Usenet
Hacker ApprovedUsenet provider
People recommend Usenet for its decentralized design, cheap full-speed access to media, and friendly discussion groups. Critics say spam and floods of posts degraded it over time.
People recommend Usenet for its decentralized design, cheap full-speed access to media, and friendly discussion groups. Critics say spam and floods of posts degraded it over time.
43 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 34
- criticize it
- 9
- approval share
- 79%
Recommended in 12 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 34 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 12 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Decentralized, no corporate control
“I am referring to the protocol and network design, as an example of a federated system offering resilience.”
Comment from 30 Apr 2026 in “Tangled – We need a federation of forges” “being the only decentralized platform without neither corporation nor goverment control”
Comment from 1 Jul 2026 in “The Internet I Grew Up with Doesn't Exist Anymore” “If the “protocols not platforms” philosophy is the right track”
Comment from 23 Jul 2026 in “So Reddit has decided that plain HTML is unsafe” Cheap, full-speed access to media
“Usenet + the *arr stack + Plex or Jellyfin make it completely effortless to watch any movie or TV show I can think of”
Comment from 5 Dec 2025 in “Netflix to Acquire Warner Bros” “I max out my gigabit connection for a few dollars a month.”
Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “Someone on Torrent Sites Kept Fucking with My Sonarr” “it's cheaper than paying for multiple streaming services”
Comment from 1 Jul 2026 in “Sony Deletes 551 Movies PlayStation Owners Paid For” Civil, helpful discussion groups
“some groups were very snubby and elitist others were very helpful and encouraging”
Comment from 19 Nov 2025 in “What Killed Perl?” “Usenet had the best online discourse - hardly any angry personal flaming”
Comment from 24 Aug 2026 in “Coding expertise is going to collapse from AI reliance” “I love hanging out on a few Usenet groups”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Beej's Guide to Learning Computer Science” Free, feature-rich clients
“there was thriving ecosystem of feature rich, free and open Usenet clients.”
Comment from 11 Oct 2026 in “IRCv3” “It was free and distributed”
Comment from 29 Sep 2026 in “Does Reddit have an astroturfing problem? What the data suggests”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Degraded and mostly dead
“It worked perfectly well for decades and then died off all at once”
Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month” “the old Usenet did it better, but it's dead to most people”
Comment from 13 Apr 2026 in “X Randomly Banning Users for "Inauthentic Behavior"” “Usenet - the birthplace of trolling - eventually degraded to the point of near uselessness.”
Comment from 8 Mar 2026 in “Ask HN: Please restrict new accounts from posting” Spam and floods of posts
“The death of USENET was in many ways the flood of posts that made this no longer feasible.”
Comment from 2 Jul 2026 in “Bring Back Crappy Forums” “usenet couldn't solve the spam problem”
Comment from 23 Feb 2026 in “Freemediaheckyeah” Toxic, unpleasant community culture
“Usenet was the biggest nightmare we had to deal with”
Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Usenet Archives” “Usenet is a cesspool, a dung heap”
Comment from 29 Aug 2026 in “The internet is kind of a predatory cesspit now” “it was basically a public toilet”
Comment from 29 Oct 2026 in “StackOverflow now gets fewer than 1000 questions a month” Limited content coverage
“cover a part of '81 - '91 but only from one host”
Comment from 12 Sep 2026 in “Usenet rewind archive search engine” “It can't cover all my interests”
Comment from 4 Jan 2026 in “Total monthly number of StackOverflow questions over time”
What people said
40 of the 47 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“it was basically a public toilet”
“I max out my gigabit connection for a few dollars a month.”
“there was thriving ecosystem of feature rich, free and open Usenet clients.”
“It was free and distributed”
“cover a part of '81 - '91 but only from one host”
“I second your Usenet recommendation.”
“Usenet is a cesspool, a dung heap”
“Usenet handles it fine, and it predates federated email.”
“I'm using it on a regular basis.”
“Usenet had the best online discourse - hardly any angry personal flaming”
“USENET is still around and now that Google disconnected google groups from USENET, spam has decreased a lot.”
“If the “protocols not platforms” philosophy is the right track”
“Familiarize yourself with Usenet and be done with all this.”
“The death of USENET was in many ways the flood of posts that made this no longer feasible.”
“it's cheaper than paying for multiple streaming services”
“being the only decentralized platform without neither corporation nor goverment control”
“I'd recommend usenet over torrents tbh.”
“getting Usenet news delivered over a 2400 baud modem”
“though I still preferred the Usenet days”
“I am referring to the protocol and network design, as an example of a federated system offering resilience.”
“Usenet achieves this with a broadcast design - every node on the network receives every message.”
“coupled with a reborn Usenet”
“the old Usenet did it better, but it's dead to most people”
“Nowadays I can post a message on one Usenet server and it appears on other servers in a few seconds.”
“Usenet was the biggest nightmare we had to deal with”
“I loved it then, and I love it now.”
“Usenet - the birthplace of trolling - eventually degraded to the point of near uselessness.”
“usenet couldn't solve the spam problem”
“It worked perfectly well for decades and then died off all at once”
“that concept of Gnus and Usenet, so simple in itself”
“irc and usenet were greatly superior”
“giving up Usenet, chat rooms, and forums”
“It can't cover all my interests”
“Fido and Usenet are still around. Kind-of.”
“didn't AFAICT ameliorate or moderate the intensity or the duration of my compulsive over-consumption of Usenet”
“Usenet + the *arr stack + Plex or Jellyfin make it completely effortless to watch any movie or TV show I can think of”
“I love hanging out on a few Usenet groups”
“some groups were very snubby and elitist others were very helpful and encouraging”
“Usenet. Right and this is less obscure and more easier to use than Amazon, Spotify, and Netflix?”
“Usenet didn't serve ads or even try to make money, but also didn't get used, and was also deemed unworthy of attention.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.