@DATABASE "CHAP3"
@index BigDummy.index/MAIN
@NODE MAIN "Chapter 3: USENET"
@TOC  BIGDUMMY.GUIDE/MAIN
@NEXT CHAP4/MAIN
@PREV CHAP2/MAIN
     Imagine a conversation carried out over a period of hours and days,
as if people were leaving messages and responses on a bulletin board. Or
imagine the electronic equivalent of a radio talk show where everybody
can put their two cents in and no one is ever on hold.
     Unlike @{" e-mail " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 96}, which is "one-to-one,"  Usenet is "many-to-many."

   @{" What is Usenet?                 " link WHATUSENET            }
   @{" News groups                     " link NEWSGROUPS            }
   @{" News readers                    " link NEWSREADERS           }
   @{" Responding to articles          " link RESPONDNEWS           } emacs editor hints
   @{" When things go wrong            " link WRONG3                }

@EndNode
@Node WHATUSENET "Chapter 3: Usenet (1 of 5) -- What is Usenet?"
@PREV MAIN
What is Usenet?

     Usenet is the international meeting place, where people gather to
meet their friends, discuss the day's events, keep up with computer
trends or talk about whatever's on their mind.  Jumping into a Usenet
discussion can be a liberating experience.  Nobody knows what you look or
sound like, how old you are, what your background is.  You're judged
solely on your words, your ability to make a point.
     To many people, Usenet IS the Net. In fact, it is often confused
with Internet.  But it is a totally separate system. All Internet sites
CAN carry Usenet, but so do many non-Internet sites, from sophisticated
Unix machines to old XTs and Apple IIs.
     Technically, Usenet messages are shipped around the world, from host
system to host system, using one of several specific Net protocols.  Your
host system stores all of its Usenet messages in one place, which
everybody with an account on the system can access. That way, no matter
how many people actually read a given message, each host system has to
store only one copy of it. Many host systems "talk" with several others
regularly in case one or another of their links goes down for some
reason.  When two host systems connect, they basically compare notes on
which Usenet messages they already have.  Any that one is missing the
other then transmits, and vice-versa.  Because they are computers, they
don't mind running through thousands, even millions, of these comparisons
every day.
     Yes, millions.  For Usenet is huge.  Every day, Usenet users pump
upwards of 25 million characters a day into the system -- roughly the
equivalent of volumes A-E of the Encyclopedia Britannica.
     Obviously, nobody could possibly keep up with this immense flow of
messages.  Let's look at how to find messages of interest to you.


@EndNode
@Node NEWSGROUPS "Chapter 3: Usenet (2 of 5) -- Newsgroups"
Newsgroups

     The basic building block of Usenet is the newsgroup, which is a
collection of messages with a related theme (on other networks, these
would be called conferences, forums, bboards or special-interest groups).
     There are now more than 3,000 of these newsgroups.  With so many
newsgroups, it can be hard finding ones of interest to you.  We'll start
off by showing you how to get into some of the more interesting or useful
newsgroups so you can get a feel for how it all works.
     Some public-access systems try to make it easier by dividing Usenet
into several broad categories.  Choose one of those and you're given a
list of newsgroups in that category.  Then select the newsgroup you're
interested and start reading.
     Other systems let you compile your own "reading list" so that you
only see messages in conferences you want.  In both cases, conferences
are arranged in a particular hierarchy devised in the early 1980s.
Newsgroup names start with one of of a series of broad topic names.  For
example, newsgroups beginning with "comp." are about particular
computer-related topics.  These broad topics are followed by a series of
more focused topics (so that "comp.unix" groups are limited to discussion
about Unix).  The main hierarchies are:

             bionet          Research biology
             bit.listserv    Conferences originating as @{" Bitnet " link Chap5/BITNET 0} mailing
                             lists
             biz             Business
             comp            Computers and related subjects
             misc            Discussions that don't fit anywhere else
             news            News about Usenet itself
             rec             Hobbies, games and recreation
             sci             Science other than research biology
             soc             "Social" groups, often ethnically related
             talk            Politics and related topics
             alt             Controversial or unusual topics; not
                             carried by all sites

     In addition, many host systems carry newsgroups for a particular
city, state or region.  For example, ne.housing is a newsgroup where New
Englanders look for apartments.  A growing number also carry K12
newsgroups, which are aimed at elementary and secondary teachers and
students. (See @{" Chapter 12 " link CHAP12/MAIN} for more on education.)  And a number of
sites carry clari newsgroups, which is actually a commercial service
consisting of wire-service stories and a unique online computer news
service (more on this in @{" chapter 10 " link CHAP10/MAIN}).


@EndNode
@Node NEWSREADERS "Chapter 3: Usenet (3 of 5) -- News readers"
@NEXT RESPONDNEWS
News readers
     How do you dive right in?  On the Free-Net and some other systems,
it's all done through menus -- you just keep choosing from a list of
choices until you get to the newsgroup you want and then hit the "read"
command.  On Unix systems, however, you will have to use a "newsreader"
program.  Two of the more common ones are known as rn (for "read news")
and nn (for "no news" -- because it's supposed to be simpler to use).
     For beginners, nn may be the better choice because it works with
rudimentary menus -- you get a list of articles in a given newsgroup and
then you choose which ones you want to see.

   @{" Example session in nn newsreader   " link NNSESSION }
   @{" Finding interesting groups: NNGREP " link NNGREP    }
   @{" Customizing news groups: .newsrc   " link NEWSRC    }
   @{" Example session in rn newsreader   " link RNSESSION }
      >> @{" rn commands.                 " alink RNCOMMANDS            }
      >> @{" nn commands.                 " alink NNCOMMANDS            }


@EndNode
@Node NNSESSION "...News Readers (1 of 4) -- nn Sample Session"
@PREV NEWSREADERS
@TOC NEWSREADERS
To try it out, connect to your host system and, at the @{" command line " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 50},
type
               nn news.announce.newusers

and hit enter.  After a few seconds, you should see something like
this:

Newsgroup: news.announce.newusers                     Articles: 22 of 22/1 NEW

a Gene Spafford   776  Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
b Gene Spafford   362  A Primer on How to Work With the Usenet Community
c Gene Spafford   387  Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on Netiquette
d Gene Spafford   101  Hints on writing style for Usenet
e Gene Spafford    74  Introduction to news.announce
f Gene Spafford   367  USENET Software: History and Sources
g Gene Spafford   353  What is Usenet?
h taylor          241  A Guide to Social Newsgroups and Mailing Lists
i Gene Spafford   585  Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part I
j Gene Spafford   455  >Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part II
k David C Lawrenc 151  How to Create a New Newsgroup
l Gene Spafford   106  How to Get Information about Networks
m Gene Spafford   888  List of Active Newsgroups
n Gene Spafford   504  List of Moderators
o Gene Spafford  1051  Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists, Part I
p Gene Spafford  1123  Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists, Part II
q Gene Spafford  1193  >Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists, Part III
r Jonathan Kamens 644  How to become a USENET site
s Jonathan Kamen 1344  List of Periodic Informational Postings, Part I

-- 15:52 -- SELECT -- help:? -----Top 85%-----
Explanatory postings for new users. (Moderated)

     Obviously, this is a good newsgroup to begin your exploration of
Usenet!  Here's what all this means:  The first letter on each line is
the letter you type to read that particular "article" (it makes sense
that a "newsgroup" would have "articles").  Next comes the name of the
person who wrote that article, followed by its length, in lines, and what
the article is about. At the bottom, you see the local time at your
access site, what you're doing right now (i.e., SELECTing articles),
which key to hit for some help (the ? key) and how many of the articles
in the newsgroup you can see on this screen. The "(moderated)" means the
newsgroup has a "moderator" who is the only one who can directly post
messages to it.  This is generally limited to groups such as this, which
contain articles of basic information or for digests, which are basically
online magazines (more on them in a bit).
      Say you're particularly interested in what "Emily Postnews" has to
say about proper etiquette on Usenet. Hit your c key (lower case!), and
the line will light up.  If you want to read something else, hit the key
that corresponds to it.  And if you want to see what's on the next page
of articles, hit return or your space bar.
     But you're impatient to get going, and you want to read that article
now.  The command for that in nn is a capital Z.  Hit it and you'll see
something like this:


Gene Spafford: Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on NetiquetteSep 92 04:17
Original-author: brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton)
Archive-name: emily-postnews/part1
Last-change: 30 Nov 91 by brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton)


**NOTE: this is intended to be satirical.  If you do not recognize
  it as such, consult a doctor or professional comedian.  The
  recommendations in this article should recognized for what
  they are -- admonitions about what NOT to do.


                        "Dear Emily Postnews"

        Emily Postnews, foremost authority on proper net behaviour,
        gives her advice on how to act on the net.

============================================================================

Dear Miss Postnews: How long should my signature be? -- verbose@noisy

A: Dear Verbose: Please try and make your signature as long as you
-- 09:57 --.announce.newusers-- LAST --help:?--Top 4%--

     The first few lines are the message's header, similar to the header
you get in @{" e-mail " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 96} messages.  Then comes the beginning of the message.
The last line tells you the time again, the newsgroup name (or part of
it, anyway), the position in your message stack that this message
occupies, how to get help, and how much of the message is on screen.  If
you want to keep reading this message, just hit your space bar (not your
enter key!) for the next screen and so on until done. When done, you'll
be returned to the newsgroup menu.  For now hit Q (upper case this time),
which quits you out of nn and returns you to your host's @{" command line " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 50}.
     To get a look at another interesting newsgroup, type

                nn comp.risks

and hit enter.  This newsgroup is another moderated group, this time a
digest of all the funny and frightening ways computers and the people who
run and use them can go wrong.  Again, you read articles by selecting
their letters.  If you're in the middle of an article and decide you want
to go onto the next one, hit your n key.

@EndNode
@Node NNGREP "...News Readers (2 of 4) -- nngrep: Finding interesting groups"
@TOC NEWSREADERS
     Now it's time to look for some newsgroups that might be of
particular interest to you.  Unix host systems that have nn use a program
called nngrep (ever get the feeling Unix was not entirely written in
English?) that lets you scan newsgroups.  Exit nn and at your host
system's @{" command line " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 50}, type

                nngrep word

where word is the subject you're interested in.  If you use a Macintosh
computer, you might try

                nngrep mac

     You'll get something that looks like this:

               alt.music.machines.of.loving.grace
               alt.religion.emacs
               comp.binaries.mac
               comp.emacs
               comp.lang.forth.mac
               comp.os.mach
               comp.sources.mac
               comp.sys.mac.announce
               comp.sys.mac.apps
               comp.sys.mac.comm
               comp.sys.mac.databases
               comp.sys.mac.digest
               comp.sys.mac.games
               comp.sys.mac.hardware
               comp.sys.mac.hypercard
               comp.sys.mac.misc
               comp.sys.mac.programmer
               comp.sys.mac.system
               comp.sys.mac.wanted
               gnu.emacs.announce
               gnu.emacs.bug
               gnu.emacs.gnews
               gnu.emacs.gnus
               gnu.emacs.help
               gnu.emacs.lisp.manual
               gnu.emacs.sources
               gnu.emacs.vm.bug
               gnu.emacs.vm.info
               gnu.emacs.vms

     Note that some of these obviously have something to do with
Macintoshes while some obviously do not; nngrep is not a perfect system.
If you want to get a list of ALL the newsgroups available on your host
system, type

                nngrep -a |more

or
                nngrep -a |pg

and hit enter (which one to use depends on the Unix used on your host
system; if one doesn't do anything, try the other). You don't absolutely
need the |more or |pg, but if you don't include it, the list will keep
scrolling, rather than pausing every 24 lines.  If you are in nn, hitting
a capital Y will bring up a similar list.
@ENDNODE
@NODE NEWSRC "...News Readers (3 of 4) -- .newsrc: Control group presentation"
@TOC NEWSREADERS
     Typing "nn newsgroup" for every newsgroup can get awfully tiring
after awhile.  When you use nn, your host system looks in a file called
.newsrc.  This is basically a list of every newsgroup on the host system
along with notations on which groups and articles you have read (all
maintained by the computer).  You can also use this file to create a
"reading list" that brings up each newsgroup to which you want to
"subscribe."  To try it out, type

                nn

without any newsgroup name, and hit enter.
     Unfortunately, you will start out with a .newsrc file that has you
"subscribed" to every single newsgroup on your host system!  To delete a
newsgroup from your reading list, type a capital U while its menu is on
the screen.  The computer will ask you if you're sure you want to
"unsubscribe."  If you then hit a Y, you'll be unsubscribed and put in
the next group.
     With many host systems carrying 2,000 or more newsgroups, this will
take you forever.
     Fortunately, there are a couple of easier ways to do this.  Both
involve calling up your .newsrc file in a word or text processor.  In a
.newsrc file, each newsgroup takes up one line, consisting of the group's
name, an exclamation point or a colon and a range of numbers. Newsgroups
with an exclamation point are ones to which you are subscribed; those
followed by a colon are "un-subscribed."  To start with a clean slate,
then, you have to change all those exclamation points to colons.
     If you know how to use @{" emacs " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 94} or vi, call up the .newsrc file (you
might want to make a copy of .newsrc first, just in case), and use the
search-and-replace function to make the change.
    If you're not comfortable with these text processor, you can
@{" download " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 84} the .newsrc file, make the changes on your own computer and
then @{" upload " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 332} the revised file.  Before you download the file, however,
you should do a couple of things.  One is to type

                cp .newsrc temprc

and hit enter.  You will actually @{" download " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 84} this temprc file (note the
name does not start with a period -- some computers, such as those using
MS-DOS, do not allow file names starting with periods).  After you
download the file, open it in your favorite word processor and use its
search-and-replace function to change the exclamation points to colons.
Be careful not to change anything else!  Save the document in ASCII or
text format.  Dial back into your host system.  At the @{" command line " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 50},
type

                cp temprc temprc1

and hit enter.  This new file will serve as your backup .newsrc file just
in case something goes wrong. @{" Upload " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 332} the temprc file from your
computer. This will overwrite the Unix system's old temprc file.  Now type

                cp temprc .newsrc

and hit enter.  You now have a clean slate to start creating a reading
list.

	Also see @{" Kill files " link CHAP4/KILLFILES} for a way to exclude messages from a group.
@EndNode
@Node RNSESSION "...News Readers (4 of 4) -- rn Sample Session: Build a reading list"
@TOC NEWSREADERS
@NEXT NEWSREADERS
     It's a little easier to create a reading list in rn,  so let's try
that out, and as long as we're there, see how it works.
     If you type

                rn news.announce.newusers

at your host system's @{" command line " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 50}, you'll see something like this:

    ********  21 unread articles in news.announce.newusers--read now? [ynq]

If you hit your Y key, the first article will appear on your screen.  If
you want to see what articles are available first, though, hit your
computer's = key and you'll get something like this:

     152 Introduction to news.announce
     153 A Primer on How to Work With the Usenet Community
     154 What is Usenet?
     155 Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
     156 Hints on writing style for Usenet
     158 Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part I
     159 Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part II
     160 Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on Netiquette
     161 USENET Software: History and Sources
     162 A Guide to Social Newsgroups and Mailing Lists
     163 How to Get Information about Networks
     164 How to Create a New Newsgroup
     169 List of Active Newsgroups
     170 List of Moderators
     171 Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists, Part I
     172 Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists, Part II
     173 Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists, Part III
     174 How to become a USENET site
     175 List of Periodic Informational Postings, Part I
     176 List of Periodic Informational Postings, Part II
     177 List of Periodic Informational Postings, Part III
    End of article 158 (of 178)--what next? [npq]

     Notice how the messages are in numerical order this time, and don't
tell you who sent them.  Article 154 looks interesting.  To read it, type
in 154 and hit enter.  You'll see something like this:

   Article 154 (20 more) in news.announce.newusers (moderated):
   From: spaf@cs.purdue.EDU (Gene Spafford)
   Newsgroups: news.announce.newusers,news.admin,news.answers
   Subject: What is Usenet?
   Date: 20 Sep 92 04:17:26 GMT
   Followup-To: news.newusers.questions
   Organization: Dept. of Computer Sciences, Purdue Univ.
   Lines: 353
   Supersedes: <spaf-whatis_715578719@cs.purdue.edu>

   Archive-name: what-is-usenet/part1
   Original from: chip@tct.com (Chip Salzenberg)
   Last-change: 19 July 1992 by spaf@cs.purdue.edu (Gene Spafford)


   The first thing to understand about Usenet is that it is widely
   misunderstood.  Every day on Usenet, the "blind men and the elephant"
   phenomenon is evident, in spades.  In my opinion, more @{" flame " link BigDummy.guide/LINGO 115} wars
   arise because of a lack of understanding of the nature of Usenet than
   from any other source.  And consider that such flame wars arise, of
   necessity, among people who are on Usenet.  Imagine, then, how poorly
   understood Usenet must be by those outside!

   --MORE--(7%)

     This time, the header looks much more like the gobbledegook you get
in @{" e-mail " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 96} messages.  To keep reading, hit your space bar.  If you hit
your N key (in lower case), you'll go to the next message in the
numerical order.
     To escape rn, just keep hitting your q key (in lower case), until
you get back to the @{" command line " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 50}.  Now let's set up your reading list.
Because rn uses the same .newsrc file as nn, you can use one of the
search-and-replace methods described above.  Or you can do this:  Type

                rn

and hit enter.  When the first newsgroup comes up on your screen, hit
your u key (in lower case).  Hit it again, and again, and again.  Or just
keep it pressed down (if your computer starts beeping, let up for a
couple of seconds).  Unsubscribing from every single group this way could
take five or ten minutes.  Eventually, you'll be told you're at the end
of the newsgroups, and asked what you want to do next.
     Here's where you begin entering newsgroups.  Type

                g newsgroup

(for example, g comp.sys.mac.announce) and hit enter.  You'll be asked
if you want to "subscribe." Hit your y key.  Then type

                g next newsgroup

(for example, g comp.announce.newusers) and hit enter.  Repeat until
done.  This process will also set up your reading list for nn, if you
prefer that newsreader. But how do you know which newsgroups to
subscribe?  Typing a lower-case l and then hitting enter will show you a
list of all available newsgroups.  Again, since there could be more than
2,000 newsgroups on your system, this might not be something you want to
do.  Fortunately, you can search for groups with particular words in
their names, using the l command.  Typing

        l mac

followed by enter, will bring up a list of newsgroups with those letters
in them (and as in nn, you will also see groups dealing with @{" emacs " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 94} and
the like, in addition to groups related to Macintosh computers).
     Because of the vast amount of messages transmitted over Usenet, most
systems carry messages for only a few days or weeks.  So if there's a
message you want to keep, you should either turn on your computer's
@{" screen capture " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 282} or save it to a file which you can later @{" download " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 84}).
To save a message as a file in rn, type

                s filename

where filename is what you want to call the file. Hit enter.  You'll be
asked if you want to save it in "mailbox format."  In most cases, you can
answer with an n (which will strip off the header).  The message will now
be saved to a file in your News directory (which you can access by typing
cd News and then hitting enter).

     Also, some newsgroups fill up particularly quickly -- go away for a
couple of days and you'll come back to find hundreds of articles!  One
way to deal with that is to mark them as "read" so that they no longer
appear on your screen.  In nn, hit a capital J; in rn, a small c.
     There are some newsgroups you might want to include in your reading
list.  The news.newusers.questions newsgroup is where newcomers can ask
questions about how Usenet works.  The newsgroup news.announce.newsgroups
carries information about new or proposed newsgroups.
     The news.answers newsgroup is a fascinating one and can help you
find interesting newsgroups.  Many newsgroups have regularly compiled
lists of "frequently asked questions" or FAQs related to the newsgroup's
particular discussions.  The people who write these lists post them in
news.answers.  You'll learn how to fight jetlag in an FAQ from the
rec.travel.air newsgroup; read more than you probably wanted to know
about bloodhounds in an FAQ from rec.pet.dogs; find answers to common
questions about Windows in comp.os.ms-windows. There's even a newsgroup
set up just for these FAQs: news.answers. This can be an interesting
newsgroup to browse through, because you'll find everything from tips on
saving money on airline tickets to facts about U.S. space missions.

@EndNode
@Node RNCOMMANDS "rn COMMANDS"
@TOC NEWSREADERS
--------------------
rn COMMANDS

     Different commands are available to you in rn depending on whether
you are already in a newsgroup or reading a specific article. At any
point, typing a lower-case H will bring up a list of available commands
and some terse instructions for using them. Here are some of them:

After you've just called up rn, or within a newsgroup:

c             Marks every article in a newsgroup as read (or "caught up")
              so that you don't have to see them again. The system will
              ask you if you are sure. Can be done either when asked if
              you want to read a particular newsgroup or once in the
              newsgroup.

g             Goes to a newsgroup, in this form:

                        g news.group

              Use this both for going to groups to which you're already
              subscribed and subscribing to new groups.

h             Provides a list of available commands with terse
              instructions.

l             Gives a list of all available newsgroups.

p             Goes to the first previous subscribed newsgroup with un-read
              articles.

q             Quits, or exits, rn if you have not yet gone into a
              newsgroup. If you are in a newsgroup, it quits that one and
              brings you to the next subscribed newsgroup.

Only within a newsgroup:

=             Gives a list of all available articles in the newsgroup.


m             Marks a specific article or series of articles as "un-read"
              again so that you can come back to them later. Typing

                        1700m

              and hitting enter would mark just that article as un-read.
              Typing

                        1700-1800m

              and hitting enter would mark all of those articles as un-
              read.


s file        Copies the current article to a file in your News directory,
              where "file" is the name of the file you want to save it to.
              You'll be asked if you want to use "mailbox" format when
              saving. If you answer by hitting your N key, most of the
              header will not be saved.

space         Brings up the next page of article listings.  If already on
              the last page, displays the first article in the newsgroup.

u             Un-subscribe from the newsgroup.

/text/        Searches through the newsgroup for articles with a specific
              word or phrase in the "subject:" line, from the current
              article to the end of the newsgroup. For example,

                        /EFF/

              would bring you to the first article with "EFF" in the
              "subject:" line.

?text?        The same as above except it searches in reverse order from
              the current article.

Only within a specific article:

C             If you post an article and then decide it was a mistake,
              call it up on your host system and hit this.  The message
              will soon begin disappearing on systems around the world.

F             Post a public response in the newsgroup to the current
              article.  Includes a copy of her posting, which you can then
              edit down using your host system's text editor.

f             The same as above except it does not include a copy of the
              original message in yours.

m             Marks the current article as "un-read" so that you can come
              back to it later.  You do not have to type the article
              number.

Control-N     Brings up the first response to the article. If there is no
              follow-up article, this returns you to the first unread
              article in the newsgroup).

Control-P     Goes to the message to which the current article is a reply.

n             Goes to the next unread article in the newsgroup.

N             Takes you to the next article in the newsgroup even if
              you've already read it.

q             Quits, or exits, the current article. Leaves you in the
              current newsgroup.

R             Reply, via @{" e-mail " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 96} only, to the author of the current
              article. Includes a copy of his message in yours.

r             The same as above, except it does not include a copy of his
              article.

s|mail user   Mails a copy of the article to somebody. For "user"
              substitute her e-mail address. Does not let you add
              comments to the message first, however.

space         Hitting the space bar shows the next page of the article, or, if
              at the end, goes to the next un-read article.


@EndNode
@Node NNCOMMANDS "nn Commands"
@TOC NEWSREADERS
--------------------
nn Commands




To mark a specific article for reading, type the letter next to it (in lower
case).  To mark a specific article and all of its responses, type the letter
and an asterisk, for example:

          a*

To un-select an article, type the letter next to it (again, in lower case).

C               Cancels an article (around the world) that you wrote.
                Every article posted on Usenet has a unique ID number.
                Hitting a capital C sends out a new message that tells
                host systems that receive it to find earlier message and
                delete it.

F               To post a public response, or follow-up. If selected while
                still on a newsgroup "page", asks you which article to
                follow up.  If selected while in a specific article, will
                follow up that article. In either case, you'll be asked if
                you want to include the original article in yours.
                Caution: puts you in whatever text editor is your default.

N               Goes to the next subscribed newsgroup with unread articles.

P               Goes to the previous subscribed newsgroup with unread
                articles.

G news.group    Goes to a specific newsgroup. Can be used to subscribe to
                new newsgroups.  Hitting G brings up a sub-menu:

                          u     Goes to the group and shows only un-read
                                articles.

                          a     Goes to the group and shows all articles,
                                even ones you've already read.

                          s     Will show you only articles with a specific
                                subject.

                          n     Will show you only articles from a specific
                                person.

M               Mails a copy of the current article to somebody.  You'll
                be asked for the recipient's @{" e-mail " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 96} address and whether
                you want to add any comments to the article before
                sending it off.  As with F, puts you in the default
                editor.

:post           Post an article. You'll be asked for the name of the group.

Q               Quit, or exit, nn.

U               Un-subscribe from the current newsgroup.

R               Responds to an article via @{" e-mail " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 96}.

space           Hitting the space bar brings up the next page of articles.

X               If you have selected articles, this will show them to you
                and then take you to the next subscribed newsgroup with
                unread articles. If you don't have any selected articles,
                it marks all articles as read and takes you to the next
                unread subscribed newsgroup.

=word           Finds and marks all articles in the newsgroup with a
                specific word in the "subject:" line, for example:

                          =modem

Z               Shows you selected articles immediately and then returns
                you to the current newsgroup.

?               Brings up a help screen.

<               Goes to the previous page in the newsgroup.

>               Goes to the next page in the newsgroup.

$               Goes to the last page in an article.

^               Goes to the first page in an article.


@EndNode

@Node RESPONDNEWS "Chapter 3: Usenet (4 of 5) -- Responding to articles"
@PREV NEWSREADERS
Responding to articles

     Now to put your two cents in.
     "Threads" are an integral part of Usenet.  When somebody posts a
message, often somebody else will respond.  Soon, a thread of
conversation begins.  Following these threads is relatively easy.  In nn,
related messages are grouped together.  In rn, when you're done with a
message, you can hit control-N to read the next related message, or
followup.  As you explore Usenet, it's probably a good idea to read
disucssions for awhile before you jump in.  This way, you can get a feel
for the particular newsgroup -- each of which has its own rhythms.
     Eventually, though, you'll want to speak up.  There are two main
ways to do this.  You join an existing conversation, or you can start a
whole new thread.
     If you want to join a discussion, you have to decide if you want to
include portions of the message you are responding to in your message.
The reason to do this is so people can see what you're responding to,
just in case the original message has disappeared from their system
(remember that most Usenet messages have a short lifespan on the average
host system) or they can't find it.
     If you're using a Unix host system, joining an existing conversation
is similar in both nn and rn: hit your F key when done with a given
article in the thread.  In rn, type a small f if you don't want to
include portions of the message you're responding to; an upper-case F if
you do. In nn, type a capital F.  You'll then be asked if you want to
include portions of the original message.
     And here's where you hit another Unix wall.  When you hit your F
key, your host system calls up its basic Unix text editor.  If you're
lucky, that'll be Pico, a very easy system.  More likely, however, you'll
get dumped into @{" emacs " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 94} (or possibly vi), which you've already met in the
@{" chapter on e-mail " link CHAP2/ELMPINE 55}.
     The single most important emacs command is

               control-x control-c

     This means, depress your control key and hit x.  Then depress the
control key and hit c.  Memorize this.  In fact, it's so important, it
bears repeating:

               control-x control-c


     These keystrokes are how you get out of emacs.  If it works well,
you'll be asked if you want to send, edit, abort or list the message you
were working on.  If it doesn't work well (say you accidentally hit some
other weird key combination that means something special to emacs) and
nothing seems to happen, or you just get more weird-looking emacs prompts
on the bottom of your screen, try hitting control-g. This should stop
whatever emacs was trying to do (you should see the word "quit" on the
bottom of your screen), after which you can hit control-x control-c. But
if this still doesn't work, remember that you can always disconnect and
dial back in!
     If you have told your newsreader you do want to include portions of
the original message in yours, it will automatically put the entire thing
at the top of your message.  Use the arrow keys to move down to the lines
you want to delete and hit control-K, which will delete one line at a
time.
     You can then write your message.  Remember that you have to hit
enter before your cursor gets to the end of the line, because emacs does
not have word wrapping.
     When done, hit control-x control-c.  You'll be asked the question
about sending, editing, aborting, etc.  Chose one.  If you hit Y, your
host system will start the process to sending your message across the Net.
     The nn and rn programs work differently when it comes to posting
entirely new messages.  In nn, type

     :post

and hit enter in any newsgroup.

You'll be asked which newsgroup to post a message to.  Type in its name
and hit enter.  Then you'll be asked for "keywords."  These are words
you'd use to attract somebody scanning a newsgroup.  Say you're selling
your car.  You might type the type of car here.  Next comes a "summary"
line, which is somewhat similar.  Finally, you'll be asked for the
message's @{" distribution " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 63}. This is where you put how widely you want your
message disseminated. Think about this one for a second.  If you are
selling your car, it makes little sense to send a message about it all
over the world.  But if you want to talk about the environment, it might
make a lot of sense.  Each host system has its own set of distribution
classifications, but there's generally a local one (just for users of
that system), one for the city, state or region it's in, another for the
country (for example, usa), one for the continent (for Americans and
Canadians, na) and finally, one for the entire world (usually: world).
     Which one to use?  Generally, a couple of seconds' thought will help
you decide.  If you're selling your car, use your city or regional
distribution -- people in Australia won't much care and may even get
annoyed.  If you want to discuss presidential politics, using a USA
distribution makes more sense.  If you want to talk about events in the
Middle East, sending your message to the entire world is perfectly
accetable.
     Then you can type your message.  If you've composed your message
@{" offline " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 228} (generally a good idea if you and emacs don't get along), you
can @{" upload " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 332} it now.  You may see a lot of weird looking characters as it
uploads into emacs, but those will disappear when you hit control-X and
control-C.
     In rn, you have to wait until you get to the end of a newsgroup to
hit F, which will bring up a message-composing system. Alternately, at
your host system's @{" command line " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 50}, you can type

                Pnews

and hit enter.  You'll be prompted somewhat similarly to the nn system,
except that you'll be given a list of possible @{" distributions " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 63}. If you
chose "world," you'll get this message:


This program posts news to thousands of machines throughout the entire
civilized world.  Your message will cost the net hundreds if not
thousands of dollars to send everywhere.  Please be sure you know what
you are doing.

Are you absolutely sure that you want to do this? [ny]

     Don't worry -- your message won't really cost the Net untold
amounts, although, again, it's a good idea to think for a second whether
your message really should go everywhere.
     If you want to respond to a given post through @{" e-mail " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 96}, instead of
publicly, hit R in nn or r or R in rn.  In rn, as with follow-up
articles, the upper-case key includes the original message in yours.
     Most newsgroups are unmoderated, which means that every message you
post will eventually wind up on every host system within the geographic
region you specified that carries that newsgroup.
     Some newsgroups, however, are moderated, as you saw earlier with
comp.risks.  In these groups, messages are shipped to a single location
where a moderator, acting much like a magazine editor, decides what
actually gets posted.  In some cases, groups are moderated like scholarly
journals.  In other cases, it's to try to cut down on the massive number
of messages that might otherwise be posted.
     You'll notice that many articles in Usenet end with a fancy
"signature" that often contains some witty saying, a clever drawing and,
almost incidentally, the poster's name and @{" e-mail " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 96} address.  You too can
have your own "signature" automatically appended to everything you post.
On your own computer, create a signature file.  Try to keep it to four
lines or less, lest you annoy others on the Net.  Then, while connected
to your host system, type

               cat>.signature

and hit enter (note the period before the s).  @{" Upload " link BigDummy.Guide/LINGO 332} your signature
file into this using your communications software's ASCII upload
protocol. When done, hit control-D, the Unix command for closing a file.
Now, every time you post a message, this will be appended to it.
     There are a few caveats to posting.  Usenet is no different from a
Town Meeting or publication: you're not supposed to break the law,
whether that's posting copyrighted material or engaging in illegal
activities.  It is also not a place to try to sell products (except in
certain biz. and for-sale newsgroups).

@EndNode
@Node WRONG3 "Chapter 3: Usenet (5 of 5) -- TROUBLESHOOTING"
@NEXT MAIN
------------------------
WHEN THINGS GO WRONG:

     * When you start up rn, you get a "warning" that "bogus newsgroups"
are present.  Within a couple of minutes, you'll be asked whether to keep
these or delete them.  Delete them.  Bogus newsgroups are newsgroups that
your system administrator or somebody else has determined are no longer
needed.
     * While in a newsgroup in rn, you get a message: "skipping
unavailable article."  This is usually an article that somebody posted
and then decided to cancel.


@EndNode
