Usenet use grows exponentially

Giganews, the gateway used by millions to access Usenet, has reported that they have seen "unprecedented growth" over the past 12 months.

Newsgroups have been around since the 1970s as a source of information and file sharing and many argue today that it is safer and faster than BitTorrent.

Since the company increased retention levels to 240 days, growth has accelerated.

"During September 2008, Giganews completed storage upgrades which increased retention levels to 240 days," Giganews notes. "Shortly thereafter, Giganews' upload traffic jumped to a sustained level averaging well over 400 megabits per second, representing more than 4.3 terabytes of new user generated content and discussions per day. Giganews has seen steady upload growth throughout the decade, but the pace following the recent storage upgrade exceeded all expectations."

Giganews adds that "retention extending 'well beyond' 240 days should be ready by 2009." Giganews is known for their speedy upgrades so users shouldn't have to wait much longer than a few weeks.

Source.

I hope this doesn't kill USENETs as I hoping to finally get around to using them.

How do you read that in this topic?

Like traffic molding with BitTorrent traffic, if the traffic from newsgroups grows too much too quickly the network mods will likely resort to similar tactics. At least that is how I see it.

Traffic molding hasn't stop bit torrent and the new version of uTorrent has a answer to that.

Can't blame Giganews really as they are a private company out to make money but I still wish they'd shut the f**k up.

Yes, they could mount a proper fight but it won't be them that the **AAs go after, it'll be the smaller providers.

Agreed, small. The R**A will pick on a little guy. For those of us who use Usenet regularly, it's in our benefit for them to stay under the radar as much as possible. We're already seeing ISPs bailing out of their Usenet commitments to void litigation and more government pressure.