I follow two Usenet groups via Remarq, but as of yesterday they shut down their free newsreader -- perhaps because they only seemed to have one sponsor, or at least the ads were nigh-exclusively for Keen.com. I don't like DejaNews, or whatever the kids are calling it these days, because it only displays one message at a time and my wizened old PowerBook makes that maddening. I'd like a reader that I could log into, so it would remember my groups and not show me messages I'd already read -- that and the ability to display a whole thread (or at least 20+ messages) on the same page are my only real preferences. The ability to post isn't necessary, and I don't mind banner ads, or even popups, since I can just flip off javascript when I visit.

Anyone have a web-based reader to recommend? What are those of us without a newsfeed supposed to do now -- read a good book? Heaven forbid.

-- Kim Rollins (kimrollins@yahoo.com), August 17, 2000

Answers

Okay, stupid question of the day: why specifically a Web-based news reader?

-- Shmuel (shmuel@nycmail.com), August 22, 2000.

I was just going to ask that, myself. I use MT-Newswatcher (for the Mac), and it's fast and small and elegant and shareware.

-- Sara Astruc (astruc@astruc.com), August 22, 2000.

Key words from Kim's post: "without a newsfeed." In order to use a newsreader you need a newsfeed.

Man, I can't believe remarq is gone. I'm gonna miss it...

-- Dave Van (davevan01@hotmail.com), August 22, 2000.

Oops. I completely missed that.

-- Sara Astruc (astruc@astruc.com), August 22, 2000.

Well, yes, sure, I noticed that, Dave, but free newsfeeds are available, so I'm still not seeing why a Web-based reader is necessary.

Anyway, I'd try here for starters.

-- Shmuel (shmuel@nycmail.com), August 23, 2000.

Do you currently use one of those free feeds, Shmuel? If so, please share which one with us, so I can give it a try. Admittedly it's been years since I've tried one, but they were certainly absolute crap a few years ago. If they've improved I'd be happy to hear it.

-- Dave Van (davevan01@hotmail.com), August 23, 2000.

Hmm. Actually, I stand corrected, I think. That is, I'd come across pages about free newsfeeds, but hadn't actually tried them... and in fiddling around in the past day or so, I haven't managed to get any of them to work. Although my newsreader seems to be crashing no matter what I do now, so there may be an unrelated problem on my end...

Anyway. Outside of the link provided above, I don't really have anything to suggest. Sorry about that...

-- Shmuel (shmuel@nycmail.com), August 24, 2000.

try http://www.easyusenet.com Brandon.

-- James Bond 006+2-3(4x-2y) (a@b.com), January 21, 2001.

See http://www.newsreaders.info/ for a list of newsreaders and providers of web-based newsgroups. Hope this helps!

-- Vlad Romanz (newsreadersinfoNOSPAM@REMOVETHIShotmail.com), July 29, 2004.