The word newsgroups is the modern name for what we're talking about. Historically, the system has also been called usenet, netnews and just news. The basic idea is that the news system provides a large number of global, shared bulletin boards or newsgroups, which are used to conduct discussions on various topics. You can see immediately that the word news is being used in an entirely different way to its more common meaning in the mainstream media. Anyone can post (with some restrictions) an article to any newsgroup at any time.
Each individual submission to a newsgroup is called an
article, and bears a strong family resemblance to an
email message, in that they always contain a From:
header line identifying the sender, a Subject:
line, the Date: (and time) this article was
posted, etc.
rec.music.makers.bagpipe,
the bagpipe newsgroup. This newsgroup is in the
"recreational" (ie, rec) area, sub-area "music", second level sub-area
concerned with music making, and finally bagpipes within that. You
might expect, for example, that there'd be a newsgroup called rec.music.makers.guitar,
as indeed there is. It's all pretty logical.
You then (usually) have to subscribe to the groups you're interested in. Most software makes this a bit easier by presenting a menu of options, but it can still be tedious. Alternatively, you can sometimes just type in the name of a newsgroup.
:-)), and lots of in-joke
acronyms, such as IMHO (In My humble Opinion) and
ROTFL (Roll On The Floor Laughing). There's a
million of 'em.Posting to a newsgroup is a different thing. Unless you want to just "barge in" (and usually reveal yourself to be a newbie, newsgroup slang for an incompetent beginner), you'll do well to read one of the many guides to newsgroup netiquette. One of the best (written in a highly "tongue-planted-firmly-in-cheek" style) is Brad Templeton's "Ask Emily Postnews". Alternatively, there is at least one newsgroup entirely devoted to stuff for new users: news.newusers.questions. Making sure you know the conventions for posting is the best way to avoid being flamed, an entirely unpleasant experience.
Most newsgroups also have a newsgroup FAQ (for "Frequently Asked Questions"), usually posted monthly to the newsgroup as an article, but often available on the Web as well. Before posting a question to the newsgroup, you should always check the FAQ in case the answer is there. The FAQ for the bagpipe newsgroup is on the Web at http://www.stanford.edu/~wrinnes/BagpipeFAQ/, and also mirrored at http://www.kasslar.com/carl/Bagpipe_FAQ.htm. The problem with FAQs is that they require constant upkeep and maintenance to be useful and the bagpipe FAQ hasn't seen much of either lately. Nevertheless, it's still worth consulting. There's actually a Web repository of nearly every Internet FAQ, at http://www.faqs.org/faqs/, and another (less readable) one at ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/faqs/.
The way in which information propagates from news server to news server is that a few times a day, each news server contacts its neighbours and transfers any newly posted articles to them. They, in turn, contact their neighbours, and so on, articles gradually propagating through the entire newsgroups system. The process can take days, in some cases, so don't expect that everyone seeme -- sometimes as short as a few days, sometimes several weeks. So it's quite common to see lots of followups to an original article that has long since expired.
BTW: (newsgroup shorthand for "By The Way") -- don't confuse newsgroups with so-called "chat rooms". These are an entirely different animal, and would need an entire article of their own to discuss.
rec.music.folk
rec.music.celtic
soc.culture.scottish (Excellent
FAQ located at http://www.siliconglen.com/scotfaq/)
soc.culture.celtic
rec.music.makers.guitar.acoustic
aus.cars
aus.sport.aussie-rules
aus.education
aus.jokes
rec.humor
rec.humor.funny
[Home] [History] [Playouts] [People] [Music] [Fundraising] [Photo Album] [Contact] [Members] [Links]