Rediscovering USENET

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USENET has been around since the early 1980s. In a lot of ways, it represents the original idea behind the Internet more than the Internet of today does. This system has never gone away and still has a dedicated user base that prefers the simple and fast communication that one can engage in over the USENET compared to the Internet with all its bells and whistles.

Why USENET is Still Relevant

The Internet and the technologies related to it were originally devised as means of communicating quickly, cheaply and within a network that had a natural resilience to it. The concept of decentralization is vital to both USENET and the Internet. The USENET comprises servers all over the world that carry articles from other servers and so on. This creates a vast web-the use of the term is just as appropriate for the USENET as it is for the Internet-of information that propagates very quickly. While the technology that makes this happen is a bit different than the Internet you have become used to, it's still compelling and very good at what it does.

Just the Facts

The USENET is a text-based communication system. You can share files of just about any kind over the system, however. For those how haven't used USENET newsgroups before, they'll look a bit like emails. The newsgroups are, by and large, written forms where people exchange ideas. There aren't any advertisements flashing on the margins of your screen, there are no stealth downloads going on when you're on the pages and there are no noisy Flash ads to deal with. USENET tends to have more substantial conversations because of this format, in many cases.

The USENET never went out of style, but it would benefit from some rediscovery on the part of a lot of people. The system is great for socializing. There are some great conversations going on in the most populous newsgroups and, if you're interested in being a participant, you might want to consider getting a subscription to the USENET.

The USENET of today is largely a subscription service, in fact. ISPs used to offer this service with their Internet service but those days are mostly gone. If you're interested in using the USENET and seeing for yourself why it's still popular after all these years, a subscription with one of the many online services will allow you to do just that and to participate in some of the best conversations you'll find anywhere!

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Is USENET Too Technical for Me?

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Not everyone is comfortable using new technologies. In fact, for some people, finding where they get on the Internet on their computer is still something of an accomplishment. The USENET system sometimes gets passed by because it seems very technical in some regards. It's not. If you understand the following, you can understand the USENET system.

It's Different from the Internet

This is the first thing people usually want to know. The USENET is a different system than the Internet. The USENET is carried over news servers that are dedicated to newsgroups. It's an older system and has been in use since the 1980s. It's also a very well organized system and the names assigned to newsgroups are more reliably accurate compared to their content than are the web addresses used by Internet sites, in many cases.

It's Text-Based

When you look at a USENET article, you're just going to be reading text. It's not like the Internet in that it's not a multimedia technology. It can be used to exchange multimedia files, however. You can upload pictures and other materials to the USENET and share them with your friends if you want. It's not uncommon to see people sharing images on photography groups, for instance. You can also give links to material on the Internet, so there is more than one way to share multimedia files.

The Feel is Different

Your average USENET user probably is a bit more tech savvy than your average Internet-only user. This system has been around for a long time and, because of that, still have a lot of people who remember it when it was new on it. This makes it a great place for actual expert advice on technical subjects, which differs it from a lot of the Internet forums out there. On the USENET, you're not going to get half an answer to your question and a pitch to subscribe to another service after it, for instance.

The USENET is definitely its own place and it's one that many Internet users may enjoy exploring. If you're interested in getting a different perspective on communicating over the Internet, the USENET system may provide you with a lot of enjoyable learning experiences. None of them is likely to be too difficult and, really, there's nothing simpler than text-based communication. The USENET is usable by anyone who can operate email or a web browser.

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USENET for Regional Users

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The Internet is rightly lauded for having made communication between far flung lands possible, but it sometimes has another, less useful, effect. It's sometimes hard to find regional information on the Internet. Because the system naturally brings people closer, it sometimes seems like people are really from nowhere at all and there is little information relevant to particular areas. The USENET still has regional servers.

The System

USENET is very similar to the Internet in some ways and radically different in others. On the Internet, you access an Internet forum by sending a request to your ISP, which then routes you to the right server. On the USENET, your news server may or may not carry any groups that the administrator chooses. This means that servers do tend to have regional groups and that they're not always accessible from everywhere. Other servers in different regions, quite simply, have no use for those groups.

The regional USENET groups did used to be more active than they are today. There is still some great information on them, however, and there are people who still follow the USENET system very closely and use it as one of their favorite ways of communicating online. If you need local information, you may find the USENET very useful for that purposes.

Understanding the Differences

The Internet and USENET do function very differently. On your USENET service, you use a news browser, which is a dedicated piece of software that allows you to subscribe to newsgroups, from which you download articles. Your USENET provider will have information regarding how you do this on your particular system.

The USENET system is text-based, so communication tends to be to the point and fast. You'll find that the people on local newsgroups will likely welcome new members and that getting questions answered won't be an issue.

Remember that there are local newsgroups for cities around the world. If you have a USENET service provider that carries them, you may want to subscribe to get city information for a trip or just to get an idea of what the place is like. Subscribing and unsubscribing is a very easy process and takes no more than a few seconds.

The USENET might be able to give you information about a part of the world in which you're interested from a very different perspective than you'd get from the Internet at large. Regional newsgroups are still alive and well!

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Avoiding a Dust-Up on USENET

All the etiquette information in the world sometimes won't help you to avoid getting into a spat on the USENET system. There are some people out there who believe that USENET exists to start fights and, if you don't stay frosty when you run into them, you might run into problems.

The USENET system is one of the oldest social networking systems in existence. It's not social networking in the sense that most people understand it today. In fact, it has more in common with an Internet forum than it does with a social networking site. What it does have in common with social networking sites is that long conversations sometimes result from a particular article that somebody posts to the newsgroup. In some cases, these conversations get downright nasty when two people forget how to disagree like adults. You can avoid this and, if you do avoid it, you'll be a much more popular person to have in the newsgroup.

The Troll

When someone decides to control one of your posts, there are a few things you should look for to make certain that they're not making a legitimate criticism. Consider the following:

- Are they launching personal attacks?

- Are they on-topic or off?

- Are they using an unnecessarily condescending tone?

If the poster who replied to your article or your comment on an article is off-topic, attacking you personally or adopting a particularly condescending tone, they are probably trolling you. If they are, the most important thing to remember is that feeding the trolls is a big no-no on the USENET system. You should always let trolls go and not engage them at all. Eventually, they'll get bored and go away.

There are some people out there who aren't necessarily trolling you but who do have a very condescending tone when they reply to just about anything they read on the USENET system. The first thing to remember about this is that human beings naturally ascribe a more hostile tone to anything they read. Consider how many times you've gotten an e-mail from somebody and thought they were either mad at or making fun of you and how many times that neither turned out to be the case. Be certain you're not reading someone's post to mean something that the person had no intention of conveying.

You may very well just elect not to reply to a poster who has offended you. In fact, that's usually the best way to go about it. If somebody really is just condescending to everybody they interact with on USENET, they're likely looking for validation for their knowledge about whatever subjects they comment on. The best way to make them get lost is not to give them that validation and that means not replying to what they say at all. Think of them like a child who is being rude to try to get attention. If they just happen to have a sort of condescending way of writing, give them the benefit of the doubt. They may have come across as nastier than they meant to, but they really may be just trying to participate in the conversation.

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The Safest Places on USENET

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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