[mrweasel]

It hasn't really been developed, so it's in the same state that email would have been in, had it too been abandoned.

The big surprise is that NNTP servers are still running, and that there are active newsgroups. With a bit of care I still think NNTP could be a nice base for new localized social networks. Just in the small "town" where I live there are a number of Facebook groups, those could just as easily have been newsgroups.

Usenet currently isn't in a great state, and had it not been for piracy it would have looked even worse.