"Newsgroups" or "Usenet Groups"?

I meant to ask this one, oh, about a decade ago... :zzz

In setting up (installing) Mozilla Thunderbird (again), I am prompted whether or not to the select the program for my "Newsgroups".

A quick search seems to refer to "Usenet Groups", yet still I am not following.

Can anyone simplify this for me, please? :confused

Thanks in advance,
g . . . :wave

 

Funny, I just set up Thunderbird this morning.

Yes, Thunderbird is a Network News Transfer Protocol NNTP client used to access usenet newsgroups. The basic steps are to enter a news host and setup authentication.

Click Edit > Account Settings and at the bottom of the right frame, you'll see a button Account Actions.
Select Add Other Account.
Select Newsgroup Account.

Then put in the info as prompted...

It should have most of the settings, i.e. port 119, preset...

 

Usenet groups aren't something most people these days use. Its commonly used for file trading and info posting kinda like forums. If you have no specific reason to setup newsgroups, you can skip it and not worry about it grc.

 

Usenet / newsgroups were a very useful tool at the dawn of the Internet. Then spammers spammed them to death. Now mostly replaced by moderated forums.

 

Beautful...thank you all three very much!

 

Still, lots of good groups out there. The moderated groups being the cleanest.

Interestingly, "spam" originally applied only to excessive newsgroup postings. Not the content, but how often they were posted. The Breidbart Index was, and maybe still is, used to measure it. And to justify cancelling it although I don't think many Usenet providers honor cancel messages these days tho. The Monty Python skit where the Vikings sing Spam was the origin of the term, and was not applied to email until much later.