newsgroups
- What is Usenet?
- Accessing Usenet/Newsgroups
- Newsgroup Naming Conventions
- Posting/Reading News Messages
- Newsgroup Terminology
What is Usenet?
Usenet is a massive number of discussion forums on every imaginable subject in which interested parties can share their knowledge and views - it is a world-wide distributed discussion system.
Usenet consists of a set of Newsgroups with names that are classified hierarchically by subject. "Articles" or "messages" are "posted" to these newsgroups by people all over the world. Some newsgroups are moderated - in these newsgroups, the articles are first sent to a moderator for approval before appearing in the newsgroup. There are tens of thousands of different newsgroup topics that exist at present, some are very serious discussion forums, whilst others are merely humerous. Users of the newsgroup can read messages posted by other people, respond to those messages, or post their own messages.
Accessing Usenet/Newsgroups
Newsgroups can be accessed in much the same way as when you send or receive e-mail. Many e-mail programs double as newsreaders, however you can attain programs that are designed for accessing newsgroups only - such as Forte Free Agent.
The iiNet news server address is: freenews.iinet.net.au . To access various newsgroups you need to connect to Usenet via a news server, and then sign up at different newsgroups to receive their posts.
Newsgroup Naming Conventions
With over 30'000 newsgroups available it is vital to have a formal heirarchy and naming convention to make it easier for users to find newsgroups of interest.
As such, newsgroups are divided into heirarchies, each with its own name. Some of the main newsgroup heirarchies are:
| group | description |
|---|---|
| alt | Alternative newsgroups covering a wide variety of topics |
| biz | Business oriented newsgroups |
| comp | Computer related newsgroups |
| misc | Miscellaneous - everything that doesn't fit into any other categories |
| news | Newsgroups covering different aspects of Usenet itself |
| rec | Recreational/hobby newsgroups |
| sci | Science oriented newsgroups |
| soc | Discussions of social issues |
| talk | Newsgroups for discussing controversial issues |
| aus | Australian content newsgroups |
| iinet | Newsgroups specifically for iiNet members |
Posting/Reading News Messages
Posting and reading newsgroup messages is very similar to reading and creating e-mail messages. The newsgroup messages are downloaded to your computer using either an E-mail program, or a specific Newsgroup program.
The first time you create the connection to the iiNet News server the list of newsgroups will be downloaded. Please Note - this may take a few minutes to download as there are a few hundred different newsgroups. Once the complete list of newsgroups has loaded you can select which newsgroups you wish to subscribe to. You can subscribe to as many as you like.
You will see the new messages appear in your Inbox
- Article
- A message posted to a newsgroup.
- Binaries
- Files containing something other than text, primarily pictures and sounds, posted to a newsgroup.
- Flame
- Derogatory comments communicated in a posting to a newsgroup.
- Flame War
- When a discussion degenerates into nothing but a series of personal attacks, or flames (see above).
- Lurk
- To read a newsgroup without ever making yourself known by posting.
- Message
- An individual posting to a newsgroup (also called an "article").
- Moderated Group
- A newsgroup where submissions first go to an individual called a moderator, who must approve an item before it is posted to the group.<
