newsgroup

(nūz'grūp', nyūz'-)
n.
An area on a computer network, especially the Internet, devoted to the discussion of a specified topic: read messages posted to newsgroups that discuss pet cats.

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A discussion group on the Internet as well as a source for MP3 files and images. Newsgroups make up the Usenet (user network), which preceded the Web by more than a decade. Starting in the late 1970s, newsgroups were message boards for Unix technical issues. However, they continue to prosper alongside Web-based discussion groups called "forums" (see Internet forum).

Although a topic can be newsworthy, newsgroups have nothing to do with the daily news. Organized into categories, alt (alternative) contains the most diversity (see newsgroup categories).

The Usenet Network

There are tens of thousands of newsgroups originating from many sources and hosted on many news servers. A small percentage are moderated either by a human or a software agent. An ISP may offer newsgroups to its customers, either by hosting them or funneling them from another source, although the ISP decides which ones and how long they remain online. Dedicated Usenet providers do not discriminate and store most newsgroups indefinitely.

NNTP and Newsreaders

The NNTP protocol is used to transport newsgroup content, similar to the way HTTP is used for Web pages (see NNTP).

Newsreader software (an NNTP client), which may be a stand-alone application or an e-mail or browser plug-in, is used to search for and subscribe to newsgroups as well as read and post messages. When a user posts a question or comment, the chain of replies is called a "message thread." See Usenet, newsreader, Deja.com, syndication format and newsgroup categories.

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Online discussion group that can be accessed only through a program that connects a user to a news server on the Internet. See also usenet.

A public forum or discussion area on the internet where messages are posted for public consumption and response. The most famous newsgroups are those distributed worldwide by the Usenet system, covering thousands of topics.

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[Usenet] One of Usenet's huge collection of topic groups or fora. Usenet groups can be unmoderated (anyone can post) or moderated (submissions are automatically directed to a moderator, who edits or filters and then posts the results). Some newsgroups have parallel mailing lists for Internet people with no netnews access, with postings to the group automatically propagated to the list and vice versa. Some moderated groups (especially those which are actually gatewayed Internet mailing lists) are distributed as digests, with groups of postings periodically collected into a single large posting with an index.

Among the best-known are comp.lang.c (the C-language forum), comp.arch (on computer architectures), comp.unix.wizards (for Unix wizards), rec.arts.sf.written and siblings (for science-fiction fans), and talk.politics.misc (miscellaneous political discussions and flamage).

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For a list of words related to newsgroup, see:

• Internet and World Wide Web - newsgroup: discussion group on Usenet

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Dansk (Danish)
n. - diskussionsgruppe

Français (French)
n. - (Comput) forum de discussions

Deutsch (German)
n. - (EDV) Newsgroup, Internet-Benutzergruppe

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (στο Διαδίκτυο) ομάδα ανταλλαγής ειδήσεων

Español (Spanish)
n. - grupo de noticias, foros electrónicos de debate y discusión

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - diskussionsgrupp

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
新闻组, 网络群组

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 新聞組, 網路群組

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 인터넷 사용자들의 단체

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) جماعه صحفيه او اخباريه‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮קבוצת משתמשי אינטרנט המחליפים ביניהם מסרים בדואר אלקטרוני על נושא משותף‬

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