Newsgroups

Newsgroups, or discussion groups, are like electronic community bulletin boards where people can post and read messages.

Like IRC channels, there are thousands of newsgroups, each covering a different topic. Unlike IRC, newsgroup discussions do not occur in real-time. Instead, people post their messages and can return later to read replies or continue a discussion.

One particular difference between newsgroups and other internet ‘talk’ services such as instant messaging, IRC and email is that newsgroup discussions are ‘threaded’. This means that when you post a reply to a newsgroup, you are replying to a particular message or post. Other people can reply to your post, creating a ‘threaded’ discussion under the same starting post. At the same time, other conversations can be occurring under other posts in the same newsgroup.

This makes newsgroups ideal for asking and answering questions and for holding the thread of a discussion.

Newsgroup categories

To help people find the topic they are interested in, newsgroups are divided into categories by their type of content and location. Some examples include:

• alt. means "alternative" and refers to newsgroups that don't fit into other categories. This includes both serious and unconventional topics
• biz. means "business" and refers to newsgroups relates to business topics
• com. means "computers" and cover topics for computer users or professionals
• soc. means "social" and cover topics like politics and community groups
• rec. means "recreation" and covers sports, movies and other areas
• .oz is used for newsgroups primarily for Australians.

For example a newsgroup named rec.sport.cricket.oz is for Australian cricket fans, while alt.aliens.research is for people from around the world who want to discuss aliens.

How to read and post to newsgroups

To read a newsgroup, you need to use either a newsreader bundled with your email software, or use a specialised program.

Your newsreader must be pointed to a news server. Most ISPs run their own news servers and you can find out the correct server name to point to from your ISP. It will look something like news.yourisp.com.au.

You then "subscribe" to newsgroups that interest you. To do this you must download the listing of the newsgroups available from your ISP. Once downloaded, you can use a search tool in your newsreader to look for topics. When you subscribe to a newsgroup, your newsreader automatically downloads new messages or posts each time you connect to your ISP's news server.

You can post messages to newsgroups in a similar way to creating a new email. Click on the post you wish to reply to, or select a ‘new post’ button to start a new thread. Then type in your message like an email and press send. Your post will appear in the newsgroup in a few minutes.

History of newsgroups

Newsgroups have been around since 1979, when a system was written to allow scientists and students to post questions and receive answers on different topics. Called the Usenet, the system grew in popularity as it was more flexible than email and allowed people to hold discussions with many others at once.

Today there are hundreds of thousands of newsgroups, although some have more active posts than others.