Usenet Big-8 Management Board - User contributions [en]

Web-to-news gateways

2026-03-21T10:59:51Z

Marco Moock:

A web-to-news gateway is a website that allows access to Usenet newsgroups through a web-based user interface. Some allow users to post messages, while others act only as read-only archives.

This page contains a list of currently known websites that act as gateways to Usenet. It should not be taken an endorsement or recommendation of any site listed here.

Please [mailto:board@big-8.org contact us] if you have any corrections or you know of any sites not listed here.

== Commercial Providers ==

* [https://easynews.com Easynews] allows its customers to search, read, and download posts using a web browser.

== Free Providers ==

* [https://groups.google.com Google Groups] is the biggest and best-known Usenet archive. It incorporates the old Deja News archives, as well as much historical material dating back as far as 1981. However, Google later launched its own discussion group service under the Google Groups brand, with no clear distinction between which groups were part of Usenet and which were proprietary to Google. It should also be noted that at some point Google stopped adding or deleting any Usenet groups from their servers, so recently-created newsgroups may not be available. '''[https://support.google.com/groups/answer/11036538?hl=en On 22nd February 2024, Google Groups disabled Usenet posting access and stopped receiving any new articles on their servers]'''. Usenet articles archived prior to that date will still be viewable.

* [https://cmacleod.me.uk/ng Newsgrouper] by Colin Macleod acts as a web front-end to the [https://www.eternal-september.org/ Eternal September] news server, and therefore allows access to all the same groups and articles that they do.
* [https://www.electrondepot.com ElectronDepot] provides access to a number of Usenet groups relating to electronics and embedded systems. The groups are shown under aliases to make them look more like web forums: the "Electronics Repair" forum is actually sci.electronics.repair, for example. It is noteworthy that this site appears to allow users to host images, and also makes an effort to filter out spam posts.

== Read-Only Archives ==

* [https://narkive.com Narkive] - no longer has search functionality and the list of groups accessible from the front page has been greatly reduced. However, it is still possible to see archives for other groups: to find the archive URL for a specific group, take the group name and append ".narkive.com" to it (so to see the archives of comp.lang.python, go to [https://comp.lang.python.narkive.com https://comp.lang.python.narkive.com]).
* [https://www.usenetarchives.com/index.php Usenet Archives] - a searchable archive with posts dating back to the 1980s. However, searches tend to run extremely slowly.
* [https://yarchive.net Yarchive] - a collection of useful or interesting Usenet articles sorted by topic.
* [http://al.howardknight.net Usenet Article Lookup] by Howard Knight - look up a Usenet article if you know its Message-ID.
* [https://olduse.net olduse.net] - as well as the time-shifted newsfeed service, the site offers an [https://article.olduse.net article lookup by Message-ID] like the Howard Knight archive.

Checkgroups

2026-03-21T10:57:51Z

Marco Moock:

'''Checkgroups''' is the canonical list of Big-8 Newsgroups.

A post is made monthly to news.announce.newgroups listing all of the newsgroups in the Big-8 hierarchies.

Those news administrators who wish to do so can use this list to carry the canonical Big-8 groups (those formally endorsed by the news.announce.newgroups moderators in the past or the [[b8mb| Big-8 Management Board]] at present).

The [[ISC]] maintains an [https://ftp.isc.org/pub/usenet/news.announce.newgroups/Group_Lists/ ftp index]--scroll to the bottom of the directory to find the latest list.

[[How to Use Checkgroups and Control Messages]].

User:Marco Moock

2025-11-21T02:36:29Z

Marco Moock:

I found Usenet by searching the names of other employees of the university Heidelberg I started apprenticeship in 2020.

I then joined it 2021 and I am mostly active in the Germany groups.
I am interested in Linux, FreeBSD, free software, networking, and stuff where the user has the control instead of a big company or even the government.

Contact me via mm+big8@dorfdsl.de

Spam and phishing should be sent to crap2002@stinkedores.dorfdsl.de

User:Marco Moock

2025-11-21T02:36:15Z

Marco Moock:

I found Usenet by searching the names of other employees of the university Heidelberg I started apprenticeship in 2020.

I then joined it 2021 and I am mostly active in the Germany groups.
I am interested in Linux, FreeBSD, free software, networking, and stuff where the user has the control instead of a big company or even the government.

Contact me via mm+big8@dorfdsl.de
Spam and phishing should be sent to crap2002@stinkedores.dorfdsl.de

Internet forums

2025-04-30T20:52:35Z

Marco Moock: removed reference to outdated newsreaders

There are many different ways of getting people together to discuss something on the Internet. This page covers a few of them, and includes information on advantages and disadvantages as well as on where to look for more information.

== Usenet groups ==

Newsgroups are distributed among tens of thousands of news servers. Internet service providers (ISPs), universities, companies and other organizations — in some cases, even private persons — operate those servers. Each server receives (hopefully) copies of all messages in a newsgroup and stores them in a sort of database. News servers automatically exchange these messages among themselves to keep each other's databases up to date.

Each participant in a newsgroup reads messages from, and posts messages to, his or her local news server. This is done using news-reading software such as Thunderbird.

== Mailing lists ==

A mailing list is possibly the simplest kind of forum. Participants subscribe to a mailing list by having their email address placed on a list of addresses that are to receive messages about a certain topic. They post messages to the list by sending email to a "list address". The list software emails copies to all participants, who therefore receive and handle the messages the same way as their other email.

Normally, mailing lists are managed automatically or semi-automatically, using list-server software such as Mailman, Majordomo, LISTSERV or ListProc. Your ISP may be able to provide this service for their users.

== Bulletin boards ==

A web-based bulletin board exists on a web site. To use it, participants point their web browsers to a certain web address (URI) and see a list of message subjects. They can post messages by entering them into a form on a web page. Your ISP may offer such a service, or you can use a separate provider.

If you have your own web site, your hosting service may have web board software available, or you may be able to install it.

== Comparison ==

The different kinds of forums each have advantages and disadvantages in various respects:

=== Ease of use (for participants) ===

==== Mailing lists ====

Everybody knows how to send and receive email, right? ☺ Using a mailing list involves little more than knowing where to send a message so that it is posted. Usually, your mail software's reply function even takes care of this.

Main problems from a participant's point of view:

* How to find out about the list in the first place and how to subscribe.
* Remembering how to unsubscribe from the list when necessary (such as when you go on vacation, so your mailbox does not fill up while you are away).
* Managing the extra email in your mailbox (some lists have hundreds of participants, and may deliver dozens of messages every day).

==== Bulletin boards ====

With a web-based bulletin board, participants have to figure out how to use each particular board's interface, which can (and probably does) vary from one board to the next. However, they do not have to worry about their mailboxes while on vacation; all the messages are stored on the board's hosting site, which removes old messages as necessary.

==== Newsgroups ====

With a newsgroup, the user interface varies from one person to another, depending on the software he or she uses. That software may be e.g. Thunderbird, Claws Mail or Pan, but for that person, it is the same for all newsgroups. This means that if you know how to access one newsgroup, you know how to access them all. In addition, similar to a web board, the messages are stored on your news server, which automatically causes old messages to expire, so you do not have to worry about your mailbox.

=== Management issues ===

With a mailing list or Web board, the owner can have complete control over who participates and what they post. Most newsgroups are instead non-moderated, which means that anyone can participate and can post anything he or she wants, subject only to peer pressure from other participants, and/or regulation by the user's own ISP. This can make it hard to keep a newsgroup focused on a particular topic.

Some newsgroups are moderated, which means that someone (or a group of people, or even a software "robot") examines all postings before they actually appear in the newsgroup. These groups can be controlled much like a mailing list or Web board, but frankly, if you're new to all this, you probably don't even want to think about creating a moderated newsgroup, because it involves major technical issues that even experienced newsgroup users have to struggle with.

=== Publicity ===

To some extent, newsgroups publicize themselves. People can "stumble upon" them while browsing through the list of newsgroups that their server provides. They can also find groups by using search engines such as Google Groups (formerly Deja News). People can also find web-based bulletin boards by doing web searches on the topic, and they can find mailing lists by using a search engine, but both probably depend more on word-of-mouth publicity.

=== Ease of creation ===

Once you have found a host site for your mailing list or web-based bulletin board, you can set up the service quickly. Because it does not physically exist anywhere else besides the host site, the only person from whom you need permission is the operator of that site.

Newsgroups, however, are distributed among tens of thousands of news servers all over the world. In order for a newsgroup to be viable, a significant number of server administrators must create the group locally on their servers. Therefore, you have to generate support for your newsgroup among other people in order to convince those administrators (either directly or indirectly) that creating the group is worthwhile. Exactly [[Creating new newsgroups|how you do that]] depends on what kind of newsgroup you want to create.

=== Ease of removal ===

If a mailing list or web-based bulletin board does not work out, or if you cannot continue to run it for some reason, discontinuing it is easy, as it only exists on one server. A newsgroup, on the other hand, usually cannot be removed from all servers carrying it. You can simply abandon it, but then it accumulates spam and other garbage.

=== All things considered ===

If you want to create a forum for a specific, well-defined group of people (e.g. for your friends, for your company's customers, for college classmates or for a church congregation), and if you want to have some control over what goes on in the forum, you're probably best off creating a mailing list or web-based bulletin board.

If your potential audience is widespread and not very well definable in advance (in terms of specific people), and your topic has widespread interest and is not already being covered by another newsgroup, trying to create a newsgroup may be worthwhile. However, doing this is very much a political process, because you have to gain the cooperation of many people. You should therefore [[Creating new newsgroups|learn about the process]] in advance, and observe it in action for a while by watching other groups being created, before you try to do it yourself.

----
This article is based on material authored by members of the {{news|news.newusers.questions}} Moderation Board and nnq-workers mailing list, particularly by Jon Bell (until 2005) and Thor Kottelin (since 2007)

{{nnq-license}}

[[Category:news.newusers.questions]]

Getting Started with Usenet

2025-04-30T20:45:01Z

Marco Moock: replaced screenshot to clarify the auth field

== Introduction ==

Many online tutorials talk about using Usenet for file-sharing, but very few talk about Usenet’s true legacy. Usenet is the original way to have long-form discussions on the internet. Its use diminished over time as new forums such as message boards and later social media came around. However, Usenet never went away. Usenet’s greatest strength comes from its decentralized nature. If every Usenet server except one were to go down, that wouldn’t be the end of Usenet. However, if Facebook is down, it’s down for everyone. When it’s gone, it will be gone forever.
Usenet is simple. It is plain text.

== Task 1: Get a Usenet Account ==

# Open your browser and go to the [http://www.eternal-september.org/RegisterNewsAccount.php Eternal September account registration page]: http://www.eternal-september.org/RegisterNewsAccount.php
# Before you continue, make sure to take a look at the [http://www.eternal-september.org/index.php?showpage=terms Terms of Use]: http://www.eternal-september.org/index.php?showpage=terms This isn’t a bunch of legalese, but they are guidelines on what is permitted. It’s OK if you don’t understand everything but most people will get the gist of what’s being said.
# Fill out the information in the form. The server will send a new email in '''plain text'''. No, this is not ideal, but you can always come back and change the password later. Always use a new password when signing up to a new website so it can’t be used elsewhere if it is found.
# Put your userid and password someplace safe. You will also need to know that the server address that you will be using: <kbd>news.eternal-september.org</kbd>

== Task 2: Set up Thunderbird ==

# Install [https://www.thunderbird.net/ Thunderbird] if you haven’t already. If you are using Windows or Mac, you can install it from the following URL, if you are using Linux, you can install it with your distribution’s package manager: https://www.thunderbird.net/
# The first time that you run Thunderbird, you will be prompted with a screen that says, “Set Up Your Existing Email Address”. Click the '''Cancel''' button and then '''Exit Setup''' to continue. You can use Thunderbird for email also if you want, but we will focus on Usenet.
# Click on the hamburger button (the triple bar) in the window title bar, then on '''New Account''' and then on '''Newsgroup'''.
# Fill in Your Name and Email Address, then click '''Next'''. [[File:Account_wizard.png]] These do '''not''' have to be real, though if you enter a fictitious email address, make sure it does not correspond to one that might already be in use by someone else. (Using the reserved domain name "example.com", or adding ".invalid" to the end of the domain name, are good ideas.)
# Fill in your Newsgroup Server (<kbd>news.eternal-september.org</kbd>) and click on '''Next'''.
# Fill in an Account Name of your choice, or leave it as the default. Then click on '''Next'''.
# Review your settings, and then click '''Next''' to finish the account setup.
# If Thunderbird doesn't already display the tab with your new account, then click on that tab near the title bar, or else click on the Mail icon in the Spaces Toolbar at the left edge of the window.
# Click on the hamburger button in the window title bar, then on '''Account Settings'''.
# Locate your account in the left-hand pane and click on its '''Server Settings'''. [[File:View_settings_2.png]]
# Under '''Security Settings''', change '''Connection security''' to '''SSL/TLS'''.
# Under '''Server Settings''', check the '''Always request authentication when connecting to this server''' checkbox.
# Close the '''Account Settings''' tab.
# Right-click (or on a Mac, click and hold) on your account name, then click on '''Subscribe…'''
# Fill in your userid and password for news.eternal-september.org and check the '''Use Password Manager to remember this password''' if you want. (If you are not using news.eternal-september.org, use the information from your Usenet provider.)

== Task 3: Subscribe to a test newsgroup ==

# After following the steps above, you will be in a '''Subscribe''' window. In the '''Show items that contain''' input field, type <kbd>eternal</kbd>. The news server contains a few local newsgroups that are not accessible to other providers. These all begin with “eternal-september.”.
# Click on the checkbox next to '''eternal-september.test''' and then click on '''OK'''. [[File:Subscribe.png|subscribe]]
# Click on the first newsgroup listed for your account, which is '''e-s.test'''. (Thunderbird always abbreviates the first parts of the newsgroup name.) You will be prompted for how many headers to download. If you have a very slow connection, you can just download a few. Click on '''Download'''. You should now see a lot of nonsense articles. These are articles from people who are doing exactly what you are doing. They are testing out their newsreaders to make sure that they can post to Usenet.
# Click on a few articles from other people and read them. Don’t expect them to make any sense since this is a test newsgroup. It’s good to understand what a newsgroup article looks like like.

== Task 4: Post your first newsgroup article ==

# In the folder pane header, click on '''New Message'''.
# Write a simple subject and message body.
# In the toolbar, click on '''Send'''. [[File:New_message.png|new message]]
# Wait a few seconds, and then click on the Get Messages icon (next to the '''New Message''' button) in the folder pane header. Your article should now appear in the message list. Go ahead and read it!

== Task 5: Subscribe to some real newsgroups ==

# Right-click (or on a Mac, click and hold) on your account name, then click on '''Subscribe…'''.
# Browse through the list of newsgroups for other newsgroups that look appealing to you, or do some keyword searches in the '''Show items that contain''' field. Then subscribe to them by clicking on the respective checkboxes.

While there are thousands of newsgroups, it may be hard to find some that are currently active. Instead of subscribing using the trial-and-error process described above, you could instead import [https://www.big-8.org/w/images/3/3e/Sample-newsrc.txt a list of groups known to be active as of July 2024]:

# Click on the hamburger button in the window title bar, then on '''Account Settings'''.
# Locate your account in the left-hand pane and click on its '''Server Settings'''. [[File:View_settings.png]]
# Under '''Message Storage''', make a note of the filename listed under '''News.rc file''', or select and copy it to the clipboard.
# Using your web browser, download [https://www.big-8.org/w/images/3/3e/Sample-newsrc.txt the .newsrc file]. When prompted for the filename, navigate to or paste in the filename from the previous step. You will be prompted if you want to overwrite the existing file, so indicate your agreement.
# Restart Thunderbird by closing it and relaunching it. The folder list will now show a list of active newsgroups.

== Summary ==

In this tutorial, you have signed up for your first Usenet account, set up Thunderbird for Usenet, read a few articles in a test newsgroup, posted a test article, and subscribed to some real newsgroups. You now have all of the tools to be dangerous.

A word about Usenet Netiquette:

Before there were Codes of Conduct, there was Netiquette. Netiquette is a set of common sense rules for behaving online. Most are common sense: don’t be a jerk to people, don’t troll, don’t feed the trolls, and don’t spam. You can read about this in a little more detail at [http://linux.sgms-centre.com/misc/netiquette.php USENET and Mailing List posting netiquette].. Nobody wants to join a new community and be ''that newbie''. It’s always best to read first, reply later.

File:View settings 2.png

2025-04-30T20:42:48Z

Marco Moock:

User:Marco Moock

2024-12-12T18:55:42Z

Marco Moock: +rslight

I found Usenet by searching the names of other employees of the university Heidelberg I started apprenticeship in 2020.

I then joined it 2021 and I am mostly active in the Germany groups.
I operate [https://pi-dach.dorfdsl.de/rocksolid/index.php an rslight isntance], which provides a web interface to German newsgroups.
I am interested in Linux, free software, networking, and stuff where the user has the control instead of a big company.

Web-to-news gateways

2024-12-12T18:54:16Z

Marco Moock: +dorfdsl rslight

A web-to-news gateway is a website that allows access to Usenet newsgroups through a web-based user interface. Some allow users to post messages, while others act only as read-only archives.

This page contains a list of currently known websites that act as gateways to Usenet. It should not be taken an endorsement or recommendation of any site listed here.

Please [mailto:board@big-8.org contact us] if you have any corrections or you know of any sites not listed here.

== Commercial Providers ==

* [https://easynews.com Easynews] allows its customers to search, read, and download posts using a web browser.

== Free Providers ==

* [https://groups.google.com Google Groups] is the biggest and best-known Usenet archive. It incorporates the old Deja News archives, as well as much historical material dating back as far as 1981. However, Google later launched its own discussion group service under the Google Groups brand, with no clear distinction between which groups were part of Usenet and which were proprietary to Google. It should also be noted that at some point Google stopped adding or deleting any Usenet groups from their servers, so recently-created newsgroups may not be available. '''[https://support.google.com/groups/answer/11036538?hl=en On 22nd February 2024, Google Groups disabled Usenet posting access and stopped receiving any new articles on their servers]'''. Usenet articles archived prior to that date will still be viewable.
* [https://www.rocksolidbbs.com Rocksolid BBS] and [https://www.novabbs.com NovaBBS] - two bulletin board systems running the Rocksolid Light software for NNTP-based forums. Currently carrying a large number of Usenet newsgroups.
* [https://pi-dach.dorfdsl.de/rocksolid/index.php Rocksolid light at dorfdsl] is another rslight instance, but mostly for German groups. Other hierarchies can be added on request.
* [https://cmacleod.me.uk/ng Newsgrouper] by Colin Macleod acts as a web front-end to the [https://www.eternal-september.org/ Eternal September] news server, and therefore allows access to all the same groups and articles that they do.
* [https://www.electrondepot.com ElectronDepot] provides access to a number of Usenet groups relating to electronics and embedded systems. The groups are shown under aliases to make them look more like web forums: the "Electronics Repair" forum is actually sci.electronics.repair, for example. It is noteworthy that this site appears to allow users to host images, and also makes an effort to filter out spam posts.

== Read-Only Archives ==

* [https://narkive.com Narkive] - no longer has search functionality and the list of groups accessible from the front page has been greatly reduced. However, it is still possible to see archives for other groups: to find the archive URL for a specific group, take the group name and append ".narkive.com" to it (so to see the archives of comp.lang.python, go to [https://comp.lang.python.narkive.com https://comp.lang.python.narkive.com]).
* [https://www.usenetarchives.com/index.php Usenet Archives] - a searchable archive with posts dating back to the 1980s. However, searches tend to run extremely slowly.
* [https://yarchive.net Yarchive] - a collection of useful or interesting Usenet articles sorted by topic.
* [http://al.howardknight.net Usenet Article Lookup] by Howard Knight - look up a Usenet article if you know its Message-ID.
* [https://olduse.net olduse.net] - as well as the time-shifted newsfeed service, the site offers an [https://article.olduse.net article lookup by Message-ID] like the Howard Knight archive.

Checkgroups

2024-10-21T11:01:51Z

Marco Moock: replace Google Groups link

'''Checkgroups''' is the canonical list of Big-8 Newsgroups.

A post is made monthly to [https://news.novabbs.org/usenet/thread.php?group=news.announce.newgroups news.announce.newgroups] listing all of the newsgroups in the Big-8 hierarchies.

Those news administrators who wish to do so can use this list to carry the canonical Big-8 groups (those formally endorsed by the news.announce.newgroups moderators in the past or the [[b8mb| Big-8 Management Board]] at present).

The [[ISC]] maintains an [ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/usenet/news.announce.newgroups/Group_Lists/ ftp index]--scroll to the bottom of the directory to find the latest list.

[[How to Use Checkgroups and Control Messages]].

User:Marco Moock

2024-08-02T20:36:23Z

Marco Moock: Created page with "I found Usenet by searching the names of other employees of the university Heidelberg I started apprenticeship in 2020. I then joined it 2021 and I am mostly active in the Germany groups. I am interested in Linux, free software, networking, and stuff where the user has the control instead of a big company."