A couple of thoughts -

1. Just because someone published an article aboutit doesn't necessarily
mean it's true. Note that the author got the info from another publication,
not directly from AOL. I'm not saying it's incorrect, just that it's not
sure-fire confirmation.

2. As the the financial perspective, it might be related, but maybe not in
the way "Spanky" suggested. AOL-Time Warner cannot make money from Usenet
unless they charge their minions for access to it, and there is a real cost
to providing the NNTP servers. I would guess that there aren't a sufficient
percentage of AOL subscribers that use newsgroups to warrant the cost of
servers and support for them. AOL also provides some smap- and virus
blocking, don't they? That's another cost without an assocated revenue
stream.

(DISCLAIMER: The following comment is opinion, and is made based upon a
limited amount of reading, but without first-hand knowledge of any facts.
It is not meant as a "put-down" to anyone.)

I suspect that the demographics of AOL subscribers leans very strongly to
folks that are new to computers, or the internet, or are inexperienced or
not all that knowledgeable about the ins-and-outs of it. They tend to
browse, chat, and shop, look up stuff for school assignments, or email
Grandma. As such, they may not even know what usenet is all about, for the
most part. If that was my subscriber base, I might make the same
decision...
--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


"Scottie" wrote in message
.net...
Saw this today on ZDNet
http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/AnchorD...ml?tag=nl.e502

which seems to confirm the aol rumor . . .

Scottie

"IiSpankyii" wrote in message
...
Its true. I just got the notification myself. It did not state when
this
was
to take effect, so I guess we will find out when it no longer works. I
wonder
is AOL is in some kind of financial bind that they need to discontinue
this
service??????