This may take about 20 minutes (depending on the speed of your modem and
the number of discussion groups your ISP has access to on the news server
- this may be over 3000).
To
subscribe using Outlook Express
Similarly, when using the program that comes with Windows Select Set up
a Newsgroup account and follow the dialogue boxes. Going through the entire
master list of Newsgroups looking for groups you may be interested in, is
very time consuming. Fortunately, most newsreaders have a search function
that will search the list for terms related to your interests.
In this example I've used Outlook Express' Newsreader to suscribe
to newsgroups and have typed "activism"
in the search box
The newsreader has returned a list of Newsgroups that the word activism
appears in the title. Examples are: alt.activism, alt.activism.age-restrictions,
alt.activism.children, alt.activism.community, alt.activism.d etc etc...
As you can see by the above examples, activism
is well represented in Newsgroups. Reading the titles will give you a good
indication of what the discussion is about. If you are primarily interested
in eco-issues then alt.activism.eco-action
would be the newsgroup for you to check out.
Click Go To to see what the tone of the articles are and if you like
them return to this dialogue box to Suscribe.
Articles
Once you've subscribed to a newsgroup you will get a list of all
the group's articles you haven't read. Naturally, you haven’t read any
of them if this is you first foray into the group.
To read an article you simply click on the article's heading (Title).
The article is then sent to your computer for you to read. (Each service provider
decides how long to keep past articles on their server.)
The most common newsreaders display newsgroup messages in a split screen
format, meaning that your computer screen is divided into two main sections
or panes.
The most common newsreaders display the article headers on the top
pane while the article text is on the bottom
pane. Article headers are arranged oldest to newest.
For each message posted you are given several options – one of which
is to reply to the posting with your own response. Typing and sending
off a response to a message will attach it to the original. Frequently,
messages will contain tens of individual responses much like yours. This string
of postings following an original message is called a thread.
When you go to download from a particular Newsgroup you will get a message
asking you how many headers you would like to download?.
Headers are messages people have posted. You can download them all or you
can nominate to download a particular number
The top part of the message screen displays the headings of all the messages
people have posted. The bottom of the screen shows the message (this may be
familiar to you as it looks very similar to an ordinary email).
Stringing messages together into threads helps you track of
all the postings that are related to the original article. You can follow
along almost like a conversation. Each response is posted under the original
in the order the news server received them.
You also can post your own article. Just be sure that it is within the subject
area of the newsgroup you’re posting to.
Try Testing First
A few Newsgroups exist that allow you to practice posting before you actually
contribute to a newsgroup.
These groups also let you know that your software is set up and working correctly.
Try posting a test message in alt.test, news.test,
or misc.test. Check out the test newsgroup the next day to see
if your message is listed.
To
suscribe using Netscape