View source for Questions Frequently Asked by New Newsgroup Users

== What is a newsgroup? ==

* A newsgroup is something like a mailbox that the public is invited to use to store e-mail ("posts") sent to the mailbox.  Anybody who wants to look in the newsgroup to read the posts that have been sent to it may do so.

== What is a newsreader? ==

* A [[newsreader]] is a piece of software that lets users look in the newsgroup, sort the posts that are there, read the posts, or make new posts.

== What is Usenet? ==

* The totality of all news servers that provide newsgroups.
* Exactly how to define it is a matter of much debate.  Here is a classic [ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.announce.newusers/What_is_Usenet%3F article on Usenet]; and a [ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.announce.newusers/What_is_Usenet%3F__A_second_opinion. reply to that article].
* A brief description of [[usenet|Usenet]].
* The history of the [[big-8]], which played a major role in the history of Usenet.
* "Usenet is a worldwide electronic discussion community. It dates from before the Internet, when articles were tranmitted with modems over phone lines. Now the Internet is used. Each newsgroup is dedicated to a specific topic. Articles are copied from the originating site to other participating sites [news servers]" [http://www.itc.virginia.edu/newsgroups/|University of Virgina ITC].

== What is a hierarchy? ==

* An ordered list of newsgroups.
* Each of the subsets of the Big-8 is a hierarchy (comp.*, humanities.*, misc.*, news.*, rec.*, sci.*, soc.*, talk.*).  
* Each of the subsets of the eight hierarchies may be called a hierarchy if it does have or potentially may have more than one newsgroup sharing the same initial components in the name.  So, for example, the misc.health.* hierarchy is the list of all newsgroups whose names begin with "misc.health": 
<pre>
misc.health.aids	AIDS issues and support.
misc.health.alternative	Alternative, complementary and holistic health care.
misc.health.arthritis	Arthritis and related disorders.
misc.health.diabetes	Discussion of diabetes management in day to day life.
misc.health.infertility	Treatment & support of infertility.
misc.health.injuries.rsi.misc	All about Repetitive Strain Injuries.
misc.health.therapy.occupational	All areas of occupational therapy.
</pre>
* In the preceding example, "misc.health.injuries.rsi" could become a new hierarchy if other newsgroups beginning with those four components were added to the list such as "misc.health.injuries.rsi.diagnosis", "misc.health.injuries.rsi.support", or "misc.health.injuries.rsi.tech".

== What is the difference between Google Groups and Usenet? ==

* Google archives most newsgroups on Usenet and makes the old articles available through a page-based interface.  Most news servers only hold articles for a short time depending on how the news administrator has set up the system.
* Google also provides a method for creating new Google Groups that are Google-specific; such groups are not a part of the Usenet and  do not circulate on Usenet news servers.
* Google is not a traditional [[NSP|news service provider]].  Neither the newsgroup archives nor the non-Usenet Google Groups can be accessed by a [[newsreaders|newsreader]].

== What is the difference between a web forum and Usenet? ==

* On Usenet, articles are copied from the originating site to other participating sites; web forums are hosted by one internet site. 
* Usenet groups can be accessed using a [[newsreader]]; web forums are accessed using an internet browser (Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Opera, etc.).
* The person who controls the host site for the web forum controls the forum; there is no such central administration for Usenet.

== Who's in charge of this system? ==
* Nobody.  It's decentralized.
* Everybody who uses it.  Drive carefully.  Buckle your Usenet seatbelts.
* News administrators.  They decide what newsgroups are carried on their news servers.
* Moderators of groups (if the group is moderated).
* Hierarchy administrators.  They make up lists that may or may not be carried by news administrators.  The [[b8mb|Big-Eight Management Board]] is an example of hierarchy administration, except that the Board has [[Checkgroups|eight lists]] to think about.

== What is the Big-8? ==

* It is a consortium of eight [[usenet|Usenet]] hierarchies.  The eight lists are all managed by [[b8mb|Usenet Big-8 Management Board]].

{| {{Prettytable}}
|-
!align="right"|comp.*
|Computer topics, both hardware and software. 
|-
!align="right"|news.*
|Administration of the Big 8, as well as about Usenet and Netnews in general, and related topics. 
|-
!align="right"|sci.*
|Science and technology. 
|-
!align="right"|humanities.*
|The humanities. 
|-
!align="right"|rec.*
|Recreational topics, including music, sports, games, outdoor recreation, hobbies, crafts, ... 
|-
!align="right"|soc.*
|Socializing, society, and social issues. 
|-
!align="right"|talk.*
|Endless discussion, largely about politics. 
|-
!align="right"|misc.*
|A mixture of newsgroups that don't fit the other 7 hierarchies.  Many are about the practical aspects of everyday life. 
|}
* For more information, see the [[big-8|history of the Big-8]].

== What is a mail-to-news gateway? ==

* It is a site that translates news into mail and (sometimes) mail into news.
* If it is uni-directional, the translation only goes in one direction.  People can read input from one source but not respond to it.
* If it is bi-directional, the translation goes in both directions.  Users receive all input both from the mailing list and the newsgroup and may reply to any post/e-mail by using e-mail or a newsreader.
* [[Gateways|Links to mail-to-news gateways]].

== Other questions ==
=== Why can't I see newsgroup XYZ? ===
Check with your Usenet provider. They should have a list of all newsgroups that they provide. Some local groups may not be available from all providers and some providers provide groups that others don't.

=== Why can't I see posts that other people see? ===
Check to see if you haven't created a filter to ignore or delete them.

=== Why can't I see my posts? ===
If you post to a moderated group, it may take time for that message to be approved and added to the group.

=== How do I post pictures to the newsgroup? ===
If it is absolutely necessary to share a picture, a best practice would be to link to a picture on a service like imgur.com. Most newsgroups in the Big-8 hierarchies do no allow anything except text (with a very few exceptions). 

=== What is HTML and why don't people like it in on Usenet? ===
HTML is that code that looks like <nowiki><h>hello world</h></nowiki>. It makes your message hard to read. It's best to just use plain text.

=== Can't somebody get rid of all that spam and trolls? ===
Because Usenet is de-centralized, it is up to you to filter out any kind of content that you don't like. See our tutorial: [[Filtering_Spam_with_Thunderbird | Filtering Spam with Thunderbird]]

=== How do I post a message to every newsgroup in the world? ===
Don't. It's a good way to get banned by your provider.

=== How do I keep from seeing content that I don't like? ===
Don't subscribe to groups with that content and filter any content that happens in groups that you are subscribed to?

=== How can I post pictures to a newsgroup? ===
Find an alt.binaries newsgroup where your pictures will be on-topic and post them there. 

=== Is everybody as sarcastic and short-tempered as you are? ===
No, I'm super chill and level headed. I don't know what you're talking about.

== Other Websites ==
{| {{Prettytable}}
|-
|colspan="2"|[https://web.archive.org/web/20160821073815/http://www.dickgaughan.co.uk/usenet/guide/index.html The Absolute Beginner's Guide to Usenet] 
|-
|colspan="2"|[[Getting_Started_with_Usenet|Getting Started with Usenet]] 
|-
|colspan="2"|[http://www.catb.org/%7Eesr/faqs/smart-questions.html How to Ask Quesions the Smart Way] 
|-
|colspan="2"|[http://slash7.com/2006/12/22/vampires/ Help Vampires: A Spotter’s Guide] 
|-
|colspan="2"|[http://computer.howstuffworks.com/newsgroup.htm How Newsgroups Work] 
|-
|colspan="2"|[http://www.faqs.org/faqs/ Internet FAQ Archives] 
|-
|colspan="2"|[ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.announce.newusers/Introduction_to_the_*.answers_newsgroups Introduction to the *.answers newsgroups]
|-
|colspan="2"|[http://www.newsgruppen.de/nnqlinks.html news.newusers.questions Links Page] 
|-
|colspan="2"|[ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.announce.newusers/  MIT news.announce.newusers archive]
|-
|colspan="2"|[http://www.newsreaders.com/guide/netiquette.html Newsreaders.com Introduction to Netiquette] 
|-
|colspan="2"|[http://www.newsville.com/news/usenet.faq.html Newsville FAQ on Usenet] 
|-
|colspan="2"|[[RFCs|RFC 1855: Guidelines on Netiquette (1995)]]
|-
|colspan="2"|[http://www.itc.virginia.edu/newsgroups/ University of Virginia FAQs] 
|-
|colspan="2"|[http://www.newsville.com/cgi-bin/getfaq?file=news.groups/FAQ:_User_s_Guide_to_the_Changing_USENET Stanley: User's Guide to the Changing Usenet] 
|-
|colspan="2"|[http://www.usenetsupport.com/ UsenetSupport.com (Giganews)] 
|-
|colspan="2"|[http://www.patik.com/guides/usenet Using Usenet Newsgroups] 
|
|}

== Visit Newsgroups Designed for New Newsgroup Users ==
{| {{Prettytable}}
|-
|  [news:news.announce.newusers news:news.announce.newusers]<br /> [http://groups.google.com/group/news.announce.newusers?hl=en Google news.announce.newusers]
|Explanatory postings for new users. (Moderated) 
|-
|  [news:news.answers news:news.answers]<br /> [http://groups.google.com/group/news.answers?hl=en Google news.answers]
|Repository for periodic USENET articles. (Moderated) 
|-
|  [news:news.groups.questions news:news.groups.questions]<br /> [http://groups.google.com/group/news.groups.questions?hl=en Google news.groups.questions]
|Where can I find talk about topic X? 
|-
|  [news:news.groups.reviews news:news.groups.reviews]<br /> [http://groups.google.com/group/news.groups.reviews?hl=en Google link to news.groups.reviews]
|What is going on in group or mailing list named X? (Moderated) 
|-
|  [news:news.lists.misc news:news:news.lists.misc]<br /> [http://groups.google.com/group/news.lists.misc?hl=en Google news.lists.misc]
|News-related statistics and lists. (Moderated) 
|-
|  [news:news.misc news:news.misc]<br /> [http://groups.google.com/group/news.misc?hl=en Google news.misc]
|Discussions of USENET itself. 
|-
|  [news:news.newusers.questions news:news.newusers.questions]<br /> [http://groups.google.com/group/news.newusers.questions?hl=en Google news.newusers.questions]
|Q & A for new users of Usenet. (Moderated)<br /> [http://www.anta.net/misc/nnq/ Official n.n.q. homepage] 
|-
|  [news:news.software.readers news:news.software.readers]<br /> [http://groups.google.com/group/news.software.readers/topics?hl=en Google news.software.readers]
|news.software readers--GARN, Amigo! 
|-
!colspan="2"|Whatever You Do, Don't Visit This Newsgroup Unprepared :-O 
|-
|[news:news.groups news:news.groups] can be a little hard on newcomers.  Proceed with caution!
| 
|-
|Read Google's [http://groups.google.com/group/news.groups?hl=en news.groups archive] to see what I mean.
| 
|-
|}

[[Category:FAQs]]
[[Category:Help for new Usenet users]]