Usenet is one of the oldest computer network communications systems still in widespread use. It was established in 1980 following experiments the previous year, over a decade before the World Wide Web was introduced and the general public was admitted to the Internet. It was originally conceived as a "poor man's ARPANET," employing UUCP to offer mail and file transfers, as well as announcements through the newly developed news software. This system, developed at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University, was called USENET to emphasize its creators' hope that the USENIX organization would take an active role in its operation (Daniel et al, 1980).

Today, almost all Usenet traffic is carried over the Internet. The current format and transmission of Usenet articles is very similar to that of Internet email messages. However, whereas email is usually used for one-to-one communication, Usenet is a one-to-many medium.

The articles that users post to Usenet are organized into topical categories called newsgroups, which are themselves logically organized into hierarchies of subjects. For instance, sci.math and sci.physics are within the sci hierarchy, for science. When a user subscribes to a newsgroup, the news client software keeps track of which articles that user has read.

When a user posts an article, it is initially only available on that user's news server. Each news server, however, talks to one or more other servers (its "newsfeeds") and exchanges articles with them. In this fashion, the article is copied from server to server and (if all goes well) eventually reaches every server in the network. The later peer-to-peer networks operate on a similar principle; but for Usenet it is normally the sender, rather than the receiver, who initiates transfers.

Most dedicated UseNet clients have the ability to "cross post" one article to several different groups. For example, an article entitled "Kevin's Plan for Conquering Space" might be posted a single time but cross posted to both 'rec.arts.sf.written' and 'rec.arts.sf.science' when uploaded. The article will then appear in both newsgroups. When somebody responds to the article they can then either accept the default option of having their response also cross posted to both groups or they may decide to limit their response to only one group.

Because of cross posting you may then see the same post appear in multiple forums. When you respond to the post in the Cool Sci-Fi forum your response will only be posted back to the individual group, it will not be cross posted to multiple groups even if the item that you are responding to was.

Because of cross-posting if you see the same 'article' (thread) in several different newsgroups (forums) then proper netiquette is to respond in the newsgroup that is on-topic. If an article named "Doctor Who convention!" is posted in both the Dr. Who newsgroup and in the Star Trek newsgroup then you should only respond to it in the Dr. Who newsgroup.

For the context of reading & responding to items an UseNet "article" is the same thing as a forum "post" that was entered on a forum based web site.

It may get confusing since web sites refer to an "article" as a news item and a "post" as a generic term for a item meant for general conversation but when dealing with UseNet groups it is best to go by proper UseNet netiquette and use the "article" name.

A minority of newsgroups are moderated. That means that messages submitted by readers are not distributed to USENET, but instead are emailed to the moderators of the newsgroup, for approval. Moderated newsgroups have rules called charters. Moderators are persons whose job is to ensure that messages that the readers see in newsgroups conform to the charter of the newsgroup. Typically, moderators are appointed in the proposal for the newsgroup, and changes of moderators follow a succession plan.

The job of the moderator is to receive submitted articles, review them, and inject approved articles so that they can be properly propagated worldwide. Such articles must bear the Approved: header line.

Unmoderated newsgroups form the majority of USENET newsgroups, and messages submitted by readers for unmoderated newsgroups are immediately propagated for everyone to see.

Creation of moderated newsgroups often becomes a hot subject of controversy, raising issues regarding censorship and the desire of a subset of users to form an intentional community.

It is because of the fact that most UseNet groups are unmoderated that we here at Cool Sci-Fi can not take any responsibility for the subject or content matter in the UseNet groups. Even the UseNet groups that are moderated are not moderated by Cool Sci-Fi but by the UseNet group moderator(s). Cool Sci-Fi is acting as a common carrier. However, when you, as a Cool Sci-Fi Community Member, post new items in the UseNet groups you will be expected to follow all of the guidelines & rules that our community observes which includes no spam, no "adult" material, and to general play nice.