Voyager is one of the few Amiga browsers that supports news. Although it is not as good as using a specific thread-based news reader (such as Microdot-II) you can download, read and even reply to news with Voyager.
There are two ways of accessing and using news:
You can automatically download the contents of a newsgroup by entering the newsgroup into the URL
command box. Let's create an example: say we wanted to look for the list of Amiga newsgroups. Goto
the URL box at the top of the page and type:
You see that the messages are similar (ie. date sorted) to the kind of messages you would find
within your email program. Just click on a message, Voyager will download this and then
display it as normal.
You can reply to a news message either publically or privately. If you look at the bottom
of the news message there are two options Follow Up this Article and E-Mail Private Reply.
"Followup this Article" allows you to reply to the news message and your reply will be seen by
everyone that reads the newsgroup. If you choose to privately reply to the message, your reply will
be by email direct to the person who wrote the original message.
Remember to fill in the newsgroups section to make sure that your message goes to the correct
groups. If you fill out more than one group this is called cross posting. Be careful
here! Why? Cross posting is generally not needed - if you sent a message to the comp.sys.amiga.networking
group about some software there is no need to cross post the message to comp.sys.amiga.misc
as people will see your message in the networking group!
You also need to add a subject unless you are replying to a message. Now start to type your
message or reply into the box. When you are completed, press post to send the message
to the newsgroups.
You should see your message within the newsgroup(s) within a day or two of posting.
5.41 News: (URL Command Box)
The ".*" means that it will load every newsgroup within the Amiga section. Voyager will
now load these news groups and you will be presented with a list such as below:
Let's go into one of the newsgroups to see the contents. Click on the datacomm newsgroup
and Voyager will read the and display the contents which will look something like:
Name | Content |
---|---|
alt | Alternative newsgroups covering a wide range of topics |
biz | Business-related newsgroups |
comp | Computer-related news. Many Amiga groups are contained here. ie. comp.sys.amiga.* |
rec | Recreational or hobby-related newsgroups |
misc | This contains everything else that doesn't fit into other categories |
news | Groups containing news about Usenet itself |
sci | Science-oriented newsgroups |
soc | Discussions of social issues |
talk | Groups often containing controversial issues |
Within these hirarchies are often sub-categories, separated by periods ("."). For example. if we take a look at the main Amiga groups you will notice that they are within a "sys" (system) sub-category linking from the "comp" main group.
comp.sys.amiga.advocacy | This is one of the most popular Amiga newsgroups that consists of people expressing the virtues of their machine against others. This newsgroup is often read by non-Amiga owners |
comp.sys.amiga.announce | A moderated groupd which contains announcements about news software and hardware for Amiga. Strangely this has always been a very quiet groupd |
comp.sys.amiga.applications | Discussion about Amiga programs |
comp.sys.amiga.audio | Discussions about sound samples, MIDI, creating music on the Amiga |
comp.sys.amiga.cd32 | Discussions about the CD32 |
comp.sys.amiga.datacomm | A high-traffic site which mainly discusses modems, comms etc |
comp.sys.amiga.emulations | Discussing emulating other computers with the Amiga |
comp.sys.amiga.games | Playing games on the Amiga |
comp.sys.amiga.graphics | Creating and manipulating graphics on the Amiga |
comp.sys.amiga.hardware | Discussion about your Amiga and hardware you can attach to it. A good group if you need some advice |
comp.sys.amiga.introduction | If you are a new Amiga user, start here |
comp.sys.amiga.marketplace | This group allows you to buy and sell your software or hardware on the Internet. Beware that there are some dubious people offering software/hardware which could be faulty or not as it is described |
comp.sys.amiga.misc | Strangely this is a high-traffic site where most people just discuss anything Amiga related. Probably the best Amiga newsgroup to read |
comp.sys.amiga.multimedia | Multimedia and the Amiga - CanDo, Scala etc |
comp.sys.amiga.networking | This is generally regarded as the newsgroup for Amiga users wanting about the Internet and their Amiga |
comp.sys.amiga.programmer | If you are programming on the Amiga, join this group |
comp.sys.amiga.reviews | Another moderated newsgroup which contains the occassional review from Amiga Internet users |
comp.sys.amiga.uucp | This stands for Unix-to-Unix-Copy-Program and is for old ways of sending email. Not a very popular group |
Smiley | Meaning of the Smiley |
---|---|
:-) | Happy or being funny |
:-( | Sad/Frowning (Quite unhappy) |
;-) | Winking/Sarcastic |
:-D | Laughing |
:-O | Shocked |
:-/ | Fairly negative |
:-p | Sticking tongue out |
:-| | Straight faced - quite negative (but not that unhappy) |
Using Abbreviations
You will find the abbreviations are very common in every day Internet life (email, newsgroups, IRC etc) mainly so phrases do not have to be written in full. Here are some common phrases:
Abbreviation | Meaning |
---|---|
IMHO (or IMO) | In My (Humble) Opinion |
AFAIK | As far As I Know |
BTW | By The Way |
FUBAR | Fed Up Beyond All Recognition |
NRN | No Response Necessary |
OTOH | On The Other Hand |
ROTFL | Rolls On The Floor Laughing (action) |
LOL | Laughs Out Loud (action) |
RTFM | Read The Flipping Manual |
ATM | At The Moment |
FYI | For Your Attention |
RSN | Real Soon Now |
WTF | What The Flip? |
CU (or CUL8R) | See You Later |
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