> Massive sharing of illegal binaries and consequently ISPs dropping Usenet support was the "undoing". Binary groups were a separate thing. What killed USENET

> Massive sharing of illegal binaries and consequently ISPs dropping Usenet support was the "undoing". Binary groups were a separate thing. What killed USENET were spammers and trolls; the protocol was conceived in an era of gentlemanship and collaboration and had no antibodies against the wave of bozos that would come later.