The campus Usenet news service, formerly a popular way to share information and discussions online, but rarely used now, is being retired on Dec. 14.

Usenet started in 1980, ten years before the World Wide Web. The service at UC Davis dates at least to the early 1990s. At one time, many science and engineering classes used it as a bulletin board for discussions. But its value dwindled with the rise of Web-based discussion groups, mailing lists, blogs, and pervasive email access. In recent years, the campus Usenet news server has hosted just a few class discussion groups, and the resources required to support the service can be better deployed elsewhere.

Information and Educational Technology has posted notices about the retirement on the campus technotices listserv this fall, and has sent notices to the remaining clients. Plenty of alternatives are available. Two at UC Davis are classroom or SmartSite mailing lists, particularly SmartSite's forum or email archiving tools.

Please send any comments, concerns or questions to Doreen Meyer of IET-Data Center & Client Services at dimeyer@ucdavis.edu.