If you have just taken up an interest in the USENET system, you'll want to learn a bit about how you keep yourself safe on the system. The easiest way to keep yourself safe is to stick to the newsgroups that have characteristics that make them both safer and more interesting places to be.
The Big 8
The Big 8 hierarchies encompass those that are most likely to include the groups that have the broadest appeal and that have the most substance. The Big 8 hierarchies have specific criteria for membership, so not just any newsgroup can become a member of them. The hierarchies are as follows:
- comp. For computers
- humanities. For humanities
- misc. For miscellany
- rec. For recreation
- sci. For science
- talk. For talk about just about any subject
- news. For newsgroup-related discussions
- alt. Has fewer rules and restrictions and far more groups than the other
The first seven hierarchies listed constitute the oldest. The alt category was added later on. The alt category is actually somewhat notorious for having a lot of spam groups in it. It's much easier to get into this category than it is to the other categories, though there are some good newsgroups within it. Be more selective when you are looking for newsgroups within the alt category.
The first seven hierarchies listed are the ones in which you're most likely to find moderated newsgroups. Moderated newsgroups are usually the best choices out there. In a moderated newsgroup, somebody who is being a troll, a distraction or who is simply consistently off-topic can be removed from the newsgroup altogether by moderators. This ensures that people who visit the newsgroup for legitimate purposes don't have to waste their time reading materials that have nothing to do with the topics being discussed. It also reduces problems with inappropriate content in the newsgroups.
It's easy to join and quit - subscribe and unsubscribe, in USENET parlance - from any given newsgroup. This is why you might want to give newsgroups a chance for a while before you decide whether or not you want to belong to them. You may want to, for example, to join a few newsgroups in the alt category that seem to be about topics in which you have an interest and give them a few days to see if any interesting articles are posted. If you consistently see spam and other materials you simply do not want to read you can just unsubscribe from the newsgroup and be done with it.
In most cases, the first seven newsgroups will have participants who are very knowledgeable about the topic being discussed. If you have a very technical question to ask about science, computers or any of the other topics discussed in these newsgroups, USENET is a great place to do it. You're likely to get a very knowledgeable answer from some of these participants and, because of that, the USENET system has remained consistently popular and the Big 8 hierarchies have remained consistently high quality destinations for entertainment and information alike.
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