Newsgroups

Newsgroups are electronic forums that allow people to discuss topics of interest. Newsgroups cover just about any topic imaginable and can be a good source of hard-to-find information. The most widely distributed newsgroups worldwide cover topics such as computer science, humanities, arts, news, recreation, hobbies, scientific research and debate on controversial issues.

The newsgroup news.announce.newusers has helpful information for anyone new to newsgroups. An "alternative" newsgroup, alt, functions outside the rules used to govern the eight mainstream categories.

In newsgroups, one person begins a discussion on a specific topic. A reader of that message sends a follow-up message, another reader replies to that message, and so on. A series of exchanges of this type constitutes a thread; newsgroups tend to have several threads covering various aspects of the newsgroup topic.

Newsreader software allows you to subscribe only to the newsgroups that interest you. The software also indicates which messages in each group you've already read.

Using newsgroups at Duke

Duke newsgroups contain topics of interest to the university community. Only members of the Duke community can subscribe to Duke newsgroups. Also, all newsgroups created for courses at Duke begin with duke.courses. For example, a discussion newsgroup for Biology 21 would be named duke.courses.bio21.

Download the free, supported version of a newsreader application for your operating system (Free Agent for Windows, MT NewsWatcher for Macintosh). Alternatively, you can use the newsreader function in Pine, Outlook Express, or Mozilla; set the news server to news.duke.edu.

When you use newsgroups at Duke, remember the following points of etiquette:

• The group news.announce.newusers offers periodic posts with background information and helpful hints about newsgroups. Read these before posting.
• Before posting to a group, follow the discussion for at least a week so you can see the FAQ (Frequently Answered Question) lists that groups use to guide discussions and avoid endlessly covering the same ground.
• Before you make your first posting to a newsgroup, send a message to duke.test to see if everything is working as it should.
• Participating in faculty-established newsgroups for Duke courses is an exception to the guideline above. However, even in local groups, be sure your posts are considerate and appropriate (specifically, that they are on-topic for the group).
• Everything posted on a newsgroup is public. If you wouldn't want to see it printed on the front page of The New York Times, don't post it.
• While computer resources such as newsgroups might seem free to you as a user, thousands of data networks and costly computer systems are involved in distributing articles around the world. Do not post frivolously.
• Be warned that misuse of newsgroups by repeatedly posting off-topic articles or harassing users is not tolerated and will make you subject to disciplinary action.