You can automatically download the contents of a newsgroup by entering the newsgroup into the URL command box. Let's create an example: say we wanted to look for the list of Amiga newsgroups. Goto the URL box at the top of the page and type:

The ".*" means that it will load every newsgroup within the Amiga section. Voyager will now load these news groups and you will be presented with a list such as below:

Let's go into one of the newsgroups to see the contents. Click on the datacomm newsgroup and Voyager will read the and display the contents which will look something like:

You see that the messages are similar (ie. date sorted) to the kind of messages you would find within your email program. Just click on a message, Voyager will download this and then display it as normal.

You can reply to a news message either publically or privately. If you look at the bottom of the news message there are two options Follow Up this Article and E-Mail Private Reply. "Followup this Article" allows you to reply to the news message and your reply will be seen by everyone that reads the newsgroup. If you choose to privately reply to the message, your reply will be by email direct to the person who wrote the original message.

Remember to fill in the newsgroups section to make sure that your message goes to the correct groups. If you fill out more than one group this is called cross posting. Be careful here! Why? Cross posting is generally not needed - if you sent a message to the comp.sys.amiga.networking group about some software there is no need to cross post the message to comp.sys.amiga.misc as people will see your message in the networking group!

You also need to add a subject unless you are replying to a message. Now start to type your message or reply into the box. When you are completed, press post to send the message to the newsgroups.

You should see your message within the newsgroup(s) within a day or two of posting.

The first way will be through news: links when using the web. If you are searching through a site about the Amiga they may have a "links" page. Within this page you may see some news links:

news:comp.sys.amiga.misc
news:comp.sys.amiga.networking

By clicking on these news links, the relevant newsgroup will load into Voyager and display within the main window.

All the Amiga newsgroups will be supported by your ISP. However there are more than just the Amiga newsgroups. How do you find the newsgroup you want?

Newsgroups are divided into different hirarchies. Each hirarchy has its own name and covers a specific area:

Name	Content
alt	Alternative newsgroups covering a wide range of topics
biz	Business-related newsgroups
comp	Computer-related news. Many Amiga groups are contained here. ie. comp.sys.amiga.*
rec	Recreational or hobby-related newsgroups
misc	This contains everything else that doesn't fit into other categories
news	Groups containing news about Usenet itself
sci	Science-oriented newsgroups
soc	Discussions of social issues
talk	Groups often containing controversial issues

Within these hirarchies are often sub-categories, separated by periods ("."). For example. if we take a look at the main Amiga groups you will notice that they are within a "sys" (system) sub-category linking from the "comp" main group.

comp.sys.amiga.advocacy	This is one of the most popular Amiga newsgroups that consists of people expressing the virtues of their machine against others. This newsgroup is often read by non-Amiga owners
comp.sys.amiga.announce	A moderated groupd which contains announcements about news software and hardware for Amiga. Strangely this has always been a very quiet groupd
comp.sys.amiga.applications	Discussion about Amiga programs
comp.sys.amiga.audio	Discussions about sound samples, MIDI, creating music on the Amiga
comp.sys.amiga.cd32	Discussions about the CD32
comp.sys.amiga.datacomm	A high-traffic site which mainly discusses modems, comms etc
comp.sys.amiga.emulations	Discussing emulating other computers with the Amiga
comp.sys.amiga.games	Playing games on the Amiga
comp.sys.amiga.graphics	Creating and manipulating graphics on the Amiga
comp.sys.amiga.hardware	Discussion about your Amiga and hardware you can attach to it. A good group if you need some advice
comp.sys.amiga.introduction	If you are a new Amiga user, start here
comp.sys.amiga.marketplace	This group allows you to buy and sell your software or hardware on the Internet. Beware that there are some dubious people offering software/hardware which could be faulty or not as it is described
comp.sys.amiga.misc	Strangely this is a high-traffic site where most people just discuss anything Amiga related. Probably the best Amiga newsgroup to read
comp.sys.amiga.multimedia	Multimedia and the Amiga - CanDo, Scala etc
comp.sys.amiga.networking	This is generally regarded as the newsgroup for Amiga users wanting about the Internet and their Amiga
comp.sys.amiga.programmer	If you are programming on the Amiga, join this group
comp.sys.amiga.reviews	Another moderated newsgroup which contains the occassional review from Amiga Internet users
comp.sys.amiga.uucp	This stands for Unix-to-Unix-Copy-Program and is for old ways of sending email. Not a very popular group

One of the problems with high-traffic newsgroups (groups which contain many messages) is that the group soon becomes too large.

Because of this, news messages are often given expiry tags which mean than after a certain number of days (or weeks) a site will delete the message. Generally the expiry dates are controlled by the news administrator.

A low-traffic newsgroup, therefore, will contain messages that may be kept for weeks whereas a high-traffic newsgroup may contain messages which last for a few days.

Some newsgroups are moderated which means they are monitored to make sure that only high quality postings are excepted. The Amiga reviews newsgroup is moderated, for example, to stop people slating a product for no particular reason.

Netiquette is just a collection of do's and don'ts when you are connected to the Internet. Mainly directed towards E-Mail and newsgroup users it is really a tradition or, some would say, culture that has been developed on the Internet.

One of the problems with electronic mail is that it is difficult to express sarcasm, humour, sadness, dissapointment so that the receiver fully understands what you are trying to say. Indeed on occassions many receivers can view what you have said in completely the wrong context. Say something sarcastic and the receiver may think you are waging a personal attack!

Generally, between friends, email mis-understandings are easily recognised as you begin to understand the other persons humour and style of writing. Newsgroups are much different: you are sending a message to, potentially, 1000's of receivers who will all view your message in a different way. These people will then flame you by sending a nasty response in return. You can easily start getting a name for yourself and (in extreme circumstances) be banned/warned off certain newsgroups.

Some things you should try and avoid when sending an email or message to a newsgroup:

• Shouting - if you WRITE LIKE THIS you may think you are trying to emphasize your words/comments but, on the Internet, it is classed as shouting! Avoid using capitals within sentances.

• Signatures - you are best cutting down your signature to a maximum of 4 or 5 lines. Many "old-hat" (users connected for a few years) Internet users cannot stand the glorification of signatures. Some people even have huge ASCII art as their signatures that can take anything upto 15 lines. This will not be tolerated by most users.

• Flaming - if you disagree strongly (mainly on a newsgroup) or launch a personal attack against another user you may be flamed. If you are flamed it will involved many people writing to you (in person or in public!) to tell you that you are wrong to say what you said and that they strongly disagree with your comments.

  If you are flamed you stand the chance of being banned or warned from using a newsgroup, IRC channel etc.

• Cultures - remember that most discussion groups contain users from all over the world. What you think may be interesting (or even the "norm") may be totally unacceptable to another user (from another country). Therefore, be careful before you respond to messages.
• Threads - many newsreaders put news messages into threads which means that if you respond to a message it connects (like a tree) to the previous message regarding the topic. Therefore if you are following up a news message keep the content of your message in the same topic as the subject.

• Crossposting - if you create a news message, do not (if possible) crosspost the same message to multiple, but similar, newsgroups. If you feel that you have to crosspost, make sure you put an apology into the message and that you don't do it too often.

• !!! or "....." - do not use lots of exclamation marks at the end of sentances in order to tell a user you are shocked, suprised etc!!!!! Also, do not use lots of "...." to break up sentances. Some people.....for example....use these dots to break sentances...and words...but who knows why....?

• Bold - avoid using lots of bold or highlighted text if possible. This is particularly true within IRC channels where some people are quite offended by the use of lots of bold and highlighted text.

• Repeat Mail - if possible try not to repeat sending a mail to a newsgroup. True, many newsgroups are very busy and some people may not see your message! By sending your message 2 or 3 times, however, you will make the newsgroup even busier. You also stand a good chance of making many people annoyed.

• Commerical Posts - if you run a company avoid posting blatent commercial messages to a discussion newsgroup. By all means tell people you like a product (as you will always find people who write back and tell you they disagree) but do not announce products unless you think people will benefit from the announcement - ie. if you have released a new patch which fixes bugs etc.

• Quoting - avoid quoting reams and reams of text if someone sends you a long email. Just keep the basic facts or your returned mail will seem to last forever.

  Most newsgroup readers work by using threads so a person reading your mail can easily refer to the previous message if they need to.

Smileys

Smileys are intended to portray a different "mood" or emotion.

Smiley	Meaning of the Smiley
:-)	Happy or being funny
:-(	Sad/Frowning (Quite unhappy)
;-)	Winking/Sarcastic
:-D	Laughing
:-O	Shocked
:-/	Fairly negative
:-p	Sticking tongue out
:-|	Straight faced - quite negative (but not that unhappy)

Using Abbreviations

You will find the abbreviations are very common in every day Internet life (email, newsgroups, IRC etc) mainly so phrases do not have to be written in full. Here are some common phrases:

Abbreviation	Meaning
IMHO (or IMO)	In My (Humble) Opinion
AFAIK	As far As I Know
BTW	By The Way
FUBAR	Fed Up Beyond All Recognition
NRN	No Response Necessary
OTOH	On The Other Hand
ROTFL	Rolls On The Floor Laughing (action)
LOL	Laughs Out Loud (action)
RTFM	Read The Flipping Manual
ATM	At The Moment
FYI	For Your Information
RSN	Real Soon Now
WTF	What The Flip?
CU (or CUL8R)	See You Later