Online Discussion > Glossary

Study these important terms used in this tutorial:

• Administrative address
  This is the e-mail address of the mailing list manager for all lists that are hosted on a particular mail server. It is used to subscribe, unsubscribe to a list.

• Asynchronous discussion
  Discussion participants read and send messages at various times, over an extended period of time. The opposite type, synchronous discussion, requires that all participants be present at the same time, as in a chat room.

• FAQ
  The acronym stand for "Frequently Asked Questions." A compendium of questions and answers that have been posted to a discussion forum. Check here first if you have a basic question.

• List commands
  Instructions sent to the mailing list manager (using the administrative address of the list). They include subscribe, unsubscribe, help, digest, etc.

• Mailing list
  A type of online discussion group. Messages are sent to subscribers using the e-mail system.

• News reader
  A browser program which enables a user to read messages posted to newsgroups.

• Newsgroup
  A type of online discussion group. Newsgroups work much like mailing lists, except that they are usually read with special news reader software

• Thread
  A posting (message) and all of the responses to it constitute a thread. To "follow a thread" is to read a series of messages sharing a common subject.

• Weblog
  A type of online discussion group that is part Web diary and part community. The creator posts short reflections on various topics, and readers may post commentary.

• USENET
  A distributed bulletin board system developed in the early days of the Internet. Newsgroups are sometimes referred to as USENET forums.