When I searched for a solution, the site that came up was long since defunct.
I’d be interested in this too. You can find a limited amount of good information on the most active groups at the bottom of this page: http://news.eternal-september.org/postingstats.php. I’ll be adding some of those myself!
I currently read the following active groups:
- alt.comp.software.seamonkey
- alt.folklore.computers
- comp.infosystems.gemini
- comp.infosystems.gopher
- comp.misc
- comp.unix.shell
- linux.debian.user
- misc.news.internet.discuss
- netscape.public.mozilla.seamonkey
`
Of those, I’d say comp.misc is the most interesting (kind of like the Hacker News/Lobste.rs/Slashdot), though it seems to have slowed down lately.
I also follow and post to some relatively inactive groups in the hope that they’ll revive, especially alt.sports.hockey.nhl.vanc-canucks.
Maybe other people could post the newsgroups they follow? Or someone could suggest a means of automating discovery? I might even write to eternal-september and ask them to publish a longer list of active newsgroups. Update: I wrote and asked if they could post a list of the “Top 100” most active groups.
Lastly, you can also find some good leads on active newsgroups on Reddit, if that suits you:
spoiler
Users seem to post links to active newsgroups over on /r/ClassicUsenet with the tag “current”. There’s also a thread with a number of active groups listed here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClassicUsenet/comments/u7sqvp/share_interesting_newsgroups/
Thank you! :)