It's not uncommon for new or casual Usenet users to come across terminology that is foreign. Usenetpedia is here to help! Listed below are common terms associated with Usenet users.

Article

An article is a post or message found in a Usenet newsgroup. Articles may be posted in threads on a particular topic of discussion and may be viewed and responded to by newsgroup users. Usenet articles may be text or binary and can have any number of topics according to the newsgroups that they are found in. Binary articles are non-text files such as pictures, audio files, and videos that have been encoded into text to be compatible with Usenet. Text articles are traditional Usenet messages similar to message board posts, etc. Articles are generally not posted by companies or organizations and are rarely edited by any entity unless found to be deletable Spam or off-topic in a moderated newsgroup.

Big 8

The major current top-level newsgroup hierarchies. The Big 8 includes comp.*, misc.*, news.*, rec.*, sci.*, soc.*, talk.*, and humanities.*. These hierarchies are overseen by the Big 8 Management Board, and new groups are added through a system of discussion, nomination, and voting. The alt.* hierarchy features quite a few more newsgroups than any Big 8 hierarchy because of its openness towards newsgroup creation.

Binary File

A binary file is any encoded file found in a newsgroup. An encoded binary file may be contained within a single newsgroup article (single part binary file) or may be contained in multiple articles (multi part binary file). Binary files are typically posted in newsgroups specifically designated for the posting of binary files. These newsgroups are called binary newsgroups.

Connections / Streams

A connection or stream refers to a server session opened by newsreader software which is then used to download articles, download headers, or to communicate with the Usenet server. Multiple connections can be used to prioritize article or header downloading, get around connection based rate limits, or to maximize overall throughput. Newsreaders and Usenet providers vary in their support for multiple connections so check out the support documentation of your newsreader and your Usenet provider before you start to change your concurrent connections settings.

Crossposting

Crossposting is sending an article simultaneously to more than one group, usually because the article contains relevant subject matter for all groups. Crossposting an original message is normally acceptable netiquette, but replies and follow-ups are usually edited to only appear in the particular newsgroup the respondent found the original article. Some groups may not allow crossposting and, if done improperly or if posted to many groups, a crossposted article may be marked as Spam.

decoding

Decoding is the opposite of encoding -- taking data that has been converted into one format and restoring it to its original format. In terms of Usenet, decoding always refers to converting binary articles into their original binary files. Many current newsreaders support real-time decoding so that binary articles appear as binary files from the moment they are first viewed all the way to the time they are downloaded.