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(c) Elliott Publishing.

Using Usenet
Kirby's Korner · July 30, 1999

One of the greatest repositories of travel information in the world is waiting just a click or two away from you. And I don't mean the other columns available on this Web site.

The Web is the sexy part of the Internet. It gets all attention in the mass media, and history shows the Internet would not have taken off as a commercial entity without it.

But long before we had the Web, Internet users were exchanging information through Usenet, using what are called, in an often hilariously misleading fashion, newsgroups.

The last time I looked -- and this is years ago now -- there were some 40,000 newsgroups that were circulated in some other-than-local manner. I don't want to think about how many exist currently.

They consist mainly of plain-text messages posted and responded to by people around the world. But some of the groups are used, too, to exchange photographs (of, umm, any stripe), sound recordings (witness the recent fights over the MP3 recording standard), movies, and computer programs (both original and hacked).

Not all newsgroups are available everywhere. Some are concerned only with local issues and don't get propagated outside a geographical region. And, even for widely available groups, individual Internet service providers need to make specific newsgroups available to their customers. (For that reason, there's no use in providing links from this page to the newsgroups discussed; they may not be available from your ISP.)

The groups are arranged in a hierarchy by topic, with the most widely available beginning with the name "alt.travel" or "rec.travel."

My ISP hosts some three dozen newsgroups dealing with travel, 12 in the alt.travel hierarchy, 14 in rec.travel, and another dozen or so spread throughout other hierarchies.

The rec.travel groups generally are the most useful and least likely to be given over to flame wars, those cascading threads of messages caused by the anonymity of the Internet and by individuals getting their noses out of joint.

Indeed, after looking in on a newsgroup dealing with a science fiction television show recently, I was amazed at how rational and calm the rec.travel groups are.

What do you find there? It's a mixed bag. Groups are arranged both by type of travel and by location. In rec.travel.air, you'll see advice on everything from airline baggage limits to getting to a destination after landing at a particular airport.

One current, fascinating thread deals with the criminal prosecution now going on in the United States against SabreTech following the ValuJet accident in Florida some years ago.

Destination-specific groups, such as rec.travel.australia+nz or rec.travel.usa-canada, have advice on getting around within an area, things to see, and passport and visa requirements.

The group rec.travel.bed+breakfast was the least active of the groups I looked in on recently, though it is truly international. You can find suggestions for bed and breakfasts around the world, from folks who have stayed in them, from proprietors, and from experts, including Sandy Soule, the editor of a print newsletter published by the Web site bedandbreakfast.com.

I saw more unpleasant behavior and childish disagreement in rec.travel.cruises than elsewhere, although these were small enough and rational enough that I would not call them flame wars. The group has enough solid advice that it is worth a look even with the fights.

Keep in mind as you visit these newsgroups that you don't know the person making suggestions. You don't know if they are from where they claim to be from, what their agenda is, or why they're participating. But it's not too hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. You quickly get a feel from reading individuals' messages if they know what they're talking about.

The groups are worth a visit. They're a refreshing change from what can be an overly commercialized Web.

David Kirby is the editor of the Interactive Travel Report. His column appears on Friday. You can reach him at david@ticked.com.