A seasoned contractor's story

[EternalOptimist]

I remember reading job ads in the back of the magazine, then applying by letter. pen and paper stuff

imagine - it took a week to get a reply from the agent

[Ignis Fatuus]

Google have a bloody cheek trumpeting their usenet "stewardship", seeing as they foobarred it up beyond all recognition and the search facility is completely broken. Essentially they just bought the archives for their own reasons and then pretty much casually discarded them like a used dishcloth

ISTR that Google bought the Deja News archive of Usenet groups, when Deja went kaput. This archive might well otherwise have been lost.

So while Google doubtless did it for their own purposes, it would be at least as accurate to say that they saved the Usenet archive as to imply that they broke it.