Newsgroups are discussion groups on thousands of different topics. Usenet is the set of machines that exchange discussion articles. Common-subject articles are tagged with universally-recognized labels called newsgroups, or groups for short. Newsgroups are where people participate in world wide discussions on just about any subject by sending electronic messages. Newsgroup news is organized and separate from your mail in your mailbox.
Newsgroups are organized according to their specific areas of concentration. Since the groups are in a tree structure, the various areas are called hierarchies. There are seven major categories:
These newsgroups are circulated around the entire Usenet system and have world wide distribution. Also available are alternative hierarchies: alt, gnu, biz, and discussions by specialized sites such as TX, epcc, rgfn, etc.
To keep some newsgroups focused and on subject, they are moderated. In a moderated newsgroup, all articles are mailed to the moderator. The moderator reviews the messages called posts, and then sends them individually as articles to the Usenet. Sometimes the messages are compiled into a digest comprised of a couple days worth of articles. In unmoderated newsgroups, articles are posted directly.
Usenet/Newsgroup can be found in the Communication Area from the main menu. You select the newsgroups you want to follow with SUBSCRIBE, and you UNSUBCRIBE to those groups in which you have no interest. There is no subscription fee. A list of the newsgroups you have subscribed to is built and displayed, such as:
1 8 alt.bbs.internet BBSs that are hooked up t 2 2 comp.admin.policy Discussions of site admin 3 comp.binaries.ibm.pc Binary-only postings for 4 comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d Discussions about IBM/PC 5 2 comp.binaries.ibm.pc.wanted Requests for IBM PC and c 6 4 comp.databases Database and data managem =set current to n, TAB=next unread, /=search pattern, c)atchup, g)oto, j=line down, k=line up, h)elp, m)ove, q)uit, r=toggle all/unread, s)ubscribe, S)ub pattern, u)nsubscribe, U)nsub pattern, y)ank in/out
The top of the page indicates the number of newsgroups you have subscribed to. On each line the information reflects the number of the newsgroup in your listing, the number of unread articles, the hierarchy of the newsgroup and a verbose description of the newsgroup. At the bottom is an abbreviated list of commands you can use within the newsgroups.
A thread is a group of articles or messages that have the same subject in common and each is a reply or additional information concerning the preceding message or article. You have many options that you can invoke while in the newsreader, to see the list of commands available for group selection and for article manipulation see Newsreader Commands in this guide. Once you have selected the group to read and then selected the article within that group (using ENTER, 'n', or TAB) , you have some options as to what you can do with that article. Besides reading the articles, you can save them to a file, forward them to another user, reply to the original poster by Email, or post a additional comment to the thread. The following is an example of an article posted to a newsgroup.
Tue, 12 Jul 1994 08:53:08 comp.infosystems Thread 1 of 3 Lines 7 Finding People No responses restock@pacbell.com Robert Stockwell at Pacific Bell
I am trying to find the address and phone number of someone in England. The last known address was in Thornton Liverpool. Is there anything on the Internet that would help me do that? If not the Internet, is there a number to call in Liverpool? Bob Stockwell restock@pacbell.com -- Last response --
=set current to n, TAB=next unread, /=search pattern, ^K)ill/select, a)uthor search, B)ody search, c)atchup, f)ollowup, K=mark read, |=pipe, m)ail, o=print, q)uit, r)eply mail, s)ave, t)ag, w=post
RGFN User's Guide Copyright 1995: You may copy this guide and distribute it for educational purposes only and not for any other purpose.
Return to the Table of Contents.