FAQ for alt.culture.kerala -- Part-I
Mathai Chundattu
These are regular weekly postings which explain alt.culture.kerala
to new users. They attempt to answer some of the questions that are
frequently posted in this newsgroup.
This article contains the Part-I of frequently asked questions.
Part - I : Questions & Answers. (Technical)
Q (1) What is alt.culture.kerala?
A (1) This is a newsgroup devoted primarily to discussion of the
culture of the people who originate from the state of Kerala
in the south of India. Its charter includes
(i) Nostalgia.
(ii) Films.
(iii) Social Issues.
(iv) Books.
(v) Politics.
(vi) News.
relating to Kerala or its language : Malayalam.
Q (2) When was alt.culture.kerala formed?
A (2) alt.culture kerala was formed under the main initiative of
Mr. Paul C. Chemmanoor, then a graduate student at the
University of Colorado, Boulder. In his own words,
"... alt.culture.kerala was formed at exactly 2:30 mountain
time, Friday 24 July 92, ..."
Q (3) How do I post to alt.culture.kerala if I dont have
access to newsreaders or I dont have post priveleges?
A (3) Mailing the article to alt-cultu...@cs.utexas.edu
will cause the article to be posted on alt.culture.kerala.
Q (4) What is the scope of distribution of articles in alt.culture.kerala?
A (4) alt.culture.kerala has a world-wide distribution.
Most newsreaders including rn will automatically insert a
line describing distribution during posting of an article.
The default distribution is "world" for alt.culture.kerala.
Q (5) How can I subscribe to alt.culture.kerala?
A (5) There are several ways you can subscribe to alt.culture.kerala.
Before following the other options please find out the following
things about your system.
1. Check your home directory for a file called ".newsrc". Your home
directory is usually the directory into which you login. See
whether .newsrc contains an entry:
alt.culture.kerala: 1-n
where n is some article number. If not, add the line
alt.culture.kerala anywhere in this file. If the entry
for alt.culture.kerala ends with an exclamation mark(!) remove
it from the end of the entry.
Run your news reader again. If you get a message like
"Warning! Bogus newsgroup: alt.culture.kerala",
talk to your system administrator about adding
alt.culture.kerala into the list of active newsgroups. If he
adds it you will be getting alt.culture.kerala at your site.
Q (6) My site doesnt have news. How do I get to alt.culture.kerala?
A (6) telnet to bbs.oit.unc.edu
The system will tell you the rest.
An alternative way to get the newsgroup by e-mail if you have
a e-mail address either bitnet or internet is :
Send mail to mchu...@midway.ecn.uoknor.edu with your full name
and email address.
The latest articles will be sent to you everyday in a single
file. A program which can extract the articles from the file is
also available at the above address. At present it will also
allow you to save, forward to the newsgroup or reply to the
author about the article.
Mathai Chundattu
mchu...@midway.ecn.uoknor.edu