Terms Usenet Users Should Never Forget

Feb 15
08:12

2013

Francis A. Hamer

Francis A. Hamer

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Most users are familiar with email. Email account holders receive mail in their inboxes. Many times email users segregate their email based on its nature or subject and keep it in separate folders. This way the mail is easy to track, read and use.

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Some Terminology Usenet Users Should be Familiar with

 

Most users are familiar with email. Email account holders receive mail in their inboxes. Many times email users segregate their email based on its nature or subject and keep it in separate folders. This way the mail is easy to track,Terms Usenet Users Should Never Forget Articles read and use. The messages received through email are comparable to the articles received on Usenet. The email folders are comparable to Usenet Newsgroups.

 

Usenet users access the Newsgroup they’re interested in based on its contents. Email users follow much the same routine when they open a folder on a particular subject. Users will read, write, forward, and reply to articles similar to the items contained in the Newsgroups. Other Usenet users can receive such articles and send messages or posts. There are currently more than 110,000 newsgroups available for access to Usenet users. Let’s discuss some of the relevant terms related to Newsgroups.

 

Newsgroups

 

The concept of an Newsgroup is similar to forums on the World Wide Web. Internet forums have threads and associated posts which users read according to their preferences. Usenet has discussions under Newsgroups, which bundle similar articles together. The Newsgroups follow a hierarchical organization system. The naming structure that Usenet uses is known as Newsgroup Hierarchies. Topical prefixes categorize articles into relevant Newsgroup classes. Newsgroup hierarchies are divided into eight major categories. Some of the most popular categories include:

 

-          Comp: Discussion of computer-related topics

-          News: Discussion of News

-          Sci: Discussion of scientific subjects

-          Rec: Discussion of recreational activities

-          Soc: Socializing and discussion of social issues

-          Talk: Discussion of issues such as religion and politics

-          Misc: Miscellaneous discussions not categorized under other headings

 

Articles

 

The purpose of an article in a Newsgroup is to discuss a topic or share information. The word retention is used commonly with Newsgroup articles. Retention is a term used to describe the length of time a Usenet server retains an article. Another term that pops up with articles is completion. Completion signifies the ratio of actual available articles on the server to the number of articles that should ideally be on the server.

 

Selecting a News Client

 

Selecting a news client can be an intimidating task. There are easily around 100 such clients available. To narrow the selection down, the benchmark criteria for a particular Usenet news client should be performance, price, search capability, and compatibility.

 

The most popular news clients are also the easiest to use for a newbie. Users should read the rules and regulations before getting started with posting, reading, and discussion on Usenet.