So, what were my overall impressions of newsgroups? Well, I have found them to be useful tools. Lots of pictures and files are posted that can be very useful at times. I was somewhat disappointed with what I found overall. I was looking for some really useful newsgroups, perhaps with great discussions of interest to almost anybody with an interest in the topic, but that was not the case. Many of the groups are flooded with junk postings. These are usually unmoderated groups, but I almost wish they were moderated just to keep the spam out. It was really hard to filter through 20 messages of junk to find one message of real interest. alt.archery was a good example of this. Most of the messages were junk responses or postings for sites of interest rather than postings with real content.

ba.general may have thousands of lurkers, so I know that if I ever have a question, I can probably find a few experts residing in the Bay Area to respond.

alt.dragons-inn impressed me. I had no idea that such a group existed, and there I found a place almost like a small bulliten board system (BBS), where friends come together and share a common bond - their stories. I have already been inspired to read the stories for a few days and then develop my own character with which to enter this fantasy realm.

The discussion groups tend to be less about a real online community and more about quick informational postings to the masses. Computer files are still the most useful things I have found on the newsgroups, but I am finding there is some real textual content there as well. My next step will be weeding through thousands of groups to find even more content, and perhaps I will find a group in which I will become a major participant.