USENET for the Political Season

If you like keeping up with politics, USENET is a great place to be. Some people love a debate and, coincidentally, a lot of those same people seem to love the USENET system. The USENET system has some distinct advantages compared to Internet forums that you might want to consider if you’re into politics and if you’re following the presidential elections in the US this year in particular.

More and Less Focused

Internet forums tend to attract people who either wholeheartedly agree or passionately disagree with the overall position of the forums. For example, if you were to hop on an Internet forum that had to do with the environment, you’d likely find a rather dysfunctional mix of true believers and trolls who are constantly snapping at each other’s ankles. The USENET tends to be different.

First, there are newsgroups that are much broader in their subject matter than are most Internet forums. For example, you can go to groups such as talk.politics and enjoy conversations that aren’t limited by a forum moderator’s preferences. If you don’t like that newsgroup, you could go to soc.politics and see what they have to offer. These groups offer a broader selection of topics and debates than your average forum.

If you want very focused conversation, you could to a newsgroup such as alt.politics.usa.constitution to express your views on the founding framework of the United States. You’ll find that-particularly in this newsgroup-people on the USENET system are good at staying on topic compared to what you’ll see in Internet forums. Someone’s not going to barge into a conversation about economic policy and post a picture of their cat, for instance, which is nice for people who like to their conversations a bit more focused and intellectual.

Rarified Audience

The USENET is very popular-it’s got over 100,000 active groups on it-but it’s not as broad in its usage as is the Internet. The USENET is also set up in a way that encourages people to find the information they want by making targeted decisions about the newsgroups that they join. This creates a situation where most of the people on the USENET are subscribed to newsgroups because they want to participate in them rather than just wanting to cause trouble.

If you’re a political junkie or just a bit more interested than the average individual, USENET politics newsgroups might offer you something you’ll truly enjoy.