Usenet fans have reason to celebrate this month.  As several top Usenet providers surpass 1,000 days of binary retention.  The retention race started in 2009 with a number of  newsgroup services focusing on increasing binary retention.  Giganews had a sizable early lead and will be the first to 1,000 days this week. With UseNetServer, Newshosting, Astraweb and more hitting 1,000 days next week.

This month several leading Usenet providers including UseNetServer, Newshosting, NewsDemon, Easynews, Astraweb and Giganews will surpass 1,000 days of binaries.  With three years of binary retention likely to come later this year.  A huge achievement considering that in September of 2008 the high mark was 240 days.  Two years prior the highest retention was 90 days.

Fortunately storage prices continue to decrease.  Then again the average newsgroup feed size has exploded.  Increasing from 3 TB a day in 2006 up to 8.2 TB a day last month (source: NewsDemon).  The continued growth of the Usenet feed makes the 1,000 day achievement even more impressive.

A few will get to the end of this post and wonder what binary retention means.  In simple terms it’s the number of days binary newsgroup posts are held on a provider’s news server before they drop off.  Meaning that 1,000 days (2.75 years) of binary content will be accessible to download.  Stay tuned to Newsgroup Reviews for future binary retention stats as the numbers are growing daily.  We also keep up with the latest Usenet deals, free newsgroup trials, newsreader downloads and helpful guides.