nancree wrote:

> "then it's the height of folly to put
> them on the Internet at all, even though Usenet's user population is
> dwindling.
>
> Bob "
> -----------------------------
> What do you mean, Bob, when you say Usenet is dwindling? How do you
> know this, and why, and what does it mean? Just curious--don't mean
> to sound rude.
> Thanks, Nancree

How are people SUPPOSED to hear about Usenet these days? When I first
connected, the newsgroups *were* the Internet. Now it's all about the Web.
Many ISP's no longer even support Usenet. AOL just dropped its support, and
MSN did it a long time ago. The ISP that I use still has a netnews server,
but its bandwidth is ridiculously limited, and if only a dozen people are
using it, nobody else can even connect. What ISP would discontinue a
service which was POPULAR among its subscribers? It's difficult enough to
find an ISP which doesn't force HTML e-mails and HTTP mail servers. I
suspect that a great deal of pressure is also being exerted by the MPAA and
the RIAA, both of whom view the existence of the binary newsgroups as a
threat at least as great as that posed by P2P networks.

Many computer users these days don't even know that Usenet *exists.* I've
got a good friend who's been using the Internet for close to ten years, but
she didn't know that any such phenomenon as Usenet existed: She was
subscribed first to Earthlink and then to Comcast, but nobody ever told her
about the newsgroups -- and she's EDUCATED! (She's a psychiatrist.)

Bob