FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions. Documents that attempt to answer the most common questions posted in a newsgroup, either about the subject of the newsgroup or regarding the group itself. For example, the FAQ for a newsgroup such as sci.astronomy may include answers to basic astronomy questions, as well as the accepted netiquette rules of the group.

Follow-up / Reply

An article that is posted in response to an original article subject.

Header

Supplemental information at the beginning of every Usenet article, containing info such as the subject, originating server, and the time of the article's creation. Detailed headers are hidden by default in most Usenet clients. Usenet headers are extremely similar to their email counterparts.

IHAVE

A particular Usenet feed used to exchange articles between news servers.

Incomplete

An incomplete is a Usenet article that has missing or corrupted data, or it can be any missing articles in a large multipart post. Incomplete articles can happen because of a problem while downloading such as an incomplete connection or crash, or may be the result of an error during the process of propagation (the transferring of Usenet articles between servers). Retention, or the amount of time an article is kept on a provider's server, may also be to blame if an article or pieces of a multipart post have crossed your Usenet provider's retention threshold. A user can identify missing pieces of multipart posts with software programs that compile all parts of the file and any Par2 files (files uploaded by the poster, fixing known data gaps) and finds any completion problems.

Moderated

A newsgroup in which messages must be approved by an elected moderator before they are posted publicly. 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.