Newsgroups

Only a handful of newsgroups cater in a serious way to the arts. Reading the banter on these is unlikely to help much, but posting a request (REQ) for information may. You can use your newsreader or google to search headers (subject lines) within newsgroups for keywords. If this is your first time posting to newsgroups, be sure to read my primer on newsgroup etiquette.

This is only a short list. You can use a very handy searchable database of newsgroups at TILE.NET. And you can now perform usenet searches using Google.

"Wiki"s, "blogs", "groups" and "online bulletin boards" and the like have joined newsgroups to fill much the same niche in a more webcentric and commercial internet, but usenet still remains the largest collection of academically relevant groups and has the advantage of being an open standard.

Google Groups contains the world's most comprehensive archive of Usenet postings, dating back to 1981. Google Groups eliminates the need for a newsreader and lets you search this archive the same way you'd search on the web. You can also use Google Groups to post your own comments to an existing Usenet newsgroup. Use the URL syntax www.groups.google.com/group/ + the newsgroup name. eg. http://www.groups.google.com/group/alt.art

The following newsgroups are for general arts discourse:

• alt.art, alt.arts and alt.artcom are general arts newsgroups.

• alt.art.marketplace The names of newsgroups, such as this one, can indicate clearly what its topic is.

• alt.art.scene

• rec.arts.fine is like alt.artcom but is edited by a moderator.

• alt.arts.nomad tends to be more serious than alt.artcom and regularly addresses social and political issues.

• alt.binaries.pictures.fine-art.misc, alt.binaries.pictures.fine-art.d and alt.binaries.pictures.fine-art.digitized are only appropriate if you are seeking digitized pictures of particular works. You can also try alt.binaries.pictures.

These are for more specific fields:

• alt.postmodern is particularly useful if your research deals with postmodern art, theory or issues.

• alt.architecture is useful for research in architecture but alt.architecture.alternative is more fun.

• While alt.comics.alternative may be frowned upon by certain governments,* rec.arts.comics.misc is about comic art and cartoons in general.

• rec.photo is about photography.

These may be helpful depending on the topic of your research, you be the judge:

• alt.censorship (very busy)

• There are many newsgroups under 'art.culture.*' such as alt.culture.hawaii and alt.culture.indonesia. Most are geographically specific, other's culturally such as alt.culture.internet, alt.culture.african.american.arts and alt.culture.us.asian-indian.

• alt.feminism and alt.feminism.individualism

• alt.politics.homosexuality (very busy)

• alt.politics.sex

• Alt.religion.* groups can be a valuable resource for art historians. Some are alt.religion.christian, alt.religion.islam and alt.religion.buddhism.tibetan.

• Newsgroups that start with place names such as tor.arts (Toronto) or us.arts (United States) can be useful for geographically specific research.

Newsgroup Etiquette

• You may post to more than one group, known as cross-posting, so long as your topic is relevant.

• When posting a request for information, start your subject line with "REQ:" and word it carefully. Everyone will ignore a vague subject line like "REQ: Information needed". A more specific subject line like "REQ: Info on artist Carole Conde" or "REQ: Info on the Doge in painting" may result in many helpful responses.

• The body of your short message should politely ask for any helpful tips such as sources or contacts; don't expect anyone to compose an essay especially for you.

• Be sure to ask that any replies be directed to your email address, otherwise people may accidentally post them back to the newsgroup.

Your request will remain posted for about a week, depending on how busy the newsgroup is, and any responses will be emailed to you over this time.