...News Readers (4 of 4) -- rn Sample Session: Build a reading list

     It's a little easier to do this in rn,  so let's try that out, and
as long as where there, see how it works.
     If you type

                rn news.announce.newusers

at your host system's  command line , you'll see something like this:

    ********  21 unread articles in news.announce.newusers--read now? [ynq]

If you hit your Y key, the first article will appear on your screen.  If
you want to see what articles are available first, though, hit your
computer's = key and you'll get something like this:

     152 Introduction to news.announce
     153 A Primer on How to Work With the Usenet Community
     154 What is Usenet?
     155 Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
     156 Hints on writing style for Usenet
     158 Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part I
     159 Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies, Part II
     160 Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on Netiquette
     161 USENET Software: History and Sources
     162 A Guide to Social Newsgroups and Mailing Lists
     163 How to Get Information about Networks
     164 How to Create a New Newsgroup
     169 List of Active Newsgroups
     170 List of Moderators
     171 Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists, Part I
     172 Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists, Part II
     173 Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists, Part III
     174 How to become a USENET site
     175 List of Periodic Informational Postings, Part I
     176 List of Periodic Informational Postings, Part II
     177 List of Periodic Informational Postings, Part III
    End of article 158 (of 178)--what next? [npq]

     Notice how the messages are in numerical order this time, and don't
tell you who sent them.  Article 154 looks interesting.  To read it, type
in 154 and hit enter.  You'll see something like this:

   Article 154 (20 more) in news.announce.newusers (moderated):
   From: spaf@cs.purdue.EDU (Gene Spafford)
   Newsgroups: news.announce.newusers,news.admin,news.answers
   Subject: What is Usenet?
   Date: 20 Sep 92 04:17:26 GMT
   Followup-To: news.newusers.questions
   Organization: Dept. of Computer Sciences, Purdue Univ.
   Lines: 353
   Supersedes: <spaf-whatis_715578719@cs.purdue.edu>

   Archive-name: what-is-usenet/part1
   Original from: chip@tct.com (Chip Salzenberg)
   Last-change: 19 July 1992 by spaf@cs.purdue.edu (Gene Spafford)


   The first thing to understand about Usenet is that it is widely
   misunderstood.  Every day on Usenet, the "blind men and the elephant"
   phenomenon is evident, in spades.  In my opinion, more flame wars
   arise because of a lack of understanding of the nature of Usenet than
   from any other source.  And consider that such flame wars arise, of
   necessity, among people who are on Usenet.  Imagine, then, how poorly
   understood Usenet must be by those outside!

   --MORE--(7%)

     This time, the header looks much more like the gobbledygook you get
in e-mail messages.  To keep reading, hit your space bar.  If you hit
your N key (in lower case), you'll go to the next message in the
numerical order.
     To escape rn, just keep hitting your q key (in lower case), until
you get back to the command line.  Now let's set up your reading list.
Because rn uses the same .newsrc file as nn, you can use one of the
search-and-replace methods described above.  Or you can do this:  Type

                rn

and hit enter.  When the first newsgroup comes up on your screen, hit
your u key (in lower case).  Hit it again, and again, and again.  Or just
keep it pressed down (if your computer starts beeping, let up for a
couple of seconds).  Unsubscribing from every single group this way could
take five or ten minutes.  Eventually, you'll be told you're at the end
of the newsgroups, and asked what you want to do next.
     Here's where you begin entering newsgroups.  Type

                g newsgroup

(for example, g comp.sys.mac.announce) and hit enter.  You'll be asked if
you want to "subscribe." Hit your y key.  Then type

                g next newsgroup

(for example, g comp.announce.newusers) and hit enter.  Repeat until
done.  This process will also set up your reading list for nn, if you
prefer that newsreader. But how do you know which newsgroups to
subscribe?  Typing a lower-case l and then hitting enter will show you a
list of all available newsgroups.  Again, since there could be more than
2,000 newsgroups on your system, this might not be something you want to
do.  Fortunately, you can search for groups with particular words in
their names, using the l command.  Typing

        l mac

followed by enter, will bring up a list of newsgroups with those letters
in them (and as in nn, you will also see groups dealing with  emacs  and
the like, in addition to groups related to Macintosh computers).
     Because of the vast amount of messages transmitted over Usenet, most
systems carry messages for only a few days or weeks.  So if there's a
message you want to keep, you should either turn on your computer's
screen capture or save it to a file which you can later  download ).  To
save a message as a file in rn, type

                s filename

where filename is what you want to call the file. Hit enter.  You'll be
asked if you want to save it in "mailbox format."  In most cases, you can
answer with an n (which will strip off the header).  The message will now
be saved to a file in your News directory (which you can access by typing
cd News and then hitting enter).

     Also, some newsgroups fill up particularly quickly -- go away for a
couple of days and you'll come back to find hundreds of articles!  One
way to deal with that is to mark them as "read" so that they no longer
appear on your screen.  In nn, hit a capital J; in rn, a small c.
     There are some newsgroups you might want to include in your reading
list.  The news.newusers.questions newsgroup is where newcomers can ask
questions about how Usenet works.  The newsgroup news.announce.newsgroups
carries information about new or proposed newsgroups.
     The news.answers newsgroup is a fascinating one and can help you
find interesting newsgroups.  Many newsgroups have regularly compiled
lists of "frequently asked questions" or FAQs related to the newsgroup's
particular discussions.  The people who write these lists post them in
news.answers.  You'll learn how to fight jet lag in an FAQ from the
rec.travel.air newsgroup; read more than you probably wanted to know
about bloodhounds in an FAQ from rec.pet.dogs; find answers to common
questions about Windows in comp.os.ms-windows. There's even a newsgroup
set up just for these FAQs: news.answers. This can be an interesting
newsgroup to browse through, because you'll find everything from tips on
saving money on airline tickets to facts about U.S. space missions.