Starting to use UseNet News
Available Software
- rn, trn (UNIX): Text-based news clients, the second
organizes articles in threads.
- Nuntius (Macintosh): Well-organized news client, using
windows and threading to organize groups and articles.
- NewsWatcher (Macintosh): Another client for reading news,
allowing significant user-customization, but not quite as
user-friendly.
Basic Concepts
- Bulletin Board System, BBS: A system where user's
can post messages to a public "bulletin board", or peruse or respond
to those posted by other users. The Internet's UseNet and Confer
are popular examples of such systems.
- News Server: An Internet host that acts as a center for
distributing or accepting public messages.
- News Client: A client program that downloads such messages,
then organized them and displays them for reading.
- Newsgroup: The typical grouping of the UseNet messages,
these newsgroups are divide such articles by area of interest.
Sample newsgroups include comp.infosystems.www,
rec.games.chess, and umich.forsale.
- Moderated Newsgroup: A newsgroup where messages are often
examined before posting, typically for inappropriate content,
and may be filtered from public distribution. Most groups are
moderated in some for; the primary exception is the "alt.*"
hierarchy.
- Newsgroup Hierarchy: The organization of newsgroups into
collections, such as:
- alt: Unmoderated groups ranging from humorous to
informative to pornographic.
- comp: Moderated groups dealing with varieties
of computer discussion and information.
- rec: Recreational topics such as hobbies, games, or sports.
- umich: University-specific or Ann Arbor-related topics.
- Article: An article is a user message "posted" to a
particular newsgroup. Such a message could be an original topic,
or could be a response to a previous post.
- Cross-posting: Sending the same message to multiple groups,
typically to reach a broader audience.
- Threading: The method used by client software that keeps
articles in "thread", grouped by original post and subsequent
responses. Useful for skipping messages en masse or
identifying popular topics.
Popular Jargon
- Lurk: To read, but not contribute to, newsgroup discussions.
- Flame: A harsh response to a posted article. Also:
Flame War, Donning Asbestos, Dousing the
Flames.
- Kill File: UNIX news clients often let users filter
articles by keyword or author. A kill file is the method
that one would specify filtering parameters.
- Frequently Asked Question, FAQ: Most dedicated
newsgroups have an established level of sophistication. As
new users find this newsgroup, there are typical questions
that such a user will have. The term reflects the volume of
such messages.
- FAQ List: A collection of common questions and
the authoritative responses for a newsgroup. It is highly
recommended that you peruse such a list before posting to
a newsgroup to avoid flaming.
Connecting
The Macintosh program Nuntius is recommended for learning and using
the UseNet. When you start the program, you will be asked for an
Internet news server to receive and send articles. For SILS users,
the preferred server is news.itd.umich.edu. When the
server is contacted, your client will build a list of current
newsgroups from which you can select those that interest you.
If you frequently read certain groups, you should create a
grouplist file and drag over your selections.
Basic Use
To list the articles in a newsgroup, double-click on the name of
that group. Choosing an option from the Threads menu lets
you restrict the articles listed. Once you find a thread within
the group that you wish to read, double-click on the element.
The articles will be displayed according to the selection from
the Articles menu. Once you have read the articles and
threads of interest, you can close the group list. Given time,
more users will post articles or responses to the group, and
you can peruse new or unread articles.
If you are reading an article and wish to contribute to the
ongoing thread, select Post Follow-up article... from
the Articles menu. On the other hand, if you want
to start a new thread of discussion, go to the Threads
menu and choose Post article in new thread....
Other notes
There are several newsgroups hierachies of special interest:
- Clari Net News: Recent news articles posted by the Associated
Press (AP) and Reuters. Note: Some sites filter some or all
of the "clari.*" groups.
- UseNet News: The "news.*" newsgroups contain information
relevant to the UseNet as a whole. Typical groups describe
administrative issues,
public announcements,
and answers to new users'
questions. Finally, one newsgroup
provides a centralized location for a wide variety of
FAQ lists from other newsgroups and miscellaneous topics.
In addition, the FAQ lists to most newsgroups are archived for FTP at
MIT. Once connected, you can access
FAQ lists by finding them in listings sorted by hierarchy or by full
newsgroup name. Either way, it is useful to download the rather large
index file to
search for desired FAQ's in a listing rather than across the FTP
link.
This document was created at the University of Michigan
School of Information and Library
Studies (SILS), but it has been designed for public use. Permission is
hereby granted for unlimited print and electronic redistribution. Your
feedback is encouraged.
fprefect@umich.edu - 12/17/94