Virtual Community
USENET newsgroup
CSC1720 – Introduction to Internet
Essential Materials
Outline
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What is USENET news?
Newsgroup Naming
How does it work? NNTP?
How to search your favorite
newsgroup?
Miscellaneous Topics
Do’s and Don'ts
How to setup a USENET newsgroup?
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What is USENET news?
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Globally distributed discussion forum.
Also known as USENET News.
A collection of special interest groups, called
newsgroups.
Each newsgroup is devoted to a certain topic.
There are over 6,000 newsgroups in the news
server of CSC, CUHK.
There are over 8,088 newsgroups in the news
server of Engineering Faculty, CUHK.
Under each newsgroup, there are many
messages called news articles.
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Definitions
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News administrator – A person who is in charge of
running a news server.
News server – A computer that saves, forwards and
manages news articles. Usually, a news server is
running in one domain.
News reader – A program that allows user to
read/post/subscribe/unsubscribe a newsgroup.
Newsgroup – An on-line forum that allows users
from the Internet to join the discussion on a
specific topic.
Usenet – A collection of newsgroups
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Terminology
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Article
Post
Posting
Follow-up
Thread
Subscribe
Unsubscribe
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Newsreader
News client
Expired news
News server
Newsfeed
Way-station
NNTP
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News reader
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Tin
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Outlook Express
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News reader – Web-based
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News Server – UNIX/Win
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Mark Moraes's Explanation
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Subject: What is Usenet?
Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 09:01:25 GMT
From: netannounce@deshaw.com (Mark Moraes) Newsgroups:
news.announce.newusers, news.admin.misc, news.answers
Followup-To: news.newusers.questions
Usenet is the set of people who exchange articles tagged with one or
more universally-recognized labels, called "newsgroups" (or "groups" for
short). There is often confusion about the precise set of newsgroups that
constitute Usenet; one commonly accepted definition is that it consists of
newsgroups listed in the periodic "List of Active Newsgroups" postings
which appear regularly in news.lists and other newsgroups. A broader
definition of Usenet would include the newsgroups listed in the article
"Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies" (frequently posted to news.lists). An
even broader definition includes even newsgroups that are restricted to
specific geographic regions or organizations. Each Usenet site makes its
own decisions about the set of groups available to its users; this set
differs from site to site.
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Newsgroup Naming
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Newsgroups are organized in a hierarchical
structure.
With the broadest grouping first.
Followed by an arbitrary number of sub-groupings.
A notation you're probably familiar with:
– rec.music.folks
– cuhk.forum
– cuhk.cse.csc1720
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The name of each newsgroup is based on its
content and is self-explanatory.
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The Big Eight
comp
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Computer science and related
topics.
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comp.theory.cell-automata
comp.internet.library, etc.
news
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Groups concerned with the news
network and news software.
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news.newusers.questions
news.software.readers, etc.
rec
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Groups discussing hobbies,
recreational activities, and arts.
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rec.arts.manga, rec.arts.tv, etc.
sci
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Groups discussing scientific
research and applications (other
than computer science). and arts.
sci.aeronautics, sci.geo.meteorology, etc.
soc
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Groups that address social issues, where
social can mean politically relevant or
socializing, or anything in between.
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soc.culture.swiss, soc.women, etc.
talk
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The talk groups are a forum for debate on
controversial topics, The discussions tend
to be long-winded and unresolved. This is
where to go if you want to argue about
religion.
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talk.philosophy.humanism
talk.religion.buddhism, etc.
misc
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Anything that doesn't fit into the above
categories, or that fits into several
categories.
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misc.legal, misc.jobs.resume, etc.
humanities
Another major group?
humanities.misc, humanities.classics, etc.
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Alternate Newsgroups
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Over the years, some useful/popular local newsgroups are as
widely distributed as the core USENET groups.
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alt - Groups that discuss "alternative ways of looking at things".
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alt.gopher, alt.x-files.rpg, etc.
biz - Discussions related to business. This newsgroup hierarchy allows
postings of advertisements or other marketing materials. Such activity is not
allowed in other groups.
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fi - Technical, recreational, and social discussions in Japanese
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biz.digital.announce, biz.clarinet.webnews.sports, etc.
fj.rec.fishing, fj.soc.traffic, etc.
ieee - Discussions related to the IEEE (Institute of Electronic and Electrical
Engineers)
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ieee.announce, ieee.stds.announce, etc.
k12 - A group dedicated to teachers and students, kindergarten through high
school.
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k12.chat.elementary, k12.library, etc.
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Read Newsgroup –
Outlook Express
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Newsgroup – alt
Different news server
Different newsgroups
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Cannot access news server
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Local Newsgroups
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Your local region/organization may have newsgroups
created locally.
Though created locally, news may still be passed to other
regions/organizations if so wanted and configured.
For example, CUHK can read tw news though they are
created locally in Taiwan.
hk - Hong Kong
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tw - Tai Wan (in Big5 Chinese code)
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hk.general, hk.comp.mac, hk.comp.pc, etc.
tw.bbs.campus.nctu, tw.bbs.lang.spanish, tw.bbs.rec.movie, etc.
cuhk - You should know!
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cuhk.forum, cuhk.alumni.forum, etc.
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CSC1720 newsgroup
News server:
news.cuhk.edu.hk
csc1720 newsgroup
subscribe
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How does it work?
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You use a news reader to read news, post news, follow-up a piece
of news, etc.
Your newsreader interrogates with a news server.
A news server negotiates with other servers to transfer certain
newsgroups between each other (news feed).
A news server holds the news articles for a certain pre-set period
(controlled by the server's administrator).
 And eventually discards them at their expiry date.
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Page 155, The Whole Internet - User's Guide & Catalog, Ed Krol, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
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How does it work? (cont’)
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A news server holds the news articles for a certain pre-set
period (controlled by the server's administrator).
And eventually discards them at their expiry date.
In CSC, CUHK,
– 30 days for local newsgroups, i.e. hk and cuhk
– 5-10 days for overseas newsgroups
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News feed generates a huge amount of network traffic and
storage requirements.
A typical server subscribing 2,500 newsgroups may receive
more than 50 Mbytes per day.
A server administrator may choose not to accept certain group,
either because:
– The group is too active and consumes a lot of resources.
– The content is not suitable for the proximity, for example, alt.sex
may not be appropriate in a working environment.
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Network News Transfer
Protocol (NNTP)
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The protocol that is used for posting/ distributing/
retrieving USENET news articles among news server.
Quoted from Requests For Comments - RFC977
– The news server specified by this document uses a stream
connection (such as TCP) and SMTP-like commands and
responses. It is designed to accept connections from hosts,
and to provide a simple interface to the news database. This
server is only an interface between programs and the news
databases. It does not perform any user interaction or
presentation- level functions. These "user-friendly" functions
are better left to the client programs, which have a better
understanding of the environment in which they are operating.
When used via Internet TCP, the contact port assigned for this
service is 119.
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How to search newsgroup?
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ROT13 Encryption
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Potentially offensive postings should be encrypted.
A common encryption method is rot13.
If you read the content of the news, you may find:
Jrypbzr gur gur pbhefr pfp1720.
Guvf zrffntr vf rapelcgrq hfvat ebg13.
You may ask your news reader to decrypt it and you will
obtain:
Welcome the the course csc1720.
This message is encrypted using rot13.
Can you figure out how rot13 encrypts text?
– Rotation 13 – letters are rotated 13 positions further down
the alphabet.
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ROT13 in Outlook Express
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Moderated Newsgroups
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Some newsgroups are moderated.
A moderator examines the content of a newly
posted article first before the article is actually
released to the public.
Posting to a moderated group is no different
than posting to any other group.
News servers know which groups are
moderated and who moderates them.
Your newly posted articles are forwarded to the
appropriate moderator automatically.
How about “unmoderated newsgroups”?
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Threading
A thread
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News Attachment
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uuencode / uudecode
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UNIX-to-UNIX encode
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Encode a file into
printable characters
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Pictures, multimedia files, executable
programs can be posted in newsgroups.
– .MPG, .TXT, .JPG, .EXE, etc.
– Translate a binary file into a special code that
consists entirely of printable characters.
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But we cannot post them directly into
newsgroups.
– Must be specially encoded to be posted.
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UUENCODE – a common scheme.
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Cross Posting
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Sometimes, you may want to post the same
article in several groups at once.
This is called cross posting.
For example:
You may want to post an article to initiate a
discussion on Jacky Cheung's new musical.
You think a few newsgroups are related.
hk.entertainment, hk.rec.music,
hk.general, hk.forsale,
alt.music.misc,
Best specify the Followup-To.
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Do’s and Don’ts
Don't post "Hi, I am John." type of messages.
Don't follow up and email reply at the same
time.
Don't post nasty articles.
Do post test messages only to cuhk.test,
alt.test, hk.test.
Do think before you crosspost.
Do post only to relevant groups.
Do read news for some time to learn the culture
of a newsgroup before posting on the
newsgroup.
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When you reply a news or
email
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How to write effective reply?
– Quote and trim messages properly
– Top down formatting
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Please write reply below the original message
– HTML/richtext email
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HTML email is bad, why?
– Reply length
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Send a reply to a list with one sentence long?
– Include your signature
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New Comers
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news.announce.newusers
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news.newusers.questions
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Contains lists of "Frequently Asked Questions" (FAQs) and their
answers from many different newsgroups. Learn how to flight jet lag in
the FAQ from rec.travel.air; look up answers to common questions about
MS Windows in an FAQ from comp.os.ms-windows; etc.
alt.internet.services
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Look here for information about new or proposed newsgroups.
news.answers
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This is where you can ask questions about how Usenet works.
news.announce.newsgroups
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This group consists of a series of articles that explain various facets of
Usenet.
Looking for something in particular on the Internet? Ask here.
alt.infosystems.announce
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Adding new information services to the Internet will post details here.
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How to start a newsgroup?
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A formal “Request for Discussion (RFD) is
posted to “news.announce.newgroup”
Next, Call for Votes (CFV) is posted to the
same newsgroup and the voting period will
be 20-30 days.
At the end of the period, the result are
posted.
The group will be created only if
– 100 “yes” votes more than “no” votes
– At least two-thirds of the votes were “yes”.
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How to start a newsgroup?
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Internet Commons
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Flame War
Spew, Blathers
Excessive Quote
Other Denizens
Excessive Quote
Netiquette
Smileys / Emoticons
Abbreviations
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Flame War
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A flame is a particularly nasty,
personal attack on somebody for
something he or she has written.
Takes up considerable resources.
Flame wars can be tremendously
fun to watch at first. They quickly
grow boring, though.
THINK! Before you join a flame war.
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Spew
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Spewers assume that whatever they are
particularly concerned about is of
universal interest.
They send numerous articles to
numerous newsgroups about the topic
they concerned about.
If you comment on his/her behavior, you
will turn up to receive his/her reply which
consists of hundreds of lines to
comment you!
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Blathers
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The problem of blathers is that they
can't get to the point.
They write out screenfuls of words,
when others might sum up in a
sentence or two.
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Excessive Quote
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People afflicted with this include the
entire original message in their
reply without excising irrelevant
portions.
The worst quote a long message
and then add a single line:
– "I agree!"
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Other Denizens
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Net.weenies - These are the kind of people who enjoy LOWER
CASED insulting others.
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Net.geeks - People to whom the Net is Life, who worry about what
happens when they graduate and lose their free, 24-hour access.
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Lurkers - Actually, you can't tell these people are there, but they
are. They're the folks who read a newsgroup but never post or
respond.
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Wizards - People who know a particular Net-related topic inside
and out.
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Net.saints - Always willing to help a newcomer, eager to share
their knowledge with those not born with an innate ability to navigate
the Net. They are not as rare as you might think. Post a question
about something and you'll often be surprised how many responses
you get.
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Netiquette
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Netiquette, which is short for Internet
etiquette, is the code of acceptable
behaviors users should follow while on
the Internet; that is, the conduct
expected on individuals while online.
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Netiquette is all about respect.
Keep your messages short and to the point.
Watch your grammar and spelling.
Be careful with humor. Avoid sarcasm.
Be polite. Avoid offensive language.
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Netiquette
Reference
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Netiquette
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Netiquette
– Use uppercase words very sparingly.
UPPERCASE TEXT YELLS AT PEOPLE.
– Never leave your "subject" line blank.
– Include your email address in the message
body (i.e. in your signature file).
– Avoid sending flames, which are abusive or
insulting messages. Never participate in
flame war.
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Flame War
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Damp Squib
Detonator
Firefighter
…
reference
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Smileys / Emoticons
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Use emoticons to express
emotions. Popular emoticons
include
– :) :( :o :) ;) :-# :-X :-O :( :< :~( :P ;P ^-^
^_- ;_; T_T $_$ @_@ O<[:-3
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Use abbreviations and acronyms for
phrases such as
– BTW, FYI, FWIW, IMHO, TYVM
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Examples
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Reference
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Abbreviations
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<BFN> Bye For Now
<BTW> By The Way
<G> Grin
<HTH> Hope This Helps
<IJWTK> I Just Want To Know
<IJWTS> I Just Want To Say
<IMHO> In My Humble Opinion
<LOL> Laughing Out Loud
<OTOH> On The Other Hand
<ROTFL> Rolling on the Floor Laughing
<TOY> Thinking of You
<YMMV> Your Mileage May Vary
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Acronyms
http://www.muller-godschalk.com/acronyms.html
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References
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Internet FAQ Archives
How USENET protocol works?
The End.
Thank you for your patience!
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