If you have question about using news groups, please contact the ITS Response Center located on the lower level of the R B House (Undergraduate) Library. You can get in touch with the Response Center staff by walking over to the Undergraduate Library, by calling (919) 962-HELP or by [ http://www.unc.edu/ar-bin/websub/index.pl ] submitting an online request for help.

News group names are hierarchically organized from general to specific. The first level is the most general, the second level is more specific, and so on. News group names can have five or more levels, although most have two or three. The first level shows the main topic of the news group, as indicated by the following chart:

This list contains the most common types of news groups, but it is by no means complete. The exact nature of a news group is difficult to predict judging only by its name. Some news groups that sound interesting have poor discussions or few postings. On the other hand, you will be able to avoid news groups that don't interest you simply by looking at their names. The only really effective way of determining the nature of a news group is to read the postings for a while and see for yourself. Be aware that most of the news groups on the Internet are not moderated -- anyone can post anything he or she wants! Often, you will find news articles or even whole groups that offend you. You can usually tell ahead of time that this is the case and avoid the offending material.

If you don't like to receive abuse in your mail box, a few rules will help you when you start posting news articles of your own:

In the news group selection page, you'll see a list of news groups. Each group is initially marked in the left-hand column with a u , which indicates that you are unsubscribed to the group. To subscribe, use the up and down arrow keys or j (line down) and k (line up) keys to select the group name and press s . Once you have selected all the groups you wish to subscribe to, press y (for yank in/out) to move to the second level: the group index page. Note that if you ever want to find more news groups you can come back to the news group selection page, where you can look through available news groups and pick the ones you want to read.

You can unsubscribe from news groups from the Group Index page. Use the up and down arrows or j (line down) and k (line up) or type the number of the news group and press Return to move to the group you want to remove from your list; note that the cursor just flashes briefly in the left hand column, so you have to watch to see where you are. To remove a group, type u. tin will mark that entry with a u on the far left hand column. The next time you use tin that group will not appear on the news group list.

tin has good on-screen help. At any time, you can enter h to receive a list of commands and a description of what action they perform.

Once you have selected some news groups that you want to read and have pressed y (for yank in/out), you'll move to the group index page, which displays all the groups you are subscribed to. The groups are numbered; next to the number of the group is the number of unread postings in the group; then comes the group name; and finally there is an optional group description. You can enter a group by selecting it (the fastest way is to enter the number) and pressing Return or the right arrow key . You will see a list of articles, along with the names of the people who posted them. To read an article, select it and press the r ight arrow key to start reading. At any time, you may exit an article by pressing the left arrow key ; this will return you to the article selection mode. To move up and down through an article, use your up and down arrow keys . A sample article listing looks like this:

11 + 6 Isn't Tin Great???
        Yung Jin Chew

From left to right, you will see a number for the article, a '+' (which means you haven't read it), a number which indicates how many people have responded (see below on threads), a subject line, and the name of the article's author. After you've looked at an article, the '+' disappears.

Often articles posted to news groups will get many responses. The original article and all its responses are grouped together in tin . Collectively, these articles are known as a thread . You can think of them as a conversation on a certain topic. When you look at threads in tin , they look like this:

1 + 38 Origin - CD-only
        forever! Yung Jin Chew

The '38' indicates that there are currently 38 unread articles in this thread. To read a thread, select the article and press the right arrow key . The first article will then appear. To go to the subsequent articles, either press the down arrow key (this moves you through the thread one page of text at a time) or press n to skip the article you're reading and move on to the next one. To get back to a list of the news groups articles and threads, simply press q at any time.

You should learn how to save articles to your Unix account because they have a limited life span in the news group (about 2 weeks). To save disk space, all articles get deleted when they are old, and then you can't read them. To save an article to your account at any point when you are reading it, press s . tin will then ask you if you want to save the entire thread or the single article, and also what you want to name the file. Saved articles are automatically placed in your News subdirectory. If you want to read saved articles, exit tin , change ( cd ) to the News directory, and call up your favorite editor, like pico, or just use the more or less commands. If the foregoing sentence made your head hurt, you probably need to grab the handout entitled UNIX: Getting Started (cus01) to learn some basic Unix commands. To email an article or thread, press m for mail. You will be asked

Mail a)rticle, t)hread,
        h)ot, p)attern, T)agged articles, q)uit:

Press the corresponding letter to what it is you want to send, and enter the email address you want to send the information to. Similarly, press o to print the article or thread to your local printer.

Searching at the article level works exactly the same as searching for different groups. Simply press the / key and type in a word you want to look for. tin will search every subject line for matches and then move you to the first match. To search for another article that matches your keyword, press the / key again (you'll note it remembers what you are looking for; you don't need to type in your keyword again).

Upon entering Pine, type L to access the Folder List. Using the down arrow key or the space bar, scroll below the line which reads:

News on news.unc.edu/nntp
        News groups on news.unc.edu/nntp

Press Return or > to see your news groups. If you have previously accessed news groups with Pine or another news reader, you will see a list of the news groups to which you already subscribe. If you are not subscribed to any groups or want to add a news group, enter a (Add) to be prompted for the name of the news group you wish to access. Enter part or all of the name and Pine will provide a list of possible matches. Scroll down this list using the arrow keys, or use the w (Whereis) command to jump to a specific string. When you find one you wish to join, type s (Subscribe). Pine exits the list and returns you to the Add prompt, with the groupname filled in. Check your selection and press the <Return> key to accept. Once a group is selected, use Return or > (ViewFldr) to access it. You are now in a window similar to Index Folder, with a corresponding set of commands listed at the bottom of the page. Articles will appear as separate messages in the order of most recent posting on top. You can save, export, or post a reply from this menu in the same manner you would save, export, or reply to a personal email message in Pine.

One feature of standard news readers is the ability to thread discussions. These news readers group together all articles pertaining to the same topic, allowing one to follow a conversation by merely selecting the next posting. It is possible to duplicate this feature in Pine, but at a cost. Normally, Pine is set up to sort by date, with the newest letters placed at the top of your INBOX. By entering the Setup screen (press m, to get to the main menu, then s , c ), and pressing the space bar , scroll down until you see the section called sort-key . User the arrow keys to select OrderedSubj and press s to select it. Exit the Setup menu with e (Exit). You do not need to exit Pine for this option to take effect. From this point on, Pine will order the contents of your News groups according to titles. Unfortunately, Pine will also order the contents of your Inbox in this manner, replacing the default ordering by time of arrival. You will need to change the sort key back to arrival to see your Inbox as you did before.

You can respond to an individual or to the whole group, just as in tin . Press R for reply, and then you will be prompted to decide:

Follow-up to news 
        group(s), Reply via email to author or Both?

Choose F, R, or B depending on who is to receive your response.