Template:Newsgroup link
Bare link to a web-accessible version (currently, on Google Groups) of a message posted on some newsgroup.
(See also Template:newsgroupmsg for a less bare version, or Template:raif and Template:rgif for bare links to messages on the IF-specific newsgroups.)
There are several identifiers you can specify to refer to a post.
cmid
This is the style of proprietary identifier that Google Groups uses as of 2024, in URLs like
https://groups.google.com/g/rec.arts.int-fiction/c/T9tPzKE1vhs/m/FjtqTh0FoZUJ
That is, they contain g/[groupname]/c/[id1]/m/[id2]. (The m/[id2] bit seems to identify an individual message in a thread, and can apparently be left off to link to the head of the thread.)
If you're just trying to replicate a current Groups URL, cmid= is what you want (assuming they haven't changed it again).
The same identifiers are also sometimes seen in a different (older?) form of URL:
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/rec.arts.int-fiction/T9tPzKE1vhs/FjtqTh0FoZUJ
To link to one of these, use:
[{{newsgroup link|group=rec.arts.int-fiction|cmid=c/T9tPzKE1vhs/m/FjtqTh0FoZUJ}} post]
Result:
(You must specify the newsgroup name with group=.)
hexid
This is an older style of proprietary identifier that Google Groups used to use, in URLs like
https://groups.google.com/group/rec.games.int-fiction/msg/925f3b3a459f5002
(that is, a single string with hex digits)
These URLs still work, but redirect to the newer style.
To link to one of these, use:
[{{newsgroup link|group=rec.games.int-fiction|hexid=925f3b3a459f5002}} Reviews]
Result:
(Again, you must specify the newsgroup name with group=.)
msgid
A message-ID has an @ sign in it, and appeared in the original message as posted to Usenet. If you can find it, it's probably a more durable reference than the proprietary IDs that normally appear in Google Groups URLs, since it could in principle be used to index into non-Google archives (such as those on the IF Archive).
This identifier is globally unique -- you don't need to specify the group= parameter (if you do, it will be ignored even if incorrect).
Beware: Google Groups URLs using message-IDs seem to be flakier than those using cmid= or hexid= -- they work for all users sometimes, but at other times randomly ask for a Google login. Hence, you may want to include one of the other IDs (which will take precedence) as well as msgid=.
Usage:
[{{newsgroup link|msgid=87u1u4msb3.fsf@radish.petrofsky.org}} post]
yields
Specifying multiple IDs
If you want to record more than one of them for future reference, you can specify multiple of cmid, hexid, and msgid -- that's much of the point of this fiddly template. Currently, they will take precedence in the order shown above.
[{{newsgroup link|group=rec.arts.int-fiction|msgid=87u1u4msb3.fsf@radish.petrofsky.org|cmid=c/T9tPzKE1vhs/m/FjtqTh0FoZUJ}} post]
yields