The E-mail is advantageous when you know the address of the addressee. But what to make when you want to meet the other persons on the Internet who have the same interests as you?
Newsgroup is a place or you can read the messages of the other persons and undertake in a conversation. It's about a system or you leave a message on the equivalent of one talkative public. Everybody can read your message and leave it their own comments or retorts.
Each Newsgroup discusses a subject in particular. For example a newsgroup discusses Windows 95 whereas another speaks about extraterrestrials, about the sex or even about the infant diseases. The range of subjects is very varied. According to an article of July 2, 1997 of PC MAGAZINE, there are more than 20 000 various groups of interests. The number of groups is at present more than 30 000 groups.
There are two Newsgroups's types: " usenet " and " listserv ". The first software uses a software specialized to connect in the list of Newsgroups. The second uses any software of E-mail to read and send messages to a group of interest. These two systems will be controversial each the tour on this page as well as their principles of functioning.
Usenet
For the students who have an account on the Merlin server, you can reach Newsgroups by selecting the sixth option of the menu: Newsgroups. For the users of the server Nobel, you can execute the called program " tin ". This program connects you to the list of Newsgroups.
The first time when you go to use the program, it's going to ask you to update the list of Newsgroups. answer by yes. It's going to set several minutes to update the list of thousand Newsgroups. These are grouped together in categories. This list is not complete. They are the categories the most used.
Alt Alternate subjects that is not covered in the other categories.
Biz Subjects connected with the business(cases).
Comp Subjects connected with computers and data processing.
Misc General subjects.
News Subjects connected with the news.
Rec Subjects of entertaining activities.
Sci Scientific subjects.
Ploughshare Subjects connected with the company(society).
How to move around
To move you from the list of Newsgroups, use the following the keys.
Cursor downward Pass in following Newsgroup or in following message.
Cursor upward Pass in Newsgroup or in previous message.
Ctrl+D Jump of a screen downward.
Ctrl+U Jump of a screen upward.
Ctrl+W Write a message on a subject.
M ( move ) Write the name of Newsgroup that interests you to return you to it.
G (go) Write the number of Newsgroup that interests you to return you to it.
Cursor to the right To see the contents of Newsgroup or message.
Cursor towards the left To go out of a message or a Newsgroup.
Q Leave the software.
How it works
Before we beginto read messages, it's necessary to get through some stages. You should first determine the subject that interests you. The list of the usenet that the uqam uses contains more than 3000 subjects. Later, it's necessary to determine that subject interests you. It's only after these two stages that you'll see the list of message on a subject of a group that interests you. Here is an example.
The list of the groups of interest.
Group Selection (news.uqam.ca 3409) h=help
| Number Of the group | Number Of messages | Name of the group | Description of the group |
| 1 | 209 | Alt.1d | One-dimensiona |
| 2 | 5827 | Alt.2600 | The magazine o |
| 3 | 398 | Alt.3d | Use(wear out) alt.3d.mis |
| 4 | On 1626 | Alt.abortion.inequity | Paternal oblig |
| 5 | 779 | Alt.abuse.recovery | Helping victim |
| 6 | 5996 | Alt.activism | Being Activities for |
| 7 | 79 | Alt.activism.d | In place to say |
| 8 | 495 | Alt.activism.death-penalty | For people opp |
| 9 | 73 | Alt.adjective.noun.verb.verb.verb | The penultimat |
| 10 | 852 | Alt.adoption | For those invo |
When you found a group that interests you, press the cursor pointing to the right to enter the list of the subjects. To return then to the list of the groups of interest, press the cursor pointing towards the left.
The list of the subjects
Inside the group, there are several "conversations" that take place at the same time. This list gives you the subjects of each. The first column indicates the subject number. The second column indicates the number of messages on a subject. One "+" only indicates that there is only an original message. Nobody in given by retort to this subject. The third column is the subject itself. The last column indicates the name of the person that began the subject.
When you found a subject that interests you, press the cursor pointing to the right to enter the list of messages. If you want to return to the list of the subjects, press the cursor pointing towards the left.
| 1 | 2 | Incredible Machine 2, for BACK, one Win95 | AAstor |
| 2 | 2 | Kids Programming | God |
| 3 | + | Register Your Site About Kids Computer With S | M2C |
| 4 | 2 | Wanted: Jumpstart 2nd rank | D2s2@o2.net |
| 5 | + | Putt-Putt Travels Through Time | Dave Timoney |
You can now follow a conversation. The first column indicates the number of the message. The second figure indicates the number of messages, including the original message. The last column indicates the name of the person as well as its address of E-mail.
| 0 | + [11] | Sk ( skrishna@cisco_deletethis.com ) |
| 1 | + [21] | Carroll ( carroll@hammond.cis.ohio-report.edu ) mark |
| 2 | + [28] | Darin Johnson ( darin@usa.net.delete_me ) |
| 3 | + [23] | CLIF PENN ( clifpenn@airmail.net ) |
| 4 | + [25] | John D. Yeager ( johnyeager@lucent.com ) |
| 5 | + [43] | Brian McLaughlin ( brianm@ims.com ) |
Listserv
The basic concept is the same. You read the messages of a group of interest as well as to write your own messages to the group. However, instead of using a specialized software as for usenets, you use your software of E-mail. Here is the functioning of Newsgroup of the kind Listserv.
A message is sent to the address of E-mail of the group of interest. A program of help to the administrator of the list, often called the majordomo, takes charge after the reception with redistributing this message to all the subscribers of the list of the group of interest. It takes charge also of the registration and the stop(ruling) of subscription as well as in the filing of messages sent to the list.
With this system, you need to know two addresses of E-mail for each of the groups of interest to that you want to subscribe. The first is that of the administrator of the list or its majordomo. It's for this address that you send your demand of subscription or stop(ruling) for a list. There are as well the other instructions that(as) you can take advantage. When you are subscribed to a group, you can send a message to the administrator whose only contents of the text are the word " help ". The majordomo will send you a list of all the possible instructions with a brief explanation of each.
The address of the administrator begins almost always with the word " listserv ". Ex: listserv@compagnie.fictive.com
The second address is that where you send your messages to the list and to all these subscribers.
Subscription
Here is the procedure to subscribe to a group of interest.
Before we begin, you should know the address of the administrator of the list who interests you. Make a query on the World Wide Web on one of the research sites mentioned on the reference page by using the words " listserv + list ". {Reference}
*In the option " To: ", enter the address of the E-mail of the listserv that you chose.
*In the option " subject ", enter nothing and press the Enter key.
*If the program asks you if you want to cancel sends it of the message, press the key " n ".
*Write the word " subscribe " followed by a space and a name of the group of interest.
Ex: subscribe win95-l
*Press the Enter key.
*Press the keys Ctrl and " x " followed by the key " s " to send the message.
The majordomo will receive your demand of subscription and will send you a confirmation. From this moment, you'll begin to receive messages of the group of interest of your choice.
Stop the subscription to a newsgroup.
Here is maintaining the procedure to stop a subscription to a group of interest.
*In the option " To: ", enter the address of the E-mail of the listserv that you chose.
*In the option " subject ", enter nothing and press the Enter key.
*If the program asks you if you want to cancel sends it of the message, press the key " n ".
*Write the word " unsub " followed by a space and a name of the group of interest.
Ex: unsub win95-l
Some majordomo use the signoff term instead of unsubscribe. use it if you are incapable to stop the subscription. If the problem persists, send another message to the listserv. write only the word " help " in the part of the text. The majordomo should have to send you a list of available instructions. It remains only to find the command to stop the subscription.
The digest option
There is however a command that you should know before subscribing you to a group of interest. It's the command digest. The most popular newsgroups can receive between 100 and 150 messages a day. This means as well as the subscribers of these groups receive so many messages in their box to mail.
The command digest warns the majordomo that you don't want to receive all the messages from their arrivals to the group. You ask it to accumulate these messages until these accumulate 1000 lines of text or until it received all the messages of day. As soon as one of these conditions is filled, the majordomo sends you a message that groups together(includes) several messages that were sent to the group. This has the advantage to reduce considerably the number of messages that accumulates in your box of messages. But, you don't receive messages from their arrivals to the group of interest.
Here is the procedure to be followed to activate the option digest being subscribed to you to a group of interest.
*In the option " To: ", enter the address of the E-mail of the listserv that you chose.
*In the option " subject ", enter nothing and press the Enter key.
*If the program asks you if you want to cancel sends it of the message, press the key " n ".
*Write the word " set name_of_interested_group digest " followed by a space and a name of the group of interest.
Ex: set win95-l digest
Recommendations
Before plunging and beginning conversations with all and each, subscribe to a group of interest of your choice and wait. read all the messages of the group to find the threads of conversations. There are often terms that are specific to a group. try to find FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) to be in better position to follow and to interact in the conversations.
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