[ARC5] Familiar with Usenet newsgroups?

[David L. Stinson]

I'm getting a lot of mail that seems to indicate a large 
percentage of people aren't aware of Usenet and the newsgroups.
That's not good, because Usenet has some outstanding people and
information.  Usenet newsgroups are like big, open public 
bulletin boards to which anyone can tack a "post," and
to which anyone can reply.  There are boards dedicated to every 
subject you can imagine, from apple farming to zuccini sculpture.
There are many covering the radio hobbies;
my favorites include rec.radio.amateur.boatanchors,
which hosts discussions and sale notices for BA gear,
rec.antique.radio+phono, covering antique consumer sets,
and alt.binaries.pictures.military, which hosts tons
of pictures of military subjects.  There are literally
thousands more.
It can get rowdy but is also 
a source of great insights and information.

Can one of you "gurus" who is better at explaining what 
Usenet is and how to use it, please post a short "primer"
so our members can enjoy this facet of the Internet as well?

Thanks,
Dave S.