What Is a Newsgroup?
A newsgroup is one of the older parts of the Internet, like email, and pre-dates the World Wide Web by some years. The basic idea is like a computerised version of the Letters page of a woodturning magazine – anyone may “write in” on any topic they choose, and readers can reply. However, because it’s on the Internet, everything happens much quicker – you don’t have to wait for the next issue to see the replies. Because of this, whole series of postings accumulate on the same topic – each of these is known as a thread. There are usually several threads of conversation going on at any time in the popular newsgroups. Each newsgroup relates to a particular topic of interest, so that people with common interests from all over the world can communicate quickly and easily. In the case of woodturning, the newsgroup is called “rec.crafts.woodturning”, where “rec” is short for “recreational”. It’s like having over a thousand turners in your local club, all able to communicate in a global turning
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