I'm splitting off a thread from discussion started here http://forums.rocketshoppe.com/showthread.php?t=13593

Is Usenet Dead? I'd say, yes, it is pretty much dead. At least it is for rocketry folks. I spent a little while reading about what people have been saying about the death of Usenet and its history. Major ISPs and vendors like Microsoft have been pulling the plug on newsnet feeds. I read that the first Usenet server at Duke University was shutdown in 2010. Looks dead to me.

The spam got bad, and is still really bad today. I think what really killed it are the binaries - pirated software and porn, especially child pornography. Never more has there been a more wretched hive of scum and villainy (thanks Obi).

Google has all the archives for all the Usenet groups for all time. It's all there for as long as Google feels like making the archives publicly available.

A couple years ago at a rocket launch, someone asked me about the rec.models.rockets FAQ. My response was pretty much, "uh..yeah...what about it?" He said, why don't you update it? Update it? I'm surprised that the FAQ server was still posting it because I thought I shut it down a while back. I remember now that the guy asked me to at least keep Parts 00 and 03 alive, which I did. But I pulled the plug on even that yesterday. Maybe I'll edit the FAQ to take out the obsolete information and post it occasionally. I particularly want to take out the language that suggests that the FAQ is somehow still a living document compiled from a vibrant community of rocketry enthusiasts. It isn't. It's pretty much dead. Last real thread was from August of 2013, so there are some diehards left out there. I'll bet that none of them need a FAQ to refer to.

-Wolf