Newsgroup / Mail List Etiquette

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Usenet is a world-wide interactive online news system. The news is in the form of articles (messages) that are divided into a hierarchy of various groups - newsgroups. These newsgroups are subject specific discussion groups or forums. There are thousands of different newsgroups covering every subject imaginable.

You access newsgroups using a newsreader program. A newsreader lets you browse newsgroup articles and participate in the discussion by posting a message to the group.

The newsreader organizes the newsgroup articles by topic then by threads. A topic is the original message posted to the group. Threads are responses to the original message. Each topic could be a question, statement or comment relating to the subject of the newsgroup.

Google Groups provides web based access to newsgroups.

Mailing lists or discussion lists are similar to newsgroups. They can be world-wide and are subject oriented. The difference is that each message is an email message. You subscribe to a mail list. To participate in the discussion, you send an email to the list and all subscribers would receive your email.

The drawbacks to a mail list is that there could be a sizable increase in number of emails you receive. The mail list email looks the same as non-mail list email. You have to unsubscribe to be removed from the mail list.

Newsgroups and Mailing Lists are essentially emails on steroids. Your one email or posting can be read by hundreds or thousands of other users. The rules of Email Netiquette should be followed. In addition there are some rules of etiquette unique to Newsgroups and Mail Lists.

• Lurk before posting to a newsgroup or mail list.
  • Lurking is reading messages anonymously without posting. 
    • Take a little time to get the feel of the group. This helps you to get an understanding of what is acceptable or unacceptable to the group.
       
• Look for an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
  • Many Newsgroup FAQs are posted monthly on the news.answers newsgroup.
  • Mail list owners are usually willing to mail you the FAQ for the list.
     
• Be careful what you say.
  • Newsgroups and mail list can have a large audience.
  • Newsgroups are frequently archived. Your message could be around for a very long time.
  • Don't ramble or wander off topic.
  • Don't point out grammatical errors.
  • Don't respond to a post with "Me too", "Ditto" or "I don't know".
  • Don't post advertisement to a discussion group.
     
• Be careful who you reply to
  • Check the "To:", "Cc:" and "Bcc:" lines in your message before you send your message. 
  • Private responses should not be posted to the list.
     
• Refrain from cross-posting your newsgroup message.
  • Cross-posting is sending the same message to more than one newsgroup. This is typically something that spammers do. Do not reply to their posting.
     
• Do not respond to flames and insulting posts
  • Flames are inflammatory messages.
     
• Post test postings in test groups.
  • Never post tests to a non-test newsgroup.

Netiquette Resources

Internet FAQ Archives

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