Am I missing the "rises again like a Phoenix" part? This article is just a brief description of what Usenet is, for people under 45 years of age. There's nothing in here about Usenet usage being on the rise, or anything like that.
This article talks about Google Groups in the present tense, even though its Usenet hosting permanently ceased around 8 years ago.
The Big-8 Board was re-established, or if you like, it rose from the ashes like a Phoenix. (The Phoenix story is about one bird coming back to life; there's nothing about an increase in the size of some group.)
I know tons and tons of nerds with extreme technical hobbies. None of them have ever talked to me about still using Usenet. The only place I hear about it is for Seedbox stuff.
I wrote the article. (I did not write the headline.)
The crux of the article is that the Big-8 board has reconvened and is active again; I spent a paragraph or two on that. That's what is back, and that is what the headline is about.
Google Groups is still current and comparing a couple of groups to my Eternal September feeds, they are in sync, so I call [[citation needed]] on that. If you can't back it up, I think it's disinformation you've picked up somewhere.
This article talks about Google Groups in the present tense, even though its Usenet hosting permanently ceased around 8 years ago.