An introduction to Newsgroups Newsgroups are discussion groups on UseNet. Newsgroups are organized into subject hierarchies with sub-categories. The first three letters of the newgroup's domain indicate its general category. Some common domains are listed to the right. One finds a variety of material in newsgroups ranging from technical articles to flame wars where individuals attack each other with strong opinions and offensive statements.
Flame wars can become overwhelming when they dominate conversation within a newsgroup.
The quality of the discussion can be better if the newsgroup is moderated. If a group is moderated, submissions are automatically directed to a moderator, who edits or filters and then posts the results. Washington University offers newsgroups on their server for your class at no cost. To set up a newsgroup see the information available in Workshop 3 . Save the address of at least one newsgroup that could be linked to your course site.