Play4abuck wrote:
I would guess AOL did this for at least a couple of reasons.
-Newsgroup activity can use up a lot of bandwidth and AOL is slow
enough the way it is,
some readers download and upload a great deal of data.

So few ISP customers even know what newsgroups are that bandwidth is not
an issue. In the case of AOL, a proprietary interface was used (you
couldn't use a real newsreader), and it was crappy enough for text
messages. I seriously doubt that they had a problem with people
downloading or uploading huge quanities of binaries.


-AOL can not put spam pop-ups in your newsgroup, they want you back
on their
home page, clicking and buying it up, reading their advertisements.

It's been a while since you've been on AOL, hasn't it. Or do you not
have any personal experience, and are just perpetuating misconceptions
held dear by so many others who also really don't have any personal
experience?

Quite simplely the issue is that not enough people used newsgroups on
AOL to make it worth the expense. AOL may be one of the first to
completely dump Usenet because they had the additional costs associated
with their proprietary interface (or a choice of revamping the service
to allow real nntp traffic.)

Other ISP's are finding their costs too high even without an interface
to maintain. The first step, which is already pretty common, is
outsourcing their Usenet servers. Next will come limiting monthly
transfers to contain the costs of providing wholesale accounts to
customers. Eventually Usenet will be dropped completely. For many ISP's,
even if they lost every single customer to whom Usenet service is
important, they'd still come out ahead. And once their compeditors stop
offering unlimited Usenet, the likelyhood of losing any customers goes
down.

The bottom line is if every ISP dropped Usenet service tomorrow, it
might make the headlines at some techie websites, and it might be worth
a column inch or two on an inside page of the local paper's business
section, but it wouldn't even get a passing mention on the nightly news.
We Usenet users are a very small faction in today's gentified Internet
community.

--
Warren H.

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