Dave :
Did your question get answered ? I didn't see one, so I'll try to
explain. I do lurk on several USENET newsgroups, although I rarely
post. (A USENET "mail list" is known as a "newsgroup", reflecting the
fact that USENET was designed as a sort of on-line newspaper.)
Um, well, technically it's completely different, but from your point of
view ...
Uhhh, well, maybe I can't explain it after all <g>
I guess the essential differences are :
With USENET, there is no 'master list' of people. All of the messages
are transferred to all of the servers that carry that particular
newsgroup (usually run by your ISP, although there are also some servers
that you pay separately for). The messages then lay on each server for
some length of time (defined by the operator of that server) and anyone
can either download them (or not). Also, anyone can post to the
newsgroup (without signing up first or anything). Otherwise, a
newsgroup looks a lot like email, especially if you use Netscape (as I
do at home). Of course, just like email, there are various programs
available to deal with newsgroups, with varying levels of
sophistication.
IMO the biggest disadvantage to newsgroups is that anyone can
anonymously monitor them and collect email addresses, which can then be
used for spamming (the sending of unwanted emails). After making only 4
or 5 posts to rec.crafts.metalworking (one of the newsgroups on USENET)
with my return email address "in the clear", I started getting 3-4
pieces of spam a day. This was a marked increase from the 1-2 a month I
was getting before. After almost a year of not posting (without
falsifying my return address), the spam level has dropped back to 3-4 a
month. To avoid this problem, many people do falsify their return
address, usually in such a way that it's fairly easy to determine the
correct address (I typically use nospam.randallyoung@earthlink.net).
However, this makes it difficult for the less computer literate people,
and is a PITA (pain in the anatomy) anyway.
There are ways to combat the spam of course, but it takes some work, and
about the best you can hope for is if the sender's ISP is in the US, you
can get his ISP to cancel his account. But, it generally takes a lot of
effort for each spammer, and while you're fighting one, three others
will have found your address and started in. Also, there is very little
you can do if the ISP is in another country (at least some countries
anyway).
Another disadvantage of course is that anyone can post to the
newsgroup. This leads to a lot of people posting things that have
absolutely nothing to do with the NG subject, most often either scams of
some sort, or invitations to visit a pornography site. They will
frequently post messages that include a HTML redirect to their site, so
that if you are naive enough to have HTML enabled, your browser
automatically opens their page. Such people will also occasionally post
pornographic pictures directly to the newsgroup.
Yet another problem lies in the fact that not all servers carry all
newsgroups. Depending on your ISP, you may have to pay extra to access
someone else's USENET server. There are web sites available that
interface to USENET, like Deja.com, but again IMO they are somewhat less
than convenient. (If you are interested, go to
http://www.deja.com/usenet/ . Note that they call newsgroups
"discussions".)
Last, USENET is treated as "third class mail". If a server happens to
be busy, it just doesn't get all of the messages. At least with
Earthlink (my ISP), this seems to happen much more often with newsgroups
than it does with mailing lists.
Randall
David Massey wrote:
>
> For the benifit of those of us who barely know what HTML stands for and are
> still trying to figure out TCP/IP, explain the difference between a
> majordomo list and a usenet, please.
|