The Online World resources handbook

Selected online services http://home.eunet.no/~presno/bok/v1.html
EUNET is a UUCP based network in Europe. JUNET is an equivalent network in
Japan. There are many gateway machines that exchange mail between UUCP and the
Internet. Among these, UUNET.UU.NET is among the most frequently used
(http://www.uu.net).
Usenet (User Network)
Usenet, Netnews, or just "News" are common terms for a large many to many
conferencing (only) system distributed through UUCP, Internet, FidoNet, and BITNET.
The European portion of Usenet is called EUNET (European Unix NET).
This grassroots driven "network" has grown out of the global university and
research domains. It is a service rather than a real network. It is not an organization, and
has no central authority.
In 1993, Usenet's newsgroups were carried by over 69,000 host computers (sites) in
five continents, and had over 1,991,000 users (source: Brian Reid). In January 1995,
Reid estimated 16.5 million users. In February, the number of sites were estimated at
260,000 (source: The Internet Index). Many of these sites also have access to the
Internet.
The local administrator of each node in the network decides what newsgroups to
receive and make available to its users. Few systems offer access to all of them.
NetNews is organized in groups of 'conferences'. Each classification is organized
into groups and subgroups according to topic. As of June 1, 1993, there were 4500
newsgroups and 2500 regional newsgroups. Several sites are carrying over 2600 topics.
In July 1995, there were over 15,000 newsgroups. In December 1996, PC/Computing
estimated the number of newsgroups at over 28,000.
On a typical day in December 1993, 43,000 Usenet articles were posted. In
November 1996, 754 megabytes of information were posted daily to Usenet.
The groups distributed worldwide are divided into seven broad classifications:
"comp" Topics of interest to both computer professionals and hobbyists,
including topics in computer science, software source, and
information on hardware and software systems.
"sci" Discussions marked by special and usually practical knowledge,
about research in or application of the established sciences.
"misc" Groups addressing themes not easily classified under any of the
other headings or which incorporate themes from multiple
categories.
"soc" Groups primarily addressing social issues and socializing.
"talk" Groups largely debate oriented and tending to feature long
discussions without resolution and without much useful
information.
"news" Groups concerned with the news network and software
themselves.
"rec" Groups oriented toward hobbies and recreational activities.
"alt"
Also available are many "alternative" hierarchies, like:
True anarchy; anything and everything can and does appear.
Subjects include sex, and privacy.
"biz" Business related groups
"clari" Newsgroups gatewayed from commercial news services and
other 'official' sources.
Most Netnews hosts offer both global and local conferences. These include Australian
and Australasian (aus), and Jewish (shamash) newsgroups; groups coming from
BITNET (bit), /CL Netz (cl), Z Netz (z netz), and Fidonet (fido) ; German (de),
Japanese (fj), French (fr), Norwegian (no), Cyrillic (relcom), and Finnish (sfnet)
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