Chapter 3: Usenet (2 of 5) -- Newsgroups

     The basic building block of Usenet is the newsgroup, which is a
collection of messages with a related theme (on other networks, these
would be called conferences, forums, bboards or special-interest
groups).
     There are now more than 4,500 of these newsgroups.  With so many
newsgroups, it can be hard finding ones of interest to you.  We'll start
off by showing you how to get into some of the more interesting or
useful newsgroups so you can get a feel for how it all works.
     Some public-access systems try to make it easier by dividing
Usenet into several broad categories.  Choose one of those and you're
given a list of newsgroups in that category.  Then select the
newsgroup you're interested in and start reading.
     Other systems let you compile your own "reading list" so that you
only see messages in conferences you want.  In both cases, conferences
are arranged in a particular hierarchy devised in the early 1980s.
Newsgroup names start with one of a series of broad topic names.  For
example, newsgroups beginning with "comp." are about particular
computer-related topics.  These broad topics are followed by a series of
more focused topics (so that "comp.unix" groups are limited to
discussion about Unix).  The main hierarchies are:

             bionet          Research biology
             bit.listserv    Conferences originating as Bitnet  mailing lists 
             biz             Business
             comp            Computers and related subjects
             misc            Discussions that don't fit anywhere else
             news            News about Usenet itself
             rec             Hobbies, games and recreation
             sci             Science other than research biology
             soc             "Social" groups, often ethnically related
             talk            Politics and related topics
             alt             Controversial or unusual topics; not
                             carried by all sites

     In addition, many host systems carry newsgroups for a particular
city, state or region.  For example, ne.housing is a newsgroup where New
Englanders look for apartments.  A growing number also carry K12
newsgroups, which are aimed at elementary and secondary teachers and
students. (See  Chapter 12  for more on education.)  And a number of
sites carry clari newsgroups, which is actually a commercial service
consisting of wire-service stories and a unique online computer news
service (more on this in  chapter 10 ).