USENET NEWS
Usenet News is a global electronic bulletin board system where millions of computer users exchange information on a wide variety of topics. The main difference between Usenet News and e-mail discussion groups is the fact that Usenet messages are stored on a central computer, and users must be connected to this computer to read or download messages sent to this group. This is in contrast to e-mail distribution, where messages arrive in the electronic mailboxes of each list member.
Usenet itself is a collection of machines that exchange messages, or articles, from Usenet discussion forums, called newsgroups. Usenet administrators control their sites and decide which newsgroups (if any) to sponsor and which remote newsgroups to allow into the system.
There are thousands of Usenet newsgroups in existence. Although many are academic in nature, many newsgroups are organized around recreational topics. A lot of serious computer-related work happens in Usenet discussions. A small number of e-mail discussion groups also exist as Usenet newsgroups.
Usenet news feeds can be read by a variety of news-reading software programs. For example, Netscape’s package comes with a newsreader program called Messenger. Newsreaders are also available as standalone products.
FAQ, RFC, FYI
FAQ stands for Frequently Asked Questions. These are periodic postings to Usenet newsgroups that contain a wealth of information related to newsgroup topics. Many FAQs are quite extensive. FAQs are available by subscribing to each Usenet newsgroup. The collection of Web-based FAQ resources has been compiled by The Internet FAQ Consortium and is available at http://www.faqs.org/.
RFC stands for Request for Comments. It is a document created by and distributed to the Internet community to help define important things on the Internet. This document contains technical specifications and general information.
FYI stands for For Your Information. These records are part of the RFC and contain information of interest to new Internet users.
CHAT &; INSTANT MESSAGING
Chat programs allow users on the Internet to communicate with each other by typing in real-time. The program is sometimes included as a website feature, where users can log into “chat rooms” to exchange comments and information on topics discussed on the site. Chat can take other, broader forms. For example, America Online is best known for sponsoring several topic chat rooms.
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a service that allows participants to communicate with each other through hundreds of channels. These channels are usually based on specific topics. While many topics are trivial, there are also serious conversations going on. To access IRC, you need to use IRC software.
A variation of chat is the phenomenon of instant messaging. Instant messaging allows users on the web to contact other logged-in users and have conversations. The most famous is America Online’s Instant Messenger. ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo are other popular chat programs.
MUD/MUSH/MOO/MUCK/DUM/MUSE
MUD stands for Multi-User Dimension. MUD and its variants listed above are multi-user virtual reality games that are based on simulated worlds. MUDs were traditionally text-based, now there are graphics-based. There are different types of MUDs on the Internet, and many are free to join. For more information, read one of the FAQs dedicated to MUD on the FAQ page at