How the heck do Usenet groups work? I figured out something about putting alt.fan.cecil-adams on email, but it just looks like I’m downloading other peoples email! Help!
Usenet (aka newsgroups) is an internet service which shares the internet with the world wide web, email, ftp, gopher (anyone remember gopher??), telnet, and so on.
It is divided up conceptually into folders and subfolders. The “soc” folder and the “alt” folder contain huge subfolders full of folders of their own. The dots correspond to Macintosh colons or MicrosoftOS backslashes, so alt.fan.cecil-adams. is conceptually equivalent to U:\alt\fan\cecil-adams if you are a PC user, or UsenetDisk:alt:fan:cecil-adams for a Mac user.
Reading them is a lot like reading this message board. Posting to them conventionally gives you the option of emailing the person to whom you are replying as well as posting your response to the usenet group.
Just as in here, (particularly in Great Debates and BBQ Pit), you’ll find a small handful of people directly addressing each other although their postings are public and can be read by anyone.
Usenet was spam heaven a couple years back, but seems to have recovered as the potential audience died (only the hardcore usenet community outlasted the spam); still, you will probably not want to have your real email address (the one you use in real life) associated with usenet postings, lest it get harvested and you get inundated with email spam shortly after you first post.
Disable Similes in this Post