If somebody sets up a Google Group that is not a Usenet newsgroup
(rec.crafts.rubberstamping is a Usenet newsgroup) then a significant
portion of the readership will not have *Usenet* access to that group.
Google Groups, for example, only exist on the Google site, and the user
interface is controlled by Google. This is also true of other web-based forums.

A Usenet newsgroup is transmitted to hundreds of thousands of news servers
worldwide, and any newsreader software (like Agent, gnews, or the reader in
Outlook Express or Thunderbird) can access it. Either
rec.crafts.rubberstamps or rec.crafts.scrapbooks (I forget which) was
originally a Google-only group that was later accepted into Usenet. I
didn't read it until after it was a Usenet newsgroup, and would not likely
read a group that was not in Usenet.

Other newsgroups have a practice of their members having a free website
where they can post photos of their artwork (or whatever). A popular one is
webshots, but Flikr is also a possibility. A member will just put a link in
his/her signature line that resolves to his/her website. I have a scrapbook
site, but over the holidays plan to add some of my rubberstamping.

Gina
http://community.webshots.com/user/ginainva