Sacramento Head Start Alumni Association

A New Kind of Chat Room

Jan 10, 2005

A New Kind of Chat Room

Patricia Robison
Computing Independence


Internet newsgroups provide two-way conversations with people around the world on nearly every subject imaginable -- investments, science, vacation spots, consumer products, hobbies, sports, politics and more.

You can use newsgroups to make new friends who share your interests, to research just about any subject you can think of or simply read them for fun.

Newsgroups were created many years before there was a World Wide Web, but many Web users don't even know they exist.

HOW THEY WORK

Each newsgroup acts as a discussion group on a particular subject. There are more than 20,000 newsgroups.

People post messages and others post replies. Anyone can participate or simply observe. Many people include their E-mail addresses in their messages so that they can be reached privately.

The simplest introduction to newsgroups is through the Google Web-based newsreader. Go to www.google.com and click on "Groups." On the page that comes up, you will see a directory of newsgroups. You can look through it to find a group that may be of interest to you, or enter a subject in the search box to have Google find related newsgroups.

To learn how to participate, click on "Groups Help" for the simple instructions.

Bonus: Google also has an archive of past newsgroup postings dating back to 1981 -- so you can find everything anyone has ever posted on a topic of interest to you, among more than 800 million messages.

TYPES OF NEWSGROUPS

Most groups are open, so anyone can post anything in them. Some are "moderated," so off-topic or offensive messages are blocked or deleted.

Examples: The newsgroup misc.taxes is open and the scene of much vociferous debate about tax politics. The newsgroup misc.taxes.moderated accepts only questions about the tax law that are discussed by tax professionals -- although anyone can submit a question.

Other newsgroups to try...

alt.folklore.urban -- for discussion of urban legends.

rec.boats.cruising -- for advice about boating.

rec.gardens -- for gardeners.

sci.military.moderated -- for discussion of current military affairs.

soc.retirement -- for talk about retiree issues.

talk.politics.misc -- for unrestrained political discussion.

Remember, in unmoderated groups, anyone can say anything. Therefore, if the group follows a controversial subject -- such as politics -- comments may get heated. Also, information may be unreliable.

But most newsgroups have a cadre of regular, expert members who are well informed. By "lurking" -- watching the group for a while -- you can learn who they are and whose opinion to value.