








                HHHHoooowwww ttttoooo RRRReeeeaaaadddd tttthhhheeee NNNNeeeettttwwwwoooorrrrkkkk NNNNeeeewwwwssss


                       Mark R. Horton

                Bell Telephone Laboratories
                    Columbus, Ohio 43213





WWWWhhhhaaaatttt iiiissss tttthhhheeee NNNNeeeettttwwwwoooorrrrkkkk NNNNeeeewwwwssss????

     USENET (Users' Network)  is  a  bulletin  board  shared
among  many computer systems in the computer science commun-
ity, around the United States and Canada.  USENET is a logi-
cal  network,  sitting  on top of several physical networks,
including uuuuuuuuccccpppp, BBBBLLLLIIIICCCCNNNN, BBBBeeeerrrrkkkknnnneeeetttt, and the AAAARRRRPPPPAAAANNNNEEEETTTT.   Sites  on
USENET  include  many  universities,  private  companies and
research organizations.  Most of the members of  USENET  are
either  university  Computer Science departments, or part of
Bell Telephone Laboratories.  Currently, most  USENET  sites
run the UNIX* operating system.

     The network news, or simply _n_e_t_n_e_w_s, is the set of pro-
grams  that provide access to the news, and transfer it from
one machine to the next.  Netnews was originally written  at
Duke  University,  and  has been modified extensively by the
University of California at Berkeley.  Netnews allows  arti-
cles  to  be  posted  for limited or very wide distribution.
This document contains a list of newsgroups that were active
at  the  time  it  was written, to assist you in determining
which newsgroups you may want to subscribe to.  When  creat-
ing  a  new article, the level of distribution is controlled
by specifying the newsgroup.

     Any user can post an article, which will be sent out to
the  network to be read by persons interested in that topic.
A user can specify which topics he or she is  interested  in
via  a  _s_u_b_s_c_r_i_p_t_i_o_n  _l_i_s_t.   Then, whenever he asks to read
news, he will be presented with  all  articles  of  interest
that  he  has  not  yet read.  There are also facilities for
browsing through old news, posting follow-up  articles,  and
sending  direct  electronic mail replies to the author of an
article.

     This paper is a tutorial, aimed at the user  who  wants
__________________________
*UNIX is a Trademark of Bell Laboratories.




                       April 8, 1983





                           - 2 -


to read and possibly post news.   The  system  administrator
who must install the software should see the companion docu-
ment _U_S_E_N_E_T _V_e_r_s_i_o_n _B _I_n_s_t_a_l_l_a_t_i_o_n.

WWWWhhhhyyyy UUUUSSSSEEEENNNNEEEETTTT????

     USENET is useful in a number of ways.  Someone  wishing
to  announce a new program or product can reach a wide audi-
ence.  A user can ask ``Does anyone have an  _x?''  and  will
usually  get  several  responses  within  a day or two.  Bug
reports and  their  fixes  can  be  made  quickly  available
without  the  usual  overhead  of sending out mass mailings.
Discussions involving many people at different locations can
take place without having to get everyone together.

     Another facility with similar capabilities  to  _n_e_t_n_e_w_s
is the _e_l_e_c_t_r_o_n_i_c _m_a_i_l_i_n_g _l_i_s_t.  A mailing list is a collec-
tion of  electronic  mailing  addresses  of  users  who  are
interested  in  a  particular  topic.  By sending electronic
mail to the list, all users on the list receive  a  copy  of
the  article.  While the mailing list facility is quite use-
ful, USENET offers a number of  advantages  not  present  in
mailing  lists.   Getting  yourself on a mailing list is not
always easy.  You have to figure out who maintains the  list
and  ask  them to put you on it.  Often these people are out
of town or busy, and don't put you on the list  for  several
days.  Sometimes you have to send mail to the entire mailing
list, hoping that one of the readers will tell you who main-
tains  the  list.   Once you are on the list, you often find
yourself in the middle of a discussion.  Netnews  keeps  old
articles  around until they expire (usually about two weeks)
so you can browse through old news to catch up on  what  you
missed.   Similarly,  referring  to  an old article is easy,
without having to keep a personal file of all  old  mail  to
the list.

     Another advantage is appreciated by the other users  of
the  system.  There is less overhead in having only one copy
of each message sent to  each  machine,  instead  of  having
separate  copies  sent  to each of several users on the same
machine.  This cuts down on computer  time  to  process  the
messages,  and on line costs for telephone calls to transfer
messages from one machine to another (when phone  lines  are
used).   Another  advantage  is  in the disk space consumed.
When only one message is sent to each system, only one  copy
of  the message is kept on disk.  In a mailing list environ-
ment, each user has a copy in his mailbox.

HHHHoooowwww ddddoooo IIII RRRReeeeaaaadddd NNNNeeeewwwwssss????

     In the USENET jargon, interest topics are called  _n_e_w_s_-
_g_r_o_u_p_s.   A  newsgroup  list  appears  in  a  later section,
current as this paper was written.  You have your  own  _s_u_b_-
_s_c_r_i_p_t_i_o_n  _l_i_s_t  of  newsgroups  to  which  you  are said to



                       April 8, 1983





                           - 3 -


_s_u_b_s_c_r_i_b_e.

     To read news, type the command

        rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss

Each newsgroup to which you subscribe will be presented, one
article  at  a time.  As each article is presented, you will
be shown the _h_e_a_d_e_r (containing the name of the author,  the
subject,  and  the  length  of  the article) and you will be
asked if you want more.  There  are  a  number  of  possible
choices  you  can make at this point.  The three most common
(y, n, and q) are suggested by the program.  (To see a  com-
plete  list of possible responses, type ``????'' for help.) You
can type ``yyyy'' for ``yes'' (or simply hit  return)  and  the
rest  of  the message will be displayed.  (If the message is
long, it may stop before it runs off the top of the  screen.
Type  space  or return to see more of the message.  If _r_e_a_d_-
_n_e_w_s prints a ``:'' at the end of a long message, it's wait-
ing  for  you to finish reading the message.  Hit return and
it will go on to the next message.) Another choice  you  can
make is ``nnnn'' for ``no''.  This means you are not interested
in the message - it will not be offered  to  you  again.   A
third option is ``qqqq'' for ``quit''.  This causes a record to
be made of which articles you read (or refused) and you will
exit netnews.  When you have read all the news, this happens
automatically.  The quit command is mainly useful if you are
in  a  hurry  and don't have time to read all the news right
now.  (Many users put a rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss  or  cccchhhheeeecccckkkknnnneeeewwwwssss  command  in
their  ._p_r_o_f_i_l_e  or  ._l_o_g_i_n  files so that they will see new
news each time they log in.)

     If you are reading news for the  first  time,  you  may
find  yourself  swamped  by the volume of unread news, espe-
cially if the default subscription is  ``all''.   Don't  let
this  bother  you.   If you are getting newsgroups which you
have no interest, you can change your subscription list (see
below).  Also, bear in mind that what you see is probably at
least two weeks accumulation of news.  If you want  to  just
get rid of all old news and start anew, type

        readnews -p -n all > /dev/null &

which will throw away all old news, recording that you  have
seen  it  all.   (The '&' puts it in the background; chances
are that there is so much old news on your machine that  you
won't want to wait for it all.)

     Once you catch up (or ignore) all  the  old  news,  the
news  will come in daily at a more manageable rate.  (If the
daily rate is still too much you may wish to unsubscribe  to
some  of  the  high  volume  newsgroups.) Finally, note that
while an article is printing, you can hit DDDDEEEELLLLEEEETTTTEEEE which  will
throw away the rest of the article.



                       April 8, 1983





                           - 4 -


     Among the other commands you can type after seeing  the
header of an article are:

xxxx               Exit readnews.  This is different from  qqqquuuuiiiitttt
                in  that  the  quit  command will update the
                record of which articles you have read,  but
                the  exit  command  will  pretend  you never
                started readnews.

NNNN               Go on to the next newsgroup.  The  remaining
                articles  in  the current newsgroup are con-
                sidered ``unread'' and will  be  offered  to
                you again the next time you read news.

ssss _f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e      The article is saved in a disk file with the
                given  name.  In practice, what usually hap-
                pens is that an article is printed, and then
                _r_e_a_d_n_e_w_s  goes on to print the header of the
                next article before you get a chance to type
                anything.   So you usually want to write out
                the _p_r_e_v_i_o_u_s message (the last one you  have
                read  in  full);  in this case, use the form
                ``ssss---- _f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e''.

eeee               Erase the memory of having seen  this  arti-
                cle.   It  will be offered to you again next
                time, as though you had never seen it.   The
                ``eeee----'' case is useful for checking followups
                to see if anyone has already said  what  you
                wanted to say.

rrrr               Reply to the author  of  the  message.   You
                will  be placed in the editor, with a set of
                headers derived from  the  message  you  are
                replying to.  Type in your message after the
                blank line.  If you wish to edit the  header
                list,  to add more recipients or send carbon
                copies,  for  instance,  you  can  edit  the
                header  lines.   Anyone  listed  on  a  line
                beginning with ``To: ''  or  ``Cc:  ''  will
                receive  a  copy of your reply.  A mmmmaaaaiiiillll com-
                mand will then be started up,  addressed  to
                the  persons  listed in the header.  You are
                then returned to readnews.  The case  rrrr----  is
                also  useful  to  reply to the previous mes-
                sage.  Another  variation  on  this  is  rrrrdddd----
                which  puts  you  in $MAILER (or ``mail'' by
                default) to type in your reply directly.

ffff               Post a follow-up message to the  same  news-
                group.   This posts an article on this news-
                group with the same title  as  the  original
                article.   Use  common  sense  when  posting
                follow-ups; many follow-up  articles  should



                       April 8, 1983





                           - 5 -


                have  just been replies.  You will be placed
                in the editor - enter your message and exit.
                The  case ffff---- is also useful to follow up the
                previous message.  Another case, ffffdddd----, allows
                you   to  directly  type  in  the  followup,
                without the use of an editor.  If  you  type
                this  by  accident,  hit  DEL  to  abort the
                follow-up.  In each case, the editor you are
                placed  in  will be vvvviiii unless you set EEEEDDDDIIIITTTTOOOORRRR
                (in your environment) to some other  editor.
                You  should  enter  the text of the followup
                after the blank line.

++++               The article is skipped for  now.   The  next
                time you read news, you will be offered this
                article again.

----               Go back to the previous article.  This  tog-
                gles,  so  that  two -'s get you the current
                article.

UUUU               Unsubscribe  from  this   newsgroup.    Your
                .newsrc  file  will  be edited to change the
                ``:''  for  that  newsgroup  to  an   ``!'',
                preventing  you  from being shown that news-
                group again.

?               If you type any unrecognized command a  sum-
                mary of valid commands will be printed.

CCCChhhhaaaannnnggggiiiinnnngggg yyyyoooouuuurrrr SSSSuuuubbbbssssccccrrrriiiippppttttiiiioooonnnn LLLLiiiisssstttt

     If you take no special action you will subscribe  to  a
default subscription list.  This default varies locally.  To
find out your local default, type

        rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss ----ssss

Typically this list will include all  newsgroups  ending  in
``general'',  such  as  ggggeeeennnneeeerrrraaaallll, and nnnneeeetttt....ggggeeeennnneeeerrrraaaallll.  (At Duke,
the default is ``general''.  As distributed by Berkeley, the
default is ``general,all.general''.  The Columbus default is
``general,osg.general''.    Another   popular   default   is
``all''.)  You  can  change  this by creating a file in your
home directory named ".newsrc"  in  which  contains  as  its
first line a line of the form:

        options -n newsgroup newsgroup newsgroup ...

If your lines get too long, you can continue them on  subse-
quent  lines  by  beginning  those lines with a space.  (The
netnews system will put extra lines in this file  to  record
which articles you have read.  You should ignore these lines
unless you want to edit  them.)  For  example,  if  you  are



                       April 8, 1983





                           - 6 -


creating  a  subscription  list for the first time, and have
already read news, you will find some text already  in  your
._n_e_w_s_r_c  file,  recording which articles you have read.  You
should put your ooooppppttttiiiioooonnnnssss line before the first  line  of  the
file.) Thus,

        options -n general net.general fa.human-nets

will subscribe to those three newsgroups.

     A ``!'' can be used to exclude certain  newsgroups  and
the  word  aaaallllllll  can be used as a wild card, representing any
newsgroup.  You can also use aaaallllllll as a prefix  or  suffix  to
match a class of newsgroups.  For example,

        options -n all !fa.all !net.jokes !all.unix-all

will result in a subscription to all newsgroups  except  for
arpanet  news,  jokes,  and any UNIX information.  The meta-
character ``.'' is like ``/'' to the shell, and  ``all''  is
like ``*''.

     A simpler way to subscribe to news it to  subscribe  to
``all'',  and  then use the ``U'' readnews command to unsub-
scribe to newsgroups you don't want to read.  This  way  you
will  see  new  newsgroups that are created, get a chance to
evaluate them, and then  unsubscribe  to  those  that  don't
interest you.

SSSSuuuubbbbmmmmiiiittttttttiiiinnnngggg AAAArrrrttttiiiicccclllleeeessss

     To submit a new news article type

        ppppoooossssttttnnnneeeewwwwssss

You will be prompted for the newsgroup, title, and distribu-
tion  on your terminal.  Then you will be placed in the edi-
tor.  Enter the text of your article, after the blank  line,
and  exit  the  editor.   The  article will be posted to the
newsgroups specified.  If you change  your  mind  about  the
headers while you are still in the editor, you can edit them
as well.  Extra headers can also be added before  the  blank
line.

     The distribution line controls how widely your  article
will be distributed.  Often, you'll just hit return, causing
the article to go as far  as  the  newsgroup  name  implies,
e.g.,  ``usa.general''  would  be  distributed to all USENET
sites in the USA.  If you do want to  change  the  distribu-
tion,  type  in  the name of the newsgroup class you want it
distributed to.  Although any newsgroup  name  can  be  used
here,  ordinarily you'll just type the name of the newsgroup
class, e.g. ``usa'', ``net'', ``nj'', etc.   (``net''  arti-
cles go to the entire world, not just the USA.) For example,



                       April 8, 1983





                           - 7 -


to post an announcement of a science fiction  film  festival
in New Jersey, you wouldn't want to send it out to the whole
world, or even the whole United States.  You could  post  to
``net.sf-lovers''  with  a distribution of ``nj''.  When you
post something to the net, and you are prompted for the dis-
tribution,  please  think  for  a  minute about who would be
interested in reading your  message.   Sending  messages  to
people  who  have  no  interest  in  them is one of the most
annoying problems on the net today.

     If your article is related to a previous  article,  you
should use the ``f'' (followup) command to readnews, instead
of posting a new article.   This  creates  an  article  with
references  to  the  previous article, so that persons unin-
terested in the topic can shut it off.  Postnews should only
be used to start a new discussion.

FFFFrrrroooommmm tttthhhheeee AAAARRRRPPPPAAAANNNNEEEETTTT

     Certain newsgroups have different conventions for post-
ing  news.   Rather  than using iiiinnnneeeewwwwssss, ppppoooossssttttnnnneeeewwwwssss, or the ffffoooollll----
lllloooowwwwuuuupppp command, the convention is to send mail to a  particu-
lar  electronic  mailing  address.   All  the  ffffaaaa  (from the
ARPANET) newsgroups are in this category.   Although  it  is
possible  to post news directly to the newsgroup, you should
not do this.  The reason is the nature of the distribution.

     ffffaaaa newsgroups  are  electronic  mailing  lists  on  the
ARPANET.  A number of people on the ARPANET get the mailings
directly from the mailing lists.  One entry on each  mailing
list is of the form ``ppppoooosssstttt----_n_e_w_s_g_r_o_u_p@@@@BBBBeeeerrrrkkkkeeeelllleeeeyyyy'' which is fed
into  a  program  that  posts  the  article   on   newsgroup
``ffffaaaa...._n_e_w_s_g_r_o_u_p''.  From there it is distributed to the other
sites on USENET.

     If you post an article directly to the  newsgroup,  you
will  reach all the readers of that newsgroup on USENET, but
you will miss all the people getting the direct  mailing  on
the  ARPANET.   The  correct way to post news to an ffffaaaa news-
group is to send electronic mail to the  address  listed  in
the header of an article on this newsgroup (often an ARPANET
address).  To follow up an ffffaaaa article, use the rrrreeeeppppllllyyyy command
of  rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss,  not  the ffffoooolllllllloooowwww----uuuupppp command.  This will insure
that ARPANET members also see the reply.  Replying  directly
to  the  author is difficult, and requires that you have the
capability to send ARPANET mail.  The return address of  the
author  (on the ARPANET) is usually in the first line of the
article.

BBBBrrrroooowwwwssssiiiinnnngggg tttthhhhrrrroooouuuugggghhhh OOOOlllldddd NNNNeeeewwwwssss

     There are a number of command line options to the rrrreeeeaaaadddd----
nnnneeeewwwwssss command to help you find an old article you want to see
again.  The ----nnnn _n_e_w_s_g_r_o_u_p_s option restricts  your  search  to



                       April 8, 1983





                           - 8 -


certain  newsgroups.   The  ----xxxx option arranges to ignore the
record of articles read, which is kept in your ._n_e_w_s_r_c file.
This  will cause all articles in all newsgroups to which you
subscribe to be displayed, even those which you have already
seen.   It  also  causes  rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss to not update the ._n_e_w_s_r_c
file.  The ----aaaa _d_a_t_e option asks for news received  since  the
given  _d_a_t_e.   Note that even with the ----aaaa option, only arti-
cles you have not already seen will be printed,  unless  you
combine  it  with the ----xxxx option.  (Articles are kept on file
until they expire, typically after two weeks.) The  ----tttt  _k_e_y_-
_w_o_r_d_s  option restricts the query to articles mentioning one
of the _k_e_y_w_o_r_d_s in the title of the article.  Thus, the com-
mand

        rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss ----nnnn net.unix-wizards ----xxxx ----aaaa last thursday ----tttt setuid

asks for all articles in  newsgroup  net.unix-wizards  since
last  thursday  about  the setuid feature.  (Be careful with
the -t option.  The above example  will  not  find  articles
about ``suid'', nor about ``Setuid'', nor will it find arti-
cles with no title or whose author  did  not  use  the  word
``setuid'' in the title.)

     Other useful options include the ----llll option (which lists
only  the  headers  of articles - a useful form for browsing
through lots of messages).  The ----pppp option  prints  the  mes-
sages  without asking for any input; this is similar to some
older nnnneeeewwwwssss programs on many UNIX systems and is  useful  for
directing output to a printer.  The ----rrrr option produces arti-
cles in reverse order, from newest to oldest.

UUUUsssseeeerrrr IIIInnnntttteeeerrrrffffaaaacccceeeessss

     The _u_s_e_r _i_n_t_e_r_f_a_c_e of a program is the face it presents
to  the user, that is, what it prints and what it allows you
to type.  Readnews has options allowing you to use different
user  interfaces.   The  interface described above is called
the ``msgs'' interface because it mimics the  style  of  the
Berkeley  mmmmssssggggssss  program.   (This  program, in turn, mimics a
program at MIT of the same name.) The  key  element  of  the
msgs  interface  is  that after printing the header, you are
asked if you want the rest of the message.

     Another interface is available with the ----cccc option.   In
this  case,  the entire message is printed, header and body,
and you are prompted at the end of the message.  The command
options  are  the same as the msgs interface, but it is usu-
ally not necessary to use the ``----''  suffix  on  the  reply,
save,  or  followup  commands.  This interface is called the
``/bin/mail'' (pronounced _b_i_n_n _m_a_i_l) interface,  because  it
mimics the UNIX program of that name.

     A third interface is the  _M_a_i_l  (pronounced  _c_a_p  _m_a_i_l)
interface,  available  with the ----MMMM option.  This invokes the



                       April 8, 1983





                           - 9 -


MMMMaaaaiiiillll program directly, and allows you to read news with  the
same  commands  as  you  read mail.  (This interface may not
work on your system - it requires a special version of  Mail
with a ----TTTT option.)

     A fourth interface, if you have it, is the MH news pro-
gram  from  Rand.  That program can be used directly to read
network news.

     A fifth possibility is to use your favorite mail system
as an interface.  There are a number of different mail read-
ing programs, including /bin/mail, Mail, msg, and  MH.   Any
mail system with an option to specify an alternative mailbox
can be used to read news.  For example, to use Mail  without
the ----MMMM option, type

        rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss ----cccc "Mail -f %"

The shell command in quotes is invoked as a child  of  rrrreeeeaaaadddd----
nnnneeeewwwwssss....   The -f option to Mail names the alternative mailbox.
Readnews will put the news in a temporary file, and give the
name  of  this  file  to  the  mailer in place of the ``%''.
There is an important difference when  using  this  kind  of
interface.   The mailers do not give any indication of which
articles you read and which ones you skipped.  Readnews will
assume  you  read  _a_l_l the articles, even if you didn't, and
mark them all read.  By contrast, the ----MMMM option uses the  ----TTTT
option  to Mail, asking Mail to tell readnews which articles
you read.

GGGGeeeettttttttiiiinnnngggg NNNNeeeewwwwssss wwwwhhhheeeennnn yyyyoooouuuu LLLLoooogggg IIIInnnn

     Most users like to be told when they first  log  in  if
there  is any news.  This way they are reminded of news, but
are not interrupted by it during the day.   If  you  log  in
once  in  the  morning, you can think of getting the news as
reading the morning newspaper.  It is common to put a cccchhhheeeecccckkkk----
nnnneeeewwwwssss  or rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss command in your ._p_r_o_f_i_l_e or ._l_o_g_i_n file of
commands that happen when you log in.

     Since there might not be any news, and since the  rrrreeeeaaaadddd----
nnnneeeewwwwssss  command  goes to a considerable amount of work to find
all unread news (assuming you are going to read  it),  there
is  another  command,  called  cccchhhheeeecccckkkknnnneeeewwwwssss, which tells you if
there is any news.  The cccchhhheeeecccckkkknnnneeeewwwwssss  command  is  smaller  and
faster  than  rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss,  and  was  designed especially for a
login file.  There are also options to be silent if there is
(or  is not) news, and to start up rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss automatically if
there is news.

     The options to cccchhhheeeecccckkkknnnneeeewwwwssss are:






                       April 8, 1983





                           - 10 -


----yyyy              Print ``There is  news''  if  there  is  any
                unread news.

----vvvv              If ----yyyy is also  given,  instead  of  printing
                ``There  is  news'', print ``News: _n_e_w_s_g_r_o_u_p
                ...'' giving the name of the first newsgroup
                containing  unread  news.  If ggggeeeennnneeeerrrraaaallll is the
                first newsgroup presented, this can be  used
                to  tell  users  whether  the unread news is
                important.

----nnnn              Print ``No news''  if  there  is  no  unread
                news.

----eeee              If there is any unread news, start up  rrrreeeeaaaadddd----
                nnnneeeewwwwssss....  Any additional arguments after the ----eeee
                will be passed to readnews.

     Thus, ``cccchhhheeeecccckkkknnnneeeewwwwssss ----yyyynnnn'' tells you whether there is  any
unread  news.   ``cccchhhheeeecccckkkknnnneeeewwwwssss  ----eeee ----MMMM'' starts up rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss with
the Mail interface if there  is  news,  and  otherwise  does
nothing.   ``cccchhhheeeecccckkkknnnneeeewwwwssss  ----yyyy'' tells you if there is news, and
is silent if there is no news.

CCCCrrrreeeeaaaattttiiiinnnngggg NNNNeeeewwww NNNNeeeewwwwssssggggrrrroooouuuuppppssss

     New newsgroups are created by the users.  To  create  a
newsgroup,  first  post  an  article  an appropriate ggggeeeennnneeeerrrraaaallll
newsgroup suggesting the new newsgroup, (for example, for  a
new  nnnneeeetttt  or  ffffaaaa  newsgroup,  post to nnnneeeetttt....ggggeeeennnneeeerrrraaaallll, for a new
local newsgroup, post  to  ggggeeeennnneeeerrrraaaallll)  with  another  copy  to
nnnneeeetttt....nnnneeeewwwwssss....ggggrrrroooouuuupppp, for example:

        postnews
        Subject: suggested new newsgroup on literature
        Newsgroups: net.general,net.news.group

Other users will follow-up to net.news.group,  giving  opin-
ions  about  whether  the  suggested  newsgroup makes sense,
should have a different name, etc.

     When agreement is reached and it  is  established  that
there  is  interest  in  the  topic,  ask your local netnews
administrator to create the newsgroup.  (It can actually  be
created  by  any  netnews administrator anywhere on the net,
within the scope of the newsgroup.) Once  the  newsgroup  is
created and the first article has been posted, the newsgroup
is available for all interested persons to post to.

LLLLiiiisssstttt ooooffff NNNNeeeewwwwssssggggrrrroooouuuuppppssss

     This section lists the newsgroups  that  are  currently
active.   It is intended to help you decide what you want to
subscribe to.  Note that the list  is  constantly  changing.



                       April 8, 1983





                           - 11 -


New  newsgroups  are  created  at the rate of about five per
month, and old newsgroups often fall into disuse.  Note also
that this list is specially tailored for the Berkeley sites.
It is recommended that other installations edit the list  of
local newsgroups to fit their installation before distribut-
ing this document to their users.  If this is not  possible,
a local appendix can be created.

LLLLooooccccaaaallll

     Local groups are kept  on  the  current  machine  only.
Local  names can be identified by the lack of a prefix, that
is, there are no periods in local newsgroup names.

general         News to be read by  everyone  on  the  local
                machine.   For  example:  The system will be
                down Monday morning for PM.  Or, a new  ver-
                sion  of program x has been installed.  This
                newsgroup is usually  mandatory  -  you  are
                required  to  subscribe  to  this newsgroup.
                (The list  of  mandatory  newsgroups  varies
                locally.)   This  requirement  assures  that
                important  announcements  reach  all  users.
                (Formerly mmmmssssggggssss.)

uuuuccccbbbb

     Ucb groups are sent to all USENET machines at Berkeley.

ucb.general     Read  by  everyone  on  all  ucb   machines.
                (Formerly  aaaallllllllmmmmssssggggssss.) For example: ASUC elec-
                tions are Tuesday: everyone be sure to vote!

ucb.eats        Contributions to the  U.  C.  Berkeley  Eats
                guide to local restaurants.

ucb.cs          Topics of interest to the  Computer  Science
                Division,   such  as  new  class  offerings.
                (Formerly ccccssssmmmmssssggggssss.)

ucb.talks       Announcements of seminars, talks,  and  spe-
                cial classes to be held on campus.

ucb.su-talks    Announcements of  seminars  to  be  held  at
                Stanford.   (This  could  be  from the group
                su.talks at Stanford, for example.)

ucb.bboard      An electronic bulletin board.  For  example:
                ``Apartment for rent'', ``where can I get my
                car fixed'', ``does anyone know  of  someone
                who rents terminals to students''.






                       April 8, 1983





                           - 12 -


ucb.jobs        Job offerings in the area.

ucb.prelims     Discussion of EECS preliminary exams for the
                Ph.D.

ffffaaaa

     FA groups are "from the arpanet" and are mostly  copies
of mailing lists or ``digests'' distributed on that network.
(A digest is a collection of mail put together by an  editor
and sent out every so often.  It is much like a newsletter.)
A special convention applies  to  submissions  to  FA  news-
groups.   As  previously  described,  you  should  not  post
directly to the newsgroup, since this will be seen by people
on  USENET  but not by the people on the arpanet who get the
list directly mailed to them.  Instead,  send  mail  to  the
return address on any article, by using the reply command to
rrrreeeeaaaaddddnnnneeeewwwwssss.  For example, to post to ffffaaaa....hhhhuuuummmmaaaannnn----nnnneeeettttssss, the  reply
command  might mail to cccchhhhiiiiccccoooo!!!!uuuuccccbbbbvvvvaaaaxxxx!!!!CCCC77770000::::hhhhuuuummmmaaaannnn----nnnneeeettttssss (if chico
is the proper route to get to ucbvax  -  this  route  varies
depending  on your system).  FA groups and their correspond-
ing mailing lists can reach a  very  large  user  community,
including  USENET  sites  on  UUCP,  Berknet,  BLN,  and the
ARPANET, as well as sites on the ARPANET which  are  not  on
USENET, who get the news via direct electronic mailing.

fa.arms-d       People worried about nukes.

fa.arpa-bboard  Announcements that are posted to all arpanet
                bboards are also fed into this newsgroup.

fa.digest-p     People who deal with  digests.   Mostly  the
                people who moderate them.

fa.editor-p     Interest group  in  computer  editors,  both
                text and program.

fa.energy       Topics relating to alternate energy  produc-
                tion, conservation, etc.

fa.human-nets   A daily moderated digest with discussions of
                computer-aided   human-to-human   communica-
                tions.   Probably  the  most   widely   read
                ARPANET publication.

fa.info-cpm     CP/M and other operating systems  for  micro
                computers.

fa.info-micro   Micro processor discussions.

fa.info-terms   Opinions/queries  about  what's  a  good/bad
                computer terminal.





                       April 8, 1983





                           - 13 -


fa.info-vax     VAX interest group.  Seems to be mostly  VMS
                issues, but some hardware discussions too.

fa.poli-sci     Political Science discussions digest.

fa.sf-lovers    Science Fiction book/movie reviews, etc.

fa.space        Digest containing comments on the space pro-
                gram and outer space in general.

fa.tcp-ip       Digest relating to the TCP  and  IP  network
                protocols.

fa.telecom      Technical topics relating to  telecommunica-
                tions,  especially  the telephone system.  A
                digest recently spun off from fa.human-nets.

fa.teletext     Teletext discusses  all  aspects  of  ``eso-
                teric''   data   systems.    This   includes
                teletext, viewdata,  closed-captioning,  and
                digicasting.

fa.unix-cpm     CPM/UNIX discussions.

fa.works        Interest  group  on  personal   workstations
                (e.g. Apollo, Perq, Xerox Star, etc).

nnnneeeetttt

     Net groups are intended to be available to  all  people
on  the entire network who read netnews.  This does not mean
they go to every machine, since some machines  restrict  the
volume  of  news that comes in.  It is assumed that users of
such restricted machines can read news on another machine on
which  they  have  a  login.  Net groups reach all of USENET
(including USENET sites on the ARPANET) but do not reach any
sites that are not on USENET.  That is, USENET is defined as
all sites that nnnneeeetttt....ggggeeeennnneeeerrrraaaallll reaches.

     This list is already out of date.  An up to  date  list
is posted to newsgroup net.news periodically.  See the docu-
mentation file ``doc/nglist'' for a more recent list.

net.general     Articles to be read by everyone on the whole
                net.

net.applic      Functional     programming     (applicative)
                languages.

net.auto        Notes of interest to  owners  of  particular
                cars.  Main subgroup is nnnneeeetttt....aaaauuuuttttoooo....vvvvwwww for own-
                ers of Volkswagon Rabbits.





                       April 8, 1983





                           - 14 -


net.aviation    Private pilots.

net.bugs        Bug  reports  and  fixes.   Subscribing   to
                nnnneeeetttt....bbbbuuuuggggssss  gets all bug reports, but bugs are
                normally posted  to  one  of  nnnneeeetttt....bbbbuuuuggggssss....2222bbbbssssdddd,
                nnnneeeetttt....bbbbuuuuggggssss....4444bbbbssssdddd, nnnneeeetttt....bbbbuuuuggggssss....vvvv7777, or nnnneeeetttt....bbbbuuuuggggssss....uuuussssgggg,
                (for the 2nd and 4th Berkeley Software  Dis-
                tribution,  Version  7, or UNIX system III &
                V,) as appropriate.

net.chess       Interest group  for  computer  chess.   This
                newsgroup is gatewayed into an ARPANET mail-
                ing list but appears as a  normal  newsgroup
                to USENET, so it is called nnnneeeetttt....cccchhhheeeessssssss instead
                of ffffaaaa....cccchhhheeeessssssss.

net.columbia    Newswire items and  comments  on  the  Space
                Shuttle,  and  on  the space program in gen-
                eral.

net.cooks       Food, cooking, cookbooks, and recipies.

net.cycle       Motorcycle interest group.

net.eunice      Topics of interest to  sites  running  SRI's
                Eunice system, which simulates UNIX on VMS.

net.games       Discussion  of  computer   games   (of   the
                /usr/games/variety).     Subgroups   include
                nnnneeeetttt....ggggaaaammmmeeeessss....rrrroooogggguuuueeee, nnnneeeetttt....ggggaaaammmmeeeessss....ffffrrrrpppp (for  fantasy
                role playing games,) and nnnneeeetttt....ggggaaaammmmeeeessss....ttttrrrriiiivvvviiiiaaaa.

net.ham-radio   Topics of interest to amateur  radio  opera-
                tors.

net.jokes       The latest good joke  you've  heard.   Jokes
                are  expected  to be kept clean and unoffen-
                sive.   Offensive  jokes   can   be   posted
                ``encrypted'',  by  rotating  each letter 13
                places in the alphabet, and  mentioning  the
                reason  for encryption in the subject.  This
                prevents people from  accidently  decrypting
                something  that  will  offend them.  (The tr
                program or /usr/lib/news/caesar can be  used
                to rotate a joke.)

net.lan         Local area network interest group.

net.lsi         Large Scale Integrated Circuit discussions.

net.misc        Miscellaneous  discussions  that  start   in
                net.general but are not permanent enough for
                their own newsgroup.




                       April 8, 1983





                           - 15 -


net.movies      Movie reviews by members of USENET.

net.music       Computer generated music.

net.news        Discussion  of  netnews  itself.   Subgroups
                discuss  or post various aspects of netnews,
                including nnnneeeetttt....nnnneeeewwwwssss....bbbb for the  B  version  of
                netnews,   nnnneeeetttt....nnnneeeewwwwssss....ggggrrrroooouuuupppp   for  discussions
                about proposed new newsgroups,  nnnneeeetttt....nnnneeeewwwwssss....mmmmaaaapppp
                to     post     maps     of     USENET    or
                additions/corrections to  previously  posted
                maps,  nnnneeeetttt....nnnneeeewwwwssss....nnnneeeewwwwssssiiiitttteeee  to  announce  a new
                site.  nnnneeeetttt....nnnneeeewwwwssss itself is used  for  discus-
                sions  relating  to  USENET policies and the
                like, rather than any specific software.

net.oa          Office Automation/Word  Processing  interest
                group.

net.periphs     Queries  and  discussions  about  particular
                peripherals.   (``Does  anyone have a driver
                for a framus-11?'')

net.rec         Recreational  games.   This   differs   from
                nnnneeeetttt....ssssppppoooorrrrtttt  in  that  nnnneeeetttt....rrrreeeecccc discusses games
                where  one   generally   participates,   but
                nnnneeeetttt....ssssppppoooorrrrtttt    is    for   spectator   sports.
                nnnneeeetttt....ggggaaaammmmeeeessss is for computer type games.   Sub-
                groups of nnnneeeetttt....rrrreeeecccc include nnnneeeetttt....rrrreeeecccc....bbbbrrrriiiiddddggggeeee for
                contract bridge  discussions,  nnnneeeetttt....rrrreeeecccc....ssssccccuuuubbbbaaaa
                for   scuba   divers,  and  nnnneeeetttt....rrrreeeecccc....sssskkkkiiii  for
                skiers.

net.records     Discussions of phonograph  records,  albums,
                record stores, etc.

net.rumor       For posting of rumors.

net.sources     Large  bulky  items  are  distributed  here.
                People don't usually want to read this news-
                group, rather it is used for  software  dis-
                tribution.

net.space       Undigested, immediate  distribution  version
                of fa.space.

net.sport       Spectator   sports.     Subgroups    include
                nnnneeeetttt....ssssppppoooorrrrtttt....bbbbaaaasssseeeebbbbaaaallllllll,  nnnneeeetttt....ssssppppoooorrrrtttt....ffffoooooooottttbbbbaaaallllllll, and
                nnnneeeetttt....ssssppppoooorrrrtttt....hhhhoooocccckkkkeeeeyyyy.

net.taxes       Tax advice and queries.






                       April 8, 1983





                           - 16 -


net.test        Test messages are  posted  here.   Generally
                this is not interesting to ordinary readers.
                If you  must  post  something  here,  please
                explain  why  in the message, and please use
                the smallest  distribution  newsgroup  (e.g.
                test or ucb.test) possible.

net.travel      Requests, suggestions,  and  opinions  about
                traveling.

net.ucds        Circuit drawing system.

net.unix-wizardsARPANET mailing list for UNIX Wizards.  Any-
                thing  and  everything  relating  to UNIX is
                discussed here.  This list is  gatewayed  to
                the  ARPANET mailing list but appears like a
                regular nnnneeeetttt newsgroup to USENET.

net.wines       Information and recommendations about  wines
                and alcoholic beverages.





































                       April 8, 1983


