google announcement of non-compatibility with USENET from Feb 24?

Why not? I'd hate having to access it with GG.

Yes, but newsreaders do a better job than GG anyhow. For one thing you can't post to more than one group at the same time with GG. For another, when your webbrowswer slows down or crashes, it's slow or you can't post at all.

yes. and yes.

You can also use Agent or another newsreader. Get an account with Blocknews.net and for about 3 bucks you get some years worth of service. I bought 10GB in 2016 and have not used half of it yet.

Wiki calls google groups a web front-end application ; long-time usenet people have other names ..

Astraweb offers blocks also - my $ 10. - 15 lasts several years including some binary groups ; no monthly fees. John T.

I use Thunderbird with free news.eternal-september.org not sure if any other free access is available.

Is that link suitable for work?

And there is always the freebie news.eternal-september.

individual.net is 10 Euros a year, no binaries. My budget allows for a US$10.90 expenditure for hours of amusement.

There are plenty of web front ends that you can use to access the group. but If you prefer a news reader/nntp server, it’s probably better to pay a nominal fee, so you receive better service (and reach) than you might find with some of the free nntp servers

This is a response to the post seen at:

Blocknews is a backup for e-s at my house . They don't filter out nearly as much spam as e-s or I'd be using blocknews as my primary .

Yes

Did a little digging and found the culprit of the mass spamming on Google Groups is using some service called "DeepLeo" to do their spamming and automated article writing. Found a DeepLeo on Github and seems to be some sort of interface with ChatGPT

It was only a matter of time before that resource was utilized for that type of bad activity.

This is a response to the post seen at:

G00glYube "fact-checkers" only censor the truth about vaxxicides.

Other marketing scams are ignored by their fact-checkers.

Another vote for blocknews, particularly if you download from the binary groups now and then (such as the various ".mp3" groups).

Google's "Ministry of Truth" censors a lot more then medical information!

Most people don't understand what the real problem is here. Because they know too much about Usenet. So, for _them_, the problem is the loss of the free Usenet portal.

But that is NOT the real loss here to the general populace. The problem is the search engine, not posting using a free news server.

Anyone who searches before posting needs a "permanent" archive to search. In addition, anyone can read the results on any platform using a browser.

So the loss is NOT that Google Groups no longer allows free posting. The loss is all in the search engine.

FYI... these are what appear to be google's excuse for killing searches.

To catch up on the details, some here have been discussing it over here: *Effective February 15, 2024, Google Groups will no longer support new Usenet content*

Which is a followup to this original request for who is peering this spam: *Who is peering all these spams ostensibly from Google Groups?*

Which itself was followed up in a request for people to complain to Google: *Please complain to Google about their spamming of Usenet*

In summary, the free newsservers may expect a possible inrush coming up.