Newsgroup (Discussion Group, Usenet)

Details - Frequently Asked Questions - Anecdotes - Links to other sites


Definition: A newsgroup (or discussion group) is a collection of electronic mail messages on a particular subject. The service that supports these groups is known as Usenet.
Discussion: There are over 30,000 newsgroups on the Internet covering every conceivable subject from "Elvis Sightings" through to "computational fluid dynamics". The content varies considerably from tasteless to highly serious, from utter rubbish to valuable advice. Anyone can contribute to a newsgroup simply by sending an Email message. This is know as a posting. Some groups have strict rules about the type of content that is allowed. Many for example forbid advertising. Some groups are moderated. For these groups an individual (the moderator) checks all mail posted to the group and decides what to let through.
: Postings are held for a limited period of time, a few days or weeks and then deleted. Many of the groups allow pictures to be attached. These are often referred to as binaries.
More Details (sometimes Technical): The news groups are stored on a news server. The news server that most people use are provided by Internet Service Providers. If you are accessing the Internet on a LAN then it could be a machine within your organisation. Whoever administers the news server decides which groups to carry. So not everyone can get access to all the groups.; If you post a note it is stored on your local news server. This news server will have arrangements with other news servers to exchange postings. By this mechanism your posting with trickle around the world and your news server will in due course receive postings from all the other news servers.

The main categories for newsgroups are:

alt "alternative" groups, which are created without going through the normal approval procedure.

comp computers - topics of interest to computer professionals and hobbyists.

humanities topics in the arts & humanities

misc miscellaneous - groups which do not fit in any of the other categories

news groups concerned with the Usenet itself

rec arts, hobbies and recreational activities

soc social issues and socialising

talk debates and long (never ending) discussions with little information content

and for the UK users

uk groups which are specific to the UK

Frequently Asked Questions

How many newsgroups are there? Last time I checked (in April 98) there were 32,147 on the server that I use and more are added every day.

How are new groups set up? For the mainstream groups (comp, humanities, misc, news, rec, sci, soc and talk) there is an approval mechanism which is explained in the newsgroup news.announce.newuser . Alt groups have no approval mechanism - anyone who knows how to create a group can do so and then it is up to the thousands of news server administrators to decide whether they will carry the group. The mechanism for UK newsgroups are explained in the newsgroup - uk.net.news.announce.

How can I get factual information from newsgroups? Try the following
1. looking for "Frequently asked Questions" or "FAQ" in the subject line of a group that looks relevant.
2. look in the answer newsgroups such as comp.answer.
3. ask for help in a relevant newsgroup
Can I search for a particular subject? Some Search Engines and a few other sites allow you to search the groups by subject matter - see links below.
When postings are deleted from my news server are they lost forever? Some sites archives old postings - see links below.

Anecdotes

None yet.

Links to other sites

New Group archive and search facility. (Hint: Click on "Power Search" and ensure that "discussions" is selected.)	http://www.deja.com
Information about newsgroups for new users: e.g.rules for posting to usenet, hints on writing style, answers to Usenet frequently asked questions and how to start a new group.	Beware - these links will only work if your browser is set up for newsgoups news.announce.newuser and uk.net.news.announce for UK specific groups-
Searching for postings by topic, etc	http://www.dejanews.com http://www.reference.com http://www.altavista.com
To find out about UK newsgroups	http://www.usenet.org.uk

alt	"alternative" groups, which are created without going through the normal approval procedure.
comp	computers - topics of interest to computer professionals and hobbyists.
humanities	topics in the arts & humanities
misc	miscellaneous - groups which do not fit in any of the other categories
news	groups concerned with the Usenet itself
rec	arts, hobbies and recreational activities
soc	social issues and socialising
talk	debates and long (never ending) discussions with little information content