Moderated

A newsgroup in which messages must be approved by an elected moderator before they are posted publically. Moderated newsgroups are free of most Usenet issues such as trolls and flaming. Many newsgroups that deal with sensitive or taboo topics are moderated to ensure civil discussions. One pitfall of newsgroup moderation is that a moderator can vacate their position without first appointing a new moderator. If this occurs, the newsgroup will unofficially lose all activity because no messages can be posted.

multi part binary file

A binary file that must be posted throughout multiple articles because it is larger than the character limit per article on a news server. Many news clients handle multi part binary files in a way that makes them appear as single posts in a newsgroup and automatically assemble the parts once they have been downloaded.

Netiquette

The set of manners and unspoken social rules that govern online discussions. Like traditional etiquette, many netiquette rules are a simple application of common sense. Habits such as using appropriate capitalization, punctuation, and paragraph breaks are basic examples of netiquette. If one disregards netiquette, their posts can come across as shouting, or run-together sentences that are difficult to comprehend. Most users that display poor netiquette are swiftly ignored regardless of the content of their posts.

Newbie

The term ""newbie"" is not unique to Usenet or Internet culture. A newbie is simply anyone without experience in a certain field. On Usenet, newbies are often considered to lack a good understanding of netiquette. Many newbies will lurk in newsgroups to get an idea of the social norms and tone of a particular group.

News / Usenet Feed

Any type of service designed specifically to provide Usenet articles.

ob-

Stands for ""obligatory"". This prefix is used to add topical content, no matter how trivial, to an otherwise off-topic post. For example, in a newsgroup such as rec.sport.soccer, an otherwise off-topic post about a famous actor may contain an ""ob-soccer"" reference to a soccer related movie, or even something as trivial as a game's score that day.