rec.music.gdead was one of the most active usenet groups. IIRC rec.arts.books.sf-lovers was also a very popular group. I'm a bit nebulous on whether it origin

rec.music.gdead was one of the most active usenet groups. IIRC rec.arts.books.sf-lovers was also a very popular group. I'm a bit nebulous on whether it originated from the mailing list or the other way around There were also quite a few "for sale" type groups, I remember when the group for computer equipment was split into about five subgroups after it got too big. Just editing to add - there were also a lot of regional groups, one of the earliest and probably biggest was ba.* There were also state/country level top levels and a few colleges had their own too