This is the message I received from Verizon via email concerning
their plans to cut usenet service.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Service Advisory - Important Changes to Your Verizon Newsgroup Service

Dear Verizon Online Customer,

As a Verizon Newsgroup service user, we wanted to let you know about some
important changes that we will soon be making to our Newsgroup service.

On June 24, 2008, we will be modifying our Newsgroup offerings to only offer
groups in the Big-8 Newsgroup hierarchies, which are listed below. The
0.verizon.* newsgroup hierarchy will also continue to be available. Users
will not be able to post or download from any other newsgroups using our
Newsgroup service.

comp.*
humanities.*
misc.*
news.*
rec.*
sci.*
soc.*
talk.*

More details regarding the Big 8 newsgroup hierarchies is available at:
http://www.big-8.org/.

This change will not affect your Internet access service. If you would like
to subscribe to newsgroups other than those we offer, you will need to
subscribe to a separate commercial news service. Please note that your use
of any such service is still subject to our Terms of Service and Acceptable
Use Policy.

There are no changes required to your software, but you will need to
unsubscribe from all Newsgroups other than the Big 8 hierarchies and the
0.verizon.* hierarchy noted above. The following link explains how to
subscribe and unsubscribe in Outlook Express:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/171190

IMPORTANT: If you continue to subscribe to unsupported newsgroups, you may
experience poor computer performance and slow throughput speeds. Failure to
unsubscribe may also interfere with the functioning of the Verizon network
or use of the network by other Verizon users, which is a violation of our
Acceptable Use Policy.

We appreciate your business and look forward to continuing to serve you in
the future.

Sincerely,


Verizon Online
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And this is my reply. All, but one of the addressees bounced
"No such User". I haven't bothered to figure out which one worked
but obviously at least one did get through. Reply purposely posted
to AFB and ABF 'only'.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~`
X-Mozilla-Status: 0001
X-Mozilla-Status2: 00800000
X-Mozilla-Keys:

BCC: , ,
, ,

Message-ID: >
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:09:34 -0400
From: Brick >
User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.14 (Windows/20080421)
MIME-Version: 1.0
To:
Subject: Modification of Usenet service
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

This has to rate as one of the great dirty tricks of all time.

I personally am stuck in a package deal with Verizon, so it's
neither convenient, economical or even easy to change my provider.
So much for placing my trust in Verizon. In order to maintain contact
with my internet friends, I will now have to subscribe to an additional
service, incurring yet another monthly bill.

Howard R. Bricker

(813) 885-1530
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Howver one of the addresses did hit and I got a telephone reply
from a Mrs Stoner on my answering machine.

Here is my transcript of her telephone message.

My name is Mrs. Stoner
I'm calling from Verizon Esecutive Customer Relations. I'm calling to
acknowledge receipt of your letter (email) to our CEO. I'd like to
give you my direct number as I will be assisting you to get this
resolved for you.

My number is 212 321 8467

Please give me a call. Thank you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~

I got another cryptic call after that, that sounded something like
this;

Mr name is Roger Fulbright ....online billing.
Please give me a call back at
1-800-267-0682 X6080
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~`

I have no idea what that last one might be about. I'll call them both back
on Monday
after I've had time to compose my reply.
--
Brick(Youth is wasted on young people)