Newsgroups were great--until the ISP's cut back on the binary newgroups (the ones with all the attachments).

The uploaders were much like moderaters here: they uploaded parts that people requested, verified the binaries, and generally just volunteered because they wanted to give back, or just liked doing it as a hobby.

Large files (like movies) were a problem. They'd be split into 512KB chunks (or less), but invariably some chunks would be missed, since ISP's tended to clear the groups daily. People would post that they needed certain .rar's, and generous (though sometimes curmudgeons) posters would upload just those chunks. However, eventually many ISP's decided to save bandwidth and avoid copyright issues by eliminating mirrors to the most popular groups (the binaries).

Now I gather, one bypasses the ISP and subscribes to a usenet provider for a monthly fee. I haven't checked for a few years, but my ISP dropped the binaries and kept up with the text only groups. I tried some of the free other links to usenet, but they were too slow, and I never had enough interest in the binaries to subscibe to one of the pay providers. P2P was so much quicker and more interesting.

So yes--like p2p, usenet thrives with the goodwill of experienced members. I'm glad to hear that there are still many out there too.