what happened to the pro-user.org groups?

I think that news.ptcuser.org has been discontinued. It was the semi-public, non-usenet news server of ptcuser. Listserv, on the other hand, still exists in the form it's always existed in - as the email Exploder which operates in typical listserv fashion, by broadcasting email of subscribed groups to subscribers. You have to register for this service:

When the Lyris software was "upgraded" last fall to V9, the NNTP server ceased to function - which was too bad, because I though using the newsreader was the best way to keep up to date with the forums.

According to ptcuser, they are going to be implementing RSS on the Exploder lists soon. Until then, you either have to sign up to received the daily digest of the groups in which you are interested, or have the messages forwarded to your email account as they are posted.

Regards

Ah, that's what happened to it. I thought maybe a news server crashed and the PTC/USER shoe string budget didn't allow for its replacement. And, yes, I quite agree on the utility of news over listserv and sorting through a flood of email where it always seemed like I was reviewing discussions that were finished (when I could actually construct them as conversations or threads). News was easier to follow, retained the forum organization and allowed for more participation, on my part, anyway. I too was sorry to see it go. And RSS feeds don't seem like more than a repackaging of listserv, so wouldn't provide a replacement for the news service. BTW, did Rick Snider know this would be a consequence of upgrading? I was surprised that it just stopped and I don't remember any announcement.

David Janes