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## Contents ##
Introduction
Ways to access Usenet
Links to Usenet hosts and software
Rough traffic count
Do you remember Network News, AKA Usenet? At over 40 years old, Usenet is the original 'social network'. Usenet is the oldest bastion of digital free speech networks.
Usenet is highly resistant to censorship. For decades Usenet has served as a free speech haven. It has also served as a platform for secure and anonymous messaging.
I suspect that many of GenY and GenZ have never heard of Usenet. We can change that. We can alert them to this censorship-resistant network as an alternative to highly censored social media.
## Ways to access Usenet ##
There are multiple ways to access Usenet:
- web front ends
- dedicated graphical clients
- dedicated terminal clients
## Links to Usenet hosts and software ##
Users can access Usenet to read and post by installing free client software or by visiting a host that provides web browser access.
A few days ago when I counted, more than 16 thousand articles were posted in Usenet threads in a 24-hour period. I checked today as of a few minutes past midnight GMT, and almost 12 thousand articles were posted in the past 24-hour period. At this rate about 4.4 million articles would be posted in a single year.
Last time I looked at nntp 2 or 3 years ago it was 99% spam and adverts... But I repeat myself. I'm sure there are some newsgroups that aren't... But I didn't find them. Not even the tech oriented ones. The advent of a huge www made that sort of inevitable. Last time I used it functionally was when the comp.os9 newsgroup still existed... The 1990s. @lamp@bookstodon@histodons@academicchatter@actuallyautistic@palestine@infodump