well, you can use google groups web interface but that sucks. there is also the eternal september free text access. for premium access blocknews has 5 gigs for 2 bucks which will last forever if you are just reading text groups. 2 bucks (or the free options) are a lot less than what the server would cost to run a lemmy instance.

Know someone to get on or know someone to talk back and forth with? I mean, you could use google groups interface which is awful but still sort of an on ramp to it (and free). Plenty of usenet services out there though. you could pay a buck or two to blocknews.net for a few gigs and now you have “premium” access. discussion groups will take a long time to eat up 5 gigs. the real problem is sorting through to find the active groups not to mention finding decent nntp newsreader software for your platform. actually someone just posted a few days back in alt.fan.usenet some decently active discussion groups. got to start somewhere i suppose.

alt.culture.usenet:
alt.fan.usenet:
alt.obituaries:
alt.privacy:
alt.tv.simpsons:
ba.broadcast:
comp.ai:
comp.arch:
comp.compilers:
comp.dcom.telecom:
comp.infosystems.gemini:
comp.infosystems.gopher:
comp.lang.c++:
comp.lang.c:
comp.lang.forth:
comp.lang.misc:
comp.lang.python.announce:
comp.lang.python:
comp.lang.raspberry-pi:
comp.lang.tcl:
comp.misc:
comp.mobile.android:
comp.mobile.misc:
comp.os.cpm:
comp.os.linux.announce:
comp.os.linux.misc:
comp.risks:
comp.sys.apple2:
comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action:
comp.text.tex:
comp.unix.shell:
gnu.emacs.help:
misc.legal.moderated:
misc.taxes.moderated:
news.admin.moderation:
news.announce.important:
news.announce.newgroups:
news.groups.proposals:
news.groups:
news.software.readers:
rec.arts.drwho:
rec.arts.movies.current-films:
rec.arts.sf.tv:
rec.arts.sf.written:
rec.autos.sport.f1:
rec.aviation.soaring:
rec.bicycles.tech:
rec.food.cooking:
rec.games.backgammon:
rec.music.beatles:
rec.music.classical.recordings:
rec.radio.amateur.antenna:
rec.radio.amateur.boatanchors:
rec.radio.amateur.equipment:
rec.radio.amateur.homebrew:
rec.radio.amateur.misc:
rec.radio.amateur.moderated:
rec.radio.amateur.policy:
rec.radio.amateur.space:
rec.radio.info:
rec.radio.shortwave:
rec.sport.rowing:
rec.woodworking:
sci.astro:
sci.electronics.design:
sci.electronics.repair:
sci.logic:
sci.physics.relativity:
sci.physics.research:
talk.origins:
uk.comp.sys.mac:
uk.radio.amateur.moderated:
uk.rec.sheds:
uk.sci.weather:

Usenet is still there. IMO, we should be trying to funnel the most techy users among us over there and maybe it could be resurrected for discussion once again. Right now it is more or less users talking to themselves.

no need to resurrect it, usenet still exists and has a bit of discussion traffic (and a lot of binary traffic) but we just need to get users to swap over. course there needs to be some decent mobile apps made as well.