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How to Read the Network News
.au
Mark R. Horton
.ai
AT&T Bell Laboratories
Columbus, OH  43213
.au
Revised by Rick Adams for 2.11
.bt
.hu
What is the Network News?
.pg
USENET (Users' Network)
is a bulletin board shared among many
computer systems around the world.
USENET is a logical network,
sitting on top of several physical networks,
including
.i UUCP ,
.i BLICN ,
.i BERKNET ,
.i X.25 ,
and the
.i ARPANET .
Sites on USENET include many universities,
private companies, and research organizations.
Most of the members of USENET are either
university computer science departments
or part of AT&T.
Currently, there are over 50,000 participants at over 2,000 USENET sites in
the USA, Canada, Europe, Japan and Korea with more joining every day.
Most are running the
.ux
operating system.
.pg
The network news,
or simply
.i netnews ,
is the set of programs that provide access to the news
and transfer it from one machine to the next.
Netnews was originally written at Duke University
and has been modified extensively by the University
of California at Berkeley and others.
Netnews allows articles to be posted for limited or very wide distribution.
This document contains a list of newsgroups
that were active at the time the document was written.
It exists
to assist you in determining which newsgroups you may
want to subscribe to.
When creating a new article,
the level of distribution can be controlled
by use of the
.cf Distribution
field.
This will prevent notices of apartments for rent in New Jersey
being broadcast to California
(or even Europe).
.pg
Any user can post an article,
which will be sent out to the network
to be read by persons interested in that topic.
You can specify which topics are of interest to you by putting them in a
.i "subscription list" .
Then,
whenever you ask to read news,
the news reading program will present all unread articles of interest.
There are also facilities for browsing through old news,
posting follow-up articles,
and sending direct electronic mail replies to the author of an article.
.pg
This paper is a tutorial,
aimed at the user who wants to read and possibly post news.
The system administrator who must install the software
should see the companion document
.i "USENET Version B Installation" .
.hu
Why USENET?
.pg
USENET is useful in a number of ways.
Someone wishing to announce a new program or product can reach a wide audience.
A user can ask \*(lqDoes anyone have an
.i x ?\*(rq
and will usually get several responses within a day or two.
Bug reports and their fixes can be made quickly available
without the usual overhead of sending out mass mailings.
Discussions involving many people at different locations
can take place without having to get everyone together.
.pg
Another facility with similar capabilities to
.i netnews
is the
.i "electronic mailing list" .
A mailing list is a collection of electronic mailing addresses of users
who are interested in a particular topic.
By sending electronic mail to the list,
all users on the list receive a copy of the article.
While the mailing list facility is quite useful,
USENET offers a number of advantages not present in mailing lists.
Getting yourself on a mailing list is not always easy.
You have to figure out who maintains the list and ask them to put you on it.
Often these people are out of town or busy,
and don't put you on the list for several days.
Sometimes you have to send mail to the entire mailing list,
hoping that one of the readers will tell you who maintains the list.
Once you are on the list,
you often find yourself in the middle of a discussion.
Netnews keeps old articles around until they expire (usually about two weeks)
so you can browse through old news to catch up on what you missed.
Similarly,
referring to an old article is easy,
without having to keep a personal file of all old mail to the list.
.pg
Another advantage is appreciated by the other users of the system.
There is less overhead in having only one copy of each message
sent to each machine,
rather than having separate copies sent
to each of several users on the same machine.
This cuts down on computer time to process the messages,
and on-line costs for telephone calls to transfer messages
from one machine to another (when phone lines are used).
Another advantage is in the disk space consumed.
When only one message is sent to each system,
only one copy of the message is kept on disk.
In a mailing list environment,
each user has a copy in a mailbox.
Of course, if the mailing list is small enough the overhead is less
than an international newsgroup.
.hu
How do I Read News?
.pg
In the USENET jargon,
interest topics are called
.i newsgroups .
A newsgroup list appears in a later section,
current as this paper was written.
You have your own
.i "subscription list"
of newsgroups to which you are said to
.i subscribe .
.pg
The simplest way to read news is to type the command:
.sd c
readnews
.ed
Other possibilities include: a full-screen-oriented news reading program,
.i vnews (1),
(described in the Appendix,) the
.i notesfile
system, which can also be used for news (described in a separate paper,)
and
.i rn ,
a very popular news reading program distributed separately from this package.
Each newsgroup to which you subscribe will be presented,
one article at a time.
As each article is presented,
you will be shown the
.i header
(containing the name of the author,
the subject,
and the length of the article)
and you will be asked if you want more.
There are a number of possible choices you can make at this point.
The three most common
.qp y , (
.qp n ,
and
.qp q )
are suggested by the program.
(To see a complete list of possible responses,
type
.qp ?
for help.)
You can type
.qp y
for \*(lqyes\*(rq
(or simply hit
.qc RETURN )
and the rest of the message will be displayed.
(If the message is long,
it may stop before it runs off the top of the screen.
Type
.qc SPACE
or
.qc RETURN
to see more of the message.
Another choice you can make is
.qp n
for \*(lqno\*(rq.
This means you are not interested in the message \-
it will not be offered to you again.
A third option is
.qp q
for \*(lqquit\*(rq.
This causes a record to be made of which articles you read
(or refused)
and you will exit netnews.
When you have read all the news,
this happens automatically.
The
.qp q
command is mainly useful if you are in a hurry
and don't have time to read all the news right now.
(Many users put a
.i readnews (1)
or
.i checknews (1)
command in their
.i .profile
or
.i .login
files so that they will see new news each time they log in.)
.pg
If you are reading news for the first time,
you may find yourself swamped by the volume of unread news,
especially if the default subscription is
.ng all .
Don't let this bother you.
If you are getting newsgroups in which you have no interest,
you can change your subscription list
(see below).
Also,
bear in mind that what you see
is probably at least two weeks' accumulation of news.
If you want to just get rid of all old news and start anew,
type
.sd c
readnews \-K \-n all
.ed
which will throw away all old news,
recording that you have seen it all.
Or,
you can use the
.qp K
command to mark all articles in the current newsgroup as read.
.pg
Once you catch up with (or ignore) all the old news,
the news will come in daily at a more manageable rate.
(If the daily rate is still too much
you may wish to unsubscribe to some of the higher volume, less useful newsgroups.)
Finally,
note that while an article is printing,
you can hit
your interrupt character
(usually
.qc CONTROL-C
or
.qc DELETE ),
which will throw away the rest of the article.
.pg
Among the other commands you can type after seeing the header
of an article are:
.Qp x 13
Exit
.i readnews .
This is different from
.qp q
in that the
.qp q
command
will update the record of which articles you have read,
but
.qp x
will pretend you never started
.i readnews .
.Qp N 13
Go on to the next newsgroup.
The remaining articles in the current newsgroup are considered
.i unread ,
and will be offered to you again the next time you read news.
.Qp "s \f2file\fP" 13
The article is saved in a disk file with the given name.
In practice,
what usually happens is that an article is printed,
and then
.i readnews
goes on to print the header of the next article
before you get a chance to type anything.
So you usually want to write out the
.i previous
message
(the last one you have read in full);
in this case,
use the form
.qp s\-
.i filename .
.Qp e 13
Erase the memory of having seen this article.
It will be offered to you again next time,
as though you had never seen it.
The variation
.qp e\-
(erase  memory of the previously read article instead of
the current article) is useful for checking follow-ups to see
if anyone has already said what you wanted to say.
.Qp r 13
Reply to the author of the message.
You will be placed in the editor,
with a set of headers derived from the message you are replying to.
Type in your message after the blank line.
If you wish to edit the header list
to add more recipients or send carbon copies,
for instance,
you can edit the header lines.
Anyone listed on a line beginning with
.hf To
or
.hf Cc
will receive a copy of your reply.
Note that the path used to receive a piece of news may not be the fastest
way to reply by mail. If speed is important and you know a faster way,
edit it in place of what the reply command supplied.
A mail command will then be started up,
addressed to the persons listed in the header.
You are then returned to
.i readnews .
The case
.qp r\-
is also useful to reply to the previous message.
Another variation on this is
.qp rd\-
which puts you in
.b $MAILER
(or
.i mail (1)
by default)
to type in your reply directly.
.Qp f 13
Post a follow-up message to the same newsgroup.
This posts an article on this newsgroup
with the same title as the original article.
Use common sense when posting follow-ups. (Read Matt Bishop's paper
\*(lqHow to use USENET Effectively\*(rq for extended discussion of when
and when not to post -- many follow-up articles should have just been replies.)
You will be placed in the editor. Enter your message and exit.
The case
.qp f\-
is also useful to follow up the previous message.
In each case,
the editor you are placed in will be
.i vi (1)
unless you set
.b EDITOR
(in your environment) to some other editor.
You should enter the text of the follow-up after the blank line.
.Qp + 13
The article is skipped for now.
The next time you read news,
you will be offered this article again.
.Qp \- 13
Go back to the previous article.
This toggles,
so that two
.qp \- 's
get you the current article.
.Qp b 13
Back up one article in the current group.
This is not necessarily the previous article.
.Qp U 13
Unsubscribe from this newsgroup.
Your
.i \&.newsrc (5)
file will be edited to change the
.qp :
for that newsgroup to an
.qp !
preventing you from being shown that newsgroup again.
.Qp ? 13
If you type any unrecognized command,
a summary of valid commands will be printed.
.hu
Changing your Subscription List
.pg
If you take no special action you will subscribe to a default subscription list.
This default varies locally.
To find out your local default,
type
.sd c
readnews \-s
.ed
Typically this list will include all newsgroups ending in \*(lqgeneral\*(rq
or \*(lqannounce\*(rq,
such as
.ng general ,
and
.ng news.announce .
(As distributed,
the default is
.ng general\f1,\fPall.announce .
Another popular default is
.ng all .)
You can change this by creating a file in your home directory named
.i .newsrc
which contains as its first line a line of the form:
.sd c
options \-n newsgroup,newsgroup,newsgroup ...
.ed
If your lines get too long,
you can continue them on subsequent lines
by beginning those lines with a space.
(The netnews system will put extra lines in this file
to record which articles you have read.
You should ignore these lines unless you want to edit them.)
For example,
if you are creating a subscription list for the first time,
and have already read news,
you will find some text already in your
.i .newsrc
file,
recording which articles you have read.
You should put your
.b options
line before the first line of the file.)
Thus,
.sd c
options \-n general,news.announce,comp.human-nets
.ed
will subscribe to those three newsgroups.
.pg
An
.qp !
can be used to exclude certain newsgroups and the word
.ng all
can be used as a wild card,
representing any newsgroup.
You can also use
.ng all
as a prefix or suffix to match a class of newsgroups.
For example,
.sd c
options \-n all,!talk,!rec.humor,!all.unix
.ed
will result in a subscription to all newsgroups except for \*(lqtalk\*(rq group,
jokes,
and any
.ux
information.
The metacharacter
.qp .
is like
.qp /
to the shell,
and
.ng all
is like
.qp * .
.pg
A simpler way to subscribe to news is to subscribe to
.ng all ,
and then use the
.qp U
.i readnews
command to unsubscribe to newsgroups you don't want to read.
This way you will see new newsgroups that are created,
get a chance to evaluate them,
and then unsubscribe to those that don't interest you.
.pg
The order of the newsgroups in your
.i .newsrc
(after the options line)
is the order in which newsgroups will be shown.
If you want something other than the default,
move the lines around until you are satisfied with the order.
Be careful to keep the options line as the first line in the file.
.hu
Submitting Articles
.pg
To submit a new news article type
.sd c
postnews
.ed
First,
it will ask you if this is a follow-up to an article.
Answer
.b yes
or
.b no .
If
.b yes ,
you really should have done an
.qp f
from
.i readnews ,
but it will try and figure out which article you are following up to.
It will ask for the newsgroup in which you read the article
and the article number.
If you can't remember,
go back to
.i readnews
and find out.
It is important that discussions are kept together.
It is very frustrating for someone to read a follow-up that says:
\&\*(lqI agree.
It's very dangerous to leave that program as distributed.\*(rq
and not have any idea what the poster was referring to.
.pg
If you answer
.b no ,
.i postnews (1)
will ask you for the subject of the new article.
This should be as informative as possible.
For example,
.cf "'67 Porsche for sale in New Jersey"
is much better than
.cf "Car for sale"
or even
.cf "For sale" .
It will then ask which newsgroups you want the article posted in.
If you are unsure,
type
.qp ?
instead of a specific newsgroup
and it will show you the list of currently available groups.
Then,
you will be asked how far your article should be distributed.
It is important to keep this as small as possible
to accomplish the purpose of your article.
Remember that many newsgroups are read in Europe,
Australia,
and Asia in addition to the United States and Canada.
It does no good
(to use the previous example)
to post a
.cf "Car for sale in New Jersey"
article with a distribution of 
.ng world .
There is almost no chance that a person in Sweden or Korea
would be interested in buying your car (even if it is a Porsche).
It is a waste of money and computer resources
to transmit the article that far.
For this specific case,
the appropriate distribution would be
.ng nj
or only in New Jersey.
If there were no local distribution available,
at least it should be confined to
.ng usa .
If you are unsure of the distributions available at your site,
type
.qp ?
instead of a distribution
and you will receive a list of distributions valid for your site.
If the distribution is
.ng world ,
your article will be read (perhaps with disgust)
by thousands of people around the world.
.pg
Then you will be placed in the editor.
Enter the text of your article,
after the blank line,
and exit the editor.
The article will be posted to the newsgroups specified.
If you change your mind about the headers while you are still in the editor,
you can edit them as well.
Extra headers can also be added before the blank line.
.hu
Browsing through Old News
.pg
There are a number of command line options to the
.i readnews
command to help you find an old article you want to see again.
The
.op \-n
.i newsgroups
option restricts your search to certain newsgroups.
The
.op \-x
option arranges to ignore the record of articles read,
which is kept in your
.i \&.newsrc
file.
This will cause all articles in all newsgroups to which you
subscribe to be displayed,
even those which you have already seen.
It also causes
.i readnews
to not update the
.i \&.newsrc
file.
The
.op \-a
.i date
option asks for news received after the given
.i date .
Note that even with the
.op \-a
option, only articles you have not already seen will be printed,
unless you combine it with the
.op \-x
option.
(Articles are kept on file until they expire,
typically after two weeks.)
The
.op \-t
.i keywords
option restricts the query to articles mentioning one of the
.i keywords
in the title of the article.
Thus,
the command
.sd c
readnews \-n comp.unix \-x \-a last thursday \-t setuid
.ed
asks for all articles in newsgroup
.ng comp.unix
since last Thursday about the setuid feature.
(Be careful with the
.op \-t
option.
The above example will not find articles about
.cf suid ,
nor will it find articles with no title or
whose author did not use the word
.cf setuid
in the title.)
.pg
Other useful options include the
.op \-l
option (which lists only the headers of articles \-
a useful form for browsing through lots of messages.)
The
.op \-p
option prints the messages without asking for any input;
this is similar to some older news programs on many
.ux
systems and is useful for directing output to a printer.
The
.op \-r
option produces articles in reverse order,
from newest to oldest.
.hu
User Interfaces
.pg
The
.i "user interface"
of a program is the view it presents to the user,
that is,
what it prints and what it allows you to type.
.i Readnews
has options allowing you to use different user interfaces.
The interface described above is called the \*(lqmsgs\*(rq interface
because it mimics the style of the Berkeley
.i msgs (1)
program.
(This program,
in turn,
mimics a program at MIT of the same name.)
The key element of the msgs interface is that after printing the header,
you are asked if you want the rest of the message.
.pg
Another interface is available with the
.op \-c
option.
In this case,
the entire message is printed,
header and body,
and you are prompted at the end of the message.
The command options are the same as the msgs interface,
but it is usually not necessary to use the
.qp \-
suffix on the
.qp r ,
.qp s ,
or
.qp f
commands.
This interface is called the \*(lq/bin/mail\*(rq
(pronounced \*(lqbin mail\*(lq)
interface,
because it mimics the
.ux
program of that name.
.pg
A third interface is the
.i Mail (1)
(pronounced \*(lqcap mail\*(rq) interface,
available with the
.op \-M
option.
This invokes the
.i Mail
program directly,
and allows you to read news with the same commands as you read mail.
(This interface may not work on your system \-
it requires a special version of
.i Mail
with a
.qp \-T
option.)
.pg
A fourth interface, is the MH news/mail program from Rand.
That program can be used directly to read network news.
.pg
A fifth interface,
.i vnews ,
which works well on display terminals, is described in the Appendix.
.pg
A sixth possibility is the 
.i notesfile
system, described in a separate paper.  It is also display-oriented.
.pg
A seventh interface is
.i rn .
It is quite powerful and reminiscent of the EMACS text editor.
.pg
An eighth possibility is to use your favorite mail system as an interface.
There are a number of different mail reading programs, including
.i /bin/mail (1),
.i Mail ,
.i msg (1),
and MH.
Any mail system with an option to specify an alternative mailbox
can be used to read news.
For example,
to use
.i Mail
without the
.qp \-M
option,
type
.sd c
readnews \-c "Mail \-f %"
.ed
The shell command in quotes is invoked as a child of
.i readnews.
The
.qp \-f
option to
.i Mail
names the alternative mailbox.
.i Readnews
will put the news in a temporary file,
and give the name of this file to the mailer in place of the
.qp % .
There is an important difference when using this kind of interface.
The mailers do not give any indication of which articles you read
and which ones you skipped.
.i Readnews
will assume you read
.i all
the articles,
even if you didn't,
and mark them all read.
By contrast,
the
.op \-M
option uses the
.op \-T
option to
.i Mail ,
asking
.i Mail
to tell
.i readnews
which articles you read.
.hu
Getting News when you Log In
.pg
Most users like to be told when they first log in if there is any news.
This way they are reminded of news,
but are not interrupted by it during the day.
If you log in once in the morning,
you can think of getting the news as reading the morning newspaper.
It is common to put a
.i checknews
or
.i readnews
command in your
.i .profile
or
.i .login
file of commands that are executed when you log in.
.pg
Since there might not be any news,
and since the
.i readnews
command goes to a considerable amount of work to find all unread news
(assuming you are going to read it),
there is another command,
called
.i checknews ,
which tells you if there is any news.
The
.i checknews
command is smaller and faster than
.i readnews ,
and was designed especially for a login file.
There are also options to be silent if there is (or is not) news,
and to start up
.i readnews
automatically if there is news.
.pg
The options to
.i checknews
are:
.Op \-y 10
Print \*(lqThere is news\*(rq if there is any unread news.
.Op \-v 10
If
.op \-y
is also given,
instead of printing \*(lqThere is news\*(rq,
prints \*(lqNews: \fInewsgroup\fP ...\*(rq
giving the name of the first newsgroup containing unread news.
If
.ng general
is the first newsgroup presented,
this can be used to tell users whether the unread news is important.
.Op \-n 10
Print \*(lqNo news\*(rq if there is no unread news.
.Op \-e 10
If there is any unread news,
start up
.i readnews.
Any additional arguments after the
.op \-e
will be passed to readnews.
.pg
Thus,
.sd c
checknews \-yn
.ed
tells you whether there is any unread news.
.sd c
checknews \-e \-M
.ed
starts up
.i readnews
with the
.i Mail
interface if there is news,
and otherwise does nothing.
.sd c
checknews \-y
.ed
tells you if there is news,
and is silent if there is no news.
.hu
Creating New Newsgroups
.pg
New newsgroups are proposed by the users and created by site administrators.
To create a newsgroup,
first make sure this is the right thing to do.
Normally a suggestion is first posted to
.ng news.groups\f1,\fPwhatever.relatedgroup
for a world wide newsgroup
.ng whatever.relatedgroup "" (
should be the group which you are proposing to subdivide.)
For example,
to propose creating
.ng rec.arts.tv.soaps ,
post the original article to
.ng rec.arts.tv\f1,\fPnews.groups ).
Followups are made to
.ng news.groups
.i only .
(You can force this by putting the line:
.sd c
Followup-To: news.groups
.ed
in the headers of your original posting).
If it is established that there is general interest in such a group,
and a name is agreed on,
then ask your local netnews administrator to create the newsgroup.
(It can actually be created by any netnews administrator anywhere on the net,
within the scope of the newsgroup.)
Once the newsgroup is created and the first article has been posted,
the newsgroup is available for all interested persons to post to.
.hu
List of Newsgroups
.pg
This section lists the newsgroups that are currently active.
It is intended to help you decide what you want to subscribe to.
Note that the list is constantly changing.
Note also that this list only describes those groups available
on a network-wide basis. Since not all installations choose to receive all
newsgroups, it is recommended that each installation edit the list of local
newsgroups to be correct before distributing this document to their users.
If this is not possible,
a local appendix can be created.
.hu 2
Local
.pg
Local groups are kept on the current machine only.
Local names can be identified by the lack of a prefix,
that is, there are no periods in local newsgroup names.
.lp general 10
News to be read by everyone on the local machine.
For example:
\&\*(lqThe system will be down Monday morning for PM.\*(rq
Or,
\&\*(lqA new version of program
.i x
has been installed.\*(rq
This newsgroup is usually mandatory \-
you are required to subscribe to this newsgroup.
(The list of mandatory newsgroups varies locally.)
This requirement assures that important announcements reach all users.
(Formerly
.i msgs .)
.hu 2
Network Wide
.pg
These are the groups as of the last editing of this manual.
The list is undoubtably already out of date.
A current list can be obtained by typing
.qp ?
to the \*(lqNewsgroups? \*(rq prompt in postnews.
.nf
.ta \w'comp.protocols.appletalk     'u
comp.ai	Artificial intelligence discussions.
comp.ai.digest	Arpanet Artificial Intelligence Digest. (Moderated)
comp.arch	Computer architecture.
comp.bugs.2bsd	Reports of UNIX* version 2BSD related bugs.
comp.bugs.4bsd	Reports of UNIX version 4BSD related bugs.
comp.bugs.misc	General bug reports and fixes.
comp.bugs.sys5	Reports of AT&T System 5 (and System 3) related bugs.
comp.cog-eng	Cognitive engineering.
comp.compilers	Compiler construction, etc. (Moderated)
comp.databases	Database and data management issues and theory.
comp.dcom.lans	Local area network hardware and software.
comp.dcom.modems	Data communications hardware and software.
comp.dcom.telecom	Telecommunications digest. (Moderated)
comp.doc	Public-domain documentation. (Moderated)
comp.doc.techreports	Announcements and lists of technical reports.(Moderated)
comp.edu	Computer science education.
comp.emacs	EMACS editors of different flavors.
comp.graphics	Computer graphics, art, animation, image processing,
comp.graphics.digest	Arpanet Digest on Computer Graphics. (Moderated)
comp.lang.ada	The computer language Ada*.
comp.lang.apl	The computer language APL.
comp.lang.c	The computer language C.
comp.lang.c++	The object-oriented computer language C++.
comp.lang.forth	The computer language Forth.
comp.lang.fortran	The computer language FORTRAN.
comp.lang.lisp	The computer language LISP.
comp.lang.misc	Other computer languages.
comp.lang.modula2	The computer language Modula-2.
comp.lang.pascal	The computer language Pascal.
comp.lang.prolog	The computer language PROLOG.
comp.lang.smalltalk	The computer language Smalltalk 80.
comp.laser-printers	Laser printers, hardware and software. (Moderated)
comp.lsi	Large scale integrated circuits.
comp.mail.headers	Arpanet header-people mailnig list.
comp.mail.maps	Various maps, including UUCP maps. (Moderated)
comp.mail.uucp	Proposed uucp mail/network standards.
comp.newprod	Announcements of new products (Moderated)
comp.org.decus	DEC* Users' Society newsgroup.
comp.org.usenix	USENIX Association events and announcements.
comp.os.cpm	The CP/M operating system.
comp.os.eunice	The SRI Eunice system.
comp.os.os9	The os9 operating system. (Moderated)
comp.os.vms	DEC's VMS Operating System	(Moderated)
comp.periphs	Peripheral devices.
comp.protocols	File Transfer Protocol discussions.	(Moderated)
comp.protocols.appletalk	Applebus hardware & software. (Moderated)
comp.protocols.kermit	Information about the Kermit package.	(Moderated)
comp.protocols.tcp-ip	TCP and IP network protocols.	(Moderated)
comp.sources.amiga	Public Domain Software for the Amiga.	(Moderated)
comp.sources.bugs	Bugs and fixes for comp.sources postings (Moderated)
comp.sources.d	Any discussion on comp.sources postings.
comp.sources.games	Postings of recreational software	(Moderated)
comp.sources.mac	Public Domain Software for the Macintosh (Moderated)
comp.sources.unix	Public Domain Software for Unix systems (Moderated)
comp.sources.wanted	Requests for software, termcap entries, etc.
comp.std.c	C language standards	(Moderated)
comp.std.internat	International standards
comp.std.mumps	The X11.1 committee on Mumps (Moderated)
comp.std.unix	The P1003 committee on UNIX (Moderated)
comp.sys.amiga	Commodore Amiga computers -- info, uses, no programs.
comp.sys.apollo	Apollo computer systems.	(Moderated)
comp.sys.apple	Apple computers.
comp.sys.atari.8bit	8 bit Atari computers.
comp.sys.atari.st	16 bit Atari computers.
comp.sys.att	AT&T computers.
comp.sys.cbm	Commodore computers.
comp.sys.dec	DEC computers.
comp.sys.hp	Hewlett/Packard computers
comp.sys.ibm.pc	IBM personal computers.
comp.sys.ibm.pc.digest	Arpanet Digest on the IBM PC family.	(Moderated)
comp.sys.intel	Intel computers.
comp.sys.m6809	Motorola 6809's.
comp.sys.m68k	Motorola 68000, 68010, 68020 based computers
comp.sys.m68k.digest	Arpanet Digest on 68000-based systems.	(Moderated)
comp.sys.mac	The Apple Macintosh & Lisa
comp.sys.mac.digest	Arpanet Digest on Apple Macintosh computers (Moderated)
comp.sys.masscomp	Masscomp computers.	(Moderated)
comp.sys.misc	Other types of computers.
comp.sys.nsc	National Semiconductor Computers and chips.
comp.sys.pyramid	Pyramid 90x computers.	(Moderated)
comp.sys.ridge	Ridge 32 computers and ROS.	(Moderated)
comp.sys.sequent	Sequent systems, (esp. Balance 8000).	(Moderated)
comp.sys.sun	Sun "workstation" computers	(Moderated)
comp.sys.tandy	Tandy/Radio Shack computers
comp.sys.ti	Texas Instruments computers.
comp.sys.workstations	Various workstation-type computers.	(Moderated)
comp.terminals	All sorts of terminals.
comp.text	Text processing.
comp.unix	UNIX* features and bugs.	(Moderated)
comp.unix.questions	General questions on UNIX.
comp.unix.wizards	Expert discussions, bug reports, and fixes for UNIX.
misc.consumers	Consumer interests, product reviews, etc.
misc.consumers.house	Owning and maintaining a house.
misc.invest	Investments and the handling of money.
misc.jobs	Job announcements, requests, etc.
misc.kids	Children, their behavior and activities.
misc.legal	Legalities and the ethics of law.
misc.misc	Various discussions too short-lived for other groups.
misc.psi	ESP,PSI, etc (Moderated)
misc.taxes	Tax laws and advice.
misc.test	Testing of network software. Very boring.
misc.wanted	Requests for things that are needed.
news.admin	Comments directed to news administrators.
news.announce	General announcements of interest to all. (Moderated)
news.announce.conferences Upcoming conferences (Moderated)
news.announce.newusers	Explanatory postings for new users. (Moderated)
news.config	Postings of system down times and interruptions.
news.groups	Discussions and lists of newsgroups
news.lists	News-related statistics and lists	(Moderated)
news.misc	Discussions of USENET itself.
news.newsites	Postings of new site announcements.
news.software.b	B news software.
news.software.notes	Notesfile software from the Univ. of Illinois.
news.stargate	Satellite transmission of news.
news.sysadmin	Comments directed to system administrators.
rec.arts.books	Books of all genres, shapes, and sizes.
rec.arts.comics	The funnies, old and new.
rec.arts.drwho	Dr. Who.
rec.arts.misc	Other arts related topics.
rec.arts.movies	Reviews and discussions of movies.
rec.arts.poems	Poetry.
rec.arts.sf-lovers	Science fiction lovers' newsgroup.
rec.arts.startrek	Star Trek, the TV show and the movies.
rec.arts.tv	The boob tube, its history, and past and current shows.
rec.arts.tv.soaps	Postings about TV soap operas.
rec.audio	High fidelity audio.
rec.autos	Automobiles, automotive products and laws.
rec.autos.tech	Technical aspects of automobiles, et. al.
rec.aviation	Aviation rules, means, and methods.
rec.bicycles	Bicycles, related products and laws.
rec.birds	Hobbyists interested in bird watching.
rec.boats	Hobbyists interested in boating.
rec.food.cooking	Food, cooking, cookbooks, and recipes.
rec.food.drink	Wines and spirits.
rec.food.recipes	A "distributed cookbook" of recipes.	(Moderated)
rec.food.veg	Vegetarians.
rec.games.board	Board games.
rec.games.bridge	Hobbyists interested in bridge.
rec.games.chess	Chess & computer chess.
rec.games.empire	The computer game Empire.
rec.games.frp	Fantasy Role Playing games.
rec.games.go	Go.
rec.games.hack	The computer game Hack.
rec.games.misc	Other games and computer games.
rec.games.pbm	Play by Mail games.
rec.games.rogue	The computer game Rogue.
rec.games.trivia	Trivia.
rec.games.video	Video games.
rec.gardens	Gardening, methods and results.
rec.guns	Firearms	(Moderated)
rec.ham-radio	Amateur Radio practices, contests, events, rules, etc.
rec.ham-radio.packet	Packet radio setups.
rec.humor	Jokes and the like. May be somewhat offensive.
rec.humor.d	The content of net.jokes articles
rec.mag	Magazine summaries, tables of contents, etc.
rec.mag.otherrealms	A science fiction and fantasy "magazine". (Moderated)
rec.misc	Other Recreational/participant sports.
rec.motorcycles	Motorcycles and related products and laws.
rec.music	Reviews and discussion of things musical (Moderated)
rec.music.classical	Classical music.
rec.music.folk	Folks discussing folk music of various sorts
rec.music.gaffa	Kate Bush lovers. (Moderated)
rec.music.gdead	A group for (Grateful) Dead-heads
rec.music.misc	Other music related topics.
rec.music.synth	Synthesizers and computer music
rec.nude	Hobbyists interested in naturist/nudist activities.
rec.pets	Pets, pet care, and household animals in general.
rec.photo	Hobbyists interested in photography.
rec.puzzles	Puzzles, problems, and quizzes.
rec.railroad	Real and model train fans' newsgroup.
rec.scuba	Hobbyists interested in SCUBA diving.
rec.skiing	Hobbyists interested in skiing.
rec.sport.baseball	Professional baseball.
rec.sport.basketball	Professional basketball.
rec.sport.football	Professional football.
rec.sport.hockey	Professional hockey.
rec.sport.misc	Other spectator sports.
rec.travel	Traveling all over the world.
rec.video	Video and video components.
rec.woodworking	Hobbyists interested in woodworking.
sci.astro	Astronomy discussions and information.
sci.bio	Biology and related sciences.
sci.crypt	Different methods of data en/decryption.
sci.electronics	Electronic design developments, ideas, and components.
sci.lang	Natural languages.
sci.math	Mathematical discussions and puzzles.
sci.math.stat	Statistics discussion.
sci.math.symbolic	Symbolic algebra discussion.
sci.med	Medicine and its related products and regulations.
sci.misc	General purpose scientific discussions.
sci.physics	Physical laws, properties, etc.
sci.research	Research and computer research.
sci.space	Space, space programs, space related research, etc.
sci.space.shuttle	The space shuttle and the STS program.
soc.college	College, college activities, campus life, etc.
soc.comp	Computers and Society (Moderated)
soc.culture.african	Africa & things African
soc.culture.celtic	Celtics culture.
soc.culture.greek	Greeks culture.
soc.culture.indian	India & things Indian
soc.culture.jewish	Information and discussion about Judaism.
soc.human-nets	Computer aided communications digest.	(Moderated)
soc.misc	Other Social topics
soc.motss	Issues pertaining to homosexuality.
soc.net-people	Announcements, requests, etc. about people on the net.
soc.risks	Risks to the public from computers (Moderated)
soc.roots	Genealogical matters.
soc.singles	Newsgroup for single people, their activities, etc.
soc.women	Women's rights, discrimination, etc.
talk.abortion	Abortion.
talk.origins	Evolution versus creationism (sometimes hot!).
talk.philosophy	Philosophical discussions (Moderated)
talk.philosophy.misc	Philosophical discussions.
talk.philosophy.tech	Philosphy and technology (Moderated)
talk.politics	Political problems, systems, solutions. (Moderated)
talk.politics.arms-d	Arms discussion digest.	(Moderated)
talk.politics.misc	Political discussions. Could get hot.
talk.politics.theory	Theory of politics and political systems.
talk.religion.christian	The form and nature of Christianity (Moderated)
talk.religion.misc	Religious, ethical, and moral implications of actions.
talk.rumors	For the posting of rumors.
.fi
.bp
.hu
Appendix \- How to use vnews
.hu 2 
Overview
.pg
.i Vnews
is a program for reading USENET news.
It is based on
.i readnews
but has a CRT-oriented (full screen) user interface.
The command line options are identical.
The list of available commands is quite similar,
although since
.i vnews
is a
.i visual
interface,
most
.i vnews
commands do not have to be terminated by a newline.
.pg
.i Vnews
uses all but the last two lines of the screen to display the current article.
The next to the last line is the secondary prompt line,
and is used to input string arguments to commands.
The last line contains several fields.
The first field is the prompt field.
If
.i vnews
is at the end of an article,
the prompt is
.cf next? ;
otherwise the prompt is
.cf more? .
The second field is the newsgroup field,
which displays the current newsgroup,
the number of the current article,
and the number of the last article in the newsgroup.
The third field contains the current time,
and the last field contains the word
.cf mail
if you have mail.
When you receive new mail,
the bell on the terminal is rung and the word
.cf MAIL
appears in capital letters for 30 seconds.
.hu 2
Commands
.pg
Most of the
.i readnews
commands have
.i vnews
counterparts and vice versa.
Some differences are:
.si
.lp \(bu 5
It lacks a \*(lqdigest\*(rq command (to deal specially with collections
of articles bundled together).
This would be nice to have,
but it does not seem to be a major deficiency
since you can move around in the digest with
.i vnews
commands.
.lp \(bu 5
To get to the previous group,
use the
.qp N
command with a
.qp \-
argument.
.lp \(bu 5
.i Vnews
has commands for moving around in the article which
.i readnews
does not have since they aren't applicable.
.lp \(bu 5
It has a \*(lqparent\*(rq command which will go to the article
that the current article is a follow-up to,
and a \*(lqwrite\*(rq
command that writes out the body of an article without the header.
.lp \(bu 5
You can refer to the current article from the shell or
while writing a follow-up as
.b $A .
.lp \(bu 5
The \*(lqdecrypt\*(rq command (for decoding possibly offensive
material) always does
.i rot13
which seems to be the default standard but the
.i readnews
version of it occasionally gets confused.
.ei
.hu 2
Commands that differ from
.bi readnews
.pg
Each
.i vnews
command may be preceded by a
.i count .
Some commands use the count; others ignore it.
If
.i count
is omitted,
it defaults to one.
Some commands prompt for an argument
on the second line from the bottom of the screen.
Standard
.ux
erase and kill processing is done on this argument.
The argument is terminated by a return.
An interrupt
.qc DELETE "" (
or
.qc BREAK )
gets you out of any partially entered command. 
.Qc CR
A carriage return prints more of the current article,
or goes on to the next article if you are at the end of the current article.
A
.qc SPACE
is equivalent to
.qc CR .
.Qc CONTROL-B
Go backwards
.i count
pages.
.Qc CONTROL-F
Go forward
.i count
pages.
.Qc CONTROL-D
Go forwards half a page.
.Qc CONTROL-U
Go backwards half a page.
.Qc CONTROL-N
Go forwards
.i count
lines.
.Qc CONTROL-Z
Go backwards
.i count
lines.
.Qc CONTROL-L
Redraw the screen.
.qc CONTROL-L
may be typed at any time.
.Qp b
Back up one article in the current group.
.Qp l
Redisplay the article after you have sent a follow-up or reply.
.Qp n
Move on to the next item in a digest.
.qp \*(lq\&.\*(rq
is equivalent to
.qp n .
This is convenient if your terminal has a keypad.
.Qp p
Show the parent article
(the article that the current article is a follow-up to).
This doesn't work if the current article was posted by A-news or notesfiles.
To switch between the current and parent articles,
use the
.qp \-
command.
Unfortunately,
if you use several
.qp p
commands
to trace the discussion back further,
there is no command to return to the original level.
.Qp ug
Unsubscribe to the current group.
This is a two character command to ensure that it is not typed accidentally
and to leave room for other types of unsubscribes
.i e\f1.\fPg ., (
unsubscribe to discussion).
.Qp v
Print the current version of the news software.
.Qp D
Decrypts a joke.
It only handles
.pa rot13
jokes.
The
.qp D
command is a toggle;
typing another
.qp D
re-encrypts the joke.
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