[Milsurplus] USEnet newsgroups... Danger Will Robinson!!!

[brewerj@squared.com]

Dave mentions USEnet newsgroups in an earlier post, and I thought I'd jump in here
with one big caveat.

Do not EVER post to a USEnet newsgroup using an email address you care about.
Without question, it is one of the primary places for harboring email addresses
to be SPAMmed.  If you're going to go there, create a yahoo "throwaway" email
address, and use only that address to post and receive responses to.

What is USEnet?

It's a group of email-type postings, that are threaded and public. They're
organized around specific interests and organized hierarchically.
Dave mentions::              Rec.radio.amateur.boatanchors

This would fall into the broad category of "recreational" groups (rec),
with increasing levels of organization

      Radio
            Amateur
                        Boatanchors

There's also rec.radio.amateur.swap, rec.radio.amateur.digital, etc etc.
The "etc etc" is quite large...over 30,000 groups, depending on how good
your news reader is.

How do you read them? You can use Microsoft Outbreak (errr "Outlook")
and use it's newsreader, or use something better, like "Free Agent", which is
as could be expected, free for the downloading.  You'll need to know such
data as the specific syntax of your ISP's news server, and do some other
minor configurations.

One final thought...USEnet is a rough and tumble place... while some groups
are better than others, all invariably contain spam, name calling, idiots trolling
for arguments, and other anomalies, all mixed in with some good information.
If you're of the type who gets their feelings easily hurt, then I'd approach
USEnet with caution! :-)

It's easier to use, than to describe.

73
John K5MO