I was checking source of an e-mail I received, and it appears to have come from an IP address which is a newsgroup.

I've never had anything like this before, as far as I know, and therefore it's never really occurred to me to find out what a newsgroup actually is.

Can anyone explain it to me, in simple terms, please?

News groups are not unlike this forum in the way they work. They use a system called Usenet and you can look at them via Outlook Express or Google Groups or another such reader.

Here's some info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_group

B

newsgroups are also where people gather to flog the grease spots where the dead horses used to lie. imo.

hehehehe....

Yes to both the previous posters!

There are Moderated and un-moderated newsgroups - I belong to quite a few which deal with computing and artificial intelligence - the moderated ones are pretty good, the unmoderated ones are frequently a pile of crap because of all the spam.

Your ISP will probably have a 'news' or 'usenet' server listed on it's support pages which you need to enter in to your newsgroup reading software (Outlook Express, for example) to allow you to connect up and use them.

In the days before web-based bulletin boards the newsgroups were much more popular - I started using them in the 1980s, but today stick to a few select groups that have good content and little crap. Life's too short to wade through the nutters who post on many groups!

Joe

The quality of postings to newsgroups generally depend upon what the newsgroup is about. There's a science fiction one which has been producing absolutely huge threads full of quality for years, can't remember what it's called though. Also there are a lot of programming based news groups that are full of decent posts.

Imagine the trouble you'd get if there were no moderators like this forum has, then there would be a few people who would just post abusive stuff and spoil it for everyone. Which is what happened to one sheffield based newsgroup. (Which I also can't remember the name of!)

Thanks everyone!

I'm still not sure why I should have received an e-mail from or via a newsgroup. It's a bit weird because it was, what appeared to be, an e-mail addressed personally, but perhaps there was something underneath that I'm just not seeing.

Thanks again.

hehehehe....

the unmoderated ones are frequently a pile of crap because of all the spam.

Joe

Now that's just your biased opinion

News groups (un moderated) are the dogs gonads, that is if you want un-censored debate, as far as spam goes you use your newsreaders killfile.

The quality of postings to newsgroups generally depend upon what the newsgroup is about. There's a science fiction one which has been producing absolutely huge threads full of quality for years, can't remember what it's called though. Also there are a lot of programming based news groups that are full of decent posts.

Imagine the trouble you'd get if there were no moderators like this forum has, then there would be a few people who would just post abusive stuff and spoil it for everyone. Which is what happened to one sheffield based newsgroup. (Which I also can't remember the name of!)

If you are easly offended then use your KF

newsgroups are also where people gather to flog the grease spots where the dead horses used to lie. imo.

mmm I take it someone gave you a good verbal kicking in a newsgroup

Go to:

http://groups.google.co.uk/

and browse around. Saves you having to set it up in your mail program.

mmm I take it someone gave you a good verbal kicking in a newsgroup
I'm sure you take it lots of ways. The mind boggles.

By the time I started subscribing to the alt. and rec. hierarchies, everything of interest to me had already been neatly archived, and all that was left was the occasional gem in a torrent of spam and pathetic flaming. That was more than 10 years ago.

I watch a couple of newsgroups, generally to discover that early luminaries have died (I only found out quite recently that Bob Wallace, long time contributor to rec.drugs.psychedlics and others, and proprietor of Promind books, had died. It also turns out that he was the 9th employee at microsoft and a leading light of the EFF and other progressive institutions.), but most original contributions are now made via group/interest website forums.

If you are looking for a good debate, I'd say unmoderated usenet is the last place to look. If you are looking for binaries, I hear it's still pretty good.

[QUOTE=Phanerothyme]I'm sure you take it lots of ways. The mind boggles.
QUOTE]

Only ten years?

Simple things please simple minds, now be a dear and go and take a koff pill and make it a big one

Only ten years?

Simple things please simple minds, now be a dear and go and take a koff pill and make it a big one

Its thanks to people like yourself that I dont bother with usenet anymore. The attitudes of the typical 'keyboard warrior' spoiling it for the people who are capable of engaging in reasonable conversation and debate, without resorting to petty insults and flaming.

Its thanks to people like yourself that I dont bother with usenet anymore. The attitudes of the typical 'keyboard warrior' spoiling it for the people who are capable of engaging in reasonable conversation and debate, without resorting to petty insults and flaming.
Unfortunately slh73, because spud hasn't mastered the art of quoting yet, your quote looks as though it was made by Phan.

I'm quite amazed that my simple question has produced so much interesting discourse.

However, spud, you are spoiling things. Petty insults and flaming will get you nowhere. I'm sure there are other forums where it's deemed as acceptable, but that place is not here:rant:

Unfortunately slh73, because spud hasn't mastered the art of quoting yet, your quote looks as though it was made by Phan.

I'm quite amazed that my simple question has produced so much interesting discourse.

However, spud, you are spoiling things. Petty insults and flaming will get you nowhere. I'm sure there are other forums where it's deemed as acceptable, but that place is not here:rant:

Excuse you. I was only replying in kind

Unfortunately slh73, because spud hasn't mastered the art of quoting yet, your quote looks as though it was made by Phan.

I'm quite amazed that my simple question has produced so much interesting discourse.

However, spud, you are spoiling things. Petty insults and flaming will get you nowhere. I'm sure there are other forums where it's deemed as acceptable, but that place is not here:rant:

Didnt notice that, thanks. Quote fixed.

Now that's just your biased opinion

News groups (un moderated) are the dogs gonads, that is if you want un-censored debate, as far as spam goes you use your newsreaders killfile.

Yes spud. It is indeed my biased opinion as an evil Moderator! I can indeed user my killfile but once I've done that on a large number of the groups there's very little left.

If I subscribe to a newsgroups about a technical issue, I don't expect to get a load of spam about pornography, nuts claiming that Osama Bin Laden is alive and well and living in George Bush's bathroom, and petty squabbles between various people that have only a tenuous relationship with teh subject of the group.

Even if you do try and debate things, the last resort of some users in the unmoderated groups is to fall back on abuse. My first exposure to newsgroups was probably in the mid 1980s; at one stage I probably regularly used 60 or 70 groups, mainly in the alt. and comp. hierarchies. I'm now down to regularly using about a dozen moderated groups.

I haven't got the time or the inclination to wade through the crap that has destroyed the usefulness of many groups.

You clearly have - good luck to you.

Joe

Its thanks to people like yourself that I dont bother with usenet anymore. The attitudes of the typical 'keyboard warrior' spoiling it for the people who are capable of engaging in reasonable conversation and debate, without resorting to petty insults and flaming.

For gods sake it's only a bloody forum not real life, you do know that, dont you?

You dont have to reply to a post you can ignore it or (and I'm pretty sure I'm you already know this) you can always report the post to that nice man Joe.