What is a newsgroup?
Newsgroup is a public bulletin board system on which people can post messages and reply to others’ messages. Newsgroups, though a part of the Internet, are not a part of the World Wide Web system. The protocols supporting newsgroups are different from those supporting WWW.
Newsgroups can be very useful to get answers to your queries and engage in meaningful discussions. There is a variety of topics on which different newsgroups exist and one can log in to specific ones according to her area of interest. In this regard, the newsgroups are functionally very similar to discussion forums on WWW. However, technically there are lots of differences.
Usenet and Newsgroups
Usenet and newsgroups are very often used interchangeably. However, there are some subtle differences. Usenet’s existence predates the World Wide Web. It is a portmanteau of user and network. Usenet is a computer network communications system on which most of the newsgroups are hosted. However, it’s possible for newsgroups to exist outside of Usenet, as private individuals and organizations may set-up their own nntp servers to support their newsgroups. One such example is Microsoft’s support newsgroup available at news.grc.com.
Newsgroups- A misnomer?
While the name of newsgroups may imply its relation to news, this is not totally true. However, newsgroups are much more than just news. They are discussion forums for almost all kinds of topics. Newsgroups are also often confused with message boards, which is again not true because newsgroups unlike message boards do not belong to any websites.
Who moderates newsgroups?
Only a few of newsgroups are moderated. A few individuals in such groups have the permission to reject and block emails from users if they dislike them. Rest of the newsgroups are almost totally unregulated. However, there are some unwritten rules which most members stick to. Anyone ignoring such rules is reprimanded by the peers.