Page 20 - CA_165_V2.0_Flipbook
P. 20
Newsgroup
A newsgroup refers to a forum on the Internet where people share ideas about topics of mutual interest.
The topics of interest may be from areas like politics, technology, sports, etc. Newsgroups, which are
also referred to as ‘Usenet’, are international discussion groups that focus on some topics and help in
gathering information from the Internet.
The information or articles that make up the ‘news’ are written by people interested in a specific topic.
Such articles are posted to the newsgroup so that others can read, reply or comment on them.
Most newsgroups exist on the network of ‘Usenet’ which contains thousands of newsgroups. NNTP
(Network News Transfer Protocol) servers manage the network of Newsgroups.
Each ‘Usenet’ is run by a server system called a ‘News Server’. The one who manages the system is called
the news administrator. Any client can send a news article to the news administrator which is kept for a
period of two days to two weeks. The news server regularly checks the articles and deletes the old ones.
Newsgroups can be broadly categorised into two types: moderated and unmoderated. A moderated
newsgroup will not allow individuals to post messages directly to the newsgroup while an unmoderated
newsgroup will allow members to post a message directly to a newsgroup for other members to read and
respond. There is no need to subscribe any particular newsgroup.
Some terms that are used in ‘Newsgroup’ are:
Thread: It refers to a series of articles on the same subject.
Post: Message in a newsgroup is called an article or a post, though normally we refer to them as news
or message.
Lurking: It means hanging around a newsgroup (especially if there is a new member of the group) to
see what is being discussed.
Flaming: It refers to sending nasty messages to people in the group.
Poster: It refers to the person who posts articles to the group.
The table shows some categories of ‘Newsgroup’ and their topics:
Main Category Topics Sample Newsgroup Name
biz.marketplace
Biz Business
Biz.enterpreneurs
comp.graphics
Comp Computers comp.Internet
comp.language.c++
rec.sport.football
Rec Recreation
rec.photo.digital
sci.bio.botany
Sci Science
sci.med.midwifery
soc.culture.hawai
Soc Social issues
soc.geneology
talk.bizarre
Talk Debates and opinions
talk.politics
18 Touchpad Computer Applications-X

