NEWSGROUPS
AND FORUMS
PART
TWO OF TWO / PART ONE
--
From Computer-Assisted Research: A Guide to Tapping Online
Information by Nora M. Paul.
Tips
and traps when using newsgroups and forums
Newsgroups
and forums are great resources for connecting with experts
and people with certain types of experiences. However, there
are some things you should keep in mind as you are using
them:
- You
need lead time: You might post a message and not
get a response for a day or two. Don't rely on responses
for short deadline stories.
- Identify
yourself: Although you're in cyberspace, you need
the same ethics as when you're dealing with people face
to face. If you are trolling for comments to use in
a story, be sure to disclose who you are and something
about why you are looking for comments.
- Remember,
what you post will be read by who knows who: Don't
tip your hand on a big story, there may be other journalists
out there. Be as vague as possible but specific enough
to get some response. Ask people to reply to your e-mail
address, not to post to the newsgroup.
- Verify,
verify, verify: Would you put in the paper something
you heard at a cocktail party without verifying it?
Of course not. Same with what you read in a newsgroup.
- Read
the FAQs: Don't become instant flamebait (the target
of vitriolic messages by other members) by asking a
question that has already been answered by the group.
Be sure to find and read the FAQ (frequently asked questions)
document which most newsgroups have available on their
topic.
- Search
the Archive: Many newsgroups retain an archive of
messages. Before you send out a question, search to
see if it has already been addressed by the group. (a
source for locating newsgroup archives can be found
at: http://starbase.neosoft.com/
~claird/news.lists/newsgroup_archives.html
)
- Get
a sense of the climate before you get active: Lurk
(read messages but don't send or reply) for awhile on
the newsgroup before you become active. Learn about
the community of people, their concerns, their tolerance
level before you solicit information from them. Be as
sensitive to the group as you would be in a face-to-face
situation. And don't overdo it. When Jerry Garcia died,
a message was posted by a journalist to the rec.music.gdead
newsgroup, asking for stories or memories anyone would
like to share, information about local vigils, etc.
One member of the newsgroup responded, "You want a comment?
How about "GO THE F*** AWAY!" You can read the posts
here. People are upset. Stop digging for news bites
and let us grieve!" Bottom line: this is a great resource
for journalists, just be sure to use it appropriately
and sensitively.
- Find
a few to monitor: As with all the Internet resources,
if you start off thinking you have to eat the whole
thing, you will quickly have a stomachache. Take small
bites, find a few good places, monitor them well, and
gradually build up your skills, gradually get this technique
for covering your beat incorporated into your style
of work.
- If
there is a choice between a moderated and an unmoderated
newsgroup on a topic, go moderated: Moderated lists
usually have someone who oversees the message traffic
to see that it stays on topic and to mediate flamewars.
Unmoderated are "anything goes", and what often goes
is trivial, off-point kinds of messages. Most newsgroup
lists and finders will indicate whether or not a newsgroup
is moderated.
- Remember
the audience: This, more than any other use of the
Internet, is the most problematic in terms of verifying
the source of the information, determining their agenda.
This is truly unfiltered information and should be used
carefully. Depending on the kind of story you are doing,
this can be a great source. When rumors were rampant
about an errant military jet pilot who disappeared over
Colorado, newsgroups were a great place to go to read
the crazy theories for a story on, well, crazy theories.
These are the bar rooms, locker rooms and living rooms
of the Internet.
How
to find newsgroups and forums
The
hierarchy of Usenet newsgroups is eight main areas, regulated
by Usenet, and hundreds of other areas which anyone can
start up. The main eight are:
- Biz
Business-related topics
- Comp
Computer-related topics
- Misc Miscellaneous
topics
- News Current
events
- Rec Recreation
and entertainment
- Sci Science
- Soc Society
and culture
- Talk Discussion
and debate on many topics
The
largest and most wide ranging newgroup is alt: for alternative.
Here’s where you will find all the fan newsgroups and
bizarre interest areas.
Newsgroup
names are a series of letters and words separated by periods.
For example: soc.culture.african.
Forums
are discussion areas found in various web sites and on different
web services (like AOL). They are often called the Bulletin
Board or Feedback. Getting into a forum area often requires
a registration (they want to keep track of who has come
onto their service). These are generally a bit more controlled
a community. If you are looking for people who might be
talking about a topic you are interested in, check with
the major web sites for that topic area. Chances are excellent
that one or more will have some sort of discussion area
on the site.
If,
for example, you are interested in issues going on in a
particular part of the country, going to the local newspaper
and reading the discussion area postings might give you
some insights (though don’t be surprised if the thing
people seem to be most agitated about are the local sports
team!)
These
forum / discussion / bulletin board areas are often hidden
down in the site, so it can take some looking to find them.
Various
services archive newsgroup messages and help you locate
forums and newsgroups where people are discussing certain
topics:
Deja:
http://www.deja.com
This
is definitely the best of the newsgroup directory / archive
services. Deja tracks information about more than 80,000
newsgroups and forums. They also have the most extensive
archive of individual messages posted to more than 45,000
newsgroups. The archive of messages goes back to 1995.
Deja
changed it’s name from DejaNews in May 1999, and along
with the new name came some new services, some very useful,
some just noise.
Finding
newsgroups and newsgroup messages on Deja
There
are two levels of searching in Deja: simple and advanced.
- Simple
search: Plug in a word in the search box in the
upper right hand side of the homepage. Make sure the
button next to "Discussions" is selected.
("Ratings" are Deja’s flaky popularity
polls feature. "Communities" are the forums
which Deja subscribers can set up.)
- Power
Search: click on "Power Search" under
the search box and get a search form which lets you
type in keywords and designate an "and" and
"or" relationships between them. (see the
section on searching for more about "boolean"
connectors — and, or, not). You can select which
of five archives you want to search in: complete, standard,
adult, jobs, for sale. You can also search in particular
fields: subject of the message, forum name, author of
the message. You can look for messages in particular
languages or between certain dates in power search.
- Be
aware: There are two archives of messages, recent
and past. When you do a search from the simple or power
search templates, you are searching the recent message
archive. When you have searched and pulled up the message
results list, be sure to go down to the end of the page
and find the search box again. The search you just did
will be in the search box. Underneath are two buttons,
recent and past messages. If you want to find the older
messages, click the "past messages" button
and submit your search again. Recent messages cover
the past 30 days postings, past messages date back to
1995. I did a search on "mastiffs" and got
137 recent messages. Re-doing the search in past messages
got me another 2200 matches.
- When
reading old messages, be aware that the e-mail addresses
of posters might have changed. Fresh messages might
be better if what you are looking for is people to contact.
Reading
the results page
At
the top of the results page, you’ll be given a few
newsgroups where the search term you entered is likely to
be discussed. Click on "Get more forums related to…"
to get the whole list. Results are ranked by "confidence"
(the more + signs, the higher the likelihood your topic
is discussed on that forum / newsgroup). If you want to
see recent messages posted, click on the newsgroup name.
This is a good technique if you would like to see what people
are discussing or to locate a likely group which might respond
to a message from you on a particular subject.
Underneath
the newsgroup listing you’ll get a list of messages
which contain the search term you used. These will come
from a variety of newsgroups (some of which were not on
the listing of newsgroups at the top of the page).
You’ll
get a listing of messages in reverse chronological order
(most recent first). This is a good technique if you want
to find people who have commented about a topic or would
like to browse through messages on a topic to get story
angles and ideas.
Categories
Deja
News has a subject directory of newsgroups that can be used
to find appropriate groups to browse. The broad subjects
are listed down the left margin. Click on one of those subjects
and you’ll get a page. Scroll to the end of the page
to see a more specific subject directory. Just click on
a subject and you’ll get a search box which will let
you narrow the search you do to newsgroups appropriate to
that category.
Reading
the messages
Once
you’ve located some messages or found a newsgroup there
are various things you can do:
See
the "thread": The message thread is the flow
of messages on a particular subject. When you click on a
message, you’ll get a diagram of this message flow.
If you want to start at the top of the thread, click on
Msg 1.
A
great new feature Deja added is "Track this thread
for me". If there is an interesting discussion going
on and you would like to know when new messages in the thread
are posted, click on this. You have to be a registered user
of Deja (it’s free, just fill out the form). Name the
thread you want to track and when new messages are posted,
you’ll get a copy in your e-mail box.
Read
the message: Click on the underlined message to get
the text. When you pull up a message you’ll get the
following information: Author of the message, date it was
posted, the forum it was posted to. In the text of the message
you’ll sometimes see > or >> marks in front
of lines. These indicate they are a copy of lines from a
previous message to which the writer is responding. The
RE: in the subject line of a message indicates the message
is a reply to another message.
Get
the next or previous message: To just scroll the messages
in a thread or on the list of messages retrieved for your
search, hit the "next in thread" or "previous
in thread" arrow in the top right corner.
Reply:
There are two options to replying to a message. If you
hit the " post reply" button you’ll get a
template to fill out a message which will be posted to the
whole newsgroup. This will be a public posting of the message.
If you want to send a personal reply directly to the author
of the message, click on the e-mail address in the Author
part of the message. If you can’t send e-mail from
your browser (many companies don’t allow that), just
copy the author’s e-mail address and send a message
from your e-mail system. Most journalists do their correspondence
with an interesting messager off the newsgroup, through
e-mail.
Author
Posting History: You see an intriguing message from
someone and might want to contact them to interview them.
Check out other things they have posted by clicking on "Posting
History". It will give you a listing of the number
of messages they have posted in various forums. Click on
the forum name to see the messages. Just seeing the listing
of the forums they are involved in can be an interesting
insight.
Deja
is the newsgroup directory / archive you’ll want to
get to know the best. It is the gateway into a vast and
varied resource for journalists.
Other
Newsgroup / Forum finders
The
major search services all have an option for looking for
newsgroup messages, but most of them (Infoseek, HotBot)
are just using Deja News.
- AltaVista:
http://www.altavista.com
— click on "Usenet" under the "Specialty
Searches" area to get a search box for locating
newsgroup messages. Results are in chronological order.
- ForumOne:
http://www.forumone.com
— Over 270,000 web forum discussions located on
individual websites. Do a search and get a listing of
forum areas discussing that topic. Many forum areas
require registration on the site sponsoring that discussion,
so it might be a couple of steps to get to the messages
themselves.
Exercises
- After
another traffic death involving air bags, you are going
to do a story covering the issue of use of air bags.
Find some newsgroup messages to get some ideas of issues
people are talking about.
- You’re
going to be doing a series on domestic violence. Find
some forums where this is being discussed.
- Find
some messages I posted to newsgroups (my e-mail address
is npaul@poynter.org).
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted.
- You’ve
just gotten a job at the Miami Herald and would like
to know about some of the issues that have people talking
down there. How would you find that out on a forum.
- A
member of your family has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s
disease. Find a support group for them.
- You’re
getting ready to interview one of the most successful
dog breeders in the world. Where might you find some
of the kinds of questions that might be good to ask
her about?
SOURCES
Books
- Rittner’s
Field Guide to Usenet, by Don Ritter. MNS, 1997
- Netizens
: On the History and Impact of Usenet and the Internet,
by Michael Huben, Ronda Hauden, IEEE Computer Society,
1997
Articles
Finding
Newsgroup Forums and Messages
Deja:
http://www.deja.com
AltaVista:
http://www.altavista.com
Liszt:
http://www.liszt.com
Finding
Forums
ForumOne:
http://www.forumone.com
Mediconsult:
http://www.mediconsult.com
— medical related support groups
Finding
FAQs from Newsgroups
Usenet
FAQs: http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/
hypertext/faq/usenet/FAQ-List.html
Internet
FAQ Archives: http://www.faqs.org/faqs
Finding
Archives from Newsgroups
Usenet
Archives: http://starbase.neosoft.com/~claird/
news.lists/newsgroup_archives.htm
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