I am a huge proponent of web usage. BUT, for news and discussion, I must declare a preference for the usenet channel for information sharing until the newer Web RSS technologies reach a higher level of sophistication on the browser side for both managing the data streams and ease of manipulating/classifying/presenting these data streams.
Until then, please allow me to summarize my perspective on the where and why for each, and TRY to give an impartial comparison of these.
Usenet
Pros - worldwide access - news message mirroring (content redundancy) - multi-domain postings (shotgun) - HUGE visibility bandwidth
Cons - ISP provider feed censoring/selecting - messages repository at user desktop - No central, shared, all-encompassing, permanent archiving point (on a per newsgroup basis). - moderating is optional; hand-off sometimes rough - HUGE visibility bandwidth (is it too much ?)
Web
Pros - moderating is "usually" implied; it is a commercial site - Publication via independent sites (censoring done by people who are hopefully "informed") - Sites "may" produce high-quality content - Sites "may" be mirrored with fail-over - discussions tend to be "neighbourhood-oriented" (say within 6 hrs driving, maybe less, for day trips get to connect with people in this neighbourhood)
Cons - Sites "tend" to be vendor specific - discussions tend to be "neighbourhood-oriented" (don't get to connect with the world-wide community) - every site must be visited to reach ALL interested parties for a given knowledge domain - LOW visibility bandwidth (is it enough ?)
I hope this will be perceived as unbiased. It is not meant to direct anyone to either channel. Everyone has their own needs and preferred methods.
Vive la différence !!!
We only get into trouble (a plant-specific disease hits) when there is only one plant (a susceptible plant) on which we depend.
Relish the chaos ! Be one with chaos! (I am serious)
Eric