On Wed, 16 Feb 2005 18:16:02 -0500, Tony P. wrote:

> I'm watching everything going on with NNTP/Usenet access and can
> honestly say that I think it's a dying forum.

As I understand it, the majority of the income that ISPs generate come from
their business customers. Those customers have no need for Usenet so it's
not promoted. Consequently, most home users either don't know that Usenet
exists or don't know what it's for.

Usenet isn't a money-generating service and is poorly supported by most
ISPs. Some, AOL being a good example, are even dropping it. The only
people making money off of Usenet are those businesses whose sole job is to
offer it.

The availability of broadband service is also killing Usenet. Usenet was
never really designed to offer binaries - it's basically a text service.
But with so many people posting and downloading mp3s, video and porno, the
infrastructure in place to support the text groups are being overburdened
by those customers who are trading in binaries. It's putting the ISPs in
the awkward position of having to decide whether or not to outlay the cash
to upgrade a service most of their customers don't use or dropping it all
together.

Mark my words - in a few more years all of the ISPs will be outsourcing
Usenet service.

--

-Jeff B.
zoomie at fastmail dot fm