Usenet and news.answers themselves have FAQs: 

<ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/usenet/faq/>
<ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.announce.newusers/>
<news:news.announce.newusers>

Look in the Introduction to Usenet Newsgroups in the news.answers group and 
in the FAQ archive at rtfm.mit.edu.  I'm not going to try to explain Usenet 
in this document, but let me make some important points.

FAQs attempt to reduce Usenet traffic by answering the quick questions right
away.  They also provoke meaningful discussion, better ways of answering the
questions, and new intelligent questions, maximizing the "signal to noise
ratio" in the groups.  FAQs don't do the job by themselves though.  You need
to read them.  The best way to introduce yourself to any newsgroup on
Usenet (or mailing list, or other discussion group) is to read its FAQ.

Once you read this Intro FAQ, start reading other people's posts.  If an
answer isn't in the main FAQ, it might already be on one of these groups.
It's quite unwise to leap into a thread without reading from the start to
the end; you're liable to get some nasty e-mail, or just laughed at.  The
*.win95 groups are not typically hostile (as compared to, say, news.groups)
but a long tirade of why Linux is better than Win95 will probably get you
receiving lots of e-mail in short order, none of it good.  We're quite an
intelligent bunch here, regardless of our Win95 experience.  Don't insult
our intelligence.

If you have Win95 question not in the FAQ, please post it.  If you have a
correction or other piece of advice not in the FAQ, please post it.  If you
have an announcement of value to Win95 users, please check first to see if
anyone else made the annoucement already, then post it.  Use common sense.
This kind of discussion adds to the value of Usenet.

Please don't post your Win95 question to all of these groups at
once, because 1) if you're that desparate for an answer it's probably in
the main FAQ, and 2) no one appreciates off-topic posts.  No one
needs to see a question about networking in the utilities group, or a 
question about setup (on a stand-alone computer) in the networking group.
Think twice and re-read your article.

About the alt.*.windows95.* groups... cross-posting to a comp.*.win95 group
and an alt.*.windows95.* group is very bad form.  You will get a mixed bag
of responses, if any, as the alt.* bunch typically want you to move to
Linux and will take every attempt to un-solve your problems, and the comp.*
bunch might give some intelligent answers but will usually tell you not to
cross-post your questions.

         3.1. How to advertise your Win95 product

Ignore any advice that requires you to jump right in and yell out to all
the *.win95 groups about your product.  It'll be ignored with prejudice.
*.win95 readers are a very intelligent bunch, usually consisting of seasoned
PC users and smart newbies, and will not pay attention to advertisments.
As such, advertising in these groups is a complete waste of time and
bandwidth.  What little response you do get will consist of complaints.

Post an article asking people, "How do you like _____ product?" or some 
such article, rather than posting an advertisment.  If your product really
IS good, you'll get a lot of praise in this thread and a lot of free 
advertising from grateful users.  Subtle difference compared to direct 
spamming, but infintely more pleasing to readers.  And good FAQ material.

One other good idea is, if (and ONLY IF) your product solves a particular
problem not solved in the FAQ, post a response to the question suggesting
to try your product, ** including step-by-step instructions on how to solve
the problem! ** The product is useless unless the user knows how to use it!
It is likely then your help will get reprinted in the FAQ and therefore be 
permanently enshrined in the RTFM archives (at least until a better solution
comes along).

This includes SHAREWARE AUTHORS; if your program is so good, submit it to
<http://www.windows95.com/>.

        3.2. How to instantly lose your Internet access

If you're really wanting to instantly lose your Internet access, just go to
your ISP and cancel your account.  But there are far more creative ways to
do so:

        Cross-post to all *.win95 groups at once.  This insures that you
        anger the most intelligent people in the groups at once and get
        a lot of e-mail to flood your mailbox with.  ISPs will typically
        disable the account to prevent their mail server from overflowing.

        Post a binary file to a *.win95 group.  Since binaries are not
        welcome here, you will receive a similar response as above.  Also,
        your binary will instantly be cancelled by the bincancel robot,
        with a permanent record in news.admin.net-abuse.sightings and
        http://www.dejanews.com/ for ISPs to check against.

        Post a "virus alert", "warez accouncement", or any similar chain
        letter.  Same response as above plus a permanent home in the
        Win95 FAQ Logo Lamers page.  Also, clueless newbies who respond to
        chain letters or warez cascades will find themselves there.
        Try http://kumite.com/myths/ for insight into Chicken Little.

        Post a "Money Making Opportunity" of any kind.  Not only are these
        completely off topic, warranting the same responses as above, a
        typical "opportunity" falls under United States and Canadian
        lottery, lettermail, and competition laws as felonies or indictable
        offences.  From the alt.binaries.slack FAQ, snipped for brevity:

2.10) Can I really be thrown in jail for...
     2.10a) adding my name to a Make Money Fast pyramid scam and
            uploading same?

Absolutely.  This is a U.S. Federal crime under Title 18, United States
Code, Section 1302, the Postal Lottery Statute.

You are referred to the U.S. Postal Service page on this topic:

<http://www.usps.gov/websites/depart/inspect/chainlet.htm>

Oh, and for you Canadians, yes, MMF pyramid schemes are illegal North
of the Border as well (our hats off to Joel for this info):

Check out the following URLs:

[French language version]
<http://canada.justice.gc.ca/FTP/FR/Lois/Chap/C/C-34>

[English language version]
<http://canada.justice.gc.ca/FTP/EN/Laws/Chap/C/C-34>

This subject is not confined to the purview of SubGenii,
news.admin.net-abuse.*, or even the Usenet.   If you post MMF Spam,
you may end up forever enshrined (like a bug in amber) on Rolf's
hilarious yet DEADLY serious Anti-MMF web site:

<http://www.clark.net/pub/rolf/mmf/>
[GF: Also at <http://ga.to/mmf/>]

Rolf has also collected *many* more resources which explain how and why
MMF messages are illegal, and how you can end up IN JAIL if you propagate
MMF spew.