A little
modern Usenet history:
Deja.com, started in 1995, was a free web based email and Usenet posting service and archive that also allowed users to read and post reviews of products and services in a proprietary, non-usenet database. recently, it was acquired by google, who still has the Usenet post database, but sold the proprietary product reviews portion.
For several months, Google did not allow posting to Usenet; Newsgroups were Read only.
Posting was restored on May 23, 2001. Usernames from the previous incarnation of Deja were not restored; Email users migrated to other free web based email sites. Minor impersonation of pre-google personalities ensued, but were quickly blown off.