usenet decline?

[laika9]

hi there

just a quck question - I used to read newsgroups some 7-8 years ago, I have returned to that recently only to find out that there is not much life in most of the gruops I'm interested in. There are of course some groups ( I think media based - as in Photography where ppl attach their pictures to be judged) that generate alot of traffick but it seems that recent usenet hype is to do mostly with large files downloading (movies etc..) and I can see there is more life in community forums like this one here. Am I right or is it just me?

[Drew Wilson]

You're pretty much spot on actually. There are government organizations that use UseNet for communications purposes, but outside of that, there isn't much in the way of usenet activity outside of downloading large files these days.

It's more about bulletine boards and chatrooms these days in part due to the fact that they are much more flashy. I do believe IRC is still relatively lively as well.

[shawners]

There is a lot of life in them but what you want reside in a iRC chatroom, small files, people have dsl now and it doesnt take long to obtain.

[laika9]

thanks for the replies, irc it is then it seems :)
Any servers that I should use/avoid? And are discussions there interesting (as in topical and meaningful ) or is it a bunch of children sitting and flaming ?
thanks again

[wapazoid]

You'll find kids and adults flaming no matter where you go online. As for binary groups, they've been popular for quite some time.