@lextenebris@kensanata@kyonshi I also did my time in the coal mines of USENET (love that expression)! So long ago, in fact, that I was using USENET before the major hierarhy upheaval, when groups changed from net.comp, net.singles, and net.jokes to comp., soc., etc. ;-)
The tools we had were and continue to be excellent for the volumes you can get in newsgroups. I only use gnus now but I remember tin, nn, slrn, and others.