A Usenet newsfeed is a collection of all the postings to Usenet across all the newsgroups and hierarchies. Usenet servers propagate the entire newsfeed around the Usenet network. Usenet clients are generally configured to download the portion of the newsfeed that the reader is interested in as determined by hierarchies and newsgroups.
Technipages Explains News Feed
A majority of the Usenet newsfeed is unfiltered and unmoderated, which has led to large amounts of spam. A number of newsgroups are moderated so only approved posts are posted and propagated to the Usenet network. Some companies maintain their own newsgroups that act as tech support groups or forums for example.
The newsfeed primarily consists of text posts although highly popular newsgroups exist to share binaries of files, where pirated content is common. Some ISPs provide Usenet servers that propagate the newsfeed, so it is easily accessible to their userbase, however, the majority of these are filtered to exclude potentially illegal content such as binary sharing newsgroups because of copyright infringement fears.
Web frontends for newsgroups are available that allow direct access to the Usenet newsfeed or parts of it via the web rather than a standalone “newsreader” client. The newsfeed is primarily split into 8 major hierarchies that guide their content, and formatting. These hierarchies discuss topics such as the humanities, computing, science and social discussions. Other hierarchies exist that don’t fit into these sets or are intended for more specific topics.
Common Uses of News Feed
- Commonly omitted from restricted newsfeeds are foreign-language newsgroups and the alt.binaries hierarchy.
- Due to copyright concerns and the potential for illegal content being shared, moderation of news feeds has become commonplace.
- Both filtered and unfiltered news feeds exist – the more legitimate and moderated ones are almost always filtered.
Common Misuses of News Feed
- A news feed is a list of articles and posts on social media.
