newsgroup

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.

For more information on newsgroup, visit Britannica.com.

A discussion group on the Internet. Just as e-mail and the Web are two distinct services on the Internet, newsgroups are part of the "Usenet" (user network), which is another service, or facility, on the Internet. Although a newsgroup topic can be newsworthy, newsgroups have nothing to do with the daily news; thus, the term is somewhat misleading.

Newsgroups are organized into categories and subcategories, with the alt (alternative) category having the most diversity (see newsgroup categories). Preceding the Web by more than a decade, newsgroups started in the late 1970s as a message board for Unix and related technical issues. They continue to prosper alongside the Web, although the Web has its own discussion groups (see forum).

Newsgroups start by someone posting an initial query or comment. As others reply, the text forms a chain of related postings called a "message thread." Newsgroups are similar to blogs, but usually have more questions and answers, whereas the blog is often used for general commentary (see blog). Newsgroups are also a source for MP3 files and pictures (see newsgroup categories).

Newsreader software (an NNTP client) is used to "subscribe" to newsgroups and read and post messages. A newsreader, which may be a stand-alone application or part of an e-mail program or Web browser, offers many features such as searching for and automatically subscribing to newsgroups that match some criteria.

The Usenet Network

Some newsgroups are moderated; some are not. They originate from many sources and are hosted on many systems. With more than 100,000 newsgroups, an ISP may decide which newsgroups, if any, to offer customers and how long postings remain online. There are also dedicated Usenet providers that do not discriminate and store most newsgroups indefinitely. See NNTP, 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.

[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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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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