From: nnqadmp2@presby.edu (NNQ Moderation Board) Subject: Common questions about using newsgroups Newsgroups: news.announce.newusers Approved: nnq-adm at presby.edu X-No-Archive: yes Message-ID: <03-common-questions.txt.1146485101@presby.edu> Introduction ------------ Following are some questions that newcomers to newsgroups often ask, and answers to them. It will help if you have some idea of how newsgroups work in general, as described in the article "What newsgroups are and how they work." If you have followup questions about these answers, please post them in news.newusers.questions. If you try to post them in news.announce.newusers, they will simply be returned to you. Also, please send e-mail to us only if you have specific corrections to the material in this posting, or other administrative questions about news.announce.newusers. For answers to other questions, please use the following resources: + Your newsreader software's documentation + Your Internet service provider's support staff + The news.newusers.questions Web site + A web search engine such as + The newsgroup news.newusers.questions, for questions about newsgroups + Other appropriate newsgroups, for other kinds of questions This article was last revised on 18 December 2003. Contents -------- Q1: How do I shut off all these messages that are filling up my mailbox? Q2: I posted a message [or read a certain message] a little while ago and now I can't find it again. Where did it go? Q3: I posted a message a few hours ago, and it still hasn't appeared. What happened to it? Q4: How long does it take to get a response to a newsgroup message? Q5: Where should I look for a response to a question that I posted? Q6: Should I post or e-mail a response to someone else's posting? Q7: How do I delete a message that I posted? Q8: Why do some people put "nospam" or something similar in their return addresses when posting? Q9: How do I go to other newsgroups, or find ones that interest me? Q10: How do I create my own newsgroup? ----- Q1: Help! How do I shut off all these messages that are filling up my mailbox? A1: Unlike electronic mailing-list messages, newsgroup messages are *not* dumped into your mailbox or other personal storage space. They are stored on your ISP's (or school's or company's) news server, in a sort of database that all the server's users can access. Most commonly-used newsreading software (*newsreader* for short) downloads (by default) only those specific individual messages that you choose to read, and does not save them on your disk unless you specifically tell it to do so. Many newsreaders do have an _offline_mode_ which allows you to download all recently-arrived messages at once, so you can then select and read messages without staying connected to the Internet. But you normally have to configure your software to do this specifically. ----- Q2: I posted a message [or read a certain message] a little while ago and now I can't find it again. Where did it go? A2: Most newsreaders automatically hide messages that you've already read, on the assumption that you don't want to read the same messages over and over again. There should be a command (perhaps called "Unmark" or "Show All Messages") which makes them visible again. ----- Q3: I posted a message a few hours ago, and it still hasn't appeared. What happened to it? A3: Assuming that your news server is working properly, it may be that the newsgroup that you posted to is *moderated*. When you post a message to a moderated group, your news server e-mails it to the moderator for inspection, instead of posting it immediately. It can take a while before the moderator gets around to inspecting your message and deciding whether to post it. If he does post it (on his own news server), it can take a while for it to propagate back to your server. If he rejects it, he usually tries to e-mail it back to you with an explanation, but if your return address is incorrect, you won't get it. If the newsgroup is not moderated, your newsreader might simply be hiding your message from you. Look for a command called "Show All Messages" or "Unmark All" or something similar. ----- Q4: How long does it take to get a response to a newsgroup message? A4: It depends. Newsgroups are not a synchronous service such as ICQ, chat rooms or AOL Instant Messenger, in which participants communicate directly with each other in real time. Therefore, you must not expect an immediate response to one of your messages. First, it takes a certain amount of time for your message to propagate to other news servers. If your server is well-connected, your message will probably appear on many other servers within an hour or so. But some servers can take a day or more to receive your postings, especially if they (or some intermediate servers) are having problems. Then it takes a while for people to find your message and read it. Most people probably check a newsgroup once a day or less often. If you have an obscure or specialized question it may be several days before someone who knows the answer sees it. Finally, it takes more time for the response, if any, to propagate back to your own server so you can read it. If you haven't received a response after six days or so, it might be appropriate to post a followup message, with more details, or with a more descriptive subject line. ----- Q5: Where should I look for a response to a question that I posted? A5: Normally, you should expect answers to be posted to the newsgroup, if they might be useful to other people. Some newsreaders can automatically select responses to your postings. Otherwise, you should remember the subject lines of your postings, and look for them for responses. You should expect a private e-mail response only if it is of a personal nature. Some people will e-mail you regardless, or send you "courtesy" e-mail copies of posted responses, but you shouldn't count on this. You should specifically request e-mail responses only if you have a good reason. Saying something like "Please e-mail me because I don't read this group often" will make many people angry at you. The usual attitude is, "if you expect us to take the time to answer your questions, you need to take the time to watch for the answers." If you do have a good reason for wanting e-mail responses, state it. For example, if your news server loses many messages, you might miss a posted response, and it is acceptable to ask for an e-mail _copy_ of a posted response. ----- Q6: Should I post or e-mail a response to someone else's posting? A6: In keeping with the answer to the previous question, you should post the response if the information might be useful to other people besides the person that you're responding to. If your response is personal in nature, and of no interest to anyone else, then you should e-mail it. However, you should be aware that many active posters do not want e-mail responses. They prefer to keep all discussion in the newsgroup and some may actually get angry at you if you send them e-mail. If in doubt, don't. Most newsreaders give you the option of posting the response, with an e-mail copy to the original posting's author. If you do this, you should warn the recipient clearly about this in the body of your message, so that he/she can decide how best to respond in turn, if necessary. ----- Q7: How do I delete a message that I posted? A7: Most newsreaders have a "Cancel" command. This posts a special kind of message (a *control* message) that asks news servers to delete a specified message. In theory, a message can be canceled only by the author (or his news server administrator). However, it is rather easy to forge cancels in another person's name, and the resulting abuse has caused many news server administrators to disable cancels on their servers. Therefore, you cannot rely on a cancel to remove a message that you posted, from all news servers. However, normally you don't need to delete your own messages anyway, because almost all news servers automatically *expire* (remove) old messages to make room for new ones. They do this either by removing messages that are older than a certain number of days (which can vary from one newsgroup to another), or by removing the oldest messages until there is enough space for the new ones. Expiration policies vary from one server to another, so your messages will still be visible on some servers after they have expired on others. You should be aware that some sites, e.g. , *archive* messages in some or many newsgroups, more or less permanently, and provide some way to search them easily. Therefore, it's not a good idea to post under your own name something that could embarrass you with your spouse or employer or some other significant person. ----- Q8: Why do some people put "nospam" or something similar in their return addresses when posting? A8: It is an unfortunate fact of life that some people extract e-mail addresses from newsgroup messages to build lists of addresses for *spam* (unsolicited e-mail advertisements, etc.). To counteract this, many people *munge* (modify) their e-mail addresses in newsgroup messages, and usually give instructions on how to reconstruct the actual address. Another remedy is to use a separate address at a free e-mail provider such as or , only for posting newsgroup messages. This means that if you send an e-mail response to a newsgroup message, you need to beware that you might need to *un-munge* the author's e-mail address, or substitute another address, according to instructions in the body of the message. For more information about this, see . ----- Q9: How do I go to other newsgroups, or find ones that interest me? A9: How you *subscribe* to a newsgroup, that is, tell your newsreader software which newsgroups you want to read, depends on the particular software that you are using. Therefore, you should _first_ search your menus, online help, or other documentation for the word "subscribe". If that fails, ask in a newsgroup that discusses your software, or in news.newusers.questions; if you ask in n.n.q, please say which software you are using. To search for newsgroups by subject, try the search engines referenced on the news.newusers.questions Web site: ----- Q10: How do I create my own newsgroup? A10: Creating a widely-available newsgroup requires the cooperation of thousands of news server administrators. They usually want some evidence that the newsgroup will actually be used, which usually means some kind of vote or interest poll, or a request from one of their own customers. In general, creating an effective newsgroup is not something to undertake lightly. The exact procedure depends on what kind of group you want to create. For more detailed information, see the news.newusers.questions Web site: -- The NNQ Moderation Board