My ISP has apparently "tweaked" the news server settings to "improve" service.
What this REALLY means is that they've stopped accepting posts from who-knows-which news streams and/or have accellerated the expiration of posts to an incredibly short archive period. The end result is that substantial numbers of posts (50%? 75%? more?) are expired before I even receive them. Since I have my news client set to poll automagically those groups to which I subscribe and to suck down new headers and message bodies on a 10-minute schedule this means my ISP's news server is dumping messages almost as soon as they arrive at the server.
Bastards. Between cable, phone service and internet service with TimeWarner/RoadRunner we're paying nearly $150/mo. I am dipped if I'll pay another service for a news feed and I don't like Google's web interface.
So essentially what TWC/RR has done is drive me off of USENET. I'm not the only affected party, but I doubt the several hundred thousand of us who complain to TWC/RR will effect any change in this new "service improvement". After all, for most of us on TWC/RR, they're the only game in town.
Hell, I doubt if I'll be able to see *this message* once I post it.
Bah.
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Reply to the list as I do not publish an email address to USENET. This practice has cut my spam by more than 95%. Of course, I did have to abandon a perfectly good email account...