Robert Karr wrote:
>
> What's a "Newsgroup", and why would that be better than what we have?? ....Bob
>
A newsgroup is a wide open open mailing list, with the main
difference being that all the mail resides on a server near you.
Your software can do all the same things with mail posted here
(read, send, search, thread, etc.) except that it doesn't fill
*your* mail box with mail. You have to connect to an NNTP server
(ask your ISP for the address of their news server) and you have
access to literally zillions of email based discussion groups.
The big GIS one is comp.infosystems.gis, but you can also look at
AutoDesk, ESRI, Integraph and other special forums that are
narrowly focused on just about any topic you can imagine. And I
mean ANY topic!!
However the first trick is try it out. Ask your ISP how to access
their news server. If they don't have one, you are not getting
the full firehose information stream you should be getting. Tell
the ISP what software you use to get your mail, and they should
be able to help you get set up. Then subscribe to news.answers or
news.newusers.questions and news.groups, and watch those for a
few days; you'll get the idea pretty quickly.
There are pros and cons to newsgroups just as there are for
mailing lists, but I think I will defer to those who thought
MapInfo-L should go to a newsgroup to describe why they think
newsgroups are better.
- Bill Thoen
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