Feel like it's obligatory to say this for people unfamiliar with Usenet, but there are text groups (think text threads like a mailing list or forum) and binary

Feel like it's obligatory to say this for people unfamiliar with Usenet, but there are text groups (think text threads like a mailing list or forum) and binary groups (shows/movies/software/etc). The size growth is due to the latter. I use both types. Text groups almost certainly fell off a cliff earlier this year when Google Groups shut off their spam posting gateway. http://www.eternal-september.org/ http://www.eternal-september.org/ is a good free project for the text groups. I've been a newsdemon customer for years but they suck for text groups (their headers got messed up a few years back after a move from highwinds backbone to usenetexpress backbone).