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the other elements of the Net
email
irc
usenet
www
history of the Net
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Usenet is a worldwide network of newsgroups, which has a set of rules for accessing and posting. A newsgroup is a collection of messages or comments on a certain topic. They can be compared to notice boards, where anybody can read what you have posted, but it depends on your Internet service provider which newsgroups you can read or post messages to. Usenet was first implemented in 1979, and it encompasses government agencies, universities, high schools, various companies and personal home computers.
Unlike a webpage, which lies on one server, newsgroups are located at local news-servers. Every university, every Internet Service Provider has its own. And it is up to them, to decide, which groups to carry and which to "leave out".
This does however not neccessarily mean censorship. Because, if your
newsserver restricts access to a certain group, you can just as easily connect to another server that has what you are looking for.
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Topics of newsgroups
According to Deja, which searches all the newgroups in Usenet, there are more than 50,000 newsgroups (to read more about searching them, visit our search mailinglists and newsgroups page). The newsgroups' topics are reflected in their titles, such as "sci.astro.hubble" for science-astronomy-hubble telescope. Their participants post messages, properly called "articles", for everybody to read and respond to. A newsgroup can be hosted on servers that are outside the Internet and a lot of them are. Usenet's original transfer protocol was UNIX-to-UNIX Copy (UUCP), but more prevalent today is Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP). Most browsers, such as Netscape and Microsoft's Internet Explorer, provide "newsreader" programs to access any newsgroups that you select. Usenet is available on a wide variety of computer systems and networks, but the bulk of modern Usenet traffic is transported over either the Internet or NNTP.
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Major hierarchical groups
To search for special topics is relatively easy even for newcomers. There are eight major primary categories of newsgroups on the Usenet:
- comp. (companies)
- humanities.
- misc. (miscellaneous)
- news.
- rec. (recreation)
- sci. (science)
- soc. (society issues) and
- talk.
Newsgroups in those eight categories are created by an approval process, which includes formal discussion and voting. In the alt. (alternative) hierarchy anyone can create new groups without going through the voting procedures - hence groups with names such as "alt.swedish.chef.bork.bork.bork". Many newsgroups have a regional or local focus, such as "uk." for the United Kingdom. Some groups focus on special topics with limited distribution.
Some newsgroups are moderated; in these newsgroups, the articles are first sent to a moderator for approval before posted in the newsgroup. Most newsgroups are unmoderated.
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Basic rules of "netiquette"
Specialised search engines help you to find newsgroups of your interest on the Internet. They let you search for newsgroups that deal with a special topic, or for specific articles about your subject of interest, or in a selected newsgroup. You can search for new or archived articles, and in the newsgroups you can publish your opinion and ask questions. There are some basic rules of "netiquette" to avoide a breakdown of the unmoderated system. To participate in newsgroups, you should learn the purpose and the norms of the newsgroup before posting any articles of your own. A good rule of thumb is to read articles for two weeks before posting, and then follow the norms. Many newsgroups post a FAQ file (Frequently Asked Questions) once a month, which you should look at before posting for the first time.
For more Usenet information you can go to Usenet References on the Internet.
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