People using googlegroups to access the Usenet often don't
realize that the Usenet is a worldwide network of news servers
that exists quite independently of Google (and existed long
before Google was even dreamed of).

Nor do they understand that the Usenet is best accessed with
applications called newsreaders and that many people on the
Usenet filter out posts from googlegroups. Why?

1) It is the source of a great deal of spam.

2) Googlegroups posters, on newsgroups where specialized
information is shared, tend to be people who take but don't give.
They come for help but never help anyone.

3) Googlegroups is also a favorite of "trolls", neurotics who
wander the Usenet making trouble using dozens of different names.

Googlegroups is, for the serious Useneter, a Usenet archive, no
more and no less, accessed here:

http://groups.google.com/advanced_search?q=&

If you want your posts to be taken seriously, or even seen,
you need to learn to use a newsreader. It isn't difficult. You
probably already have one on your computer. In short order you
will discover just how superior to googlegroups a newsreader is.
The place to start is the newsgroup news.newusers.questions,
which can be accessed via googlegroups at:

http://groups.google.com/group/news.newusers.questions/topics

This newsgroup has its own website with links to a lot of
information about the Usenet:

http://www.anta.net/misc/nnq/

In particular, see this page:

http://www.anta.net/misc/nnq/how-it-works.shtml

Here are some more links that you may find helpful:

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/newsgroup.htm
http://lipas.uwasa.fi/~ts/http/tsfaq.html
http://www.big-8.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=faqs:newusers
http://www.newsreaders.com/
http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Usenet/
http://www.physiol.ox.ac.uk/~njh/usenet.php3
http://www.dickgaughan.co.uk/usenet/guide/index.html

These are the websites that offer free access to newsservers
you can use if your ISP doesn't offer this service. It may, so
be sure to check:

http://news.aioe.org

http://motzarella.org

http://x-privat.org

http://www.usenet4all.se/

(this server kills all posts from googlegroups)

http://sonic-news.com/

(free.sonic-news.com is their free newsserver, no password or
username required, 5 posts an houri5nd0 MB/day)

http://studio10k.com

This is their free server, which you can just use:

news.studio10k.com

http://albasani.net

http://www.teranews.com/  

Free accounts available must sign up.

Note: Free newsserver access has a tendency to come and go
without warning, so don't take that list too seriously.

Note: that this is an informational posting published weekly.
(more or less) I do not read responses to it on the Usenet. (In fact, my
newsfilter kills the thread.)

Sun Oct 19 2008

Sid

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