This article is based on material authored by members of the news.newusers.questions Moderation Board and nnq-workers mailing list, particularly by Dennis D. Calhoun (until 2007) and Thor Kottelin (since 2007). – Eine deutsche Version ist vorhanden.

news.newusers.questions — FAQs and helpful links

Introduction

The newsgroup news.newusers.questions is for questions and answers about Usenet and the Internet. Newcomers to newsgroups and the Internet in general can ask questions and will, we hope, receive useful replies.

The group is moderated. This means that a human moderator or a moderation program reviews every article before placing it in the group. For you, if you post a question or answer to news.newusers.questions, this means that there will be a delay before you will see your post. Your news server will email the article to our moderation site, where we will post it to the newsgroup. Then, your article must propagate back to your news server by way of Usenet news feeds. The entire process may take from minutes to hours.

This site contains answers to frequently asked questions as well as links to helpful sites and newsgroups. It is also a mirror of the home of the official news.newusers.questions policy and administrative documents.

Administrative information about news.newusers.questions

• Administrative statement
• The group’s charter, passed by a Usenet-wide vote
• How to post — extended guidelines for what is acceptable in this newsgroup

Do this first: test properly!

• Where to post your very first message — it probably is not where you would think it would be!
• Where to post test messages — hint: look for group names that say ‘test’

Posting (and cancelling)

• Writing style on Usenet — how to make your posts really easy to read
• Quoting text in replies
• Avoiding HTML when posting news
• Pictures, sounds and document files — they may be posted in special newsgroups only
• Cancelling an article that you have posted (of course it is best not to post it in the first place)

Finding other groups

• Finding information on the Internet — how to begin searching
• Finding newsgroups and subscribing to them — there are many other newsgroups out there
• How to go to soc.penpals or any other newsgroup — specific instructions for various newsreaders
• Public news servers — where to look if your site does not carry a newsgroup you want

Online promotion

• ‘Make money fast’ schemes — you could lose your account in a heartbeat, so watch out for these swindles
• Advertising and selling only take place in special groups
• Announcing your web page — try your signature file instead of using 200 newsgroups… trust us

Making new friends online

• Chat areas and pen pals — different ways to ‘talk’ with people on the net
• Personals and requests for girl- or boyfriends
• Learning about other cultures
• Travelling to other places

How newsgroups work

• What newsgroups are, and how they work (it is complicated but fascinating)
• Why newsgroups are not email — there are some big and small differences between the two
• Disappearing articles — here is why they eventually will vanish

Creating new newsgroups

• Internet forums — creating a newsgroup is not easy; other options may suit you better
• Creating new newsgroups

Help with computer problems

• How to help us help you — information you need to provide when looking for computer help
• Finding an offline newsreader — in case staying online for hours is expensive
• Help in your own language — if you are not that great at English, try these newsgroups

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