Hello alt.fan.usenet,

I apologize if this is a common question but I've been a bit of a USENET
diletante and I've been looking for some interesting and active
newsgroups to peruse and subscribe to. At the moment, I found that a lot
of comp.* has been consistently active over the months and soc.* is
pretty much dead.

So yeah, I thought it would be nice to start a conversation about
interesting newsgroups that some of us might know about.

I'll start:

comp.infosystems.gemini -
I believe this is one of the most recent heirarchy to be approved in
the Big 8 and it is quite active when discussing the relatively new
and niche Gemini protocol.

comp.infosystems.gopher -
This is a slower newsgroup about the gopher protocol. There are
interesting discussions that happen here every now and then.

comp.os.bsd.netbsd.misc -
This is quite an oddball since I think there's just one nym that
consistently posts in this newsgroup and he posts about netbsd updates
and hacks he has found. Quite interesting, not going to lie.

alt.privacy.pgp/alt.privacy.anon-server -
Also an interesting newsgroup. It's a mixed bag of spam and remailer
talk which is something that's interesting to read about.

comp.os.linux.advocacy -
It's basically a flamefest of the eternal distro wars and Linux vs
Windows vs Mac OS. Also mixed with a bunch of political stuff that's
very interesting to read.

In article <87edwy5eym.fsf@acddukoc.gyoa>, uudbdjctko@qnqwvbhkwi.invalid
says...
[snip]
> At the moment, I found that a lot of comp.* has been consistently
> active over the months and soc.* is pretty much dead.
>
> So yeah, I thought it would be nice to start a conversation about
> interesting newsgroups that some of us might know about.

Yep, comp.* sees a decent amount of activity. Groups such as comp.lang.c
and comp.lang.python are fairly lively. Groups for obsolete technologies
such as the comp.sys.atari.* groups are very quiet, but an on-topic post
still might elicit a reply or two from people who are still subscribed.

The sci.* groups are also worth browsing. I read the sci.electronics.*
groups, which have a good number of knowledgeable contributors (along
with the usual kook or two).

rec.* has lots of barely-used groups with a few very popular ones.
rec.food.cooking is busy enough that you'll probably need to be
selective about which posts you read unless you have a lot of free time.
rec.arts.sf.written is also a good one to check out, with plenty of on-
topic discussion of SF and fantasy fiction as well as some threads on
popular science, comic strips, and such like.

R

Rayner Lucas <usenet202101@magic-cookie.co.ukNOSPAMPLEASE> writes:

> In article <87edwy5eym.fsf@acddukoc.gyoa>, uudbdjctko@qnqwvbhkwi.invalid
> says...
> [snip]
>> At the moment, I found that a lot of comp.* has been consistently
>> active over the months and soc.* is pretty much dead.
>>
>> So yeah, I thought it would be nice to start a conversation about
>> interesting newsgroups that some of us might know about.
>
> Yep, comp.* sees a decent amount of activity. Groups such as comp.lang.c
> and comp.lang.python are fairly lively. Groups for obsolete technologies
> such as the comp.sys.atari.* groups are very quiet, but an on-topic post
> still might elicit a reply or two from people who are still subscribed.
>

I believe comp.os.cpm is also fairly active. It's not as active as
comp.lang.c but it does see some occasional postings here and there.

> The sci.* groups are also worth browsing. I read the sci.electronics.*
> groups, which have a good number of knowledgeable contributors (along
> with the usual kook or two).
>

sci.anthropology.paleo and talk.origins have a bunch of kooks in there
but there some signal that it's nice to read through some discussions
even if they're hard to read sometimes.

> rec.* has lots of barely-used groups with a few very popular ones.
> rec.food.cooking is busy enough that you'll probably need to be
> selective about which posts you read unless you have a lot of free time.
> rec.arts.sf.written is also a good one to check out, with plenty of on-
> topic discussion of SF and fantasy fiction as well as some threads on
> popular science, comic strips, and such like.
>
> R

Thanks for these, I've subscribed to both and it's nice to read through
some discussions from time to time.

--
Pointless meanderings in a bleak and lonely world.