Re: FOOB 5/1/07: Gah.

Dann <detox665@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 02 May 2007, aemeijers said the following in
news:jZ8_h.97891$VU4.62191@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Aside from esoteric discussion groups like this (and porn
groups, of course), how many of the 10k? 20k? defined groups are other
than graveyards, spam catchers, and gorified BBS's for the same six
posters?

Let's see:

RACS....but you already know about that.

rec.aviation.military.naval - probably about a fourth or less of the RACS
traffic and most of it is on topic

alt.solar.thermal....not great, but a decent group. Lots of signal....not
too much noise.

alt.fan.dragonlance...a big disappointment, but great for looking stuff up
if you are new to the series.

alt.books.stephen-king...another disppointment

news.admin.net-abuse.blocklisting...on par with rec.aviation.military.naval
in terms of meaningful traffic.

news.admin.net-abuse.email.....wayyyyy too much traffic and wayyy to much
noise.

alt.fan.heinlein....showing some signs of obsolesence, but those that are
left are an interesting bunch.

alt.pets.parrots.cockatiels....has a low volume but consistent run of
messages. A few a week. Web boards are probably a better resource at this
point.

So about half of my regular newsgroups are on the disappointing side. Of
course, there are a bunch more that I found that are empty/abandoned, but
that doesn't necessarily indicate that Usenet is dying.

rec.autos.makers.jeep+willys has been going strong for as long as I've had
my Jeeps (15 years), but I seldom visit any more. A quick check on Google
shows that it's the only one of the rec.autos.makers.* that is a "high"
activity group.

alt.obituaries, unlike its subjects, is very healthy. I don't frequent
*that* any more, either, but it does feature our very own J.D. Baldwin as
a regular.

There are a couple of local groups that are useful, too. However, usenet
does seem to be pretty much an older-folks pastime. Is there a newsgroup
for shuffleboard or henna?

--
Sherwood Harrington
http://SherWords.blogspot.com
.