Date Published: 2000-10-04
Written by Shery Ma Belle Arrieta
USENET is a world wide distributed discussion
system that is organized like the classified ads
found at the back of newspapers. Within USENET
you will read articles that are organized under
categories. Each article is created by an individual
or company that has something to say. While USENET
is a world wide discussion forum, it was not created
to be an advertisement medium.
USENET is a lot like the Internet: It is not exclusively
owned by one person or group. Rather, it is a collection
of computers all over the world sharing information
electronically. When you post an article on USENET,
it circulates around the world. After a time it 'expires'
and is then removed from circulation. While it is circulating,
anyone can read your article and respond to it. Responses
may take the form of a follow-up article or an e-mail sent
to you. Articles usually contain only text but may also
contain programs, pictures, documents, or any other type
of computer file.
The people in USENET are able to exchange articles
when they are with one or more universally recognized
labels called "newsgroups" (or "groups") for short. As
of September 1998, USENET is made up of about 40,000
different categories of articles. They range over every
imaginable topic - sports, employment opportunities,
computer software, TV shows, hobbies, international
news, trade information, politics, personals, and much
more. As diverse as the topics are, USENET also
encompasses government agencies, high schools,
businesses of all sizes, home computers and a lot more.
To be able to participate in USENET newsgroups, you
should have a screen-oriented news interface called a
newsreader. A newsreader is somewhat similar to an
e-mail client. There are a number of newsreaders available
such as FreeAgent and Microsoft News. You should also
ask your ISP for the details of your specific setup. Although
newsreaders may differ, there are still some standard
features are common to most newsreaders that provide
the capability to read, reply to, discard, post and process
articles based on user-definable patterns.
Some newsreaders also provide the capability of blocking
(or killing) the newsgroup postings by topic or poster (the
person doing the posting). This feature is very helpful when
dealing with undesirable article topics or certain individuals
that the reader finds offensive in some way.
Seven broad classifications of newsgroups are generally
circulating around the entire USENET. Each of these broad
categories is further organized into groups and subgroups
according to topics. The seven major categories are the
Aside from the seven official categories, USENET may
distribute many other Internet newsgroups that may be
of local or regional interest. Here are some of the
comp - These groups discuss topics in computer science,
software sources, information on hardware and software
systems, and other topics of interest to both computer
professionals and hobbyists. Included in this category
are groups like comp.protocols.tcp-ip, which deals with
Internet protocols, and comp.infosystems.wais, which
discusses the Wide Area Information Server.
misc - These groups address hard-to-classify topics.
Here is where groups that feature themes on multiple
categories. The newsgroup misc.fitness (fitness),
misc.job.offered (job-hunting), misc.legal (law), and
misc.invest.real-estate (investments) belong in this category.
news - These groups are discussions about news network,
group maintenance, and accompanying software. New users
can get helpful hints from the group news.newusers.questions.
rec - This category includes groups discussing arts,
hobbies, and recreational activities such as sports. The
group rec.art.theatre discusses all aspects of stage work
while the group rec.sport.golf talks about all aspects of golf.
sci - The focus of these groups are discussions that
relate to research in or applications of the established
soc - These groups are concerned with social issues and
socializing. Some discussions in these groups relate to
world cultures. The soc.culture.brazil discusses the people
of Brazil, while soc.women discusses issues relating to women.
talk - Here is the category where on-going debates and
open-ended discussions on many inflammatory topics such
as politics (talk.politics.drugs) or controversial topics
(talk.abortion) could be found.
alt - This category comprises of alternative newsgroups
that focus on a wide variety of topics.
bionet - Topics found in this category are generally
aimed for biologists.
bit - The Bitnet LISTSERV mailing lists are redistributed
through these newsgroups.
biz - These newsgroups are concerned with business
and computer products or services.
ClariNet - These newsgroups are obtained from
commercial news services and other official sources.
A site must pay a license fee in order to receive this
ieee - The Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers distributes these newsgroups to any site
that wants to carry them.
inet/ddn - This is another alternative or miscellaneous
category which consists of Internet discussion lists.
You can read more about USENET and the rules governing
its usage in a number of sites on the Internet. But below
are just some of the most important rules that will help you
to participate in USENET more effectively and efficiently
and make your participation worth the effort to read, post
Never forget that the person on the other side is human.
On the Net you don't talk face-to-face with others, so you
easily forget that you are talking to a person not a robot.
In cases like these, choose the words that you will use.
Never scream, curse or abuse others because it would
just make others think you're less of a person than you
are. Remember the Golden Rule: Do not do unto others
what you do not want others do unto you.
Don't blame the system administrators for their users'
behavior. If ever you find it necessary to write a system
administrator concerning his or her site, be polite. Be
courteous and civil, it would do you a whole lot good
than letting your steamed feelings turn to a boiling one.
Besides, it might not be his or her fault.
Never assume that a person is speaking for their
organization. Most people who post to Usenet either
post using the computers at their office or schools.
Unless the person says so, don't assume that the
articles he posts are from his organization's viewpoint.
A good way for these people is to put disclaimers at
the bottom of their posts.
Watch your words. Whatever you post in a newsgroup,
it's read by more than a million others. Your boss, your
friend's boss, your boyfriend's cousin's best friend or
your dad's beer buddy might be in the newsgroup you're
in. So think twice before posting personal information
about you or other people you know.
Be brief. If you can say it in 10 or fewer words, then
say it. Being succinct will give you post a greater impact
and more people will read it.
Your posts reflect who you are. You are known by other
people in Usenet by what you write and how well you write.
So make sure that each posting you make will not embarrass
you later. Check for pellings and well-structured and thought
Be careful with humor and sarcasm. You think what you've
written was funny but once read by others, some of them
might find it offensive or not funny at all. The absence of
voice inflections and emotions on the Net pose such
limitations. So you may want to make sure that you are
trying to be funny whenever that is the case. A way to do
this is by using smileys or emoticons (e.g. :-), ;-), etc.).
Put descriptive subject headers. The subject line of an
article enables a person with a limited amount of time to
decide whether or not to read your article so as much as
possible, be descriptive.
Think about your audience. Think about the people you
are trying to reach when you post an article. Post your
messages or questions in the most appropriate audience,
not the widest. Also, be familiar with the group you are
posting to before you post. Do not post to groups you do
not read, or to those you've only read a few articles from.
Chances are, you may not be familiar with the on-going
conventions and themes of the group. Try to listen first
(or "lurk") and then join once you have something pertinent
Rotate messages with questionable content. There are
newsgroups which have messages in them that some people
find offensive. Unless requested, these messages should
be encrypted to make sure that the messages are not read.
One way to encrypt messages is to use the standard
encryption method of rotating each letter by thirteen
characters (an "a" becomes and "n"). On Usenet, this
method is known as "rot13" and should be put in the
subject line. However, to make things easier and less
tedious, most software used to read Usenet articles
have ways of encrypting and decrypting messages. You
can use this method.
Avoid joining spelling flames. Spelling flames are a
usual occurrence in Usenet. It starts out with when
someone posts an article correcting the spelling and/or
grammar of a particular article. It gets to be like a fire:
the immediate result is everyone will be correcting
spellings and grammar like an English teacher and
this is more likely to go on for a few weeks. Aside
from being an unproductive thing to do, spelling flames
tend to cause people who used to be friends to be angry
with each other. Spelling flames could be avoided by
remembering that people make mistakes, and that a lot
of Net users use English as a second language so they
are vulnerable to some spelling and grammatical errors.
There are also people who are dyslexic to they have
difficulty noticing their mistakes. However, if a comment
should be made on the quality of another person's posting,
it can be done by sending the comments directly to the
person's e-mail address and not to the Usenet address.
Don't post a follow-up. Usually when someone asks a
question in a newsgroup, many people send out identical
answers. When this happens, dozens of identical answers
pour through the net. It is best to send replies to questions
that tend to generate numerous identical response to the
e-mail address of the person who asked the question.
Likewise, a person who posts a question in a newsgroup
should mention that replies be sent to his personal address
instead of to the Usenet and that once he gets responses,
he will post a summary of all the responses for the people
in the newsgroup to see.
Read follow-ups and don't repeat what has already
been said. Before submitting your follow-up or reply to
a message, first read the rest of the postings in the
newsgroup to see if someone has already said what
you want to say. Don't repeat when someone has
already beat you to it.
Summarize the article you are following up. When
responding or following up someone's article, summarize
the parts of the article you are responding to. This will
help the other people in your newsgroup to appreciate
your comments rather than trying to remember what the
original article said. Include appropriate quotes from the
original article but do not include the entire article. Aside
from using up a lot of bandwidth, doing so will most likely
irritate the others who have already read the article. If
you are responding to an entire article, summarize only
the major points you are discussing.
Be careful about copyrights and licenses. Once something
is posted on Usenet, it is probably in the public domain unless
you own the appropriate rights and you post it with a valid
copyright notice. When you post a material in a newsgroup,
you should be aware of certain rules and not violate those.
Posting movie reviews, song lyrics, or anything else published
under a copyright constitutes a violation of the copyright laws.
Cite your references. Always state where your facts
came from if you use them to support a cause. Do not take
someone else's ideas and take them as your own.
Don't use Usenet as a resource for homework assignments.
Usenet is not a resource for homework or class assignments.
Most new users view discussions in newsgroups as a resource
for getting information they can use for school reports and
term papers. If you post questionnaires, you're automatically
branded as a newbie and you're most likely to get a very tiny
number of responses.
Don't overdo signatures. Keep your signatures short.
Never make your signature longer than your posts. Your
signature should help people locate you in case they want
to contact you in the future. It is not used to narrate
your life story. Your signature should at least contain
the following: your return address, your web site (if you
have one), and phone number (if you have a business).
© 1998, 1999, 2000 by Shery Ma Belle Arrieta.
Shery Ma Belle Arrieta is a freelance writer.
She publishes three ezines and online magazines:
Sites, Biz and Zines!,
WIRED! Philippines, and
She provides content for WebMarketingSpecialists.com, an
online company that specializes on search engine ranking.
She also provides web design and copywriting/editing services
through the Write Page
Web Design and Copyediting Services.