The Internet facilitates group discussion through:
Newsgroups allow people with a common interest to exchange ideas, ask questions, discuss topics, and announce events. They are a separate Internet service from the Web.
Newsgroups are active, exciting cyberplaces to explore and socialise in. Anyone can join almost any newsgroup and each article can be read by anyone. They're not as pretty or sophisticated as the World Wide Web, but if you're relying solely on the Web for your information gathering, you're missing a virtual gold mine by neglecting these open forums. Newsgroups can be a plethora for finding information - it can also be frustrating.
Each individual newsgroup contains a collection of messages, called articles, which focus on one specific topic. You can safely say that Newsgroups cover every subject under the sun -- and beyond. Just imagine a place where you're free to discuss any topic no matter how arcane or unusual.
Want to talk about a new band or maybe a favourite book or movie?
Do you have an unusual hobby or skill you want to share?
Maybe you want to connect with rural-radical-feminists into permaculture?
If so, there's bound to be a newsgroup that covers the subject.
Newsgroup Hierarchies
This master list of Newsgroups from your provider’s server is divided
into categories called the hierarchy -- three and four letter abbreviations
that hint to what you can expect the group discussion is about. These can
be further divided into sub-topics that narrow
down the newsgroup subject.
To explore newsgroups hierarchies further check out Google groups: http://groups.google.com/