeah looking at you Mickey Mouse.
  - corrral 4y ago
    The former's arguably net-beneficial, in a world with effectively eternal copyright terms. It's shouldn't be possible for Disney to own so much of the last ~100 years of popular media, for example, because most of that should no longer be ownable.
  - Taywee 4y ago
    It's not about "harmful to society" in this case, but more "illegal, attracting attention from entities that make hosting the service much more painful and difficult". More than once, I've had thoughts about developing some sort of discussion platform, but binned it because the thought of hosting it and having to deal with the not-fun problems of reducing spam and handling illegal content made it entirely untasteful. At least spam reduction can be done entirely on my own terms, but illegal content requires me to then coordinate with external companies or agencies, report content, figure out how to deal with and purge the content (or quarantine and hang onto it hand it over when requested), and live with the the pain of having to field DLNAs and other copyright claims. I obviously have different feelings about piracy than I do about CSAM, but from a hosting perspective, both are just big pain points that make hosting a service where people can share non-text content a pain in the ass.
beej71 4y ago
It sounds like that would be fine with the OP who is looking for tech community and discussion.

emmelaich 4y ago

https://www.techradar.com/au/best/best-usenet-providers https://www.techradar.com/au/best/best-usenet-providers (of 2022) Seems to be oriented toward binaries though.