This is the first of a series of articles about the alt.discuss newsgroups. These are the discussion groups that are behind the WebTV "firewall," meaning that only WebTV subscribers can read them. There are about 200 groups to date, covering a wide range of subjects.

Newsgroup Basics

A newsgroup is a place where different people can Post messages. Posting is like email, but it is open to the public, and other people can Respond. The Posts are available to be read for about 14 days. When there is more than one Post on a subject, it becomes a Thread.

Before Posting to a newsgroup, it is recommended that you Lurk. Lurking means that you read all of the Posts and get a feel for the group. Usually Lurking daily for a week is enough time.

There are two ways to Post to a newsgroup. On your sidebar are the Post and Respond options. If you are going to write about a subject that is already in the group, choose Respond. This will put the original Subject in the subject line, and your Post will be added to the Thread.

If you want to write about something new, choose Post. That will have a blank subject line that you will need to fill in with your title for the Post.

Most alt.discuss groups frown on profanity and long-loading HTML. For more information on Netiquette, please visit the Netiquette section of the Archive. For details about the problems with long-loading HTML, take a look at this WebTV News article.

How to Get There

There are a number of ways to get to the alt.discuss groups:

From the Home page, click (move your cursor and hit return or go) Community from the sidebar, then click on Discuss. Type in alt.discuss in the blank at the bottom of the screen.

This will take you to the main Table of Contents page which alphabetically lists all of the alt.discuss newsgroups by title. Since there are so many, the list is broken down into two sections. Select either page, and you will be brought to the Contents page for that part of the alphabet. Once you see a group that you're interested in, select it and you will either be taken to the group or to a sub-listing (if you see three dots on the right side of the page, that indicates that there is more than one group under that heading).

Another way to access the groups is to hit Options and then Go to. Erase the http:// and type in
news:alt.discuss. This will bring you to the main Table of Contents. Proceed as above.

Alternatively, you can select this link:

...and save the Table of Contents in a Favorite folder, and designate an "F" key for it (please see the Favorites section of WeCare Online for details on how to do this).

The Groups

Rather than just list all of the groups, I will break them down into "types" (they are listed alphabetically in the Table of Contents).

Some of the groups crossover into other sections. An example is news:alt.discuss.entertainment.tv.red-dwarf which is considered an "Entertainment" group and a "Sci-Fi/Fantasy" group. Another example is news:alt.discuss.n2play which is a general "Talk" group and an "HTML" group.

In future issues I will be looking at the different types of groups and telling you about the individual groups within these sections. In the meantime, I'll just outline what you can expect to find available in news:alt.discuss.

Talk
General discussion groups

People
Women, Grandparents, Teens, Gay, Single, Disabled, Men, Veterans, etc.

Computing
HTML, Webpage Help, Computers, Tips & Tricks

WebTV / Internet
Improving, Using, WebTV Plus, Help, Chatrooms, Sites

World
News, Politics, History, Cultures, Conspiracies, Urban Legends

Religion / Philosophy / Science
Christian, Non-Christian, New-Age, Philosophy, Science

Domestic
Pets, Gardening, Cooking, Fix-It

Hobbies / Games
Cars, Collecting, Crafts, Gambling, Genelogy, RPGs, Video Games, etc.

Sports
All the Sports Groups

Money / Travel
For Sale, Investing, Travel

Support
Support, Grief, Disability, Recovery, Advice

Music
Musicians, Assorted Types of Music

Arts
Fine Arts, Dance, Writing, Books, Comics

Entertainment
Radio, TV, Movies

Sci-Fi / Fantasy
Mythology, Urban Legends, Faeries, Fantasy, Role Playing Games, Sci-Fi, Star Wars, Star Trek

Release
Confess, Flame, Gripe, Humor, Silly

Vanity
Vanity Groups are those that have been named after a particular person who is the "leader" of the group.

Sex
Talk, Pictures

If you want descriptions of many of the groups available, WebTV user penryn has set up a beautiful site for this called Newsgroups HOME. He has also separated the groups in a similar fashion (though not exactly the same as above).

Usenet

There is a whole world of newsgroups out there that we share with computer users. There are groups of every kind imaginable. You can find a Table of Contents for them by clicking on Community, clicking on Discuss, and then on All Groups (on the sidebar).

Warning: Make sure you Lurk for a while before you Post and turn off any HTML in your signature. HTML can cause some computers to crash.

If you are planning to Post in an open Usenet group, it is a good idea to create a separate user account with no HTML for that purpose. Many computer users have a poor opinion of WebTVers because of HTML and inappropriate behavior. Tread lightly and politely in Usenet.

In Upcoming Issues

In the future, I will be discussing newsgroup netiquette, the HTML-In-Posts Debate, trolls, spam, the history of the alt.discuss groups, how to propose a group, how to vote for a group proposal, and the individual newsgroups themselves.

Our alt.discuss newsgroups are a wonderful part of our WebTV community. Many of us bought our WebTVs for different reasons, but once you check out the newsgroups, they will probably be one of the main things that keep you here. Personally, I love the news:alt.discuss hierarchy, and that is why I suggested and volunteered to write this column every month.

I hope you enjoy the newsgroups as much as I do.

robin-of-lox is not an employee of WebTV, but an owner/user who has been online since August '97. She has built two newsgroups from scratch, and is very active in the alt.discuss.config newsgroup. She is a member of WebTV Experts, her expertise being the alt.discuss hierarchy and procedures.