| Written by Reshma Khatri, Revised by Andrés Santiago Pérez-Bergquist (2000):
The Dean's Scholars newsgroup is news:utexas.nat-sci.deans-scholars
1. What is a newsgroup anyway?
A newsgroup is a discussion forum. It's a place where people can post
information or ideas and others can respond to them. Most newsgroups are
accessible to anyone with Internet access, but UT newsgroups must be
accessed from within the utexas domain (from a computer lab on-campus,
dorm ethernet, Telesys dial-up account, etc.). For those of you with a
broadband connection (DSL, cable modem) or with a national ISP, they've
added a new login feature, which you can read more about at
http://www.utexas.edu/cc/usenet/extnews/.
For those of you with computer
science unix logins - simply use that unix login with news.cs.utexas.edu
for the news server (keep reading).
2. How do I get onto a newsgroup?
There are several ways to get onto a newsgroup, but all require some
sort of newsreader. Netscape Communicator and Outlook Express both have
one built in, as does pine on Unix systems. Many people prefer standalone
newsreaders because they tend to provide more features. One such
newsreader is at http://www.forteinc.com.
- If using a browser that supports newgroups, do the following:
- Start your browser.
- Somewhere in the preferences or setup area, make sure your news server
is set to newshost.cc.utexas.edu if on campus, ext-news.utexas.edu if a
non-CS account and news.cs.utexas.edu for a CS account. Note that off
campus use requires some sort of authentication to be turned on so you
can use your name/password.
- Go to the URL box of your browser, that is, where it says,
"http://www..." and delete whatever it says there.
- To go to the DS newsgroup, type in
"news:utexas.nat-sci.deans-scholars" and hit return/enter.
- You should now see a list of messages appear in a window.
That's it, you're in!
- If not using a browser, just set your newsreader to read the utexas.nat-sci.deans-scholars group.
Once you have successfully gotten onto the newsgroup, you can do
several things. First of all, if you are using your own computer, you'll
want to subscribe to the newsgroup. In some newsreaders, this is
automatic. In others, it may involve clicking a box next to the name of
the newsgroup, dragging the newsgroup to another window, or selecting an
option from one of the menus. Subscribing allows your newsreader to
"remember" your favorite groups so you can go to a newsgroup without
typing it in every time; it also keeps track of which postings you've read
and which you haven't. Just enter "news:" in the URL box to get into the
newsreader and read all of your subscribed groups.
3. What can I do after I have subscribed?
Read a message: As a first time user, you should probably just read all
the messages to begin with (or maybe just the recent ones). This
generally involves simply clicking on each message.
Respond to a message: There are several ways to respond to a message on
the newsgroup. These options are usually separate toolbar or menu items:
- Reply to the newsgroup -- This means your reply
will appear on the newsgroup for all to read. When responding to a
newsgroup message it is considered polite to include edited text of the
previous message ABOVE the text you are about to send (not BELOW your
text). Please edit the quoted text to include only relevant portions.
- Reply by E-mail -- Send your reply directly to
the author of the message you are replying to.
- Reply to group and by mail -- Post your reply to
the newsgroup as well as send it to the author
you're replying to by E-mail.
Post your own message: If you want to post your own original message,
select "To: News", "New Message", "Post", or something similar, depending
on the newsreader you are using.
4. Some final notes:
If you have trouble accessing the newsgroup, you may need to make
sure your news server is correct. Going into your preferences and
entering "newshost.cc.utexas.edu" as your news server should work.
If you see a bunch of junk messages (such as advertisements), or no
messages, that means you're outside the domain and can't see the
"real" messages posted by people at UT. You will have to access the
newsgroup while on campus - or change the way you get to the news
server.
Some newsreaders will remember which messages you have read and not
display those messages when you reload the newsgroup. This can
generally be turned on and off.
If you share a computer with someone else or use a lab that doesn't
reset computers after each use, make sure your name and E-mail address are
specified correctly before posting to a newsgroup or sending mail. In
Netscape, go to preferences (under Options or Edit depending on the
version), and enter your name and E-mail in the Identity section of the
mail and news preferences. Remember to change them back when you're done.
(This used to be a big problem in the dorm labs before they started using
logins.)
Now that you have no excuses, please start using the newsgroup. It's an
effective way of exchanging information about DS (and non-DS) events as
well as a great place for discussions. You can take an extra minute or two
when checking your E-mail to check the newsgroup, too. And remember, while
reading the newsgroup is good, contributing to it is even better.
Discussions tend to end really quickly with only a few people involved,
and then the newsgroup lies idle for weeks. Fortunately, this doesn't
happen quite as often as before, and hopefully it'll happen even less in
the future. Hope to see some new names on the newsgroup soon! [:-)]
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