Usenet has silently been growing at phenomenal rates over the past 10 years. The quiet little network which spawned everything from The Internet Movie Database to online discussion boards has evolved into a global community generating Terabytes of new data every day. If you participated in newsgroups back in the day, you may not realize how much Usenet has changed. Listed below are the top 10 Usenet myths and an explanation of what is really going on with modern Usenet.

1. Usenet is full of spam.

Spam is less of a problem now than it has been in the past and, with a few precautions, it can be avoided almost entirely. It's true that spam's first appearence was on Usenet, and it became so rampant that the Usenet community gave unsolicited commercial messages a name, 'spam'. Today, Usenet spam is combated in a number of ways, many of them at the news server level. Ironically, the techniques used to create the first accidental Usenet spam have been refined to the point that they are now responsible for much of the cancelling and blocking of today's Usenet spam.

2. Usenet is dead.

The volume of Usenet articles generated every day is higher now than it has been at any time in Usenet's history. In the '90s, Usenet started to have a spam problem (which was eventually resolved) and this scared a lot of people away from the Usenet community. Since things which are out of site are out of mind, many of these people assumed Usenet was dying. In reality, as broadband penetration has increased, the number of posts and people participating in Usenet is higher than ever before.

3. Blogs and forums are a form of Usenet.

Though blogs and forums, like newsgroups, contain 'articles' that people can reply to, that is where their similarity to Usenet ends. Usenet is an independent network operating on a completely different protocol (NNTP vs. HTTP). Unlike web-based blogs and forums, Usenet is accessed through software called a "news reader". Usenet articles are distributed through a peering-based network where Usenet servers exchange articles with each other. Forums and blogs are generally a single source of content and don't share data with other servers.

4. Google Groups is the same as Usenet.

In addition to custom non-Usenet related groups, Google Groups lets you read text-based Usenet newsgroups over the web, but much of the service is strictly web-based, text-only communication, and does not allow access to binary hierarchies. The vast majority of newsgroups and articles available on Usenet are not accessible through Google Groups.

5. Usenet providers throttle your bandwidth.

Usenet users often complain of bandwidth throttling. Unless your Usenet provider specifically states that they're capping your speeds, chances are they are not. Generally speaking, bandwidth limiting is done on networks between the Usenet server and your computer. More often than not, an ISP is responsible for bandwidth limiting. Providers like Giganews even offer alternate port, SSL, and encrypted command services to help customers avoid bandwidth limiting from networks between the Usenet server and their computer.

6. All Usenet servers are the same.

Public Usenet newsgroups are shared between most Usenet servers, but just because a Usenet server has the same group list as another Usenet server doesn't mean the servers are the same. Google Groups, for example, only contains a small portion of Usenet groups. Premium Usenet servers also vary depending on how long they hold articles, how many articles they are missing, and how quickly they can process data. Your best bet is to utilize trial accounts to see if a specific Usenet server performs the way you need it to.

7. There is a Usenet cabal. (There is a governing body for Usenet.)

In Usenet's infancy, administrators worked together to guide the development of Usenet. The historic 'Cabal' probably exerted its influence the most during the creation of the Big 8 hierarchies, which are the standard top-level newsgroup hierarchies to this day. The historic Cabal was disbanded long ago and Usenet is now a "wild west" kind of network where independent Usenet administrators control newsgroup creation and organization within their own fiefdom.

8. Your downloads are tracked.

Usenet providers are not interested in what you download, nor do they have the resources to track every article downloaded by every user of their service. The great majority of Usenet providers respect the concept of Usenet as a forum for free speech. While your uploads are tracked for spam and abuse purposes, articles downloaded from Usenet are rarely tracked. For ultimate security, you can purchase Usenet access that comes with SSL encryption. This will help make sure that networks between the Usenet server and your computer can't do any unwanted peeking.

9. Usenet is hard to use.

Usenet is no more difficult to use than email or web-based message boards; it simply takes patience. At its core, Usenet is a system to send and receive messages. To get started with Usenet, all you need is a Usenet Provider and a Newsreader. Choosing the right quality service provider and news client for your needs can also ensure the smoothest experience possible.

10. Outlook Express is a good news reader.

Outlook Express works well for many tasks, but using it to read newsgroups only limits the experience. Outlook Express was developed first and foremost as an email application, and because Usenet discussions can work using the same interface, it can be used to browse Usenet groups (although not very well). For text newsgroups, Outlook Express does manage well enough, but its limitations can be seen the moment you attempt to access a binary newsgroup.

Knew all of this already, huh? Take a crack at the Usenet Trivia Challenge!