Usenet forums, called "newsgroups", are bulletin-board like forums centered around every conceivable topic of human interest and endeavor. Usenet newsgroups are always open to the public (except for the few commercial newsgroups). Anyone can read or post. Some newsgroups are moderated, meaning a moderator reviews all posts only to confirm they are relevant and contribute to the charter of the forum. Newsgroups which start with alt. are all completely unmoderated; nobody controls the content. Millions of people all over the world conduct discourse in very specific areas of interest every day via Usenet News. It is truly the town square of the Global Village.
A newsreader is a Usenet News client program which provides an interface to read and contribute to Usenet News servers. Usenet News servers distribute publicly accessible discussion groups throughout the global Internet, covering nearly every conceivable topic.[an error occurred while processing this directive]