My IT teething was done via network news. Remember all those something-dot-something-dot-something news groups? Like the BBS's of way back when and the blogs (like this one) of today, they were a great resource for asking "Help! What do I do now?" types of questions. The community of users was great. I would now describe many network news groups as the living dead. Yes, they are still there but, too often, the content seems to be entirely made up of SPAM. Some are in fact alive and very well indeed (comp.unix.programmer). There must be a critical mass that, after a given point of SPAM load, people abandon the news group to the spammers. I frequent a hobby news group (rec.aviation.soaring) that is going great guns. Another (alt.sport.racquetball) is dead, dead, dead. Sad.