Newsgroups are like bulletin boards or discussion groups. People can 'post' messages to them, reply to messages, save messages, reply privately to messages by email and so on. The concept is not unlike a mailing list, but it is viewable by all matrix users.
Examples of such newsgroups or 'groups' are matrix.tech and matrix.announce where there are discussions about technical (read: nerdy) issues relating to matrix and general announcements made by netsoc respectively.
We also have full access to Intersocs news. Intersocs is a project that is intended to strengthen ties between third level computing and networking student societies. What this actually means in a practical sense, is that we've finally gotten Intersocs news set up (and working, no less!).
The beauty of it is that it's completely centralised, so, for example, Skynet in UL and Redbrick in DCU (their equivalents of TCD's Netsoc) should all be able to access it. How marvellously egalitarian!
There are currently several general intersocs discussion boards such as intersocs.news and intersocs.general and several topical groups such as intersocs.music and intersocs.movies, with more being added all the time.
What you can expect: slagging, in-jokes, nerdy technical discussion, opinionated rants, intelligent discourse, reviews, general chat, slagging, abuse. And also slagging. Boards in this format have been running for 6 years in DCU and now generate about 500 posts a day. (i.e. they're very popular). It might seem a bit tricky to start out with but stick with it.
For a complete description and tutorial on using the newsgroups, please read our newsgroups guide.
