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Usenet newsgroups are a global system for sharing views and information on a tremendous variety of topics. Each topic has its own newsgroup. There are more than 30,000 newsgroups currently available through Cornell's network news server. Contents
How Do Usenet and News Readers Relate to One Another?Usenet news (or just "Usenet" or "the news" for short) is an enormous worldwide distributed electronic bulletin board system. Anyone on the Internet can post articles to Usenet, and anyone on the Internet can read articles and post replies. You use it with news reader programs available through Bear Access. Usenet is organized as a system of several thousand separate "newsgroups" (or just "groups" for short). Each group is devoted to a single topic. The topics range from recreation groups like alt.archery to technical groups like comp.protocols.kerberos. To post and read news articles, you use a news reader application, such as Thunderbird. This applicaiton is available at Cornell through Bear Access, and is discussed in a separate Web page. More about Usenet NewsUsenet news is a method for exchanging information among people using networked computers. This method is older than the Internet but is still widely used. Within each newsgroup are articles, or postings. These come from around the world. Some are formal and written by paid reporters, or posted only with the approval of a moderator, in what is known as a moderated newsgroup. (All postings are mailed to the group's moderator who then posts them individually or creates a digest of all the articles.) But the majority of the articles, by far, are informal and written by people who have some expertise or even just some interest in the newsgroup topic. The rate at which new postings are seen in newsgroups is known as traffic. Some newsgroups receive a new posting only once a month or so, others more than 300 each day. Many newsgroups receive from 5 to 50 postings each day. Each posting has a subject, which distinguishes it from other subjects within the same newsgroup. Usenet is an important communications tool at Cornell. A number of course use it. See newsgroups in the cornell.class hierarchy. You may also want to become familiar with cornell.marketplace, a resource for buying and selling everything from used cars to sleeping bags. Even if you never post an article, you may wish to read and explore Usenet news as an information resource for academic and scholarly work. If you are interested in posting, it is a smart idea to spend a little time browsing through newsgroups to get a sense of the Usenet culture. Spend a few days reading the postings to become familiar with the types of questions, issues, and topics discussed in the group. Also, if a group FAQ exists, read it before posting. Of course, you don't need to post to get a lot of mileage out of Usenet--reading newsgroups of interest to you may be enough involvement for you. If you decide to post and you would like more information about expected Usenet behavior, see Newsgroup "Netiquette". More about NewsgroupsUsenet newsgroups are varied in topic and scope, and are certainly not limited to discussions about computers. Like any other network service, the best way to become familiar with news is by exploration. Similar topics are arranged into newsgroups (also called groups). Examples of newsgroups are:
The newsgroup "comp.sys.ibm.pc.games," for example, contains discussion which is different than that in comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.cd-rom, or in comp.sys.mac.games.action. The news server at Cornell that you are connected to --newsstand.cit.cornell.edu --contains more than 30,000 such newsgroups. Deciphering Newsgroup NamesSince it would be difficult, to say the least, to find a specific topic in a list of over 30,000 newsgroups clumped together, Usenet has adopted a hierarchical structure. The newsgroups are read left-to-right, with each word separated by periods ("dots"). The left-most word is the broadest category. For example, look at the newsgroup name cornell.course.eval. This newsgroup has to do most generally with Cornell ("cornell"). It concerns courses at Cornell ("course"), specifically evaluations of those courses ("eval"). A * in a group name indicates that several subgroups exist below the named level. For example, if someone recommends that you check out rec.food.* it means there is more than one group which might be useful to you, such as rec.food.recipes, rec.food.veg, or rec.food.restaurants (to name only a few). What Is Discussed in Each Hierarchy?Hierarchies are the major categories under which newsgroups are organized. For example "rec" contains groups oriented towards hobbies and recreational activities. The "comp" hierarchy includes discussions about anything concerning computers. Given Usenet's readership, this is the largest (formal) hierarchy in Usenet. The topics range from technical discussions of protocol standards (comp.protocols.*), to discussions of censorship and restricted access to the networks (comp.admin.policy). The "sci" hierarchy contains discussions about scientific research. The fields included are both technical and non-technical, from sci.physics.fusion to sci.classics. The "soc" groups concern society. The largest set of groups in "soc" is the soc.culture.* sub-hierarchy. It contains groups about different cultures and ethnic groups, groups that focus on general societal issues, and often news clippings as well. The "news" hierarchy covers topics relevant to news software and the Usenet community. Some newsgroups of note include news.announce.newusers (where you can get general information about Usenet and news.answers (which keeps lists of Frequently Asked Questions [FAQs] for specific newsgroups and hierarchies). The "misc" hierarchy has many topics which do not quite fit into the other groups. An example is misc.forsale, which is something like an electronic auction for buyers and sellers (often responded to via electronic mail). Note that it is not meant for commercial purposes, but only for private transactions. The "alt" (alternative) groups differ from the other Usenet groups. They are less regulated than groups in other hierarchies and, in fact, they are not governed by the same set of guidelines. A few of the "alt" groups have always been the most popular and often controversial groups on network news. "Cornell" and Other Special GroupsIn addition, there are many groups which are of regional interest. Cornell has its own "cornell.*" hierarchy, which contains information on local sports, lectures, and course evaluations. These groups are generally not available outside Cornell. You can also find regional groups from other universities and many different countries. Some of the groups are in other languages (sometimes not readable from ASCII terminals). For example "fj.*" is the newsgroup hierarchy for the country of Japan--in Kanji. Some companies run news servers with groups relevant to their business (e.g. Netscape, Microsoft, Symantec). News reader programs must be pointed to the company's server to read these groups. Avoiding SpamAs a newsgroup participant you should be aware that posting makes you susceptible to "spam", unsolicited commercial e-mail. When you post to a newsgroup, your e-mail address is in the posting’s header. Anyone who monitors a newsgroup can capture your e-mail address and start sending you unwanted, commercial e-mail. This is often referred to as spamming. To avoid receiving this kind of e-mail and still participate in newsgroup discussions, you can change your return e-mail address. For example, try netid@nospam.edu. If you elect this approach, netiquette requires that you put your real e-mail address in your signature so that individuals who really want to reach you still can. Alternatively, you can put your real address in a special header. Some people maintain separate e-mail accounts just for newsgroup use, so that any spam goes to it. Free e-mail accounts are offered by a number of companies and organizations; you can easily find a provider by entering the words free e-mail in your favorite Web search engine. Sometimes spam mail goes directly to a newsgroup instead of to individuals
who participate in newsgroups. If you see the same message from a commercial
source in many newsgroups, you can assume it is spam mail. Respecting Copyrights on MusicThe unauthorized duplication and distribution of sound recordings is
copyright infringement. Online piracy is increasing as many people use the
Internet to illegally distribute digital audio files (e.g. MP3 format).
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) monitors the Internet
daily and scans for sites that contain music. If you reproduce or offer
full-length sound recordings for download without the authorization of the
copyright owner, you are in violation of federal copyright law and could
face civil as well as criminal penalties. Shorter versions may also violate
the law. Placing statements on your web site, such as "for demo purposes
only" or that the sound files must be "deleted within 24 hours"
does not prevent or extinguish this liability. Complaints about copyright
infringement are referred to the Cornell Judicial Administrator. The Copyright
Infringement section of the Information Technologies Rights and Responsibilities
page offers more details.
Questions about news readers:
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