Google ending ongoing provision of Usenet groups

[David Dalton]

There is a message at the top of each Usenet group including this
one in Google Groups to the effect that Google Groups will
end posting and subscribing to Usenet groups by its service
as of February 15 (though clicking on a link for more info says
February 22). However they will continue to maintain their
archive of searchable posts prior to that date, but no new Usenet
posts will be added to that archive.

So if you are a Google Groups user and want to continue
reading this group, you should ideally switch to a
newsreader such as Agent for Windows, Hogwasher
for Mac, or the free Thunderbird for Windows, Mac, and
Linux, accessing a free newsserver such as Eternal
September (which does allow you to use an invalid
email address, and you should note that you have to
click on Always Authenticate in the Settings of your
newsreader before you can get all groups).

As for archiving of posts beyond February 15, there
is some discussion starting about that, and I will post
here when I find out a good solution.

If you want to continue with a web based interface to
alt.religion.druid, you could try

https://alt.religion.druid.narkive.com/ .

I think others, along with other archiving options, are being discussed
on eternal-september.support .

It seems that Google Groups, which has run its Usenet access
into the ground after it bought out Deja News, decided there
was no way to make money from Usenet, one of the last
bastions of free speech on the Internet. But Usenet users
wil benefit from this since most recent spam has originated
on Google Groups.

If I ever do become famous I will say that I will interact with
people only on Usenet newsgroups, and that might help
make them more popular.

--
David Dalton dal...@nfld.com https://www.nfld.com/~dalton (home page)
https://www.nfld.com/~dalton/dtales.html Salmon on the Thorns (mystic page)
"And if I shed a tear I won’t cage it; I won't fear love;
And if I feel a rage I won’t deny it; I won't fear love" (Sarah McLachlan)

[David Dalton]

On Dec 15, 2023, David Dalton wrote
(in article<0001HW.2B2D403701...@news.eternal-september.org>):

> There is a message at the top of each Usenet group including this
> one in Google Groups to the effect that Google Groups will
> end posting and subscribing to Usenet groups by its service
> as of February 15 (though clicking on a link for more info says
> February 22). However they will continue to maintain their
> archive of searchable posts prior to that date, but no new Usenet
> posts will be added to that archive.

The pinned message at the top of each group has been
revised to say February 22.

[David Dalton]

The Eternal September newsadmin Ray Banana is working on
web-based access to his newsserver for those who don’t want
to download, install, and use a newsreader program. When
he announces it on eternal-september.support I will provide
the details in this thread.

--
David Dalton dal...@nfld.com https://www.nfld.com/~dalton (home page)
https://www.nfld.com/~dalton/dtales.html Salmon on the Thorns (mystic page)

“Early morning jubilators, up to no good instigators... Sons of long
forgotten races, that the darkest night embraces" (Ron Hynes & D. O'D.)