I don’t want to DL and install a newsreader just to see what’s out there, but I am curious. Are newsgroups still a big deal or not?
The discussion groups have been dead for years.
There’s a few active image groups and of course the multimedia groups are going strong.
Spam has nearly destroyed Usenet. It’s impossible to find hardly any group that isn’t filled with it.
I miss the tv discussion groups. I spent many happy hours discussing Deep Space Nine and Voyager on Usenet. Everyone started posting immediately after the episode aired.
You can try Google Groups. I just looked at one the groups I used to read in the 90s, still the occasional post but dead in practice.
What about alt.fan.cecil-adams? I often wonder if any of the folks I used to know there are now here.
Death of Usenet predicted! Film at 11…
I still read a few newsgroups. The spam is really not that bad anymore. I think it’s because most ISPs have dropped Usenet, so the spammers have largely moved on to perform their nefarious deeds in other forums. Yet there’s still a hardcore of readers who access it via such sites as eternal-september.org or even [blech] Google Groups.
It’s not a group I read and probably not what you used to read, but a quick perusal shows that rec.arts.sf.tv seems to be still quite active.
BTW, the main form of spam I see these days is from some Islamic-oriented person or persons. Since I don’t read it, I don’t know why they’re posting it (are they trying to convert people or what?) but it’s real easy to identify and thus ignore. No one ever replies to any of it.
There is an [under-bridge-dweller] who goes by the nom Starmaker who infests rec.arts.sf.written (which I do read). For some reason lots of people like to reply to him, although I don’t know why. They should know better; he’s not a very good [under-bridge-dweller].
Easynews has a pretty good web reader / search. I haven’t seen a way to post with it. But its fine for just reading or grabbing a binary file.
I could go old school and install Forte Agent. Configure it for the Easynews server. Thats how I was setup 10 years ago. But I just haven’t felt the need to post anywhere in a long, long time.
On a side note, I discovered that a number of people I knew from the Usenet days now hang out on Google Plus (which does appear somewhat deserted).
Somebody else I know steadfastly refuses to use web based discussion boards, let alone social media (which are the work of the devil, according to him). The only means of communication he considers worthy are mailing lists and newsgroups.
alt.fan.cecil-adams is still going strong.
I don’t know if you knew me, but I was definitely there, and AFU, about a decade and a half ago.
I find news.annexcafe,com very useful for two computer forums: general.user2user and general.windowslivemail. Very computer knowledgeable persons there, who spend much time answering people’s questions and solving their problems. Spam is not a problem because you don’t use your real name or give your real email address. If you want spam join a social site, such as FaceBook.
I was also on alt.fan.cecil-adams (and AFU) back in the day. Then I remember a.f.c-a taking a hit when this newfangled message board thing came along. As I recall, the first Straight Dope message board was only on AOL.
Remember America Online? They were so rich that they bought Time-Warner.
I don’t know to what extent certain things can be discussed here so I’ll just say that usenet is still a big deal for binaries and will probably see a resurgence once ISP’s crack down on file sharing.
There are so many thousands of newsgroups; I think they need to be judged case-by-case. Many are now dormant or consumed by snark or spam, but some are still at least somewhat active.
I pose a technical question, e.g. about html authoring or website configuration, on Usenet every now and then, and usually receive an informed and helpful response. Obviously there are better forums (SDMB! 
), but there are many much worse forums as well.
Google Groups is a good way to search or browse newsgroups. I use “Old” Google Groups, not “New.” You may need to click Advanced to get effective searches. You can post with Google Groups as well: start in a test group since Google has no Preview option.
Every thing is going social media now where groups , message boards , chat rooms , newsgroups ,yahoo groups , MSN groups , gogle groups so on are dying.
The late 90’s to 2004 was boom of groups and message boards. More and more people use twitter and facebook than groups , message boards or newsgroups .
I sad but that is the way the future is going. Also most TV station , TV channels , TV show in past would have message board or chat room now many use facebook.
You don’t need a special newsreader if you have Windows Live Mail (fka Outlook Express). You can set that up to access newsgroups.
Last I checked the talk. groups were still fairly active.
Doh! You just did!!
I met my husband on alt.atheism and talk.origins, so there’s that.
I occasionally still post to a.a but the signal to noise is bad.