What discussion groups do you use?

[chitlinpita]

I'm new to this forum, but I've been using Usenet for a long time. I wish I would have found this site when I first started out, but I managed to learn most of the ins and outs on my own through lots of research.

Anyway, I can find what I want in the binary groups, but I was wondering if any of you guys use the discussion groups very often or at all?

Are there any good groups to discuss things or are they all filled up with spam these days? No specific topic in mind, just thinking generally like for news, sports, politics, internet, etc.

Thanks for all the good info from this site!

[Windy72]

Most text groups are spam or trolled filled unfortunately. All I can say is filter using your reader and take a few headings down. See what is what. I use Forte Agent as my text based newsreader has great Kill Filters for the spam, trolls and socks.

[mesaman]

Besides the traditional Usenet discussion newsgroups, many NSP and ISP specific discussion newsgroups still exist, but over the years most of the participating subscribers have disappeared, leaving support people with no one to talk to in their own newsgroups. They still check the groups occasionally to see if anyone has posted a message.

giganews.general (giganews servers only)

Here I get to discuss general Giganews stuff with Giganews employees. Things like posting volume, retention upgrades, advantages & disadvantages of using the Accelerator and SSL, pros and cons of various newsreaders, etc. Often I learn about planned upgrades here first, before they appear on Giganews' home page. However, they prefer that individual support issues be handled by email. So far in 2009 this newsgroup is almost completely dead because most Giganews subscribers now don't know how to use a text newsreader.

newshosting.support

NewsHosting support people still answer questions about NewsHosting there. The group is so slow now, the founder of NewsHosting doesn't post there any more.

newsreader.general

A couple of NNTP Gurus discuss their service by posting interesting and detailed answers to subscriber's questions. I've learned a lot there. Right now there is someone attempting to participate by posting text messages with Newsbin Pro, which aren't threaded with other messages, or word-wrapped.

qwest.general (Qwest ISP news server only)

Here I get to discuss ISP stuff with the Lead Systems Engineer for my ISP which covers 18 states. I pretty much have the newsgroup all to myself, as most people who use Qwest for their ISP have never heard of Usenet.

Other newsgroups:

cox.internet.discussion.newsgroups (Cox Cable news servers only)
Best place to discuss issues with Cox Cable's outsourced news servers. Last time I looked, the newsgroup was still fairly active.

alt.binaries.news-server-comparison
Long ago it was a hub where premium news server operators and subscribers would meet and discuss all things NNTP and binaries, but now it's a ghost town.

usenetserver.general (UNS news servers only)
usenetserver.support (UNS news servers only)
Fairly active at one time, they're probably very slow now.

[zubzeero]

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