It would seem that Deja.com, formally DejaNews.com, is not longer making available its archive of Usenet posts dating from 1995 to approximately 1999. They claim that the situation is temporary, but I do fear that they have used their hardware move as an excuse to discontinue what might well be an unprofitable service.

The Usenet community, such as it is today, has noticed this, and one of the efforts underway is a petition that anyone may electronically sign.

As well, the Oldnews Usenet Archive, collecting many posts from 1981 and 1982, seems to be down for good due to too much traffic.

Finally, RemarQ.com has been purchased by CritialPath, turning their Usenet access service commercial. I am not sure what level of archiving they did, or if Supernews offers anything similar. I doubt it.

I understand that the Internet Archive has a substantial Usenet collection, but it is not open for mundane browsing from what I can tell.

All this leaves me with something of a sick feeling. While much of late-1990s Usenet is junk, it has both practical and historical significance. The notion that archiving Usenet is not commercially viable does not bode well for saving other parts of the Internet's history.