Newsgroups

The Newsgroups, Discussion Groups or the Usenet as they are often known have a tremendous amount of useful information. They provide a great way to exchange information about a particular topic and contact people who share your interests. They also contain a lot of worthless, unpleasant and off topic postings.

To understand how Discussion Groups work you can think of them as electronic versions of the "buletin boards" at a place of work. Only with newsgroups, think of having over 30,000+ "buletin boards" each dealing with its own topic. Then imagine the entire world being able to particpate by reading and posting messages. You can participate by reading articles, posting new messages, or posting responses to messages you read. You may download files containing text, pictures, sound, video or application programs

WARNING! Newsgroups can bring you in contact with hardcore pornography, foul language, hate literature, viruses and sometimes very nasty, impolite and vindictive people. Exercise caution!