Why would anyone decide to use USENET these days? (lemmy.darkc0de.one)

submitted 17 hours ago by resterWink@lemmy.darkc0de.one to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

35 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm not asking about how it is used for warez, since that is what it mostly hosting at this point... Nor am I asking why anyone should or should not start a community on USENET (many reasons why you wouldn't/couldn't).

Instead, I am asking why someone would only decide to engage with the textual, traditional, conversational aspects of USENET over modern tools like lemmy?

I could name a few I suppose:

Relative anonymity
Access to a large amount of history
Nostalgia
Communication with those who still frequent newsgroups

I don't know how many more there are but I would like to hear your guys' opinions in regards to those listed above and any others I may have missed.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] Shadow@lemmy.ca 2 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

Usenet just encrypts the connection from you to their server, they can see perfectly well what the data you download is. They aren't prosecuted because they claim ignorance and that they're just providing you network access, which is why usenet providers that specifically advertise for piracy have been shut down. This is also aided by usenet not advertising what you're downloading (unlike torrents), so it's hard to send a dmca claim.

See https://www.vitallaw.com/news/copyright-c-d-cal-perfect-10-failed-to-establish-that-usenet-service-provider-did-not-qualify-for-dmca-safe-harbor/ipm013b319a047bc91000b319d8d385ad169401 for example, whereas old usenet.com actually provided indexing too and got shut down for it https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2009/07/judge-throws-book-at-usenetcom-in-riaa-lawsuit/

(I'm a happy long term usenet provider too)

this post was submitted on 14 Aug 2026

57 points (95.2% liked)

Ask Lemmy

40928 readers

1858 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, toxicity and dog-whistling are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

6) No US Politics.

Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !uspolitics@lemmy.world

7) No Hit-and-Run questions.

Please don't delete your post for no apparent reason. If you plan on deleting a question later, say so in the post, or if you feel that you have a good reason to remove it, message a mod beforehand. It's not fair to the ones who took their time to answer, and it's not in the spirit of the community.

8) No Bots.

Posts or comments from bots, LLM's, AIs, Neural Networks, Transformers, or Marvin the Paranoid Android are not welcome in AskLemmy. Real humans only please.

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.