Re: [OT] seeking news server recommendations

On Fri, 31 Jul 2026 14:35:52 +0100, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

> On 31/07/2026 14:15, s|b wrote:
> > On Fri, 31 Jul 2026 13:32:30 +0200, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> > 
> >> On 2026-07-31 12:53, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
> >>
> >>> No one has ever made a profit out of usenet.
> >   
> >> Maybe the binary servers.
> > 
> > If they wouldn't make a profit they wouldn't exist anymore. 
 
> You really dont know do you.

To be clear: I was talking about the newsservers offering *binaries*.

> They wre sunbsidised by ISPs because people wanted them. Then they were 
> farmed out to fewer bigger organisations where at best they broke even,. 

And yet, servers that offer paid access to binaries are still around.

At one point, lots of ISPs were all too happy when there were complaints
about pedophile newsgroups*. They took the chance and closed down their
own newsservers.

When I got cable in 2000 my ISP had its own newsserver, binary
newsgroups included. At one point they decided there was to be a limit
to "external traffic". So people started to share (massively) on the
internal newsgroups where the traffic didn't count. Then, in 2011, the
ISP shut down the Usenet servers, claiming 'Usenet is obsolete. There
are alternatives on the Internet. Check out Google Groups!'

> Most of what's left are university hosted and funded

For those who are interested in free access to text newsgroups there's
not a lot of choice left. I've been NIN for ages and when they started
asking 10 euro/year I happily paid.
 
> > I think the
> > little ones disappeared, but Astraweb is still here and so are Giganews
> > and Eweka.

> They charge a fortune

To offer *binaries*. They're still around, but according to you they're
struggling to break even? If that is so, then why are they still around?




* Of which there were a handful, but instead of closing access to those
newsgroups they shut down their servers to save money.

-- 
s|b