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NetNews is a general term to cover internet discussion groups that evolved from usenet..

Usenet was established in 1980 for exchange of information on various topics.
It was structured as hierarchies - under nine major areas:

  • comp - computer-related discussions (comp.software, comp.sys.amiga)
  • humanities - fine arts, literature, and philosophy (humanities.classics, humanities.design.misc)
  • misc - miscellaneous topics (misc.education, misc.forsale, misc.kids)
  • news - discussions and announcements about news (meaning Usenet, not current events) (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, talk.origins)
  • NNTP - Net News Transfer Protocol was set up in 1986 to support usenet news over the internet.
  • alt - An unorganized area which included a variety of topics
With the advent of the world wide web in 1995 DejaNews was created as an archive of Usenet discussion groups.
Deja News, and was transitioned to Google Groups after a February 2001 buyout.

Today there are many kinds of net forums from discussions of problems in particular application programs to family forums for people working on genealogy that serve a similar function.

Google Groups

Links:
Usenet - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Network News Transfer Protocol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


last updated 11 JAN 2010