Getting Started With Newsgroups

Subscribing to Newsgroups

If you have set up an account on a newsgroup server, you can join (subscribe) to newsgroups (also called discussion groups).

To subscribe to a newsgroup, begin from the Mail window:

1. Open the File menu and choose Subscribe. You see the Subscribe dialog box.
2. If necessary, click the Account drop-down list to choose another newsgroup account.
3. Select a newsgroup. To select more than one newsgroup, CmdCtrl-click additional newsgroup.
4. Click Subscribe or click in the Subscribe column next to the newsgroup. You see a checkmark next to each newsgroup to which you subscribe. Click Unsubscribe to cancel a selection.
5. Click OK. The list of your subscribed newsgroups appears in the Mail window.

If you are an IMAP mail user, you can also subscribe to message folders located on an IMAP server. (Your Inbox is a type of message folder.) Follow the instructions above for subscribing, but select an IMAP account from the Account drop-down list. For more information on sharing folders and subscribing to folders, see Sharing Folders With Other Users (IMAP Only).

[Return to beginning of section]

Reading Newsgroup Messages

When you open your newsgroup server, you see the list of newsgroups to which you subscribe. The server downloads the headers of new messages in each newsgroup.

To read newsgroup messages, begin from the Mail window:

1. Double-click a newsgroup server icon to see its newsgroups. (If there are no newsgroups, you may need to subscribe to one.)
2. Click a newsgroup name to see its messages.
3. Click a message to read it. Click the thread button to display all the responses below the original message. You can click any header to display its message. You can start a new thread or post a message in response.

[Return to beginning of section]

Posting Newsgroup Messages

To start new threads (discussions):

1. From the list of your subscribed newsgroups in the Mail window, select a newsgroup.
2. Click Compose.
3. Compose your message, and click Send to post it.
4. Click Get Msgs to see your posting on the newsgroup.

[Return to beginning of section]

Contributing to Ongoing Discussions

To post a response to the newsgroup:

1. In the message list, select a message to reply to.
2. Click Reply.
3. Compose your message, and click Send to post it.

To reply to an individual as well as post a response to the group:

1. In the message list, select a message to reply to.
2. Click Reply All.
3. Compose your message, and click Send to post it.

To redirect a posting to another newsgroup:

• Click Reply and choose Followup-To from the Newsgroup drop-down list. Subsequent responses will be posted to the newsgroup you enter.

[Return to beginning of section]

Monitoring Threads

To monitor unread messages in threads that are of interest to you:

1. Select a message in a thread.
2. Open the Message menu, and choose Watch Thread.
3. If you want to monitor additional threads, repeat steps 1 and 2 for messages in additional threads.
4. When you're ready to monitor messages in these threads, open the View menu, choose Messages, and then choose Watched Threads with Unread. &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups only displays the watched threads that contain unread messages.
5. Open the View menu, choose Messages, and then choose All to return to viewing all messages in the newsgroup.

To ignore a message thread:

1. Select a message in the thread.
2. Open the Message menu, and choose Ignore Thread. &brandShortName; Mail & Newsgroups marks all messages in the thread as read, and new replies posted to the thread will appear as read.
3. To view ignored threads, open the View menu, choose Messages, and then choose Ignored Threads.

[Return to beginning of section]

Removing a Newsgroup

To remove a newsgroup from your list:

• Select the newsgroup icon and press Delete.

[Return to beginning of section]

Adding a Newsgroup Server

If the newsgroup you want to subscribe to is on a different server, you must first set up access to that server.

To set up an additional newsgroup server, open the File menu in the Mail window and choose New, then Account.

• Using the Account Wizard, indicate that the new account you want to set up is a newsgroup account.

Once you've set up access to the new server, you can subscribe to newsgroups on that server. In the Mail window, open the File menu, and choose Subscribe.

[Return to beginning of section]