Technically, the rec.arts.anime hierarchy still exists, although it's been severely depopulated. I occasionally see a legitimate message ghost through .misc, though. A far cry from the late 1990s, when .misc alone had hundreds of messages a day.
(Hi, I'm an aging fan whose history with anime begins with the bad dubs of Gatchaman and Nausicaa that circulated in the early 1980s. Pleased to meet everyone.)