I thought it should have died when pr0n and w4rez took it over (in the late 90's)..
Many of the tech groups remain quite healthy. I still moderate comp.compilers which gets about 100 posts/month.
Those of us still doing work with USENET know that it isn't dead, far from it, but we're aware that there's a certain amount of illicit traffic. It's kind of like the way that pr0n and w4rez dominate all the Internet, but this doesn't seem to faze Internet network operators.
Actually, it's fine with us that the ignorant masses think that usenet is dead, since it tends to keep out the riffraff.
And that's the difference between USENET and the Internet; we've largely gotten our nice messaging network back now that all the AOL newbies are instead attracted to all the forums and blogs of the Internet; running a newsreader client is needlessly complex and may be beyond some of them. :-) ... JG -- Joe Greco - sol.net Network Services - Milwaukee, WI - http://www.sol.net "We call it the 'one bite at the apple' rule. Give me one chance [and] then I won't contact you again." - Direct Marketing Ass'n position on e-mail spam(CNN) With 24 million small businesses in the US alone, that's way too many apples.