You also make very good arguments, and I totally agree with the points you make about newsgroups being taken oven by single individuals who just want to have an argument. One of the groups I used to frequent had just this problem.
You can have moderated newsgroups as well though, and although this has it's problems when discussing general things, hence the use of comp.lang.c and comp.lang.c.moderated, if you where to have a more specific newsgroup, like rec.boat.kayak.guillimot, I don't think there would be any problem in having it moderated by you.

I totally agree with the business cases you make as well.

: I also like the fact that it keeps people in the same web based environment
: that they are used to, instead of switching to some other system. It
: offers the opportunity to fairly seamlessly join the discussion. I also
: think that there are some features available here that are not available
: elsewhere, for example posting pictures.

Not sure if it has been done yet, but one day I will sit down and write a NTTP server that also has a HTTP interface. That way you would get the best of both worlds. Too much else to do right now though - like building my kayak :o)

Thinking of the bandwith issue, I have a suggestion. Currently, with the new frames format, when I view a post I not only get the post but also an index of all posts after that. This is really just a duplication of what I have in the top frame, and personally I never use it.

Keep up the good work,
Ian