Paul Trueman goes online to chat to like- minded souls about his passions
Before free Internet service providers (ISP), Amazon.com, portals, broadband and browser wars, before even the World Wide Web itself, there were newsgroups.
A great example of an often overlooked facet of the Internet, newsgroups are an online reminder of when the Internet was still a freewheeling experiment in global communications, rather than a flashy medium useful for shifting product.
Originally known simply as Usenet, the first newsgroups were set up in 1979 as a way for students at Duke University in the United States to communicate with one another across campus.
Usenet operates now as a free global bulletin board system that allows like- minded individuals to share their thoughts, and the old-school text-based system seems charmingly out of place next to the all- singing, all-dancing Web. It’s not hard to see how Usenet has become marginalised; newsgroups don’t look pretty, the entire system is hosted by volunteers, and, worst of all, they don’t make any money.
The reason Usenet is still popular, with somewhere between 25 000 and 30 000 newsgroups, is that all of human life can be found there. Not simply the clich hobbyists that one usually associates with the Web – assassination theorists, Star Trek fans, Bill Gates lovers/haters, porn stars, Quakers, et al – but newsgroups run by people who might actually have a life away from mouse and keyboard. Anything and everything is up for discussion. At its best, Usenet feels like a virtual jamboree, full of wisdom, wit and passion, whether it’s arguing over your favourite Sufi singers (alt.music.world), or producing a home-made tipple, Mr Miyagi’s favourite house- plants (rec.arts.bonsai), getting your own back (alt.revenge), getting out more (rec.arts.theatre.plays), cosy- ing up (alt.cuddle), calming down (alt.support.panic-attacks), and so on, each with its regular contributors, discussions, and arguments. Posting isn’t obligatory, you can simply browse through other people’s posts and silently follow the discussion – “lurking”, as it is known in Internet parlance.
Newsgroups are easy to find. You used to need a specialised bit of software, like Free Agent for the PC or Newswatcher for the Apple Mac, but nowadays newer versions of Web browsers like Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer, or Outlook Express, do the job too. You’ll need to tell the programme what your service provider’s news server is called – your ISP helpline or website will tell you.
When you start up the newsgroup reader, you should see a long list of newsgroup names – your ISP decides which newsgroups to show you, and while some are quick to weed out any dubious groups, others will quite happily let you subscribe to groups like 12hr.sex.abnormal (I have no idea either – I’m too scared to check it out).
To find what you are looking for, simply use the search function to find a key word like, say, “Clinton” for a discussion on the president for example, and the programme will search for any newsgroup with that word in the title.
All newsgroups are titled by their subject matter and fall into basic categories or hierarchies, of which most are self-explanatory; rec. for recreation, sci. for science, alt. for alternative and so on.
The alternative category is one of the most popular, mainly because it’s much easier to set up your own alt. newsgroup than any other. Probably as a result, alt. subject matter is both more interesting and more terrifyingly odd than any other category – alt.fan.adolf- hitler.and.crumpets anyone? The flip side of alt. posts rarely being censored by those in charge of the discussion, is that they fall victim to the absolute scourge of the newsgroup: the spammer.
Named after the Monty Python sketch where spam overwhelmingly dominates the somewhat limited menu, this cheap electronic junk mail is one of the banes of daily online life.
Almost every one of the alt.music discussions is constantly being broken up by hundreds of spam-posts, either from companies advertising their own music sites, or from fellow users selling records or memorabilia on sites like eBay. In some cases the Net community that has built up around an established newsgroup will step in and “flame” the guilty party with hundreds of e-mails, and even (in some cases) viruses. In less passionate environments, disillusioned users abandon spammed newsgroups and they end up derelict.
As a result, Web-based discussion forums which work in a similar way to newsgroups, like Table Talk at Salon.com, have flourished, offering the forum for intelligent discussion that some newsgroups find difficult to maintain. http://tabletalk.salon.com offers thousands of discussion areas, grouped into user- friendly categories like technology and the Net, international issues, music and movies. Some of the most popular discussions have been up and running since Salon started back in 1995, while those threads gathering dust are allowed to die with dignity.
Anyone can post once they have registered (it’s free), and dip into discussions at any point.
Sites like this usually ask users to register, partly because if they turn out to be an unsavoury element, it is far easier to block their access.
Salon also hosts The Well, one of the first and most influential discussion forums, although there is a small charge for this site. Similarly, if you’re looking for specialist discussion, the best fan- created websites offer facilities.
It is no coincidence that some of the longest-running sites in the business (1995 is practically the Cretaceous Period in Internet time), offer discussion areas that mimic the Usenet setup.
What newsgroups have always successfully offered is the chance to communicate with one another about our passions. A place where people can share ideas, agree, argue, and tell others about what they love and hate.
That’s basically what we’ve been doing as a race for the past few thousand years. But only newsgroups let us do that anytime, anywhere, with anyone.