What killed Usenet?

Question

Some of you who are old enough may remember Usenet (newsgroups). They were the preeminent discussion forums on the Internet at one time. It dates back to around 1980 during the early-internet days before the World Wide Web.

I used to post on UseNet in the late 90s and stopped around 2004.

Around what year did it die out? I was under the impression it was on death's bed around 2004-2006.

I'm guessing web-based internet forums, social media, and Reddit contributed to the decline of Usenet.

Usenet is still around today (thanks to Google Groups) but are a shell of their former self in terms of popularity. Today they mainly exist as wastelands of spammers and trolls, as opposed to a community of people engaging in discussion and sharing information.

Answer 1

Mostly, it's that ISPs quit providing newsgroup access as part of Internet service, meaning that for most people, getting access to Usenet means paying a fee to a Usenet service, and five minutes in Y!A will tell you that most people would rather die than spend money for something online.

Answer 2

You mean like these? There are still quite a few newsgroup server around..



The obvious free ones may be full of spammers etc., but quite a few are subscription-based which mostly keeps spammers and trolls away.



http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/the-10-best-usenet-services-1326607



http://www.dmoz.org/Top/Computers/Usenet/Public_News_Servers/



https://greycoder.com/best-free-usenet-servers/

Answer 3

It's still alive but I can't talk about it because of the first rule.

Answer 4

???