Usenet
Usenet, or Unix User Network is a communications medium in which users read
and post textual messages (called "articles") to a number of distributed
bulletin boards (called "newsgroups"). The medium is sustained among a large
number of servers, which store and forward messages with one another. Usenet
is of significant cultural importance in the networked world, having given
rise to, or popularized, many widely recognized concepts and terms such as
"FAQ" and "spam".
Usenet is one of the oldest computer network communications systems still in
widespread use; it existed before the popularization of the Internet and
well before the World Wide Web. Today, almost all Usenet traffic is carried
over the Internet. The format and transmission of Usenet articles is very
similar to that of Internet email messages. However, whereas email is
usually used for one-to-one communication, Usenet is a many-to-many medium.
The articles that users post to Usenet are organized into topical categories
called newsgroups, which are themselves organized into hierarchies of
subjects. For instance, sci.math and sci.physics are within the sci
hierarchy, for science. When a user subscribes to a newsgroup, his news
client software keeps track of which articles he has read.
When a user posts an article, initially it is only available on that user's
news server. Each news server, however, talks to one or more other servers
(its "newsfeeds") and exchanges articles with them. In this fashion, the
article is copied from server to server and (if all goes well) eventually
reaches every server in the network. Some have noted that this seems a
monstrously inefficient protocol in the era of abundant high-speed network
access; it was designed for a time when networks were much slower, and not
always available.
ISPs, News Servers, and Newsfeeds
Most Internet service providers, and many other Internet sites, operate news
servers for their users to access. To read news, one must use newsreader
software -- a program which resembles an email client (and is often
integrated with one) but accesses Usenet instead.
Not all Internet sites run news servers. A news server is one of the most
difficult Internet services to administer well, because of the complexity
and data throughput involved. Some ISPs outsource news operation to
specialist sites, which will usually look just the same to a user as if the
ISP ran the server itself. Many sites carry only a restricted newsfeed, with
only a limited number of newsgroups. Commonly omitted from such a newsfeed
are foreign-language newsgroups and the alt.binaries hierarchy which largely
carries software and erotica.
For those who have access to the Internet, but do not have access to a news
server, Google Groups ([1]) allows reading and posting of news via the World
Wide Web. Though this or other "news-to-Web gateways" are not always as easy
to use as specialized newsreader software -- especially when threads get
long -- they are often much easier to search.
There are also Usenet providers which specialize in offering service to
users whose ISPs do not carry news, or which carry a restricted feed. One
list of such providers is available at [2]. There is even a newsgroup for
the discussion of news providers specialized in the binary newsgroups --
alt.binaries.news-server-comparison.
Technical details
Usenet is a set of protocols for generating, storing and retrieving news
"articles" (which resemble Internet mail messages) and for exchanging them
among a readership which is potentially widely distributed. These protocols
most commonly use a flooding algorithm which propagates copies throughout a
network of participating servers. Whenever a message reaches a server, that
server forwards the message to all its network neighbors that haven't yet
seen the article. Only one copy of a message is stored per server, and each
server makes it available on demand to the (typically local) readers able to
access that server. Usenet was thus one of the first peer-to-peer
applications.
Internet Jargon and History
Many terms now in common use on the Internet -- so-called "jargon" --
originated or were popularized on Usenet. Likewise, many conflicts which
later spread to the rest of the Internet, such as the ongoing difficulties
over spamming, began on Usenet.
History
Usenet was invented in 1979 as one application of the UUCP protocol which
allowed Unix machines to exchange data over telephone lines.
The first nodes connected were University of North Carolina and Duke University.
Nowadays, most Usenet articles are distributed using the NNTP protocol which
works on top of the Internet's TCP/IP protocol.
The Great Renaming
In 1987, a drastic restructuring of Usenet known as the Great Renaming took
place. Previous to this event, newsgroups were divided into three
categories: "fa." for groups for ARPANET, "mod." for moderated discussions,
and "net." for unmoderated groups. Groups in these hierarchies were not
subject to naming conventions, and group names were rather haphazard.
The Great Renaming, led by the administrators known as the backbone cabal,
re-organized newsgroups into seven hierarchies, known as the "Big Seven":
* comp.* -- Computer related discussions (comp.software, comp.sys.amiga)
* misc.* -- Miscellaneous topics (misc.education, misc.forsale,
misc.kids)
* news.* -- Newsgroup-related matters. This hierarchy was not originally
intended for reporting news events; it was meant to deal with matters
of Usenet in particlar. (news.groups, news.admin)
* rec.* -- Recreation and entertainment (rec.music, rec.arts.movies)
* sci.* -- Science related discussions (sci.psychology, sci.research)
* soc.* -- Social discussions (soc.college.org, soc.culture.african)
* talk.* -- Talk about various controversial topics (talk.religion,
talk.politics)
These hierarchies had rules that governed their administration and naming.
Shortly after the Renaming, another hierarchy -- the alt hierarchy --
appeared. This hierarchy was not subject to the rules controlling groups in
the Big Seven, and was as a result less organized. However, groups in the
alt hierarchy tend to be more specialized or specific -- for example, there
might be a newsgroup under the Big Seven that contains discussions about
children's books, but a group in the alt hierarchy may be dedicated to one
specific author of children's books.
In the mid 1990s, another hierarchy joined the Big Seven -- humanities.*,
which dealt with fine arts, literature, and philosophy.
Later history
Early versions of Usenet used the B-News server software, and then later
C-News. In the mid-1990s, INN was developed to take advantage of the way the
Internet worked versus the store-and-forward design of UUCP. Since that time
INN development has continued, and other news server software has also been developed.
Internet archiving of Usenet posts began at DejaNews with a very large,
searchable database. In 2001, this database was acquired by the Google
search engine.
Sociological implications
The architecture of Usenet is sometimes characterized as anarchic or as
civic/democratic. Some see it as global community or collection of online
communities. While the views varies, one shared perspective among the users
is Usenet as an alternative medium to institutionalized mass communication,
more open to participation from a wider variety of the general public.
Usenet can be a tool boosting an individual's ability to communicate, free
from governmental and other organizational restrains. Six major features
that stand out are:
1. First, in its origin, Usenet was the alternative to ARPANET (the
precursor of the today's Internet), created by those who could not join
ARPANET. (It is not true today.)
2. Second, Usenet is open to a variety of users. It does not require user
registration, institutional affiliation, or a specific fee like other
communication systems. Users, with proper knowledge, can post their own
message as well. The system does not require any identification, either
accepting pseudonyms.
3. Third, the content is not censored very much. Much of the process of
receiving, posting, and circulating messages is automated, and the
sheer number of messages makes censorhip effort very difficult, except
for categorical banning of potentially problematic newsgroups or the
entire Usenet.
4. Fourth, creation of new newsgroups is possible for anybody with proper
knowledge in certain part of Usenet, namely within the alt hierarchy.
5. Fifth, some point out that some newsgroups are helpful in their own way
because of the resources of a variety of participants. For reasons
which some may not be able to understand, many participants are willing
to answer questions on subjects ranging from software troubleshooting,
and other technical issues, to such topics as pros and cons of
different medical treatments for a rare disease.
6. Sixth, virtually all messages posted to the usenet system are archived
and made available in publically-searchable databases on the world wide
web. This allows for a great depth of historical record of news,
information, and of the behaviour of individuals who choose to attach
their real name to messages.
7. Finally, the structure of the network is somewhat anti-hierarchical,
one might argue. There is no center in which all article go through.
Various news servers are connected with each other and the circulation
of the articles are done in a way close to a bucket-relay. There is no
essential set of newsgroups that a news server must carry. Some
newsgroups are locally maintained. Consequently, it is very hard, if
not utterly impossible, to construct a complete list of newsgroups in a
given moment, let alone postings in a given week.
To some, these features are indications of how our society could become, or
would likely become, when interactive information networks such as Usenet
and the Internet becomes the dominant means of communication.
It is perhaps helpful to point out these analogies of the social aspect of
Usenet are not necessarily compatible with each other. While anarchism tends
to emphasize individual freedom and the 'anything goes' principle, community
values mutual ties and corporation. Democracy usually requires a binding
collective decision, running counter to anarchic principle. The correct
interpretation is not clear even among those who study it.
There exist various indications that those analogies are either one-sided or
wrong. The reality of how Usenet is used might be not as simple as some
might imagine from above descriptions.
Communication on Usenet may be perceived by some (critics or users) as not
very constructive, or worse yet, undesirable. It is frequently excessively
aggressive, as some people engage in flame wars. The discussion might seem
unproductive, with endless disputes. It may contain offensive languages and
very objectionable opinions on sensitive issues related to racism, gender
roles, etc. The non-offensive messages might be or "spams," or unsolicited
off-topic postings such as advertisements for pornography sites. A group may
be flooded with messages by a very limited number of participants, being not
very open and friendly to newcomers. In addition, the most active part of
the Usenet include exchange of pornographic files (especially pictures) and
music files (especially in MP3 format).
In addition, the said freedom in the alt hierarchy is limited in that unless
a newly created newsgroup meets certain conditions and goes through certain
procedures, it will not be carried by many news servers, potentially
resulting in a wasted effort. In general, the seemingly anarchic system is
indeed not without some administrative-level controls. The bucket-relay like
structure of the network is even more limited because of the existence of
the so-called Big Seven, the major carriers of news groups to which many
smaller-scale news servers connect. These carriers exert influence on
newsgroups' birth and survival as well.
It is also noticeable that there is an obvious hierarchy in the way
newsgroups are organized. While some of the other interfaces for online
communication support much less hierarchical organization of information,
such as the World Wide Web, Usenet is not one of them.
The more general criticisms that apply to Usenet and many other kinds of
online communication include the statement that Usenet is mostly a
text-based medium, empowering the literate and articulate, while being less
accessible to others. The issue of the digital divide,namely that some
people simply do not have access to the Internet, is another reason one
might point out that Usenet is not entirely democratic or open.
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