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Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!dreaderd!not-for-mail Message-ID: <usenet/software/nn/getting-started_1082376800@rtfm.mit.edu> Supersedes: <usenet/software/nn/getting-started_1079688903@rtfm.mit.edu> Expires: 3 Jun 2004 12:13:20 GMT X-Last-Updated: 1995/05/05 From: FAQ Editor <faq-editor@ii.com> Reply-To: FAQ Editor <faq-editor@ii.com> Organization: Infinite Ink, Seattle, Washington, USA Approved: news-answers-request@mit.edu Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions,news.software.nn,news.software.readers,news.answers Followup-To: news.software.nn Subject: Getting Started with News and the NN News Reader Keywords: FAQ, periodic posting, news, newsreader, nn, trn, tin, pine, post, mail, folder, Internet, Net, netiquette, editor, newsgroup, search, flag, header, body, thread, macro, digest, newsrc, Usenet Originator: faqserv@penguin-lust.MIT.EDU Date: 19 Apr 2004 12:14:22 GMT Lines: 2709 NNTP-Posting-Host: penguin-lust.mit.edu X-Trace: 1082376862 senator-bedfellow.mit.edu 567 18.181.0.29 Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu news.newusers.questions:725978 news.software.nn:12433 news.software.readers:172791 news.answers:270261 Archive-name: usenet/software/nn/getting-started Posting-frequency: approximately monthly Last-modified: 5 May 1995 Current Hypertext Version: http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/usenet/software/nn/getting-started/faq.html ____________________________________________________ _______| |_______ \ | GETTING STARTED WITH NEWS AND THE NN NEWS READER | / \ | | / / | Copyright (c) 1995 Nancy McGough | \ / |____________________________________________________| \ /___________) (___________\ TABLE OF CONTENTS 0.0 Preliminaries 0.1 Getting the Latest Version of this FAQ 0.1.1 Hypertext 0.1.2 Plain Text 0.2 Notation 1.0 Introduction to nn 1.1 Why Use nn? A Comparison of Unix News Readers 1.2 Essential nn Commands 1.3 Getting nn Help 2.0 Your First Time 2.1 Starting nn 2.2 Going to a Newsgroup and Subscribing 2.3 Menu Mode: Selecting Articles to Read 2.4 Show Mode: Reading Selected Articles 2.5 Leaving a Newsgroup 2.6 Quitting 3.0 Your Second Time 4.0 Customizing nn 4.1 Strategy: Plug and Play 4.2 Setting Your Editor 4.2.1 C-Compatible Shells 4.2.2 Bourne-Compatible Shells 4.3 Your Subscription List 4.3.1 Your seq File 4.3.2 Your .newsrc File 4.3.2.1 Strategy: Subscribe to All Newsgroups 4.3.3 Finding Newsgroups You're Interested In 4.4 Your init File 4.4.1 Variable Settings 4.4.2 Key Mappings 4.4.3 Host-Specific Settings 5.0 Efficiently Reading Lots of News 5.1 Killing and Auto-Selecting Subjects and Authors 5.2 Quick Selecting Subjects 5.3 Select, Read, Flag, Kill, Next Newsgroup 5.4 Moving Between Newsgroups 5.4.1 Going to a Newsgroup *Temporarily* 5.4.2 Jumping to a Newsgroup 5.4.2.1 Jump Macro 5.5 Reading an Article That's in Digest Format 6.0 Virtual Newsgroups: Creating a Custom Menu of Articles 6.1 Presenting All Articles in a Newsgroup 6.2 Searching For Subjects or Authors 6.2.1 Within a Newsgroup 6.2.1.1 Macro to Show All Articles with Current Subject 6.2.2 Across Newsgroups 6.3 Full Text Searching 6.3.1 Across Articles in a Newsgroup 6.3.2 Within One Article 7.0 Saving Articles 7.1 Strategy: Mail & News Folders Are Essentially the Same 7.2 Saving an Individual Article 7.2.1 Saving an Article That's in Digest Format 7.3 Saving a Group of Articles 7.4 Folder Management 7.4.1 Reading a Folder 7.4.2 Moving and Deleting Messages in a Folder 7.4.3 Linking Your Mail and News Directories 8.0 Posting 8.1 Netiquette 8.1.1 First Read the FAQs 8.1.2 Some DOs and DON'Ts 8.2 Your First Posts Should Be Test Posts 8.2.1 Newsgroups for Testing 8.2.2 Test 1: Following Up to an Article 8.2.3 Test 2: Starting a Thread 8.2.4 Test 3: Replying to an Article in Mail 8.2.5 Test 4: Canceling an Article 8.3 Responding to a Message 8.3.1 Strategy: Flag it, Continue Reading, Then Respond 8.3.2 To Mail or Post Your Response? 8.3.3 Included Text 8.3.4 Headers 8.3.4.1 Newsgroups and Followup-To Headers 8.3.4.2 Subject and References Headers 8.4 Starting a Thread 8.5 Your Signature 8.6 Canceling an Article You Posted 9.0 Glossary 10.0 Contributors 10.1 Acknowledgements 10.2 If You'd Like to Contribute 11.0 Copyright Notice ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 05 May 1995 00:00:00 GMT Subject: 0.0 Preliminaries This article is a fairly comprehensive introduction to news and the nn newsreader. There are a lot of general news concepts and strategies in the article that you may find useful, even if you have no plans to use nn (or Unix). For example, section 8.1.1 "First Read the FAQs" discusses a number of strategies for finding the FAQ(s) of a newsgroup. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 00:10:00 GMT Subject: ... 0.1 Getting the Latest Version of this FAQ If this FAQ is over a couple months old, there may be an updated version. Please get the latest hypertext or plain text version from one of the places listed below. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 00:11:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 0.1.1 Hypertext The best way to read this FAQ (and most other FAQs) is to view the hypertext version using a Web browser such as Lynx, Mosaic, or Netscape. This will allow you to easily jump: * between subjects in the FAQ * to any Uniform Resource Locator (URL) in the FAQ * to an Internet Request For Comments document (RFC) * to some manual pages This, and all FAQs that are crossposted to news.answers, are available at: http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/top.html This particular FAQ is at: http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/usenet/software/nn/getting-s tarted/faq.html If you don't want to type that long URL, you can go to Infinite Ink's Sample Writings Page and jump to it from there: http://www.jazzie.com/ii/writings.html ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 00:12:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 0.1.2 Plain Text The plain text version of this FAQ is regularly posted to these newsgroups: news.newusers.questions news.software.nn news.software.readers news.answers It's in digest format which means that you may be able to use your newsreader to easily move between digest items (e.g., nn uses G% to burst a digest and trn uses ^G to jump to the next digest item). The plain text version is also available through... A Link on Infinite Ink's Sample Writings Page: http://www.jazzie.com/ii/writings.html Anonymous FTP: ftp://ftp.halcyon.com/pub/ii/internet/nn/getting_started.txt ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/usenet/software/nn/getting-started Email: Send mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu containing the following: send usenet/news.answers/usenet/software/nn/getting-started UUCP: uunet!/archive/usenet/news.answers/usenet/software/nn/getting-started ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 00:20:00 GMT Subject: ... 0.2 Notation Notation Means ======== ===== BS Backspace key CTL or C- or ^ Control key DEL Delete key ESC Escape key LFD Linefeed META or M- Meta key RET Return or Enter key SFT Shift key SPC Space key TAB Tab key ^X Press CTL and then, while holding down CTL, press the X key. Often the the lower case letter will also work so you can use either ^x and ^X. TextDescription appropriate text <Text Description> appropriate text (without the angle brackets) <Mode Description> mode you should be in `text' or ``text'' text (without the smart quotes) "text" "text" (including the double quotes) 'text' 'text' (including the single quotes) `text` `text` (including the back quotes) # What follows is a comment ### What follows is commented out code you might want to use by removing the three pound signs ~ or $HOME Your home directory SEE ALSO: Section 9.0 "Glossary" ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 01:00:00 GMT Subject: 1.0 Introduction to nn The underlying philosophy of nn is "no news is good news" and "nn" actually stands for "no news"! This is because hundreds of thousands of messages arrive in the over ten thousand newsgroups each day and nn makes it easy to efficiently read only articles and newsgroups you're interested in. If you are concerned that nn might be too brutal about killing articles, don't fear. You can always view all articles, including killed articles, using the "Go to all" (`G a') command described in section 6.1 below. You can also change nn's default kill behavior by using some of nn's nearly 200 variables. As of May 1995 the latest released version of nn is 6.4.18. The latest beta version is 6.5.0.b3. The beta is very stable so you might want to upgrade. For information about getting and installing nn see the nn FAQ -- details about finding the FAQ are given in section 1.3. Historical Note: nn is based on the tass newsreader. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 01:10:00 GMT Subject: ... 1.1 Why Use nn? A Comparison of Unix News Readers The most commonly used Unix newsreaders are pine, nn, tin, and trn. Each of these has many ardent fans and the choice between them depends on your news reading needs. News reading Power Newsreader ================== ========== low pine medium tin high nn and trn If you are just getting started with news, and you already use pine for mail, then pine is the easiest way to start reading and participating in news. With pine, you'll be able to use your familiar mail commands to go to a newsgroup and find, select, read, flag, save, and respond to news articles. If you want something more powerful than pine, and you don't think you are going to want to evolve into a power news user, then tin is a good choice because its interface is pretty easy to learn. But, if you want to be a power news user then either trn or nn is the way to go. Both nn and trn are powerful, customizable newsreaders that have evolved over many years. Neither one is clearly better than the other. Here are some of the differences: Notation ======== + is an advantage o is neutral - is a disadvantage ? is something I don't know about TRN === + Contains a superset of RN commands so it's an easy migration for RN users. + newsgroup selection level is friendlier than nn's A/B (advance/back) and N/P (next/previous) commands (I like being able to see the list of newsgroups that I say no to) + true threading (uses References line) + graphic view of thread ("article tree") + can search the full headers of articles in a newsgroup + can reorder subscription list from within TRN (using m) + can have macro names longer than 2 characters + active participation by trn developer in newsgroup (news.software.readers) + can reverse the sort order (e.g., most recent at the top) + intrinsic commands for going to root/leaf of a thread (in nn you need to do this with macros or a sequence of commands) + intrinsic command for auto-selecting your articles + easy to change attribution line to whatever you want (using ATTRIBUTION environment variable) + when you post you get lots of blank headers (e.g., Followup-To) put into your editor o newsgroup (news.software.readers) for discussion but also contains lots of non-TRN discussion. - harder macro language NN == + virtual newsgroups - result of subject, author, or full text search + easier macro language + more powerful kill/select abilities (ANDing, ORing) + faster auto killing/selecting + can split/unsplit a digest + dedicated newsgroup (news.software.nn) for discussion + Commands for flagging (l and L) and leaving an article to deal with it later (this is better than trn's M command which just returns an article as unread next time) + built-in command for mailing a copy of a followup article to the author you're responding to (in trn you need to type the person's email address) + can easily mail articles you read/post to other addresses + incredibly customizable + can easily view and organize your folders (both mail and news) with nn + can merge newsgroups + can search all (or some) newsgroups for subject and/or author + can set default save directory for each newsgroup that is not necessarily one of the interpreted strings (e.g., my default save dir for comp.editors is +vi) - not very active participation by developer(s) in newsgroup (news.software.nn) - can only search on subject, author, or full text; also author is the "real name" rather than full From line - macro names limited to 2 characters (as far as I can tell) ? more powerful macro language than trn [Please send more comparisons.] NN Testimonials =============== * Ron Dippold, who handles most newsgroup voting, says that nn is the "best Usenet group reader on the planet." * Despite years of power rn experience and some trn experience, and many finely crafted [t]rn macros, I (nancym@ii.com) switched to nn because of many of the features listed above. * [Please send me your NN Testimonial!] Fortunately, all these newsreaders (and many others) use the .newsrc file to track which articles you've read (or marked read), so you can try out all these newsreaders and not have to reread any articles you've already read. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 01:20:00 GMT Subject: ... 1.2 Essential nn Commands Before we go into the step by step process of using nn, here is a list of essential nn commands. Be aware that *NN IS CASE SENSITIVE* -- many commands use upper case letters because lower case letters are reserved for selecting articles. Type... In order to... ======= ============== SPC Do the next reasonable thing, usually keep moving through articles and newsgroups -- next page, next article, next newsgroup, etc. RET Default response to a prompt ^G Cancel the current prompt ? Quick help on commands available in current mode :? Present help on colon commands :help Present help subjects :help subj Present help on subj, where `subj' is in the `:help' list :man Present sections of the nn manual on a menu. You can then use nn's commands to choose and read sections of the manual. Q Quit :q! Quit & don't record what you read (or marked read) this session ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 01:30:00 GMT Subject: ... 1.3 Getting nn Help Newsgroup: news.software.nn FAQs: The FAQs are posted regularly to news.software.nn and news.answers, and archived in all the usual FAQ archives, including: http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/nn-faq/top.html ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/usenet/software/nn Web Pages: http://www.best.com/~ii/internet/nn/ http://www.inf.fu-berlin.de/~guckes/nn/ Man pages: Read the nn (1) man pages with either the `:man' command from within nn or using a pager like less or more (`man nn |less'), so you can use the search capabilities of the pager. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 02:00:00 GMT Subject: 2.0 Your First Time Before you customize nn you need to run it at least once. This will create the default files and directories that nn uses. It will also familiarize you with the basics of nn and give you ideas for what you want to customize. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 02:10:00 GMT Subject: ... 2.1 Starting nn To start nn simply type `nn' at your Unix prompt. The first time (and only the first time) you run nn you will get a welcome message. If you want to see this message again you can access it by ???. [If you know how to view the welcome message after your first time, please let me know.] You are presented with a menu of articles ("menu mode") in the first newsgroup in your subscription list. If you have not set up a subscription list, then nn uses whatever your system administrator has set up as the default subscription list. Your default first newsgroup might be: * Whatever is alphabetically first in the list of all newsgroup that your host receives (sometimes this is alt.2600) * host.announce (where `host' is replaced with the name of your provider, e.g., `halcyon.announce', `best.announce', etc.) ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 02:20:00 GMT Subject: ... 2.2 Going to a Newsgroup and Subscribing To go to a different newsgroup use nn's Go command (G). For example, here's how to go to one of the newuser newsgroups (which is a good idea): Prompt Type In order to... ====== ==== ============== <menu mode> G Go to... Group of Folder (+./~%=sneNbB) newuser RET ...next newsgroup with `newuser' in its name foo.newuser n RET no, go to next news.announce.newusers y RET yes, go to this newsgroup Number of articles (juasne) (j) RET jump to the newsgroup For now, don't worry about what the cryptic-looking prompts mean. At the final prompt you should press RET which means do the default -- `j' for jump (or `a' for all if jumping is not possible). Once you get to the newsgroup look in the upper right corner of the screen to see if you are subscribed to the newsgroup. If you are not subscribed, it will say: UNSUB In order for nn to keep track of the articles you read, you need to subscribe. To subscribe to news.announce.newusers, do this: Prompt Type ====== ==== <menu or show mode> U Already unsubscribed. Resubscribe to news.announce.newusers? y U is a toggle that unsubscribes you from a subscribed group or subscribes you to an unsubscribed group. TIPS * When searching for a newsgroup with the G command it's a good strategy to use a short search string so that you will hit all variations, e.g., use sport rather than sports so you will be presented with the alt.sports hierarchy as well as rec.sport hierarchy. * You can always break out of a prompt with ^G. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 02:30:00 GMT Subject: ... 2.3 Menu Mode: Selecting Articles to Read After you go to a newsgroup you are presented with a menu of articles in the newsgroup. Each line contains this information about an article: ID Flag Author Lines Subject Here's more details about these: Field Details ==== ====== ID Lower case letter (a-z) or number (0-9); the range depends on screen height Flag read (.), seen on menu but not read (,), left in previous session (=), left this session (+), selected (* or highlighted line) Author Author's full name (or email address if no full name) Lines Number of lines in article (if article has a Lines header) Subject Either the Subject header or if the subject contains only greater than signs (>) or a dash (-), then it has the same subject as the line above. > is a reply, >> is a reply to a reply, etc.; - means same subject as above but not a reply. Here are some ways to select articles you'd like to read. To select (or unselect)... Type ========================== ==== single article ID all articles with current subject * all articles with ID's subject ID* range of articles ID1-ID2 all articles =^ The = command means "select any subject that contains" and the caret (^) means a "beginning of line." Since every subject contains a "beginning of line," this selects all subjects. To unselect all articles that are selected type two tildes: ~~ To move through the pages of the menu use these commands: Type In order to move in the menu... ==== =============================== SPC or > Forward page < Back page ^ First page $ Last page ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 02:40:00 GMT Subject: ... 2.4 Show Mode: Reading Selected Articles After you've selected some articles, you can start reading them (go into "show mode") by typing either SPC on the last page of the menu, or Z. These work as follows. Menu Page Type In order to read selected articles and then... ========= ==== ============================================== any Z return to current menu in the current newsgroup last SPC move to next newsgroup's menu I usually use Z because I like returning to the current newsgroup after reading the articles I selected. Sometimes something I read will inspire me to want to read more in the current newsgroup. The description below assumes that you typed `Z'. Here are some commands for moving within an article: Type... In order to move in current article... ======= ====================================== SPC Forward page u Up half page DEL Back page ^ First page h First page and show all headers $ Last page And here are some commands for moving between the articles you've selected. Type In order to... ==== ============== SPC Go to next selected article if you're at end of current article n Go to next selected article k Kill the rest of this subject and go to next subject (this only kills the subject for this session; future articles with this subject will be presented) p Go to article previously viewed When there are no more selected articles, pressing SPC, n, or k, will move you back to the menu of the current newsgroup. At any time you can use the Z command to go from reading mode to menu mode, or vice versa. (Z toggles between these modes.) When you return to the menu after reading some articles you will see flags next to article IDs. Articles that you read are marked with a period (.). Other flags are described in section 2.3 above. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 02:50:00 GMT Subject: ... 2.5 Leaving a Newsgroup After you've read the articles you're interested in you can move to another newsgroup by using one of these commands. Type In order to... ==== ============== SPC Go to the next newsgroup if you have no more articles selected in the current newsgroup. A Advance newsgroup in your sequence B Back newsgroup in your sequence G Go to a newsgroup you specify If you use the A or B command, NN presents the newsgroup name with a prompt like this: Enter news.group (STATUS) ? (ABGNPy) Where STATUS is either READ, UNSUB, or nothing (which means there are unread articles). You can then: Type In order to... ==== ============== A Advance newsgroup in your sequence B Back newsgroup in your sequence G Use the G command and any of its many variations N Advance to newsgroup in your sequence with unread articles P Back to newsgroup in your sequence with unread articles RET or y Go to the newsgroup named in the prompt Since nn's philosophy is "no news is good news" its default is to mark "read" any article that you saw on the menu. If an article has been marked read it will not be presented on the menu the next time you start nn. (But you can always go to all articles in a newsgroup, including those marked read, by using the Ga command, which is described in section 6.1 below.) ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 02:60:00 GMT Subject: ... 2.6 Quitting Type In order to... ==== ============== Q Quit :q! Quit and don't record what you read (or marked read) this session ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 03:00:00 GMT Subject: 3.0 Your Second Time Between sessions, nn remembers: * Articles you read or marked read. * Articles you left with the `l' command. * Articles you selected but didn't read (and didn't unselect). * The newsgroup you were in when you quit. When you start nn (after your first time), you're asked if you want to go to the newsgroup you were in when you last quit nn with a prompt like this: Enter news.group (N unread)? If you answer yes (y or RET) you'll jump to that newsgroup. If you answer no (n) you'll jump to the first newsgroup in your subscription list that has unread articles. If you always want to start at the beginning of your subscription list then you can set the enter-last-read-mode variable to 0. This is one of the settings suggested in section 4.4.1 below. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 04:00:00 GMT Subject: 4.0 Customizing nn One of the greatest things about nn is its customizability. It has over 180 variables which you can use to change the way information is presented and the way commands work. You can also remap your keyboard, create macros to do just about anything, and create customizations that are specific to only some newsgroups. This section describes suggestions for customizing the following files. File Purpose ==== ======= .login or .profile Set your EDITOR environment variable .newsrc Track newsgroup subscriptions & articles read seq Specify newsgroup sequence, default save files, and more init Variable settings, key mappings, macros, command groups, and more init.* Files loaded by init (these can actually be named anything) kill Auto kill & select commands The .login, .profile, and .newsrc files are in your home directory (~), and all the rest reside in your ~/.nn directory. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 04:10:00 GMT Subject: ... 4.1 Strategy: Plug and Play It's a good strategy to compartmentalize your customizations as much as possible. This allows you to easily: * Turn on or off a customization. * Share some of your customizations with others (and keep some customizations private). * Move your customizations to another host and, if your host-specific customizations are in a separate file, easily change those. * Debug customizations (e.g., you can turn everything off but what you are trying to debug). * Manage your customizations - small files are much easier to edit than one big unwieldy file. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 04:20:00 GMT Subject: ... 4.2 Setting Your Editor When you compose a message within nn or nnpost, nn decides which editor to use as follows: 1. If nn's `editor' variable is set in one of your init files, then that is what is used. 2. If nn's `editor' variable is not set, then the EDITOR environment variable is used. If you don't explicitly set your EDITOR environment variable, then it is set to the system default, which is often vi (which does not stand for "very intuitive"!). Since the EDITOR environment variable is used by many other programs, it's useful to set nn's editor with it rather than the nn-specific editor variable. This way the setting will propagate to other programs such as your mailer. Since some programs use the VISUAL environment variable to determine the editor, it's useful to set this too. If you don't know what editor to use, the PIne COmposer, pico, is a good choice. It's easy to learn and always has a help menu at the bottom of the screen. To see if pico is on your system type any of the following: which pico type pico where pico whereis pico If it's on your system one of these should tell you what directory it's in. If it's not on your system then you will need to use a different editor (or you could ask your system administrator to install pico). If you use pico, then you might want to use it with either or both of these flags. Flag Meaning ==== ======= -t tool mode, which prevents some unnecessary save prompts -z allows you to suspend with ^Z and go out to Unix; you return with fg ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 04:21:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 4.2.1 C-Compatible Shells If you are using csh, tcsh, or another C-compatible shell, put the following in your ~/.login file: setenv EDITOR "pico -t -z" setenv VISUAL "$EDITOR" To "run" your .login either log out and log back in again or type: source .login To check your new settings are in place, type: printenv ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 04:22:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 4.2.2 Bourne-Compatible Shells If you are using sh, bash, ksh, or another Bourne-compatible shell, put the following in your ~/.profile: EDITOR="pico -t -z" export EDITOR VISUAL="$EDITOR" export VISUAL To "run" your .profile either log out and log back in again or type: . .profile To check your settings type: printenv ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 04:30:00 GMT Subject: ... 4.3 Your Subscription List Your subscription list is determined by both your .newsrc file and your seq file (*). Your .newsrc keeps track of what newsgroups you're subscribed to and what articles you've read in those newsgroups. Your seq file tells nn: * which collections of newsgroups to merge into a virtual newsgroup * the order in which you want to be presented newsgroups * the default save folder for each newsgroup (*) You can specify your sequence in either a separate seq file or as the last part of your init file, in a section starting with the word `sequence'. Using the seq file is more in keeping with the plug and play strategy, so that's what I describe below. NOTE: The seq file is currently not documented in the nn man pages. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 04:31:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 4.3.1 Your seq File If you have used other Unix newsreaders and your .newsrc is already ordered the way you like it, then, to begin with, you can use it as your sequence. To set this up simply put `RC' in your ~/.nn/seq file. Here are instructions using pico as your editor. Type In order to... ==== ============== cd go to your home directory cd .nn go to your .nn directory pico seq create your seq file using the pico editor RC put `RC' in the file ^X exit pico y answer yes to the question about saving the file Now you can start nn and newsgroups will be presented in your .newsrc order. If you do not have your .newsrc ordered the way you'd like it, or if you want to take advantage of nn's sequence features, including being able to: * Specify a default save folder for each newsgroup * Use wild cards like `all' to specify a hierarchy, e.g., `rec.arts.movies.all' * Merge newsgroups into a virtual newsgroup Then you should specify your sequence in your seq file. The format looks like this: # Newsgroup(s) Default Save Folder # ============ =================== favorite.group +folder1 next.favorite.group hierarchy.all #all groups in this hierarchy, 1 at a time group.a,group.b +folder2 #merge group.a & group.b into 1 virtual group NOTES * Anything after a pound sign (#) is a comment. * In order for a newsgroup in your sequence to show up when using SPC to move through newsgroups you must be subscribed to it. * If you don't specify a save file, the default-save-file variable setting is used. (See section 4.4.1 for a suggested default-save-file setting.) Here's an example seq file. halcyon.announce +halcyon halcyon.all +halcyon seattle.all +seattle news.newusers.questions +newusers news.software.nn news.software.readers +newsreaders comp.mail.pine comp.mail.misc +mail comp.unix.questions +unix rec.arts.movies.all clari.news.urgent clari.news.top clari.world.top clari.biz.urgent clari.biz.top seattle.forsale,halcyon.forsale With this seq file, if you save (s) an article in the news.software.readers group, for example, it will be saved in a folder named "newsreaders" in your folder directory. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 04:32:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 4.3.2 Your .newsrc File Your .newsrc file, which resides in your home directory (~), is used by most Unix newsreaders, including nn, to keep track of what newsgroups you are subscribed to and what articles you've read. Lines in the .newsrc file look like this: group1.name: m-n,p-q group2.name! A colon (:) after the newsgroup name means you are subscribed and a exclamation point (!) means you are unsubscribed. The numbers are articles, or ranges of articles, that you've read. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 04:32:10 GMT Subject: ... ... ..... 4.3.2.1 Strategy: Subscribe to All Newsgroups There are two main strategies that people use for subscribing to newsgroups: 1. Subscribe to only the newsgroups you read. 2. Subscribe to all newsgroups your host receives (sometimes 10,000+ newsgroups!). I prefer the second strategy because then: * You can add anything to your seq file and it will be presented when you move through news using SPC. * You never need to type U to subscribe to a newsgroup. (Remember that if you read a newsgroup that you aren't subscribed to nn won't keep track of what you've read and so then the next time you go to it you'll be presented all the articles again.) * You never (or very rarely) type `nn' and get this response: No News (is good news) To see the newsgroups you are not subscribed to, type: nngrep -u |less To append these unsubscribed groups to your .newsrc: Type ==== cd cp .newsrc .newsrc.old nngrep -u | sed -e 's/$/:/' -e '/^C/d' >> .newsrc The cryptic looking last command takes the output of the `nngrep -u' command and uses sed, a stream editor, to add colon (:) to the end of each line and then remove any line that starts with a `C' (specifically lines that say ``Connecting to NNTP server...''). It then appends these lines to your .newsrc file. Now start nn and make sure that your .newsrc file wasn't corrupted by a typo you may have made in the above command. If it's been corrupted you will get an error message and you can revert to your old .newsrc file by typing: cp .newsrc.old .newsrc WARNING: If you directly edit your .newsrc file make sure that you use an editor that can handle any long lines in your .newsrc. For example, if you use pico you should turn autowrap off, i.e., use `pico -w .newsrc'. `pico -w' can handle lines up to 128 characters long. [Please send me info about other editors that can handle long lines.] ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 04:33:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 4.3.3 Finding Newsgroups You're Interested In Here are some ways to find interesting newsgroups: * Read these articles that are regularly posted to news.groups and news.lists: List of Active Newsgroups, Part I and II Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part I, II, and III These articles are archived at all the usual FAQ archives including: http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/bngusenet/news/groups/top.html * Search through the news hierarchies at: http://www11.w3.org/hypertext/DataSources/News/Groups/Overview.html * Read and ask questions in news.groups.questions. * Regularly read news.announce.newgroups, which is where new newsgroups are announced. * Look at the Newsgroups header to see what group(s) an interesting article is crossposted to. * Look at the master list of newsgroups with short descriptions: ftp://ftp.uu.net/networking/news/config/newsgroups.gz ftp://ftp.uu.net/networking/news/config/newsgroups.Z After you use ftp to retrieve one of these you will need to uncompress it. * Look at Infinite Ink's Web page, which has links to lists of newsgroups: http://www.best.com/~ii/internet/ * Look at the `newsgroups' file on your system. This file contains a list of all newsgroups that your host receives, with a short description. Sometimes this file is in /usr/lib/news/newsgroups -- you can ask your system administrator where it's located on your system. * Use nngrep to get a list of newsgroups your host receives (but without descriptions) by doing one of the following: Type In order to... ==== ============== nngrep -a |less View all newsgroups at your host in the less pager nngrep -a text |less View all newsgroups with `text' in their name * From within nn you can use the G command to be prompted for all newsgroups that contain some text you specify, and to go to one you are interested in. See section 2.2 and/or 5.4.2 for instructions. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 04:40:00 GMT Subject: ... 4.4 Your init File It's possible to establish most of your customizations in your init file but to use the plug and play strategy, use your init file to specify only other files to load. For example, you could put these lines in your ~/.nn/init file: --- begin init --- # Archived in ftp://ftp.halcyon.com/pub/ii/internet/nn/init load init.variables load init.keymaps load init.macros.jump load init.macros.all-subject load init.host #put init.host last so it overrides other settings --- end init --- In all the init files, any text following a pound sign (#) is a comment and is ignored by nn. To "unplug" one of these just put a # at the beginning of a line. To "plug" it in remove the #. Descriptions of these files are below. File Describe in section... ==== ====================== init.variables 4.4.1 init.keymaps 4.4.2 init.host 4.4.3 init.macros.jump 5.4.2.1 init.macros.all-subject 6.2.1.1 All these init files are archived at: ftp://ftp.halcyon.com/pub/ii/internet/nn ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 04:41:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 4.4.1 Variable Settings You can use nn's over 180 variables to customize nn's behaviour. Below are some especially useful settings. --- begin init.variables --- # Archived in ftp://ftp.halcyon.com/pub/ii/internet/nn/init.variables # In nn, list variables settings with `:set' or `:set all' # When nn starts, always begin with the first group set in the seq file set enter-last-read-mode 0 # Always show purpose of group set show-purpose-mode 2 # Show each subject only once on menu # Bug: Doesn't work with merged groups set consolidated-menu on # On the menu show only: ID, number of articles, subject # Default is 1: ID, author, number of lines, subject set layout 3 # When reading a message show these header lines # For info, see CUSTOMIZED ARTICLE HEADER PRESENTATION section of man pages set header-lines FOnW*Y # Don't split a digest until user says to with G% set split off # Make default save folder name last component of newsgroup name # E.g.: rec.arts.movies default save folder will be +movies set default-save-file +$L # Save articles so I can view them with mailers (pine, elm, etc.) set mail-format on # Silently append new groups to .newsrc; stay subscribed to all groups set new-group-action 3 set keep-unsubscribed on set tidy-newsrc on # Interpret a complete newsgroup name in the seq exactly as it is, i.e., # don't interpret it as meaning the newsgroups *and* all its subgroups. set also-subgroups off --- end init.variables --- ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 04:42:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 4.4.2 Key Mappings It gets confusing when different programs use different keys for the same command. For example, pine and lynx use the minus key, `-', to move back a page, but nn uses `<' to move back a page in a menu mode and the BS key to move back a page in show mode. You can map a key to an nn command by using nn's map command. The format of the command is: map <mode> <key> <command> Where <mode> is either `menu', `show', or `both'. Below are a few key mappings that I like to use. --- begin init.keymaps --- # Archived in ftp://ftp.halcyon.com/pub/ii/internet/nn/init.keymaps # In nn you can see mappings with `:show map' # For a list of all command names see STANDARD KEY BINDINGS section of the # nn manual (pages 78-83 in nn 6.4.18 man pages) # Shouldn't have to do this mapping, but by default they aren't working map show A advance-group map show B back-group # For compatibility with pine and lynx map both - page-1 # Since - is now being used for page-1, need something for select-range map menu _ select-range # For compatibility with elm and pine have i go to menu (index). map show i goto-menu # My screen isn't long enough to show article IDs x and z; so why not use # x and z to also do what X and Z do... ### map both x read-skip ### map menu z read-return ### map show z goto-menu --- end init.keymaps --- ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 04:43:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 4.4.3 Host-Specific Settings It's useful to put information that is specific to your host in a separate file. This way if you get an account on another machine you can transfer all your init files and easily edit the host-specific information. Here are some of the things I put in my init.host: --- begin init.host --- # Archived in ftp://ftp.halcyon.com/pub/ii/internet/nn/init.host # This is what + is replaced by when you save an article or go to a folder. # Default: ~/News set folder ~/Folders # Save copy of articles I post or mail. # Default: Not set (i.e., they aren't saved) set news-record ~/Folders/Posted set mail-record ~/Folders/Mailed # Replace with your organization's name, and remove the leading #'s ### set news-header Organization: Infinite Ink, Seattle, WA, USA ### set mail-header Organization: Infinite Ink, Seattle, WA, USA --- end init.host --- ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 05:00:00 GMT Subject: 5.0 Efficiently Reading Lots of News With nn it's easy to filter through lots of articles in lots of newsgroups and only read articles you're interested in. These three variables, which were set in init.variables above, especially help because they minimize the amount of information you need to scan. set consolidated-menu on set layout 3 set split off ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 05:10:00 GMT Subject: ... 5.1 Killing and Auto-Selecting Subjects and Authors One of the keys to moving through lots of news articles is "killing" subjects and authors that you don't want to read, and auto-selecting subjects and authors that you do want to read. The `k' command kills the current subject for the current session only. Use this when you're tired of a subject but you may want to look in on it again in a future session. The `K' command kills or auto-selects a subject or author for the number of days you specify, anything from one day to permanently. Here's an example of using the `K' command to set up auto selection of any article with *you* as the author. Prompt Type ====== ==== <reading an article you posted> K AUTO (k)ill or (s)elect (CR => Kill subject 30 days) s AUTO SELECT on (s)ubject or (n)ame (s) n SELECT Name: (=/) RET SELECT in (g)roup 'newsgroup.name' or in (a)ll groups (g) a Lifetime of entry in days (p)ermanent (30) p CONFIRM SELECT Name perm exact: YourFullName RET At the `SELECT Name' (or `SELECT Subject') prompt, pressing RET means to use the current name (or subject). One of the most common ways to use `K' is to kill the current subject in the current newsgroup for 30 days. Doing this takes only two keystrokes: Prompt Type ====== ==== <reading an article you posted> K AUTO (k)ill or (s)elect (CR => Kill subject 30 days) RET After 30 days the kill command will automatically be commented out in your "kill file." Your "kill file" is ~/.nn/kill and it is where all the kill and select commands that you create with the `K' command are stored. In addition to using the `K' command, you can also use your editor to directly edit your kill file and create, edit, or delete kill commands. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 05:20:00 GMT Subject: ... 5.2 Quick Selecting Subjects While you are in menu mode you can quickly select each article that contains some particular text in its subject. To do this: Prompt Type ====== ==== <menu mode> = Select regexp text RET Selected N articles The text that you specify can be plain text or an egrep(1) regular expression. For example, the regular expression ^ matches the beginning of a line, so to select all subjects in the current newsgroup, type: =^ ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 05:30:00 GMT Subject: ... 5.3 Select, Read, Flag, Kill, Next Newsgroup When you want to power your way through a newsgroup, one strategy is to rely on nn's default behaviour that you get by typing SPC. The following is pretty much the strategy I use. MENU MODE STRATEGY Use SPC to page through all pages of the menu, selecting all subjects you're interested in. MOVING FROM MENU TO SHOW MODE On the last menu page press SPC to go into reading mode. SHOW MODE STRATEGY Use SPC to page through the pages of an article. MOVING FROM ONE ARTICLE TO ANOTHER ARTICLE On the last page of an article press SPC to go to the next selected article. Or you can use one of the following: Type In Order To... ==== ============== n Move to the next selected article. k Move to the next selected subject. l Flag this article and leave it so you can deal with it later. K Kill or auto-select the current subject or author for this and future sessions. LEAVING A NEWSGROUP STRATEGY After you've read (or marked read) the last selected article in the newsgroup, press SPC to move to the next newsgroup in your sequence with unread articles. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 05:40:00 GMT Subject: ... 5.4 Moving Between Newsgroups The easiest way to move through newsgroups is to arrange your sequence so that they are presented in the order you want to view them. Even if you have your sequence perfectly arranged you will often want to go to a newsgroup that isn't next in your sequence. If you want to go to a newsgroup that's close to where you currently are in your sequence, use the A or B command to step forward or backward through your sequence (see section 2.5 above for details on the A and B commands). If you want to go to a newsgroup that's not close by, use the G command. With the G command you can either: * Temporarily go to a newsgroup, which means that nn will automatically return to the group you came from when you finish with the group. nn will not keep track of articles that you read or flag -- it's as if you were never there. * Jump to a newsgroup, which means that nn will not remember the group you came from and when you are finished with the group you will move on to the next group in your sequence (i.e., the group after the one you just jumped to). nn will keep track of the articles you read and flag. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 05:41:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 5.4.1 Going to a Newsgroup *Temporarily* To temporarily go to a newsgroup named group.bar: Prompt Type In order to... ====== ==== ============== <menu or show mode> G Go to... Group of Folder (+./~%=sneNbB) bar RET ...next newsgroup with `bar' in its name foo.bar n RET no, go to next group.bar y RET yes, go to this newsgroup Number of articles (juasne) (j) <anything but j> temporarily go to group.bar Here's the meaning of the choices in the last prompt: Type In order to *temporarily* go to... ==== ================================== u unread articles a all articles s articles with subject matching what you specify n articles with author matching what you specify e articles with either subject or author matching what you specify When you temporarily go to a newsgroup: * The upper right corner will say *NO*UPDATE* * The lower right corner will say <Level N>. N is a number that tells how far you are from the top level (i.e., the "current" underlying group). E.g., <Level 2> is one away from the top and <Level 3> is two away from the top. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 05:42:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 5.4.2 Jumping to a Newsgroup When you "jump" to a newsgroup, articles you read and flag are tracked in your ~/.newsrc and ~/.nn/select, respectively. To jump to a newsgroup named group.bar: Prompt Type In order to... ====== ==== ============== <menu mode> G Go to... Group of Folder (+./~%=sneNbB) bar RET ...next newsgroup with `bar' in its name foo.bar n RET no, go to next group.bar y RET yes, go to this newsgroup Number of articles (juasne) (j) j jump to group.bar NOTES * You must be in menu mode in order to jump. * If all articles in a newsgroup are marked read, you cannot jump to the newsgroup. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 05:42:10 GMT Subject: ... ... ..... 5.4.2.1 Jump Macro Since jumping to a newsgroup is one of the most common things to do, it's useful to have a macro for this. The following macro is invoked by typing ^j (CTL+j). It prompts you for part or all of a newsgroup name, and then it jumps to the newsgroup if it can (i.e., if there are unread articles). If it can't jump, it does the default, which is to go to all articles in the group. --- begin init.macros.jump --- # Archived at ftp://ftp.halcyon.com/pub/ii/internet/nn/init.macros.jump map both ^j ( ?show goto-menu :!clear #So you really can jump goto-group prompt "Type part or all of newsgroup name:" input " " prompt "" #Clear prompt ) --- end init.macros.jump --- To install this macro, put init.macros.jump in your ~/.nn directory and put this line in your init file: load init.macros.jump ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 05:50:00 GMT Subject: ... 5.5 Reading an Article That's in Digest Format Some articles (like this one) are in digest format. An article is in digest format if it contains a sequence of messages, each with their own headers. Often, nn can split a digest and present each subject as a separate item on a menu. In order for nn to be able to split a digest, each sub-message must have a Subject header and either a Date or From header, i.e., each message must contain at least... Date: Subject: or... From: Subject: Any other headers are fine but it must contain at least either of the above pairs of headers. So, for example, the following will work: Date: From: Subject: Usually nn's default is to automatically split a digest (but your system administrator may have configured it differently on your system). You can control the default behavior by setting the split variable in one of your init files such as init.variables. set split off #On the menu, present a digest as a single article set split on #On the menu, present each digest sub-message as a menu item I prefer `set split off' because then the article only takes up one line on the menu. If you are interested in it, you can select it and then, when you are reading it, you can split it by typing G%. Once a digest is split, you can read, respond to, print, and save individual digest items. SEE ALSO: Digest format is specified in RFC1153. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 06:00:00 GMT Subject: 6.0 Virtual Newsgroups: Creating a Custom Menu of Articles You can use the G command or the `nn -mxX' command to create a virtual newsgroup, i.e., a menu of articles that are the results of searching subjects, authors, or full text of articles. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 06:10:00 GMT Subject: ... 6.1 Presenting All Articles in a Newsgroup To go to all articles, both read and unread, in the current group do the follwoing. Prompt Type In order to... ====== ==== ============== <menu or reading mode> G Go to... Group of Folder (+./~%=sneNbB) a ...all articles in current group NOTE: Even though a is not one of the optiongs listed in the prompt, it does work. This is another undocumented feature. To go to all articles in a group that you're not currently in, use the G command to specify the group and then type `a' at this prompt: Number of articles (juasne) (j) ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 06:20:00 GMT Subject: ... 6.2 Searching For Subjects or Authors Subjects and authors' full names are indexed so that nn can very quickly search these. Note that only the author's full name is indexed so you cannot do a fast search on an email address or fragment of an email address. The default is for searches to be case insensitive. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 06:21:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 6.2.1 Within a Newsgroup If you are already in the newsgroup that you want to search, type `G' to get this prompt: Group of Folder (+./~%=sneNbB) If you're not in the newsgroup that you want to search, use the `G' command to specify the group, and get to this prompt: Number of articles (juasne) (j) At either of these prompts: Type To search... Resulting prompt ==== ============ ================ s subjects s= n authors' full names n= e both subjects and authors e= At the resulting prompt: Type In order to... ==== ============== RET use the current subject or author as the search text text RET specify the search text ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 06:21:10 GMT Subject: ... ... ..... 6.2.1.1 Macro to Show All Articles with Current Subject Often you will read an article and want to go back and read all the articles that have been posted with its subject. Here's a macro that does this. To run it type ^a (CTL+a) while reading an article with the subject you're interested in. --- begin init.macros.all-subject --- # Archived at ftp://ftp.halcyon.com/pub/ii/internet/nn/init.macros.all-subject # Select all (even read) articles with this subject; display base article # Assumes you have case-fold-search set, and want to do a case-sensitive # search. # BUG: Also finds articles with current subject as substring of subject. # (Anyone know how to do an exact match?) map show ^a ( :unset case-fold-search # Make case sensitive goto-group "s" find "^" 'Z' :set case-fold-search # Make case insensitive (default) ) --- end init.macros.all-subject --- To install this macro, put init.macros.all-subject in your ~/.nn directory and put this line in your init file: load init.macros.all-subject ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 06:22:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 6.2.2 Across Newsgroups You can search for subjects or authors in many newsgroups, using some of nn's command line flags. These are the ones I use the most: Type at Unix prompt To search all groups, all articles, & merge results =================== =================================================== nn -mxXs"text" search subjects for `text' nn -mxXs/"regexp" search subjects for regular expression `regexp' nn -mxXn"text" search authors' full names for `text' nn -mxXn/"regexp" search authors' full names for regular expression `regexp' For each of these, if you don't specify anything else, all articles in all newsgroups will be searched. THIS CAN TAKE A REALLY LONG TIME, so usually what I do is specify a hierarchy to search. For example to search all subjects in the sci hierarchy for "realism", I'd use this: nn -mxXs"realism" sci.all ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 06:30:00 GMT Subject: ... 6.3 Full Text Searching Full text searching can be very time consuming because (currently) there aren't full text indexes like there are subject and author indexes. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 06:31:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 6.3.1 Across Articles in a Newsgroup Full text searching across articles in a newsgroup is only available in nn 6.5 (and higher versions), and then only if your sys admin turned this feature on at compile time. If your version of nn doesn't have this feature, you can use either trn or pine 3.90 (or higher) to do a full text search across articles (*). To do a full text search of articles in the current newsgroup, type `G' to get this prompt: Group of Folder (+./~%=sneNbB) And then: Type To search the full text of... ==== ============================= b all articles on the menu B all articles (both read and unread) in the newsgroup You will then get this prompt: Article body search pattern= Now specify the search text. To speed up full text searching you may want to use the Gs or Gn command to first create a menu, and then use the Gb command to search only that menu. (*) Instructions for full text searching across articles in pine and trn are accessible from Infinite Ink's Internet Web Page: http://www.best.com/~ii/internet/ ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 06:32:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 6.3.2 Within One Article To search through the article you are currently reading: Type In order to... ==== ============== ^ Go to the top of the article /text Search for `text' . Repeat the search ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 07:00:00 GMT Subject: 7.0 Saving Articles Since news articles expire, sometimes very quickly, you will probably want to save some articles. RELEVANT VARIABLES: folder, mail-format, suggest-default-save ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 07:10:00 GMT Subject: ... 7.1 Strategy: Mail & News Folders Are Essentially the Same If you save messages in folders that are in mailbox format (which you specify with the mail-format variable), you will be able to access them with mailers like pine, elm, and Berkeley mail, as well as with nn. You can go one step further and save both mail and news messages in the same folders. For example, everything I want to save about nn, whether it was a news or mail message, I save in a folder named `nn'. To make this really easy I use the same directory, called `Folders' for both my news and mail folders. To do this, you need to tell your mailer(s) and newsreader(s) that this is the folder directory. In nn specify this by putting the following line in your init.host file. set news-folder ~/Folders set mail-folder ~/Folders I put this into init.host because this is host-specific information, i.e., on another system I may use a different directory structure. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 07:20:00 GMT Subject: ... 7.2 Saving an Individual Article To save a single message, type `s' while reading it. nn will suggest the default save folder for the newsgroup you're in. A plus sign (+) at the beginning means your news folder directory (~/News or whatever you set with the folder variable). At the folder prompt you can: Type In Order To... ====== ============== RET Save in the suggested folder <text> Edit the suggested folder name ^U Delete suggested folder and be prompted with last-used save folder ^U ^U Delete suggested folders so you can type a folder name NOTE: ^U is not an nn command; it is the usual Unix command to "kill" a line. To find out your Unix "kill" command type `stty -a' at your Unix prompt. After you save the article, the status bar at the bottom of the message will say `(Filed)' so you'll know that it's been saved. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 07:21:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 7.2.1 Saving an Article That's in Digest Format If you save an entire article that's in digest format by using the `s' command, you won't be able to split it after it's in its save folder. This is because the internal message headers are escaped (usually with a tilde (~)). The trick for saving a digest so that it is split in the save folder is to do the following while reading the unsplit digest. Type ==== s ^U ^U |cat > +FolderName With this command, the internal headers won't be escaped, and each sub-message will be presented as an individual message when you view it with a folder reader like nn, pine, or elm. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 07:30:00 GMT Subject: ... 7.3 Saving a Group of Articles To save a collection of messages, select them on the menu and then, while in menu mode, type capital `S'. You will be prompted for which articles you want to save: Type In order to save... ==== =================== + All selected articles on the current page * All selected articles The save folder is specified the same way as it is for saving a single article. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 07:40:00 GMT Subject: ... 7.4 Folder Management You can use nn to read and organize both your mail and news folders. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 07:41:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 7.4.1 Reading a Folder You can open a folder either from within nn or from the Unix prompt. To begin, type one of the following: Prompt Type ====== ==== <Unix prompt> nn SPC (but *not* RET) <within NN> G Followed by: Type To open folder in... ==== ==================== +FolderName your folder directory +relative/path/FolderName directory under your folder directory ~/FolderName your home directory ~/relative/path/FolderName directory under your home directory FolderName current directory relative/path/FolderName directory under current directory /full/path/FolderName specified full path For example, I use the following to read the inet-marketing mailing list: nn +inet-marketing You can also use your mailer to read your news folders (as long as nn's mail-format variable is set). Here are some mailer commands for opening up a folder. pine -if FolderName elm -f =FolderName mail -f FolderName NOTE: These mailer commands work if `FolderName' is in the default folder directory for the mailer. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 07:42:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 7.4.2 Moving and Deleting Messages in a Folder While you are reading a folder, most nn commands work the same as when you are reading a newsgroup. The following commands work a little differently. Type In order to... ==== ============== C Delete a message from the folder s or S Save message(s) to a different folder; you will be asked where When you leave a folder you will be asked if you really want to delete any messages that you deleted with C, or saved with S or s. WARNING: Since nn does not use lock files you should not use nn to delete messages in a folder which is receiving messages (e.g., via a mail processor like procmail, mailagent, deliver, or filter). ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 07:43:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 7.4.3 Linking Your Mail and News Directories If you use lots of mailers and newsreaders, rather than set each of them up to use ~/Folders as the default folder directory, it's much easier to link (with the Unix `ln' command) your Folders directory to directories named News, Mail, and mail, which are the most commonly used folder directory names. This way almost all your mailers or newsreaders will use the same directory for saves. A link is basically just a way to create an alias for a directory or file. Before you can set up the directory links you need to put all your folders into one directory. Here are instructions for merging the folders in directories named `mail' and `News' into a new directory named `Folders'. If your mail folders are in a different directory, e.g., `Mail', replace `mail' with `Mail' below. Type In order to... ==== ============== cd go to your home directory mkdir Folders create Folders directory cp mail/* Folders copy folders in mail dir to Folders dir cp -i News/* Folders copy folders in News dir to Folders dir; answer no about overwriting, note dupe names cp News/DupeName Folders/NewName copy and rename dupe names ls -l Folders list folders in Folders dir ls -l mail list folders in mail dir ls -l News list folders in News dir check that all mail and News folders are now in Folders dir rm mail/* delete folders in mail dir rmdir mail delete mail dir rm News/* delete folders in News dir rmdir News delete News dir If you have folders in other directories, such as `Mail', move those folders to your Folders directory and delete your `Mail' directory. Once you've got all your folders in your Folders directory you can create links (aliases) for the Folders directory named mail, Mail, and News. Type In order to... ==== ============== ln -s Folders mail link Folders dir to mail ln -s Folders Mail link Folders dir to Mail ln -s Folders News link Folders dir to News ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 08:00:00 GMT Subject: 8.0 Posting Once you've spent some time reading news, and possibly responding to articles through mail, you're ready to enter the wild and wonderful (and sometimes cruel) world of publicly participating in news discussions. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 08:10:00 GMT Subject: ... 8.1 Netiquette There are many good sources of information about Net etiquette, including these articles, which are regularly posted to news.announce.newusers and news.answers: * Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on Netiquette * Hints on writing style for Usenet * How to find the right place to post (FAQ) * A Primer on How to Work With the Usenet Community * Rules for posting to Usenet These and other news.announce.newusers articles are archived in all the usual FAQ archives including: http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/bngusenet/news/announce/newusers/top.html ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/news.announce.newusers ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 08:11:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 8.1.1 First Read the FAQs Before you post an article to a newsgroup you should read the newsgroup to get a sense of the type of discussion that is appropriate for that group. And, most importantly, you should read the periodic postings and frequently asked questions (FAQs) of the group. There are lots of different ways to find these, including: * While in the newsgroup use nn's Gs command to search subjects for one of these words: faq, frequent, period, regular, weekly, part <the newsgroup name>, <topic of the newsgroup> * If that doesn't work, and if you are using nn 6.5 or higher, use the GB command to search the full text of articles in the newsgroup for: Archive-name: This should find any FAQ that is archived on the rtfm.mit.edu FAQ server, because the first line of an "official" FAQ must contain a line that starts with this. Since news articles expire, the FAQ may not currently be on your host. If neither of the above turn up the FAQ you can look at these places: Web: http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/top.html Anonymous FTP: ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers Email: Send mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu containing the following: send usenet/newsgroup.name/index Where "newsgroup.name" is replaced with the newsgroup you're interested in. You will get an automated reply that includes a list of the FAQs for that newsgroup. Once you know the name of the FAQ, send another message and replace "index" with the name of the relevant file. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 08:12:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 8.1.2 Some DOs and DON'Ts In addition to suggestions given in the articles, such as "Emily Postnews," mentioned in section 8.1 above, here are a few things I'd like to emphasize. DOs === :> Say what you've done to try to find the answer to your question. For example, say you've read the FAQ (if you have) or if (and only if) you tried to find it but couldn't, ask for a pointer to it. :> If you set the Followup-To header to be something other than the newsgroups you are posting to, say you've done this in your article so people will know where to go to follow the discussion. :> If you notice somthing is getting asked frequently, package the question and answer, if you can, and send it to the FAQ maintainer. [Thanks to Bill Wohler for this DO.] DON'Ts ====== :< Do not post a response before you have read the entire thread. This way you won't post the same thing that someone else already posted. :< Do not ask people to only mail you a response. There *will* be other people who are interested in the responses. Also, if responses are posted, people can see that your question has been answered and know that they don't need to take the time to write you a response. :< Do not include a signature longer than four lines. :< Do not use a meaningless subject like "Help". :< Do not include the whole article you are responding to. Rather, you should include only the bare minimum. :< Do not overuse smileys (like I've just done). ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 08:20:00 GMT Subject: ... 8.2 Your First Posts Should Be Test Posts To make sure that posting is working on your system, it's a good idea to post a couple test articles. Even if you have experience posting with another newsreader or on another system, it's still a good idea to post a couple test messages. This way, if posting isn't working, you won't have wasted much time on an unsuccessful post. With a test posting you can test whether: 1. Your editor is set correctly. 2. Your news-record variable is set. This is the folder where a copy of each article you post is saved. 3. Your signature is appended to your posts. 4. Your headers are the way you want them to be. These can be modified with the news-header variable. 5. Your article is posted on your system. 6. Your article is distributed outside your system. For the first five types of tests, a local test newsgroup and `local' distribution is sufficient for testing. For testing that your article is distributed outside your system you'll want to use a world-wide newsgroup with world distribution (i.e., use *no* Distribution header). ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 08:21:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 8.2.1 Newsgroups for Testing There are lots of newsgroups that are specifically for posting test articles. If you need to test world-wide distribution then you can use misc.test or alt.test. A lot of sites have set up these newsgroups so that they will send automated reply that tells you they received your message. If you don't want to receive those automated replies, then you can put the word `ignore' in the article's Subject. If you only need local distribution for your test then it's best to use a test newsgroup that is specific to your host. This way you will (hopefully) save the Net from distributing some bytes. Usually this type of newsgroup is named host.test. For example, hosts that I used have these test groups: halcyon.test, best.test, texasnet.test, and realtime.test. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 08:22:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 8.2.2 Test 1: Following Up to an Article If you want to publicly respond to a news article, then you post what's called a "followup" article. Here's how to do a test followup post in the misc.test newsgroup. If you don't need to do a world-wide test, replace misc.test with your host's test newsgroup, usually named `host.test'. Prompt Type In Order To... ====== ==== ============== <within nn> G Use the Go command Group or Folder (+./~ %=sneNbB) misc.test Specify the misc.test group Number of articles (juasne) (j) RET Jump to the group <menu mode> a Select article a <menu mode> Z Go into reading mode <reading article a> f Followup Include original article? y (or n) Include (or don't include) the article <your editor> <text> (There must be a completely blank line between the headers and body.) <exit ed> You'll then see this prompt: a)bort c)c e)dit h)old m)ail r)eedit p)ost v)iew w)rite Action: (post article) If this were a real followup rather than a test, you might want to send a "carbon copy" or "courtesy copy" to the person you are responding to by using the `c' command. To just post the article press the RET key. If everything is working, you'll see these two lines: Be patient! Your new article will not show up immediately. Article posted ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 08:23:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 8.2.3 Test 2: Starting a Thread You can start a thread by using either `nnpost' at your Unix prompt or by using `:post' from within nn. With `:post' you can avoid typing the name of the newsgroup your posting to by first going to the group. Here are instructions for starting a test thread in misc.test. As before, you should replace misc.test with host.test, if you don't need to test world-wide distribution. Prompt Type In Order To... ====== ==== ============== <within nn> G Use the Go command Group or Folder (+./~ %=sneNbB) misc.test Specify the misc.test group Number of articles (juasne) (j) RET Jump to the group <misc.test menu or reading mode> :post Start a thread POST to group RET Specify current group Subject: <text> Specify subject (*) Keywords: RET Give no keywords Summary: RET Give no summary Distribution: (default 'world') RET Use world distribution (**) <in your editor> <text> (There must be a blank line between the headers and body.) <exit ed> Action: (post article) RET Post your article If everything is working, you'll see these two lines: Be patient! Your new article will not show up immediately. Article posted (*) The subject can't be left blank so you can *not* just press RET at this prompt. If you include the word `ignore' in the subject you won't get as many auto-responses. (**) Or you can type `local' to specify a local distribution but be aware that the Distribution header is often ignored so articles often get world-wide distribution no matter what you put in the Distribution header. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 08:24:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 8.2.4 Test 3: Replying to an Article in Mail Often you will want to reply to an article with only a private mail message, rather than a public news article. To test doing a reply through mail choose an article that *you* posted and then your test reply will go to you. Prompt Type In Order To... ====== ==== ============== <reading article you posted> r Reply in mail Include original article? y (or n) Include (or don't include) the article <your editor> <text> (There must be a completely blank line between the headers and body.) <exit ed> You'll then see this prompt: a)bort e)dit h)old m)ail r)eedit s)end v)iew w)rite Action: (send letter) To send the message press RET. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 08:25:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 8.2.5 Test 4: Canceling an Article It's a good idea to test out canceling right now, before you really want to be able to cancel (and possibly find out you can't cancel!). To cancel one of your test messages just type `C' while reading it. After about 30 minutes, go back to the newsgroup and list all messages that were posted by you by using `G n YourFullName'. The message you canceled should be gone. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 08:30:00 GMT Subject: ... 8.3 Responding to a Message A good way to get your feet wet is to join in a discussion that is already going on. That way it's more likely that people will respond to your article and then, when they do, you'll feel like you're really participating in Net news. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 08:31:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 8.3.1 Strategy: Flag it, Continue Reading, Then Respond If there's an article you want to respond to, here's a strategy you can use to read other articles on the subject before you post your response. 1. Leave the article by typing `l' (the letter el). 2. Read all articles with that subject. 3. Read other articles in the newsgroup with related subjects. 4. When you are finished with that newsgroup you will be asked whether you want to view the "left over articles." If you want to respond now, type `y'. If you answer `n' the article will be flagged with plus (+) or equals (=) and kept for the next session. 5. When you are ready to respond, type `f' to followup in news or type `r' to reply in mail. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 08:32:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 8.3.2 To Mail or Post Your Response? MAIL ==== If your response is personal and/or only appropriate for the person you are responding to, then mail your response. POST ==== If your response will be interesting to others or includes a question that others might be able to answer, post it. POST AND MAIL ============= In addition to posting your response, you may want to also mail a copy to the person you are responding to. You can do this by using the c)c or m)ail command at the final posting prompt. WARNING ======= Be aware that people who read your private mailed response will not be able to tell whether you both posted and mailed your response or just mailed it. If you only mailed your response and you do not want them to respond publicly then you should include a note that says something like: This message has only been mailed; it has not been posted. Please do not post this private message, or an excerpt of it, to a newsgroup. This is especially a problem if the person who receives your mailed response uses pine. If the person wants to respond to your response, pine will ask whether their response to your response should also be posted to the newsgroup. [A future version of pine will make it more clear to users that they might be posting a private mail message.] ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 08:33:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 8.3.3 Included Text When you post a followup it is often useful to include *some* of the article you are following up to. To include the article, answer `y' to the `Include original article?' prompt. After you are in your editor, delete all the lines that are not specifically relevant to your response. For example, you should always delete any signatures (unless of course you're discussing a sig!). Here are commands for deleting a line in some editors. Editor To Delete a Line ====== ================ vi ESC dd pico ^K emacs ^K With all these editors there are more efficient ways to delete lots of text, but these commands should get you started. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 08:34:00 GMT Subject: ... ... 8.3.4 Headers News and mail messages consist of headers, a completely blank line, and the body. For a followup message you usually won't need to edit the headers at all. When you start a thread, usually the only headers you'll need to think about are the Newsgroups and Subject headers. Sometimes you may want to edit other headers. The next sections describe the Newsgroups, Followup-To, Subject, and References headers. For some general information about headers, see the "Customized Headers" section of the "Signature, Finger, and Customized Headers FAQ" which is regularly posted to news.software.nn and archived in all the usual FAQ archives including: http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/signature_finger_faq/faq.html ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/signature_finger_faq ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 08:34:10 GMT Subject: ... ... ..... 8.3.4.1 Newsgroups and Followup-To Headers When you are composing an article, always look at the Newsgroups header to see what newsgroups your response will go to. Sometimes a poster will direct followup articles to newsgroups other than the one you are reading. You can edit the header lines with your editor. If you list more than one newsgroup then they must be comma separated without any spaces. For example, this article includes these headers: Newsgroups: news.software.nn,news.software.readers,news.newusers.questions Followup-To: news.software.nn If you followup to this article by using the `f' command your followup article will include this header: Newsgroups: news.software.nn ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 08:34:20 GMT Subject: ... ... ..... 8.3.4.2 Subject and References Headers When you respond to a message do not change the headers unless you know what you're doing. Threaded newsreaders, like trn, tin, and netscape, use the References header to track threads. Unthreaded newsreaders, like rn, nn, and pine use the Subject header to simulate thread tracking. If you change either of these headers you will mess up the tracking abilities of some newsreaders. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 08:40:00 GMT Subject: ... 8.4 Starting a Thread After you've had some experience reading news and participating in conversations that someone else started you're ready to start you're own thread. For instructions on starting a thread, see section 8.2.3 on "Test 2: Starting a Thread." BE FOREWARNED Sometimes you think you've got a great topic that will lead to fascinating discussion, but then you get absolutely no response. Be aware that this happens to everyone and it's really impossible to tell what will turn into a great thread and what will fizzle into nothingness. TRICK To really get a thread going, post some wrong information in a seemingly innocent way. (I'm not really advocating this, but it's a good trick to know about!) ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 08:50:00 GMT Subject: ... 8.5 Your Signature Detailed instructions for creating and automatically appending a signature file to your news articles and mail messages are given in the "Signature, Finger, and Customized Headers" FAQ which is regularly posted to news.software.nn and is archived in all the usual FAQ archives including: http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/signature_finger_faq/faq.html ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/signature_finger_faq ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 08:60:00 GMT Subject: ... 8.6 Canceling an Article You Posted To cancel an article you posted, go to it and then, while reading it, type `C'. Here are some reasons that you might want to cancel an article: * Something you advertised in a forsale newsgroup has sold and you're still receiving inquiries about it. * You posted incorrect information and you want to prevent people from problems this information would cause. * You posted incomplete information and rather than posting an addendum to your first article, you'd like to repost the entire article, including the additional information. Unfortunately, canceling an article doesn't obliterate all traces of it from the Net. After you post your article and before you cancel it, people will read it, save it, and possibly respond to it and include your article. Also, even after you cancel it, there will be sites that don't get, or don't honor, your cancel message. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 09:00:00 GMT Subject: 9.0 Glossary ~ or $HOME or home directory The Unix directory that you are in when you first log on to your account. You can always get home by typing `cd'. .newsrc A file in your home directory that keeps track of which newsgroups you're subscribed to and what articles you've read. article or message One item that is posted to a newsgroup or mailed to an email address. Often the word "article" is used for news postings and "message" is used for email. bang "Exclamation mark" or `!'. In Unix an exclamation mark can be used to go out to your shell and run a program while you are in the midst of running another program. For more info, see "shell out." BBS A bulletin board system (or service) is similar to news in that a group of people publicly discuss things. A difference between a BBS and Net news is that a BBS is usually centralized and all the articles are stored on one machine. Net news is decentralized and news articles are replicated on thousands of news machines around the world. browser A Web browser. Clarinet news UPI and Reuters news that is distributed and stored in the same way that Usenet news is. Clarinet news costs money so not all Internet providers receive it. desktop computer The machine you are physically working on. If this machine is not "on the Internet" (see definition) then it needs to use communication software to connect to a machine on the Internet. expire Since there is such a high volume of news on the Net, each article can only be made available for a short amount of time. Different Internet hosts have different rates of expiration -- usually from 2 to 15 days. flame To verbally attack a person, rather than a person's ideas. flame war A group of people verbally attacking each other. followup To "followup" to a news article means to respond by posting an article to the newsgroup. FQDN Fully qualified domain name. GUI Graphical User Interface such as Macintosh, Microsoft Windows, or X Windows, and OS/2. Pronounced like the word "gooey." HTML HyperText Markup Language is the markup language used to create Web pages. HTTP HyperText Transfer Protocol is the protocol used to transfer the bits (0's and 1's) that comprise Web pages. IMAP Internet Message Access Protocol is a protocol for accessing messages on your Internet host. With IMAP, you can choose whether to leave messages on your host or transfer them to your desktop computer. init file A file in your .nn directory that's used to establish variable settings, macros, and other things. kill To "kill" a subject (or author) means to mark all articles with that subject (or by that author) read. kill/select file A file (~/.nn/kill) that keeps track of what subjects and authors you want to automatically kill or select. local and remote host These two terms are relative. When you connect from one Internet machine to another, the one you start at is the "local host" and the one you connect to from the local host is the "remote host." mailer or mail user agent or MUA Software that allows you to read and respond to mail. Examples are pine, elm, Berkeley mail, Pegasus Mail, and Eudora. mail transport agent or MTA Software that transports mail messages. Examples are sendmail or smail. menu mode or selection mode In nn, this is when the list of authors and subjects of articles in a newsgroup are displayed. You choose the articles you're interested in by typing their IDs. moderated newsgroup A newsgroup that has a moderator, i.e., someone who looks at each article before it gets posted and decides whether it is appropriate. Examples are comp.viruses and bit.listserv.nettrain. The Net The Internet. Net news or Internet news All the thousands of newsgroups and articles that are distributed through the Internet. This includes Usenet and Clarinet news. news reader Software that can be used to read Net news. Examples are nn, tin, trn, pine, Netscape, Free Agent, and News Express. newsgroup or group A discussion area in Net news. For example, rec.arts.movies is a newsgroup for discussion of movies. nn A news reader that displays articles in a menu and lets you choose which ones you want to read. After you have read the articles you want to read, it marks all the articles in that newsgroup as read, so you won't see them the next time you read that newsgroup. nn stands for "no news" because the default is to not see any old news. FYI, you can view old news by typing `G a'. on the Internet A machine that is "on the Internet" has an IP (Internet Protocol) address, and can directly participate in the Internet. For example, it may be able to receive mail and news, and connect to other Internet machines using ftp and telnet. If you have a personal interactive account, then your machine is not "on the Internet" -- it uses your local host to access the Net. PGP Pretty Good Protection is used to authenticate messages that are mailed or posted. pico A user-friendly editor that is the default PIne COmposer. It can also be used from the Unix prompt, with nn, and in other Unix applications. pine A user-friendly mailer and news reader that displays messages in a menu and lets you use the arrow keys to move around the menu. pipe The `|' (which is often above the backslash (\) on keyboards). In Unix, and some other operating systems, the pipe is used when you want the output of one command to be the input of another command. For example `ls -CF |less' means use the ouptut of the `ls -CF' command as the input of the `less' command. POP Post Office Protocol is a protocol for transferring mail messages from your host computer to your desktop computer. protocol A set of rules for how data bits (0's and 1's) are packaged and transferred. read article In nn, an article is "read" if you viewed its contents or it was marked read by nn when you left the newsgroup the last time you were in it. regular expression Text that can include "wild cards" (such as .to match any single character); used for searching. reply To "reply" to a news article means to respond to the author in mail. seen article In nn, an article is "seen" if you saw its author's name and subject displayed on the menu. sequence The order in which newsgroups are presented by nn. This is established in your ~/.nn/seq file or in the sequence section of your init file. shell A layer that sits on top of the Unix operating system and allows a human being to communicate with Unix. A friendly shell presents the user with a menu. Two common (less friendly) shells are the Bourne shell (which usually has a $ prompt) and the C shell (which usually has a % prompt). shell out To "shell out" of a program means to temporarily leave the program by typing `!'. You return to the program that you shelled out of by typing `exit.' For example, you might shell out of nn so you can use lynx to look at a Web page someone mentioned in a news article. show mode or reading mode In nn, this is when you are reading an article. SLIP/PPP Serial Line Internet Protocol/Point-to-Point Protocol are protocols used to communicate with the Internet over a telephone line. text file Unformatted file such as most news articles. thread A collection of articles in a newsgroup that make up a conversation. Unix prompt The command line prompt that you get while working on a Unix host. Different shells have different prompts, for example the Bourne shell usually has a $ prompt and the C shell usually has a % prompt. URL A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is an address that can be used by a Web browser. URLs usually look like this: protocol://host.address/directory/filename.extension Where "protocol" can be http, gopher, ftp, mailto, news, etc. Usenet news Most (but not all) of the thousands of newsgroups and articles that are distributed through the Internet. UUCP Unix-to-Unix copy. WAIS Wide Area Information Service. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 10:00:00 GMT Subject: 10.0 Contributors This periodic posting, like most others, is a collaborative effort. I learned a lot of the news and nn information from all the helpful people in news.newusers.questions, news.software.readers, and news.software.nn. Also, I got a lot of great help from people in comp.unix.shell and comp.editors while I was writing the shell scripts and vi macros that I use to organize and update this file (which is actually many little files!). ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 10:10:00 GMT Subject: .... 10.1 Acknowledgements Many thanks to Bill Wohler <wohler@newt.com> who meticulously read, commented, and constructively criticized an early draft of this. Also, thanks to Bill for being a role model for me both as an FAQ maintainer and as a supporter of free information on and off the Internet. Thanks to all the nn enthusiasts in news.software.nn, especially Milt Epstein <epstein@napcc-hp.cvm.uiuc.edu> and Sven Guckes <guckes@inf.fu-berlin.de> who have posted and/or mailed me lots of good tips over the years. And thanks to my brother, Tom McGough, who performed the tedious task of counting the nn variables! I wrote most of this article while I was visiting the great Lone Star State of Texas. Thanks to my friends Matt Kaufmann <kaufmann@cli.com>, Holly Bell <hbell@mail.utexas.edu>, and their cat Baby Kitty for putting me up in their home and letting me tie up their phone line while I was working on this. Thanks also to TexasNet <info@texas.net>, Real/Time Systems <info@bga.com>, and Computational Logic, Inc., who all helped me connect to the Net in Texas. Thanks also to all my regular providers, Best Communications <info@best.com>, Northwest Nexus <info@halcyon.com>, Jazzie Systems <info@jazzie.com>, who let me use lots of their space to make information available on the Net. And, as always, I want to give special thanks to Thomas A. Fine <fine@cis.ohio-state.edu> for setting up and maintaining the hypertext archive of FAQs, which, to me, is one of the greatest things on the whole Internet! Please let me know if I've left you, or anyone else, out of these acknowledgements. ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 10:20:00 GMT Subject: .... 10.2 If You'd Like to Contribute If you have any corrections, suggestions, or new digest items to contribute to this FAQ please send them to faq-editor@ii.com. If your reader understands the following URL, you can use it to send me mail: mailto:faq-editor@ii.com. I'm especially interested in: * History of nn, e.g., it's relationship to TASS * Comparison of newsreaders (any newsreader, including newsreaders for Unix, DOS, MS Windows, X Windows, Macintosh, OS/2, etc.) ------------------------------ Date: 05 May 1995 11:00:00 GMT Subject: 11.0 Copyright Notice Copyright (c) 1995 by Nancy McGough. No portion of this work may be sold or put to commercial use without express written consent of the author. This restriction covers publication in any form, or distribution by any method, which permits this work to be visually perceived, either directly or with the aid of any machine or device. Permission is granted to republish or redistribute this article in its entirety for noncommercial use as long as a best effort is made to distribute the most up to date version, and this copyright notice is not removed or altered. End of Getting Started with News and the NN News Reader ******************************************************* -- /\_/\ @..@ Please make sure your host gets the /\_/\ ( o.o ) Nancy McGough (----) new humanities.* newsgroups. Info ( o.o ) > ^ < Infinite Ink ( >__< ) is at http://www.jazzie.com/ii/ > ~ <