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Newsgroups

Muse

Muse

Lifer
I used to do newsgroups a lot. Forums are cooler, generally moderated, don't have the spam issues that newsgroups seem to have taken on in an epidemic in recent years. However, there are a few newsgroups specific to a few topics of great interest to me.

My ISP (sonic.net) initially supported newsgroups but they dropped support not long ago.

I have an issue that I've not been able to resolve with a forum site and want to post in a newsgroup that gets a lot of expert participation.
I want to read and post. My email client is very newsgroup friendly (Forte Agent 1.93x).

I did Eternal Summer some years ago, I don't know that they exist or are viable or decent now.


What's a good source for newsgroups these days, preferably free?
 
I have seven different usenet accounts now but they are all paid-for and provide a different level of service than you are looking for. There is Just4Today who provides free daily access:

http://just4today.net/

Also this site has some other suggestions:

http://usenetreviewz.com/free-usenet/usenet-access/

Most of the options are ISPs who happen to have free servers. My type avoid those servers because they can't handle the load so that might be where I would start.

Also there is this:

http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/
 
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poofyhairguy said:
I have seven different usenet accounts now but they are all paid-for and provide a different level of service than you are looking for. There is Just4Today who provides free daily access:

http://just4today.net/

Also this site has some other suggestions:

http://usenetreviewz.com/free-usenet/usenet-access/

Most of the options are ISPs who happen to have free servers. My type avoid those servers because they can't handle the load so that might be where I would start.

Also there is this:

http://newsgroups.derkeiler.com/
Click to expand...
Thanks!

The particular newsgroup I want to access right now is:

microsoft.public.fox.programmer.exchange

In the future I can see my wanting to hit this one too:

alt.usenet.offline-reader.forte-agent

Um, also:

rec.gardens.edible

I have close to 150 newsgroups subscribed to in my newsgroup/email program, Forte Agent. Most of them I haven't scratched the surface and never visit, but several I have posted in extensively in the past, mostly quite a long time ago.
 
Have you tried Google Groups yet? Its free and you don't need a newsreader or Usenet subscription to use it. You do need a Google account to post though.

If that is not an option you might consider http://www.eternal-september.org/.
Registering will get you basic text based posting for free. You will need a newsreader though to read and post text based content(NO binaries!).

Pan is my favorite free newsreader for Windows. You can find it here. http://pan.rebelbase.com/download/. You may need to dl the GTK2 libraries to get it to work on Windows. It's an Agent Forte clone and may take some trial an error to get working but it's worth it.

EDIT:Bad news man....this one is dead. microsoft.public.fox.programmer.exchange On the bright side the other groups you mentioned seems to be fairly active. For a newsgroup anyway.:/
I used Eternal September to check both of them.
 
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What's your favorite alt.binary group that you check out?
I check out every once in awhile and man what a mess. It just keeps going on and on forever with no organization. I can barely make sense of it.
 
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Wow, newsgroups are still around? I have absolutely no experience with them, but I kinda expected they went the way of IRC.

....and IRC is probably still around, huh. :hmm:
 
jlee said:
Wow, newsgroups are still around? I have absolutely no experience with them, but I kinda expected they went the way of IRC.

....and IRC is probably still around, huh. :hmm:
Click to expand...

yes newsgroups is still around. IRC, not so much.
 
bbhaag said:
Have you tried Google Groups yet? Its free and you don't need a newsreader or Usenet subscription to use it. You do need a Google account to post though.

If that is not an option you might consider http://www.eternal-september.org/.
Registering will get you basic text based posting for free. You will need a newsreader though to read and post text based content(NO binaries!).

Pan is my favorite free newsreader for Windows. You can find it here. http://pan.rebelbase.com/download/. You may need to dl the GTK2 libraries to get it to work on Windows. It's an Agent Forte clone and may take some trial an error to get working but it's worth it.

EDIT:Bad news man....this one is dead. microsoft.public.fox.programmer.exchange On the bright side the other groups you mentioned seems to be fairly active. For a newsgroup anyway.:/
I used Eternal September to check both of them.
Click to expand...

One reason I've stuck with Agent is just that I have a ton of old messages, emails and newsgroup postings in the \Agent\data folder's files. Thousands and thousands, and I occasionally do searches in Agent and find information of use to me on a plethora of subjects, personal and not. I might stop using Agent if I could find a way to access that info without it, maybe import to something else. I imagine it's doable, at least in theory. If I get access to the Agent newsgroup again, I should ask that in a post.

Wow! microsoft.public.fox.programmer.exchange dead??? 😱 That's sad and a little perplexing. Several world class FoxPro programmers regularly posted there and answered people's questions.

I've used Eternal September before and it worked with my Agent Forte 1.93x. My Agent is very old, they have much newer NG/ereaders, but I never upgraded to them. I've seen so many posts concerning problems with the newer versions in the Agent Forte newsgroup, which I also have posted many times. Lots of expert help to be had there.

I'll try Eternal September again, if possible. I haven't used newsgroups for binaries for quite a few years.
 
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Muse said:
Wow! microsoft.public.fox.programmer.exchange dead??? 😱 That's sad and a little perplexing. Several world class FoxPro programmers regularly posted there and answered people's questions.
Click to expand...

Not really surprising, considering the last FoxPro update was in 2007, mainstream support ended in 2010, and even extended support is done. It's a dead product.
 
I'm sure that if usenet, whatever that is, really existed, which it doesn't, it would have a prohibition on talking about it in public.

It doesn't exist.
 
Chaotic42 said:
I'm sure that if usenet, whatever that is, really existed, which it doesn't, it would have a prohibition on talking about it in public.

It doesn't exist.
Click to expand...
Dude it is not 2012 anymore. Usenet is big money now, and DMCA takedowns are automated and plenty. The fight club rule is antiquated.
 
Muse said:
I just joined the "Google Group." and posted there. It's not the same as using my newsgroup reader, for that I'll try setting things up with Eternal September again, I did so years ago for a while. However, I'm able to post my inquiry. Yes, it appears to be a barely used newsgroup now.
Click to expand...

Yeah google groups isn't the same as an actual newsreader. I hang out in alt.home.repair and at least a couple times a week their is an old timer giving some new guy some grief over gg.
I guess the text by gg users stretches all the way across the screen and is kind of a pita to read when using a reader. I don't really mind but it's funny to see the old users bitch about it like somehow that will stop it.

Setting up an Eternal September account is really easy. Just register like you would anywhere and they send you an email with a password. Then in your reader just enter the server name, the username you chose , and then the password.

Then just like that you're on the Usenet reading and posting away like it's 1990.😀
 
bbhaag said:
Yeah google groups isn't the same as an actual newsreader. I hang out in alt.home.repair and at least a couple times a week their is an old timer giving some new guy some grief over gg.
I guess the text by gg users stretches all the way across the screen and is kind of a pita to read when using a reader. I don't really mind but it's funny to see the old users bitch about it like somehow that will stop it.

Setting up an Eternal September account is really easy. Just register like you would anywhere and they send you an email with a password. Then in your reader just enter the server name, the username you chose , and then the password.

Then just like that you're on the Usenet reading and posting away like it's 1990.😀
Click to expand...
In fact I was registered there before so maybe I can just change the settings in Agent and it will pull stuff down. I'm definitely going to do it.

Alt.home.repair used to be my favorite newsgroup. I started hanging out there in September 2000. I posted there many hundreds of times. A lot of great people hung out there including many contractors who would help people with all kinds of stuff. In more recent times it got weird and spammy and I saw a lot of off topic discussions of things I didn't want to get into. They kind of went astray, at least some of the people who posted there. I haven't checked it out for a long time. Last time I downloaded headers was May, 2012. I still have many thousands of posts saved in my Agent from that newsgroup including the message bodies, of course.

Come to think of it I think I remember seeing people complaining about people posting there from Google Groups!
 
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I doubt it man. According to their Terms of Use located here. http://www.eternal-september.org/index.php?showpage=terms

"Accounts will be automatically deleted after 180 days of inactivity (no connect to the server). An automatic notification will be sent by email 30 days prior to the deactivation."

You can always give it a shot though. If it doesn't work you can always re-register.

Alt.home.repair is a far cry from what it used to be. It's still a little spammy and the OT conversations are still around but there are still some really good people who try and help. I'd say it's worth popping in and checking it out. Especially since you haven't been around since 2012.
 
The last time I looked at a binary usenet group was probably 3 years ago and at that time it was full of viruses and malware that was masquerading as software. It was such a mess. NZB files are a great way to bypass that but the NZB sites seem to come and go quickly and all the good ones required subscriptions.
 
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