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Anyone looking to create a new social network should certainly take cues from Usenet - of course, it was eventually over taken by forums on the web.

Visiting Usenet today though will only lead to sadness, unless you're looking for something you shouldn't be or enjoy endless spam.

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I just recently started looking back at one of the groups I frequently read years ago and found that there was a small community still using it. Even recognized a few of them. The trolls and spammers were gone.

Some are still going..

https://groups.google.com/u/1/g/sci.electronics.design

https://groups.google.com/u/1/g/comp.arch

https://groups.google.com/u/1/g/rec.arts.sf.written

https://groups.google.com/u/1/g/rec.radio.amateur.misc

https://groups.google.com/u/1/g/comp.compilers

rec.arts.sf.written was the one I was referring to.

Killfiles under slrn solved this fastly enough.

Crikey sci.electronics.design is a mess now (was active over 20 years ago on it).

Usenet is alive, just very low traffic these days. I still read it every week. The spammers have mostly left since it's not an interesting target anymore.

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