Windows® 98 Unleashed

Some Usenet Basics

To get your Usenet education off on the right foot, this section looks at a few crucial concepts that will serve as the base from which you can explore the rest of Usenet:

article An individual message in a newsgroup discussion.

follow up To respond to an article. (Also: follow-up; the response itself.)

hierarchy Usenet divides its discussion groups into several classifications, or hierarchies. There are seven so-called mainstream hierarchies:

comp	Computer hardware and software
misc	Miscellaneous stuff that doesn't really fit anywhere else
news	Usenet-related topics
rec	Entertainment, hobbies, sports, and more
sci	Science and technology
soc	Sex, culture, religion, and politics
talk	Debates about controversial political and cultural topics ...