It is. But it's not where the majority of the discussion happens these days.

How do you connect these days? My ISP doesn't bother running a server anymore.

http://www.eternal-september.org/ offers free accounts for text groups.

Well, at least it's sort of not dead.

I just reposted this article to comp.misc, where we've been keeping up a parallel discussion for years. Usenet doesn't have the sheer numbers it used to, but anyone still there is there because we love it. Usenet's flaws remain unmended, but its strengths remain unfettered. :)

Out of curiosity (as someone who never had the chance to see Usenet at its prime), what are Usenets strengths and weaknesses?

Strengths:

Totally de-centralised - your post on your local NNTP server, and it gets replicated across the NNTP mesh to all the other servers.

Built in threading... Actually HN is very similar to how a fairly busy newsgroup would look back in the day.

Weaknesses:

Posts used to take hours (sometimes days) to replicate across the whole mesh. Not so much nowadays tho.

Text only; no native support for rich media or Unicode (although some might see that as a Strength)

I lurk on comp.misc via Google groups RSS feed:

https://groups.google.com/forum/feed/comp.misc/topics/rss.xm...

I'm on the hunt for a good dedicated Windows NNTP reader, failing that I might have a go at writing my own (that supports text posts only - none of that dodgy binaries rubbish!).

Look what you done now! I'm setting up a newsreader. I'm going back in.

Recommendations on a good Windows client?

I use Thunderbird for both email and usenet.

Whatever you use, make sure it's a dedicated NNTP client and not some e-mail client that also "does" NTTP as a side stint.

how come?

Because Thunderbird sucks, as do other email clients that claim to also support news. As an email app it's below average, but as a newsreader it's downright horrible.

A good newsreader needs to be able to thread and block and filter and preview binaries. Few apps ever did this well, and many that did have since become obsolete (Pan2, Unison, etc).

With the rise of Windows and the decline of Usenet, the demand for newsreaders faded fast, leaving few or no supported freeware newsreaders alive today. Even commercial newsreader apps are increasingly rare.