Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: newsgroups

This is topic newsgroups in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
https://ft-forum.com/ft/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=8;t=003539

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 09-06-2004, 02:53 AM:

How do they work? Is there a server for all the newsgroups or is it an open standard and they are spread out over all the newsservers? What exactly is the usenet? Right now, I read newsgroups on music through new.cox.west.net using Outlook. Are there better news servers and readers? I also read google groups for a while, but it takes several hours for new posts to appear.

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 09-06-2004, 02:58 AM:

How Usenet Works

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 09-06-2004, 12:46 PM:

Lots of people use the Usenet to download binaries of lots of different things (software, music, porn, etc.).

But if you're wanting to get into that kind of thing, you may need to get an account with a pay Usenet service. Most regular ISP's, such as mine (SBC/Yahoo!) will automatically drop parts of multi-part binary posts as a means of protecting themselves from copyright infringement liability.

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 09-06-2004, 02:55 PM:

Long ago I read news via shell access and "trn" but I had to stop since I had no control over the ID info included in my postings so in order to limit spam by using an alternative address (and putting a "spam block" into it) I had to change. Plus that didn't directly handle binaries.

So for a long time I was using the newsreader side of an older Netscape Navigator. But that wasn't too convenient with news servers that require passwords for accesss. Not sure why it's no longer good enough to simply be on their system but it's not.

Which is how I started came to use Xnews.

Many, many features and confusing for the first timer but does what I need it to do.

I plug F-T where and when appropriate so might as well plug newsgroup rec.arts.movies.tech as of likely interest to F-T members.

Posted by David Buckley (Member # 2600) on 09-06-2004, 03:06 PM:

You might get more of what you are looking for from this:
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/newsgroup.htm

Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 09-08-2004, 04:12 PM:

Several years ago I read newsgroups via Netscape regularly on a great variety of topics, without any adverse effects, though unmonitored discussions sometimes became heated.

But when my daughter began using Netscape, she connected through FreeWebb, and locked it with her secret password, shutting me out of newsgroups and my archive of about 2,500 filed emails.

I subscribed to Microsoft Network, but was disappointed to find the service did not support newsgroups other than MSN's own rather tame substitute, MSN Groups.

I never did find my way back to newsgroups, with their multiplicity of topics, from atomic scientist's research to Japanese artistic erotic graphics.

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 09-08-2004, 05:53 PM:

Gerard, you can still read newsgroups with little trouble by going to http://groups.google.com. There is a way to post, too.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 09-08-2004, 08:15 PM:

Maybe you should just have cut your daughter's allowance until she let you use the computer again.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 09-08-2004, 11:36 PM:

OK, I understand the "pouring water principle". Basically that means when I post a new topic on my news server (news.cox.west.net), it's like an email that everyone is allowed to read and can download under that group. When you see the message(s) basically depends on whether or not those messages have "trickled" over to your server. Is that why you sometimes see, say, 3 messages in a topic on cox, while the same topic already has 10 messages in google groups?
I understand some providers, like MSN, have their own newsgropus, which are probably only open to MSN subscribers. Does that apply to other newsgroups as well, or are they open to anybody?
Is google groups usenet too?

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 09-09-2004, 02:01 AM:

"Google Groups" is just Google's interface to usenet, so that you can use a web page instead of a news reader. Like "Google Search", the results aren't owned or originated from Google, but the association goes a long way promotionally.

I've always preferred web-based usenet access to newsreaders. Google's a slow & clumsy shadow of predecessors Remarq & Deja News, btw.

I also wish someone had/would interface(d) fidonet with usenet, & not just relayed a few fidonet groups. It's been a long time, but I suppose usenet has been eviscerating fidonet. Google's archived old usenet posts, but the old fidonet groups seem to be in the air & gone, with interesting things like Torvald's seeking input & criticism of his new OS that he for some incomprehensible reason felt compelled to create, & things like the profoundness of the Mindless Chatter group.

Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 09-10-2004, 11:29 PM:

Hi Steve & William,

Thanks for the Google usenet entry tip!
I'm glad to see some old favorites, such as:
rec.arts.animation
.........comics
.........movies.production
.........movies.tech
rec.audio.pro
....org.mensa
....video.production
....music.dylan
alt.folklore.urban
and the groups alt.binaries.pictures
etc.

While I can read the messages in English, I can't read any binary (picture) posts, though subscriptions to reader services
appear in advertisements. I used to open them via Netscape, and many were beautiful high-definition graphics and photos, though
some were in a special binary format I could not open.

In many Japan groups, most posts now appear in beautiful Japanese cursive script, whereas years ago most were in English.
I remember an endless thread about anti-foreigner discrimination in Japan that grew hot, and the many students learning English whose Japanese teachers required them to post regularly on usenet, cluttering the thread with juvenile homework.

I tried to post a test reply, which requires opening a free Google account. After giving my email address and choosing a password, registration requires copying a "word verification" nonsense word. But each time I tried to submit my entry, a new word appeared, and my password was deleted. No matter how I changed my password, or whether I copied a single nonsense word or strung them all together, I was unable to register my account. So I can read, but not post.

I don't know whether my inability to read binary posts, and to open an account, are related to MSN 9, or to my computer, or to Google, or to me?
.................................................................

EDIT:
Although the directions say "Enter the letters as they are shown in the image above." (regarding the nonsense word verication), by
holding the cursor on the colored word, a drop-down message appears: "If you can read this you do not have images enabled. Please enable images in order to proceed."

Sounds a bit contradictory, but I'm willing. How do I "enable images?" In windows, or in MSN? Where?

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 09-11-2004, 12:18 AM:

I use Free Agent for using newsgroups it's great.

Posted by Trevor Bailey (Member # 75) on 09-11-2004, 11:37 PM:

I used to be a big follower of rec.arts.disney.parks back in the early to mid 90's, but the signal to noise ratio just got to be too much. Some people have too much free time and what followed was endless and pointless arguments about gays at Disney and breast feeding at Disney...There is something to be said for moderated discussions.