Let's Talk Newsgroups - An electronic bulletin board where items can be posted and responded to by E-mail is called a newsgroup. This is a place where people with similar interests can converse. You should have access to about 12,00 newsgroups depending on your Internet Service Provider.
- The international newsgroup network called USENET is similar to the Internet. The system connects computers from all over the globe. The newsgroups selected to be displayed are done by the system administrator and no particular agency is in charge.
- How do you find a newsgroup? Netscape and Internet Explorer both have news readers built into their browsers. When you open your Netscape browser window, go to select: Show all Newsgroups. This is where you will find all the newsgroups that are available by your Internet Service Provider. The newsgroups will be listed on the left hand side of your screen, simply click on what topic your interested in and view the messages.
- The type of information being discussed in the newsgroup is called Newsgroup Names. The appearance of a newsgroup name will have two or more words, separated by periods.
- Newsgroups contain articles containing messages posted by individuals. The articles can vary in length, depending on the topic or the individual.
- An article and questions or responses to an article is called a Thread.
- You will notice that the articles include information about who wrote the message, the subject, and the date it was written. Newsgroup articles are usually sorted by date.
- You may subscribe and unsubscribe to a newsgroup at any time.
Newsgroups and e-mail can be informative and interesting, however there are some rules you should follow when sending and replying to messages. This is what they call Netiquette, short for Internet Etiquette.
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