Anonymous: An individual posting with an unknown or unacknowledged name.
Attn: Abbreviation for “attention.”
Client: Term referring to the software used to connect to the “host” (server).
Completion: The percentage of available complete file sets.
CRC Error: Cyclic Redundancy Checking. Refers to a method of checking for errors in data that has been transmitted on a communications link.
Crosspost: A method of posting that includes multiple groups in the “Newsgroups” line of the post’s header information. This allows the same post to be sent to multiple groups at the same time.
Fills: Articles downloaded through a second or third news server to complete a multipart binary post. Fills would be used when the primary news server is missing articles due to poor completion. Newsgroup Service Providers with 99%+ completion will not need fills as often and are often times a greater value than cheaper services with high numbers of missing articles.
Filter: Filters are used in newsreaders to eliminate unwanted excess material. An example would be enabling a filter in your newsreader’s settings not to display any posts made from a given email address, etc.
Header: Technical information contained at the top of a post. Includes information such as: poster’s email address, poster’s IP, time that the post reached the news server, etc.
IHave Feed: A news feed where articles are exchanged between Usenet servers.
Incomplete: A file set or file that lacks the data necessary to make it complete.
Killfile: A feature included with most news clients which allows you to ignore or filter out posts from specific users on Usenet.
Newbie: Someone new to or just learning a skill.
Newsgroups: A hierarchal group of online discussion forums read through software called a news client.
NNTP: Network News Transfer Protocol. The protocol used by Usenet servers to exchange articles with other Usenet servers.
Nym: A nickname or alias.
Nymshifting: Changing your nickname to confuse other Usenet users as to your identity. This is typically done to add a thought to a thread without identifying yourself or to avoid a kill file from another user.
Off Topic: Posted material that does not match the intended topical focus of the group in question.
Par Files: Used to repair damaged files based on their binary pattern. For example, if you have downloaded multipart binary which was split into 100 articles but one of them is missing you could download a PAR file, then use it with a PAR program to reconstruct the binary file.
PLONK: Slang for the practice of adding a particular person to one’s kill file.
Post / Article: A message posted by a user of a newsgroup.
Propagation: Refers to the spread and distribution of articles/files across a network.
Provider: The company providing you access to a given service (Internet, Usenet, etc.)
Pull/Suck Feed: A news feed where articles are downloaded from one Usenet server to another.
Reposts: Articles posted to newsgroups to replace articles posted at an earlier date which came through either incomplete or corrupted. A repost may also be used to provide articles to users who use a news server with poor retention and may have already lost access to that article. Newsgroup Service Providers which have long retention times require a fewer number of reposts.
REQ: An abbreviation for “request” or “requesting.”
Retention: The length of time which posts are retained in a given group before being removed to make room for more recent postings (i.e. a group with a retention of 30 days should have all the posts made in the last 30 days available).
Spam: Posts advertising a service or product.
Sporge: Posts made to newsgroups of gibberish text in an attempt to make the Newsgroup unreadable.
Thread: A string of consecutive message postings to a newsgroup, mailing list or Internet forum.
Troll: An antagonistic participant in a newsgroup. Trolls will usually target specific groups with an antithetical posting viewpoint. The subject matter of their posts is usually designed to try and incite the wrath of the other group’s participants either by deriding stances held by group participants, or by outright insulting specific group members and/or the group itself.
Usenet: A world wide network of servers exchanging Newsgroup articles.
Uuencode: A method for converting files from binary to ASCII so they may be posted on Usenet.
yEnc: An 8-bit transfer method used to encode and transfer binary files on Usenet. yEnc ads about a 1-2% overhead as compared to 30%-40% with uuencode.
Usenet Glossary,