Re: net.martyr

Adam H. Kerman <[email protected]> wrote:
> Grant Taylor <[email protected]> wrote:
> >On 2/28/24 19:08, Sn!pe wrote:
> 
> >>What distinguishes one from the other?
> 
> >I'm assuming that "NetNews" is a reference to FidoNet (or other FTN) echos.
> 
> >Usenet is one set of groups and FidoNet echos are a different set of groups.
> 
> I don't agree. NetNews and Usenet are synonymous terms. RFCs 850 and
> 1036 refer to Usenet; RFC 5536 to Netnews. Some documents refer to
> USENET. There isn't a lot of consistency.
> 
> The only distinction I make between Usenet and newsgroups is that Usenet
> is limited to newsgroups whose articles are distributed; local
> newsgroups aren't Usenet. But plenty of people don't even make that
> distinction.

  Agreed, with the distinction that some 'local' newsgroups *are*
distributed or/and are *not*local, in the sense of limited to one
geographical area.

  For example HP had (has?) hp.* newsgroups, which were distributed
worldwide - i.e. not local -, but were only company-internal, so not
part of Usenet.

  So I think we need some other term for 'local', but I can't think of a
good one.

  I divide NetNews into a Usenet (for example these groups) part and a
non-Usenet (for example hp.*) part, but that's not very clear to a lot
of folks either.

> >With the gatewaying that happens between, there is some amount of 
> >overlap between them.
> 
> >But each will have newsgroups / echos that the other does not have.