Usenet newsgroups simulate computer conferencing. They focus on a particular topic and allow people from all over the world to participate simultaneously in discussion on that topic at anytime.

Messages are created and sent to the group by special software called newsgroup readers or newsgroup (client) software. Both Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator have newsgroup readers built into them, as do most browsers. When you send a message to a newsgroup it is called a posting or article. It is similar to composing an email message.

The Usenet newsgroups is run from a main Usenet server. Some are moderated and some are unmoderated. The messages are copied and forwarded to ISPs that subscribe to the newsgroup in order to make it available to that ISPs customers. This means that there may be a delay in seeing your postings and response to them.

This is a main distinction between Listservs and Newsgroups. With a Listserv, the messages come to you as they are sent. With a Newsgroup the messages stay on a server and you select and read only those you wish to read.

How Newsgroups are Organized

There are over 10,000 newsgroups on the Internet, each including a selection of topics to choose from. They are sorted into a hierarchy. The particular newsgroup you are interested in might look like this:

rec.sport.basketball.college

Each newsgroup has a list of topics, under each topic are subtopics and under the subtopics are a list of messages posted and responses to the messages posted. The first part of the string of the name of the newsgroup will be a prefix such as:

sci. - for science discussions
comp. - for computer discussions
news. - for news discussions
soc. - for social issue discussions
rec. - for recreation discussions
talk. - for debates on controversial issues
misc. - for topics that don't fit into the other categories
alt. - Any conceivable topic.
biz. - Business products, services, reviews
humanities. - Fine art, literature, philosophy

Google Group Browse

The responses are usually threaded. Each thread represent a topic being discussed. Each message posted will have a sublist of responses in chronological order so that you can follow the discussion and respond to the responses and read in order. You can choose to respond to any posted message or response. The threaded responses look much like branches of files you view when viewing the files on your computer.

Choosing a Newsgroup to join

Your ISP subscribes to a number of newsgroups and makes them available to you. You can use your browser to view the Usenet newsgroups available to you. Some ISPs will add newsgroups upon request of customers.

Reading a Newsgroup Posting and Responding

When you use the newsgroup reader to view the newsgroup messages you can participate by

• posting new discussion topic and starting a thread
• responding to a current ongoing discussion and the responses
• delete a message from the newsgroup (only your own)