The list of newsgroups available on USENET is enormous. Way back in 2002, there were already over 100,000 USENET newsgroups available.
When you hook up your newsreader for the first time, it will want to download a list of newsgroups. When you hit the button to download the list of newsgroups, you may want to go get a cup of coffee or do something outside for a while. There are over 100,000 USENET newsgroups available. Don't let this dissuade you from using the system, however; you won't really be interested in the vast majority of them.
Filtering Through
Depending upon what USENET newsreader you are using, you will have different capabilities for filtering through the various newsgroups available. Generally speaking, it's a good idea to download all of the newsgroups once so you have the file on your system. From there, you can apply filters to the newsgroups to find exactly which ones you're interested in subscribing to. The easiest way to do this is to simply type in the keyword in which you are interested. For example, if you had a penchant for looking up at the night sky, you could search for groups by entering the word "astronomy".
Once you have the list of newsgroups available downloaded, you don't generally have to do this again. If you hook up to a new server, it very well may ask you to do it, however, as every new server carries its own list of groups.
Some of the newsgroups that you will find on USENET will be very regional. Your new server, for instance, may carry groups that are related to specific cities in your area but in which you have no real interest. You can filter these out as needed.
Hierarchies
The Big 8 newsgroups are those that belong to the a principal hierarchies of USENET. These include:
sci
comp
news
soc
rec
talk
misc
alt
Some people choose to skip the alt hierarchy, as it contains essentially anything that wouldn't fit under the categories of the other seven. For most users, the first seven categories will include everything you want to know.
There are other hierarchies, as well, and you may or may not want to pay any attention to these. If you have a specific interest in one of the topics that these hierarchies cover, however, they are, of course, the best places to look for information related to that topic.
The list of newsgroups is large, but remember that not all of the groups listed are actually active. Most newsgroup readers will allow you to filter out groups by inactivity. If you want to make certain that you don't join any dead groups, you can use this feature and limit the USENET newsgroups that you download to those that have the most active followings. This way, you can be sure that you will always be able to participate in a conversation and that you won't be wasting your time on a newsgroup that isn't going anywhere.
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