Usenet

Overview Newsgroup - the Backbone of Usenet Suggestions to a Newbie to Usenet Some Tips for Making the Best out of Usenet

Overview

"Dear Mr. President: There are too many states. Please eliminate three. I am not a crackpot." -- Abraham "Grandpa" Simpson

The Usenet consists of several millions of helpful people all over the world. They use a variety of computer networks and software tools to communicate with each other. Imagine a conversation carried out over a period of hours and days, as if people were leaving messages and responses on a bulletin board. Or imagine the electronic equivalent of a radio talk show where everybody can put their two cents in and no one is ever on hold. Unlike e-mail, which is usually "one-to-one," Usenet is "many-to-many." Usenet is the international meeting place, where people gather to meet their friends, discuss the day's events, keep up with computer trends or talk about whatever's on their mind. Jumping into a Usenet discussion can be a liberating experience. Nobody knows what you look or sound like, how old you are, what your background is. You're judged solely on your words, your ability to make a point. To many people, Usenet IS the Net. In fact, it is often confused with Internet. But it is a totally separate system. All Internet sites CAN carry Usenet, but so do many non-Internet sites, from sophisticated Unix machines to even old 386 clones and Apple IIs. Technically, Usenet messages are shipped around the world, from host system to host system, using one of several specific net protocols. Your host system stores all of its Usenet messages in one place, which everybody with an account on the system can access. That way, no matter how many people actually read a given message, each host system has to store only one copy of it. Many host systems "talk" with several others regularly in case one or another of their links goes down for some reason. When two host systems connect, they basically compare notes on which Usenet messages they already have. Any that one is missing the other then transmits, and vice-versa. Because they are computers, they don't mind running through thousands, even millions, of these comparisons every day. Yes, millions. For Usenet is huge. Every day, Usenet users pump upwards of 60 million characters a day into the system -- roughly the equivalent of volumes A-M of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Obviously, nobody could possibly keep up with this immense flow of messages. Let's look at how to find conferences and discussions of interest to you.

Newsgroup - the Backbone of Usenet

"Football combines two of the worst things about American life. It is violence punctuated by committee meetings." - George Will The basic building block of Usenet is the newsgroup, which is a collection of messages with a related theme (on other networks, these would be called conferences, forums, bboards or special-interest groups). There are now more than 5,000 of these newsgroups, in several different languages, covering everything from art to zoology, from science fiction to South Africa. Some systems, typically the ones that work through menus, try to make it easier by dividing Usenet into several broad categories. Choose one of those and you're given a list of newsgroups in that category. Then select the newsgroup you're interested in and start reading. Other systems let you compile your own "reading list" so that you only see messages in conferences you want. In both cases, conferences are arranged in a particular hierarchy devised in the early 1980s. Newsgroup names start with one of a series of broad topic names. For example, newsgroups beginning with "comp." are about particular computer- related topics. These broad topics are followed by a series of more focused topics (so that "comp.unix" groups are limited to discussion about Unix). The main hierarchies are: alt Controversial or unusual topics; not carried by all sites bione Research biology biz Business comp Computers and related subjects misc Discussions that don't fit anywhere else news News about Usenet itself rec Hobbies, games and recreation sci Science other than research biology soc "Social" groups, often ethnically related talk Politics and related topics In addition, many host systems carry newsgroups for a particular city, state or region. For example, ne.housing is a newsgroup where New Englanders look for apartments. A growing number also carry K12 newsgroups, which are aimed at elementary and secondary teachers and students. With so much to choose from, everybody will likely have their own unique Usenet reading list. But there are a few newsgroups that are particularly of interest to newcomers. Among them: news.announce.newusers This group consists of a series of articles that explain various facets of Usenet. news.newusers.questions This is where you can ask questions about how Usenet works. news.announce.newsgroups Look here for information about new or proposed newsgroups. news.answers Contains lists of "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQs) and their answers from many different newsgroups. Learn how to fight jet lag in the FAQ from rec.travel.air; look up answers to common questions about Microsoft Windows in an FAQ from comp.os.ms-windows; etc. alt.internet.services Looking for something in particular on the Internet? Ask here. alt.infosystems.announce People adding new information services to the Internet will post details here.

Suggestions to a Newbie to Usenet

"This is a one line proof...if we start sufficiently far to the left." - Cambridge University Math Department If you're a newbie (a new user) to Usenet, here's a list of suggestions you may consider. First of all, please read Netiquette before proceeding to next. You are welcome to read all newsgroups that are available on your computer, using your newsreader program to select (=subscribe) newsgroups by their names and to read articles selected by their subjects. You can learn a lot about Usenet Newsgroup by reading the newsgroups news.newusers.questions and news.announce.newusers. The news.newsusers.questions newsgroup is dedicated to beginners' questions about the Usenet. New Usenet users are welcome to post questions in this group, even if they may sound "silly" to experienced users. You can learn a lot about a specific topic by reading the so-called FAQ (frequently asked questions and answers) file for that topic in the newsgroup news.answers or from FTP archive site at MIT. Most newsreader programs allow you also to send ( =post) information and answers (=follow-up) to the net community or to send answers to one person by private mail (=reply). Once you learn what is Usenet news, you may want to post your own message to the net. If you're not quite for sure whether your "posting" actually would work or not - or in that regard, afraid of making a mistake and make yourself look like a fool - , you are welcome to post test messages to the alt.test or misc.test newsgroups before actually posting to a 'real' newsgroup. These two newsgroups are there exactly for testing "test postings.". You are welcome to post questions about Usenet news to the news.newusers.questions newsgroup. Once you have mastered the first steps and gained some experience, you are also welcome to post answers and to join discussions in these newsgroups and in the other topic-specific "advanced" newsgroups. If you plan to do so, however, it is advisable that you first read some hints and rules. A few rules and conventions are very helpful to avoid chaos and frustration among the millions of people interacting in the net community.

Some Tips for Making the Best out of Usenet

Read Before You Post   Before you post something to a newsgroup, read that newsgroup for a few weeks, until you get acquainted with the language, style, level of expertise etc. expected by the group members. Before you post a question, check whether the same question has already been asked by someone else. Before you post an answer, check whether the question has already been answered by someone else. Read The Fine Manual (RTFM)   Do not post a lazy question to millions of people on the net, if you can find the answer faster and better in your own manuals. This refers to traditional manuals printed on paper as well as to 'online Help' information on your computer. Many programs have a Help function (h, ?, F1, ...) that tells you everything you need to know - use it. Under Unix, usually the complete software documentation is available to you via the "man" command - use it. Get Local Help   For many questions you can get the answer faster and better by asking the computer people at your site. For some questions you can get the answer only by asking the computer center/people in charge of your site. For example, if you do not know which newsreader programs or which newsgroups are available at your computer/site, or how you can send mail to other computers, ask your omputer center or system administrator. People far away on the net cannot know how things are installed on your computer. Do Not Repeat the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)   Before you post something to the net, please read the FAQ list and the previous postings to the newsgroup in question. The Usenet consists of people who like to learn from new and interesting questions, answers, and discussions, and to help friendly fellows to solve their problems. But they do not like to read the same old basic questions again and again and again. On the other hand, the frequently asked questions are the most important ones for new members of the group. For this purpose, the frequently asked questions and their correct answers have been collected in so-called "FAQ lists". These lists are regularly posted to the appropriate newsgroups and to the news.answers newsgroup, and they are also stored on many "ftp archive computers" like, for instance, rtfm.mit.edu (MIT) or many other websites. Only if you do not find the answer there (nor in the fine manuals nor locally), then post the question to the newsgroup. Even if you do not intend to post anything to the net, you can learn a lot from reading such FAQ lists! Follow the "Netiquette" Rules and Conventions   Post your question or contribution only to that newsgroup which is the most appropriate, because only then will you reach your audience and receive useful answers. Put a short, but descriptive and appropriate header into the Subject line of your posting, because people will use this header to select your posting out of maybe hundreds of other postings. Keep your posting short, because many people do not take the time to read more than a few screen-fulls of information. But: Do not omit necessary details. Remember that people on other computers around the world cannot guess what type of computer, operating system, and program you are using. Never say "my program" or "my computer", but specify "PINE under Solaris 2.5.1" or "MS Word97 on a Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 3" or the like. If you reply to a question or follow-up to an article, include the essential parts of the original question in your posting, but only the essential parts! When you deleted portion of original article, let others know that by inserting marks such as "[portion deleted]" or "[snip, snip]", and etc. to where it was. Before you post something to the net, ask yourself whether it is really necessary to post it to millions of people all over the world, or whether it might be sufficient to "mail" it only to the person concerned. Remember the difference between the "reply" and the "follow-up" functions (or whatever they are called) of your newsreader program. Do not mis-use the net for personal flames, silly jokes, commercial or politcal spamming, chain letters, or anything that is illegal in one of the participating countries. And NEVER follow-up to any of these if they happen to occur. Usually it is best to IGNORE them (hoping that someone else will take care of the offender) and to put the offending subject line or author name into your "kill file". If you must react, then use private mail to the author or to his system administrator. Don't Get Fooled by Practical Jokes   Do not believe everything you read on the net. Before you react to a posting, ask yourself whether it might have been meant humourous, satirical, or sarcastic. For example, if someone suggest to use the Unix command "rm -rf *" for optimizing your Unix account, don't do it, it would delete all your files. If someone asks the millions of Usenet members to mail something to a certain mail address, don't do it, it would overflow that person's computer ("mail bomb"). Do not answer articles that contain alt.test in the followups-to header line. Do not put subjects with a * (wildcard) into your kill file. Do not believe that you can ftp new files from the host 127.0.0.1, which is your own computer. Do not answer to chain letters (pyramid schemes). Do not believe that David Johnson could make money fast. Do not believe that Criag Guy is still in hospital. Do not use Michael and Al's "spamming" method of advertising. Enjoy, but do not get confused by the jokes posted by Mr. Kibo. Never try any pratical jokes yourself! Experienced net users know how to detect any forgeries and how to make sure that offenders lose their computer connections.