After Google abandons Usenet, the web interface https://groups.google.com/g/rec.aviation.soaring will no longer show any updates.
Google says they will maintain a searchable page for old posts. Currently they have ~58000 posts going back to Jan 1 2000.
Unfortunate there does not appear to be a way to download the entire history for archival purposes. The newsreader below shows posts
going back a couple years and no farther.

There are many free and paid newsgroup readers available. This describes one (Free) solution that works for me.

----

1. Download and install an appropriate (free) version of mozilla thunderbird. You don't have to change whatever you're doing now
with email. Here: https://www.thunderbird.net/

2. Go to "https://www.eternal-september.org/" and "register", with your name, and an arbitrary userID and an email E-S can contact
you with. (Free). This email address, and userID are only used for contacting the E-S server and are not published. Once
registered, you should receive an email with a generated password and other instructions from E-S.

3. Start and configure thunderbird. "File -> New -> Newsgroup Account". At this point you will be prompted for a display name and
email address, which *will* be used for your public messages in the newsgroup. Select the new group you created and you should see a
page with setup options. Click on the top line "Account settings" and set thunderbird to point to the news server and port mentioned
in the email from step 2, above. The first time you connect, you will receive a pop-up prompt for the userID/password you
registered with E-S. If it helps, for configuration on os X I am using
Server Name: news.eternal-september.org
Port: 563
Connection security: SSL/TLS

To send messages, you will also need a "SMTP" (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server. Look into your ISP documentation or current
email setup for what that needs to be. I have read reports that some ISPs block this port - if so, try reader80
and port 80. They can't block '80', that's the one http uses. I am using my ISP's SMTP with this setup:
Server Name: smtp.comcast.net
Port: 465
Connection security: SSL/TLS
Authentication method: Normal password
User Name: MyComcastID@comcast.net

4. "subscribe" to rec.aviation.soaring. (Free). The key press varies, but on OS X, a control-click on the newsgroup brings up a
pop-up a menu including "subscribe". You can use this to check the box for R.A.S. and whatever other groups you want.
may

--Fin--

On Tuesday, February 20, 2024 at 11:46:45 AM UTC-7, Sarah Anderson wrote:
> After Google abandons Usenet, the web interface https://groups.google.com/g/rec.aviation.soaring will no longer show any updates.
> Google says they will maintain a searchable page for old posts. Currently they have ~58000 posts going back to Jan 1 2000.
> Unfortunate there does not appear to be a way to download the entire history for archival purposes. The newsreader below shows posts
> going back a couple years and no farther.
>
> There are many free and paid newsgroup readers available. This describes one (Free) solution that works for me.
>
> ----
>
>
> 1. Download and install an appropriate (free) version of mozilla thunderbird. You don't have to change whatever you're doing now
> with email. Here: https://www.thunderbird.net/
>
> 2. Go to "https://www.eternal-september.org/" and "register", with your name, and an arbitrary userID and an email E-S can contact
> you with. (Free). This email address, and userID are only used for contacting the E-S server and are not published. Once
> registered, you should receive an email with a generated password and other instructions from E-S.
>
> 3. Start and configure thunderbird. "File -> New -> Newsgroup Account". At this point you will be prompted for a display name and
> email address, which *will* be used for your public messages in the newsgroup. Select the new group you created and you should see a
> page with setup options. Click on the top line "Account settings" and set thunderbird to point to the news server and port mentioned
> in the email from step 2, above. The first time you connect, you will receive a pop-up prompt for the userID/password you
> registered with E-S. If it helps, for configuration on os X I am using
> Server Name: news.eternal-september.org
> Port: 563
> Connection security: SSL/TLS
>
> To send messages, you will also need a "SMTP" (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) server. Look into your ISP documentation or current
> email setup for what that needs to be. I have read reports that some ISPs block this port - if so, try reader80
> and port 80. They can't block '80', that's the one http uses. I am using my ISP's SMTP with this setup:
> Server Name: smtp.comcast.net
> Port: 465
> Connection security: SSL/TLS
> Authentication method: Normal password
> User Name: MyCom...@comcast.net
>
> 4. "subscribe" to rec.aviation.soaring. (Free). The key press varies, but on OS X, a control-click on the newsgroup brings up a
> pop-up a menu including "subscribe". You can use this to check the box for R.A.S. and whatever other groups you want.
> may
>
> --Fin--
In case of interest in older posts, https://www.usenetarchives.com/threads.php?id=rec.aviation.soaring&y=NaN&r=NaN&p=1 has posts from 10/13/1992 through September 2022. RAS became a subset of rec.aviation at some point around then. You can support this archiving effort via Patreon if so interested for a little as $5/month. There may be other archival efforts out there.

Frank Whiteley

On 2/21/2024 10:05 AM, Frank Whiteley wrote:
> In case of interest in older posts, https://www.usenetarchives.com/threads.php?id=rec.aviation.soaring&y=NaN&r=NaN&p=1 has posts from 10/13/1992 through September 2022. RAS became a subset of rec.aviation at some point around then. You can support this archiving effort via Patreon if so interested for a little as $5/month. There may be other archival efforts out there.
>
> Frank Whiteley
>

Interesting. Good to have an independent archive. But with the huge
volume of past RAS postings, usenetarchives.com, which seems to lack any
sort of search mechanism, is not really useful. Apparently the Google
Groups incarnation of RAS is currently the best way to search through
old postings by keywords. Google promised to keep the old postings
after today, even though no new postings will be allowed. As long as
they do that, that is an archive with a good search mechanism. They may
stop storing the old postings eventually, then the independent archives
will be the fallback.

Back on eternal-septermber after a decade.
Hi all!
Aldo Cernezzi

Il 22/02/2024 16:31, Moshe Braner ha scritto:
> On 2/21/2024 10:05 AM, Frank Whiteley wrote:
>> In case of interest in older posts,

Hi Aldo!

I've never been anywhere else.  Old-fashioned, I guess.

Dan 5J
On 2/22/24 17:05, Aldo Cernezzi wrote:
> Back on eternal-septermber after a decade.
> Hi all!
> Aldo Cernezzi
>
>
> Il 22/02/2024 16:31, Moshe Braner ha scritto:
>> On 2/21/2024 10:05 AM, Frank Whiteley wrote:
>>> In case of interest in older posts,