Using newsgroups

What are newsgroups? The who's who of newsgroups Reading the news Making the news For your eyes only

The Internet is all about the sharing of all types of information -- and nothing typifies this more than newsgroups.

What are newsgroups?

Does your local newspaper feature a daily column for fans of The X-Files? Can you switch on the TV for regular tips on getting the most from your word processor? Even better, could you walk into any radio or TV station and be given the air time to sound your opinions on the positive aspects of Mulder and mail merging?

Welcome to the world of newsgroups. It's freedom of the press without the press. It's the good, bad and brilliant of the Internet.

Don't think of newsgroups as being an electronic dissemination of `news' headlines and stories as they happen. The definition of news as applied to newsgroups means almost anything related to the topic under discussion.

Better still, you can pitch in and have your say, either on the issue at hand or on someone else's previously-voiced thoughts, or start a completely new line of talk. Newsgroups are a non-stop rolling discussion on almost any relevant subject which anyone cares to raise.

Newsgroups are different to e-mail in that they are a completely public exchange of views. It's like jotting down your thoughts and pinning them to a noticeboard for all to see rather than sending them in a sealed envelope to one particular person.

You may hear newsgroups referred to under the heading of `UseNet'. This harkens back to its beginning as a Unix User's Network which linked a handful of Unix machines in North Carolina. As the Internet grew so did the reach and scope of UseNet discussion groups, eventually becoming newsgroups on all manner of subjects.

Of course, before you go any further, you have to have a newsreader. See Choosing a newsreader.

The who's who of newsgroups

Newsgroups follow a simple `hierarchical' naming system which both organise and identify each group. The first few letters of a newsgroup's name shows it belongs to one of these major categories:

1. COMP. is used for discussion of all matters relating to computers.
2. NEWS. is for information about newsgroups themselves.
3. REC. stands for `recreation' and touches on every conceivable form of recreation, hobby or past-time.
4. SCI. is for science, from the traditional realms of physics and mathematics to engineering and astronomy.
5. SOC. is where social issues are discussed -- cultural, religious, lifestyle and a multitude of other forms of human interaction.
6. TALK. is free and wide-ranging discussion on almost any topic, although sometimes it's the discussion rather than the issue which is at the fore.
7. MISC. was originally intended to cover any pursuit which didn't belong in the other categories, but to a large extent this role has been assumed by the ALT. newsgroups. The ALT. areas are far and away the most active (and the most controversial) haunts on the Net.

Each of these categories is divided again and again, like a tree branching out from trunk to tip. As you move further from left to right the descriptions become more specific and the nature of the group becomes more apparent. Take as your example the comp.os.ms-windows.apps.utilities.win95 newsgroup. This would be a good place to discuss utility programs for Windows 95. It's also one of a dozen groups under comp.os.ms-windows.apps, which in turn is one among 58 groups belonging to the comp.os.ms-windows branch, and that is among some 150 comp.os groups. In total there are almost 900 newsgroups in the whole comp. family, the name of each being at once totally unique.

Most ISPs carry an additional two categories of newsgroups. There are Australian conferences which begin with the prefix AUS. They can be entirely devoted to local issues, such as aus.sport.rugby-league, or they may cover similar topics to the international groups but have greater relevance to local readers, like aus.sf.star-trek.

ISPs can also establish their own newsgroups restricted only to their news server, for purposes such as system announcements and user support.

There are some additional categories which set aside for special purposes.

Any newsgroup whose name ends in .d is a group used for discussion about another larger group. For instance, aus.jokes.d is the place for discussing material on aus.jokes.

Watch for groups named .info and .answers. This is where you can read announcements and FAQs about a related group. One of the seven groups you'll find under Rec.arts.startrek.* is rec.arts.startrek.info.

Reading the news

When you run your newsreader for the first time, it will dial into your ISPs' news server and retrieve a list of all available newsgroups. This may take several minutes.

You can then select any interesting newsgroup from the newsreader and scroll through the list of `articles' -- the official name given to messages `posted' on a newsgroup.

Newsgroup articles are identical in composition to e-mail with the exception that they are sent to the newsgroup rather than an individual. A series of articles on any topic is called a `thread'.

If you find a newsgroup of special interest you can `subscribe' to it. This means that all new postings in the group will always be downloaded from the server whenever you start your newsreader, to save you from manually having to select that group. But don't get carried away and subscribe to everything in sight, or it will take you all day just to keep up with the traffic.

The better newsreaders, such as FreeAgent and Microsoft Internet News, allow you to work offline. You download only the messages you want to read, then disconnect to browse them and compose your replies. This is the best approach for busy newsgroups and a great way to ignore a lot of the rubbish which finds its way online.

Making the news

It's usually wise to study the contents of a newsgroup before you jump in. This will give you an idea of what is and isn't acceptable on that group. Some groups have an officially appointed `moderator' who keeps an eye on the ebb and flow of the group and ensures things run smoothly without tempers getting too hot or discussion getting too sidetracked.

Read the newsgroups' FAQ -- if you don't see it online, post a message asking where it can be found.

Also watch for how the residents of that group react to disagreements over opinion and posts which contain strongly personal attacks called a `flame'.

When you post your first question or response to another message try to keep your message concise and friendly. You're about to join an online community and first impressions count.

You can respond to someone else's post by replying to the newsgroup or by sending them a private e-mail. Newsgroup replies are best kept when what you have to say is of interest to everyone; otherwise, stick to e-mail. In either case it's good practice to quote the relevant parts of the original message above your reply.

Some messages are sent to several newsgroups, called a cross-post. Cross-posts are often frowned upon, especially if they end up in groups which have nothing to do with the subject of the post. Some of the most annoying cross-posts are `spams'-- messages which promote a variety of dubious and sometimes illegal money-making schemes.

Be careful when replying to cross-posts: if you don't choose to send your reply by e-mail, or only to the relevant newsgroup, your own response could wind up on dozens of newgsroups.

For your eyes only

Depending on which newsgroups you subscribe to you may see a post which looks like it's been written in some obscure African tribal dialect instead of English. You've just encountered an encrypted or encoded message (or you've accidentally joined the alt.talk.zulu newsgroup).

An article is encrypted when it contains material which the casual reader may not want to see: anything from an off-colour joke to the detailed plot or surprise ending of a long-awaited film. The standard form of newsgroup encryption is called ROT13 which stands for `ROTate 13 characters' -- every letter in the message is `rotated' 13 letters down the alphabet. When you apply ROT13 to `PC User magazine' you get `CP Hfre zntnmvar'. The subject line of a ROT13 post remains in English so you can understand what the message is about.

All newsreader software includes a `decrypt' or `unscramble' feature to translate the jumble of a ROT13 message back into English.

Encoding is a more complex procedure used to post binary files such as images as newsgroup articles. Each bit in the file is converted to an ASCII character through a process known as `uuencoding' (Unix-to-Unix encoding, another of the many reminders of the Internet's heritage). Most newsreaders can automatically decode binary file attachments into their original format.

If the file is too large to be carried in a single message, it will be split into several posts, all of which must be downloaded to decode the file.

By David Flynn

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All text © 1997 Australian Consolidated Press - PC User Magazine