Usenet News consists of many, ongoing discussions, dealing with a wide variety of subjects. The topics relate to both work and leisure. Usenet News tries to encompass only those people interested in a particular topic by dividing the subject areas into newsgroups. Users also call them conferences, forums, and discussion groups. Each newsgroup involves one subject or topic. Some newsgroups deal with very specific topics, for example: Meso-American Archaeology (sci.archaeology.mesoamerican). Other newsgroups are more general in nature, as in books (alt.history).
There are tens of thousands of newsgroups. Some of them are applicable to a global audience; others are more applicable to a country, city, or organization. Most of the newsgroups are available to everyone on the Internet. However, some of the newsgroups have a limited audience. For example, there may be a newsgroup for Gravel Quarry 101 at the Bedrock Trades School, but it is not available or of interest to anyone outside of the school.
No one on the Internet could possibly read every article, in every newsgroup, every day. When you post an article in a particular newsgroup, the only people who might read your article are those interested in the subject area of the newsgroup. This sharpens the focus of attention and experience on your posted article. Instead of generally addressing everyone on the Internet, you are reaching out to only those people who have shown enough of an interest in the subject to read that newsgroup.
Due to the inherent nature of Usenet News, there are many people who give freely of their time and experiences. If you ask a question in a newsgroup, you're sure to receive a few answers and perhaps raise some discussion between those who did answer. By the time you get a final answer, people may have debated the question for quite awhile. It's fun to follow the discussion for even the simplest of queries. It's amazing to see how many people worldwide have something to say, or at least have something in common with you.
You will find that most people reading and replying in a newsgroup are very helpful and considerate. However, you will also come across a few who haven't the patience to deal with your question, or they may be rude in their replies. That's the nature of the Internet and Usenet News.
For example, look at the newsgroup name "comp.periphs.printers". First of all, the newsgroup deals with computers, and so it has "comp" as the first word in its name. Within the broad subject of computers, this newsgroup deals with computer peripheral equipment, and so it has "periphs" as the second word in its name. Finally, within the subject of computer peripherals, this newsgroup specifically deals with printers, and so the last word in the newsgroup name is "printers".
If the news administrators felt that an existing newsgroup was encompassing too broad a subject matter, they could subdivide it into smaller newsgroups. Users can also vote to have a new newsgroup formed. For example, look again at the comp.periphs.printers newsgroup. The administrators could divide the newsgroup further by the type of printer, for example dot matrix, laser, and ink jet. One of the new newsgroup names could be comp.periph.printers.laser, for example.
alt. - alternative discussions
comp. - computers
rec. - recreational interests
soc. - social discussions
More specific newsgroup categories include:
can. - Canadian discussions
k12. - kindergarten to grade 12 discussions
The newsgroup naming convention makes it convenient for system administrators to restrict access to a specific newsgroup or to an entire series of newsgroups. Some of the newsgroup subjects are controversial. Others may be less applicable to a specific community of users. As examples, administrators could restrict access to all of the newsgroups that start with "alt.nonsense." or "ubedrock.". System administrators are under no obligation to carry all of the newsgroups in Usenet News.
Once you have connected with your Internet service provider, or ISP, the newsreader program can request a list of all the newsgroups available from your ISP. This may take a few minutes depending on how many newsgroups your ISP carries and the speed of your connection.
Some newsreaders display a description of each newsgroup; others display only the newsgroup names. While browsing through the newsgroups, you can watch for ones that you might want to read. These would include newsgroups with interesting topics, or ones where your own knowledge and experiences could be of interest to others. Remember this is a give and take community.
After locating a particular newsgroup, you tell the newsreader to show you the articles in that newsgroup. The newsreader displays all of the current articles. Most newsreaders indicate which articles you have and haven't read. This makes it easier to select the unread articles when you're reading the latest news.
Within the list of articles, some newsreaders show the original article and all of the people who replied to it. Other newsreaders simply display a number indicating how many replies exist for an article.
When the newsreader lists the articles, it usually displays the subject of the article, the author, and the date the author posted the article to the newsgroup. You can browse through the articles and choose which ones you want to read. You do not have to read all of the articles in a newsgroup. If an article's subject isn't of interest, you can skip over it. This is why it is important to provide a good subject line when posting an article. If the subject does not reflect the content of your article, or if the subject provides no hint of the article's content, people may not read your article.
Your ISP determines how many days' worth of current articles it will keep on its news server. Some ISPs might keep the articles for only a couple of days, while others might keep them for a week or longer. It often depends on how much storage space or system power your ISP has available for the news system. So even if you don't read all the articles in a newsgroup, they will eventually disappear from the list of current articles.
If the newsreader displays your regular newsgroups close to each other within the long list of newsgroups, you won't find it difficult selecting each of them for reading. When the newsreader displays your regular newsgroups far from each other, you may have to scroll up and down the list until you find the next one. Your scrolling might be a little easier if the newsreader lists the newsgroups in alphabetical order, but the scrolling can still be tedious for regular news reading.
Most newsreaders have some capability for remembering those newsgroups you identify as your regulars or favorites. Imagine your own collection of books where you have your most read, most favorite books together on one shelf or in a special pile. To tell the newsreader to treat a particular newsgroup as one of your favorites, you subscribe to the newsgroup.
When you subscribe to a newsgroup, the newsreader distinguishes it from the other newsgroups. It might put the subscribed newsgroups together in a separate area or display them at the top of the newsgroup list. In any case, the subscribed newsgroups are usually easier to access. You can still read from the other newsgroups, even without subscribing to them.
As easily as you subscribe to a newsgroup, you can also unsubscribe from a newsgroup. This makes it convenient to have a newsgroup close at hand for a while, and then later put it back with the other unsubscribed newsgroups.
Reading Newsgroup Articles
Reading newsgroup articles is similar to reading your e-mail. After you see an article with a subject that interests you, you tell the newsreader to show you the entire article. The newsreader may display the author of the article and when they wrote it. It may also show some text quoted from a previous article. Some newsreaders identify the quoted text with a greater than sign (">") along its left side. Others may display the quoted text in an italic font. In either case, you can distinguish between the text the author wrote, and the text they quoted from a previous article.
When a subject or question is being discussed at length in a newsgroup, and there are many posted articles, we refer to them together as a thread. Within a newsgroup, the participants may be carrying on numerous threads. Sometimes a discussion can get quite heated or very specific. It can be quite exciting.
Your newsreader program remembers which articles you read, so you don't have to read them again. No one else in a newsgroup knows that you are reading the newsgroup's articles. You can stay on the sidelines as long as you like, watching the action, being an anonymous observer. We refer to this as lurking. It is up to you to decide if and when you want to participate in a discussion, or ask a question. When you finally post your first article, we say that you are delurking yourself.
When you post a reply to an article, many newsreaders start your reply by quoting all of the text of the original article. This allows you to include the relevant pieces and delete the rest. It's a good habit to limit the amount of quoted text in your article to only that which is applicable to your reply. This shows you to have good netiquette, that is good network etiquette. No one wants to re-read an entire article before they read your reply.
Once you have prepared your article, you tell your newsreader to post it to the newsgroup. Within a short time, your article appears in the list of newsgroup articles. It is then available for everyone to read. Some newsreaders also allow you to e-mail your reply directly to the author of the original article.
If someone ignores the netiquette of Usenet News by posting an offensive article, they may find themselves the target of a flame. A flame is a reply that lashes out at what was posted. A flame war can develop if people throw further barbs at each other. There are even newsgroups set up specifically for flames and flame wars.
Cross-posting is posting an article to more than one newsgroup. The newsreader simply posts the same article to each of the specified newsgroups. The article looks exactly the same as if you had posted it to each newsgroup yourself. Most newsreaders list the cross-posted newsgroups with the article. People replying to your cross-posted article will find their replies in each of the listed newsgroups, unless they remove some of them first.
Spamming is posting an article to many or all of the newsgroups. This is similar to a mass mailing in the regular mail. Spamming often happens when someone sends out advertising for their product or service or as a marketing ploy. The article has little in common with any of the posted newsgroups. This is not the proper way to use Usenet News.
After noticing a spam, some people might organize themselves and send many e-mail flames to the spammer. We sometimes refer to these e-mail messages as mail bombs. A sudden, large amount of e-mail sent to one site often catches the eye of the spammer's ISP. The administrators might take action against the spammer. In some cases, they may even pull the plug on the spammer's Internet account. However, there are some ISPs that provide their services specifically to spammers, and ignore the mail bombs.
Most newsreaders automatically include your name, e-mail address, and an optional signature as a part of your posted articles. The newsreaders usually put your name and e-mail address at the top of your articles, and your signature file at the bottom. Depending on your newsreader program, you might be able to specify your name, e-mail address, and signature. Other newsreaders might get this information directly from your Internet account.
If your identity in Usenet News is a concern to you, or you don't want unsolicited e-mail, you might consider using a pseudonym and a less than accurate e-mail address. If you disguise your e-mail address, those businesses scanning for e-mail addresses might not get a correct e-mail address for you. For example, if Fred Flintstone included the word "nojunk" in his e-mail address, it might look like this:
fred.flintstone@bedrock.nojunk.com
Since there is no such site as bedbrock.nojunk.com, any e-mail sent to that address would bounce back to the sender, and never bother Fred.
Fred's signature file could include a reminder for people to delete the "nojunk" portion from his e-mail address before they try to send him legitimate e-mail. Those computers scanning for e-mail addresses won't be reading or following those instructions. This procedure will at least stop some of the unsolicited, automated e-mail you receive.
Usenet News offers us a wealth of free resources. It also provides a sounding board to share our opinions. It's a place where we can offer our knowledge and experience to others. As long as the users maintain good manners, and are willing to give and take, the Usenet News community is a very valuable source of free advice.