Way  back  in  the  1990's,  I sometimes posted in Usenet. It was very
  active back then, because  web  forums  were  not  yet  popular.  This
  quickly changed, though.

  Back  then,  your ISP usually provided you with access to Usenet. This
  is no longer possible. In fact, today, Usenet is regarded  as  a  file
  sharing platform. ISPs limit your bandwidth when using Usenet. Younger
  people don't even know Usenet's original purpose.

  How do you access Usenet today? Frankly, I have no  idea  what  Google
  Groups  is or does. I guess you can even post using Google Groups. But
  that's not the "real thing" anyway. You want to use a newsreader.

  I recently discovered that CNNTP is dead. So is Arcor's Usenet access.

  There are some enthusiasts out there  who  provide  Usenet  access.  I
  don't  know  if  you  can  access that "Binary Usenet" this way, and I
  don't care. You can read text news using  albasani.net,  for  example.
  They even provide an anonymous public read-only account:

  http://news.albasani.net/wiki/FAQ_%28Deutsch%29#Gibt_es_einen_Account_nur_zum_Lesen.3F

  (That page is in German, but you'll get the gist.)

  As  usual,  there's  a  lot of spam, scam, and dirt. In german groups,
  you'll always find "cannibalism". It's hilarious and I seriously  have
  no  idea  what's going on there. Maybe it's just one user trolling all
  day long...

  On  the  other  hand,  comp.infosystems.gopher  is  pretty  cozy   and
  comp.unix.programmer is quite crowded. Even comp.unix.shell. This is a
  bit of a surprise because I thought that Usenet  would  be  completely
  deserted by now.