How much did you DL when you first started using newsgroups?

Too much. 6 days into my service I'm nearing 85GB.

about 18 gB/ day, give or take.

My name is Rob.

*Hi Rob*
I have an addiction.

*Everyone Claps*
I've filled 2 500GB HDD's in 3 months.

*Everyone gasps. Seconds later, a swat team busts through the doors*

Hell, with HDDVDs and Blurays coming in at 30gig each, just 10 movies a month would easily put you over 300gig.

I'm nearing my second month and I've DLed 71GB so far.

Well, since you are interested in "newbie" stories my story began with only being able to download 100MB a month and that was back in '97. Those were the days. A lot has changed since then and i'm glad that usenet providers have up'd their bandwidth and retention. There was a time when 7-days retention was the shit!!!

Now, i average about 1.8 - 2.5TB a month depending how much free time i have.

since 04/26/2007; ive tally'd up close to 3tb

In the 18 months since i discovered newsgroups i'm close to 2tb.
Would be more if Virgin Media hadn't brought in there traffic shaping.
(sigh) I miss telewest.

Wow after reading this thread the 292 GB i have downloaded this month doesn't seem like much. Quick question though: should I be worried downloading that much living on the campus of a college and using their internet connection?

I started using my ISP's newsgroups about 1 year ago and have downloaded 415GB this last year.