About USENET NewsGroups

UseNet is a means to broadcast articles (UseNets term for messages) among a large number of computers. The newsgroups are propagated using a store and forward procedure. An article is sent to a given host who saves it and then feeds the article to other hosts in the UseNet network. Using store and forward, an article can usually be distributed widely in a matter of moments. People post messages/articles and can read and respond to other's.

Most of the newsgroups are public, but there are also local newsgroups (local to the given Internet site). These newsgroups are then not accessible through other Internet providers.

Newsgroups can be either moderated or unmoderated. In an unmoderated newsgroup, the article you post is broadcast directly to all other newsgroup members. In a moderated newsgroup, your article is sent to a moderator which reviews it before making it available publicly. The idea behind moderated newsgroups is to keep the discussion tightly focused on the given subject. Moderated newsgroups tend to have a more manageable number of messages, since non-pertinent and inappropriate messages are filtered out. Most of the newsgroups are unmoderated. Both the tone of their talk and the quality of their information are completely determined by the participants. Usenet newsgroups usually maintain no file libraries or archives.

Newsgroups are organized in a hierarchical manner. The first part of a newsgroup name is a broad topic and is followed by a one or more subtopics. Each of these levels use abbreviated names and follow the typical Internet naming convention in which periods are used to separate the topic levels.

The UseNet hierarchy is firmly established. At the top-level there are seven different categories:

• comp Computer subjects: software and hardware.
• rec Recreational topics.
• news Newsgroup, network, and administration topics. News about Usenet itself. For newcomers there is a special group: "news.announce.newusers".
• sci Scientific topics: physical and social sciences.
• soc Social and cultural issues.
• talk Debate about controversial subjects.
• misc Anything that doesn't fit into other top-level hierarchies.

• alt The alternative groups, created to provide more freewheeling discussions than those on the older newsgroups. It ranges from the most controversial "alt.sex", to one of the best sources of background information about the Internet: "alt.internet.services newsgroup".