Update 12/2008- Late 2008 Google implemented changes to it’s UseNet news service now calling it Google Groups service. I believe there are still ties to the Usenet servers.
UseNet Is a worldwide bulletin board system that can be accessed through the Internet or through many online services. The USENET contains more than 14,000 forums, called newsgroups, that cover every imaginable interest group. It is used daily by millions of people around the world.
UseNet News Groups certainly are not new but I’ll bet it may be to many of you. In fact prior to the World Wide Web (www) and HTML web pages, the Internet structure was primarily UseNet based, but also other protocols like FTP, and E-mail.
News Groups like recreational.motorcycles are still a major community news information source. This is why I am linking and encouraging you to explore UseNet.
However – BEWARE – UseNet is also a common place for scams and E-mail address harvesting, so please learn correct techniques to protect yourself. Example: Protect your identity when posting messages on UseNet, notice few provide people there E-mail address as it is, usually they mask it so address harvesters can not easily obtain this. You’re safe to lurk and browse UseNet’s text messages.
A non-motorcycle popular news group is the free city classified available for most every large city in the world (see Austin.Forsale).