Network News
Network news (Usenet) is a collection of e-mail messages arranged by
topic. Each topic is called a newsgroup. When you start your
newsreader the first time, you have the option of subscribing to all
or some of the available newsgroups to which Virginia Tech subscribes.
The VT news server is news.vt.edu. Future uses of your news
client show only the groups you have subscribed to.
Newsgroup names are composed of several fields that provide
a description of the topics discussed by this group. For example,
comp.sys.mac.apps discusses Macintosh applications. bburg.general
is a local newsgroup. news.announce.newusers and
news.newusers.questions or the
FAQ are also good
groups for new users to read.
Don't Get Flamed!
New readers of newsgroups should always read a good number
of postings before joining in the conversation. That way you will
know the types of questions and answers to expect and not
submit a posting that others will think out-of-line. If you don't
follow this suggestion, and perhaps even if you do, you might be
flamed. Flaming occurs when someone takes exception
to your posting and lets you and the world know he/she did not
care for your comments. Be warned the some groups do not
care for new user questions while others are very tolerant.
Some News Readers
You can
read news from Mosaic.
Many newsreaders are available: rn and tin for UNIX systems,
NewsWatcher and Nuntius for Macintoshs, and WinVN for Windows.
Here is a sample tin screen.
Further Reading
See your textbook.