On Wed 16 Feb 2005 08:03:19p, Yeff wrote in rec.food.cooking:

> 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.
>

MSN dropped their general Usenet service, which wasn't very good to begin
with. They only offer MS-related groups now. AT&T and Earthlink seem to
still have decent offerings.

Wayne