Practical UNIX

Reading the Network News on UNIX

One of the oldest activities on the Internet is reading the Network News, otherwise known as Usenet. Usenet is essentially a gigantic collection of individual discussion topics that range from job offerings (misc.jobs.offered), to how to administer your Sun computer (comp.sys.sun.admin), to how to care for your African Grey parrot (alt.pets.parrots.african-grey). Often, you can speak with experts in the particular topic, or offer advice if you are an expert in this field. Each newsgroup is very specific in its content, but this is enforced only if the newsgroup is moderated. A moderated newsgroup has an assigned moderator who reads every incoming message to the newsgroup to verify that it belongs there. If it ...