Reading and Writing the News

Reading and adding to the newsor the gossip, tirades, and misinformation that often pass for news in Internet newsgroupsis as simple as reading or sending your e-mail. All you need to do is specify a newsgroup and select a message, and then either read the message or click a button to respond to it.

Select a Message

In the Folders list, expand the list under the news server if necessary, and click the newsgroup you want.

Click a news message to display it. To open the message in a separate window, double-click the message.

Read the message.

Click the type of message you want to create:

• Write Message to create a new message under its own topic (to start a new thread)
  
  
• Reply Group to respond to the selected message and have your message added under that message (to add it to the thread)
  
  
• Reply to send an e-mail message to the author of the message only but not to add your message to the newsgroup
  
  
• Forward to send the message by e-mail to someone else
  
  

Compose your message. If you're posting a new message, select the type of message you want to create.

Tip

A "thread" is a series of messages: one person posts a message and others reply to the message and/or to the replies.

Caution

Unscrupulous people search through newsgroups to find valid e-mail addresses that they list and sell to spammers. To avoid extra junk mail, when you post a message, you can either use a fake e-mail address or a secondary account that you can easily purge of spam. When you use a fake e-mail address, people can't respond to your message by e-mail.