Disclaimer: Everything written by robin-of-lox in the "Welcome to alt.discuss" articles are my own personal opinion. They may or may not be the opinion of WebTV, and nothing written here has any "official sanction" from WebTV Networks.

This month I'll give you some tips on posting to newsgroups, explain about how new alt.discuss groups are created, and go into a little more detail about some of the WebTV-related groups. For a more basic introduction to the alt.discuss newsgroups, take a look at last month's column.

Newsgroup Basics

Name in Parentheses

As you read the newsgroups, you will come across posts that have someone's name at the end of the subject line. This is to show that the poster is responding to a particular individual's post. It is still a public post (email is the acceptable way to respond privately). If you respond to that post, please be careful to delete the name from the subject line unless you are also responding to a post by that particular person.

Subject Lines

Speaking of subject lines, try to be as clear and concise as possible in them. Keep in mind that when the text size is set on Large, there are only 36 characters available to be read once the Re: has been added ("Re:" tells you that it's a reply to a previous post). "Help!" is not a very clear subject. "Help with Sig?" would make it clearer. "How to Put Pic in E-Mail Bkgrnd?" is more concise and the clearest of the lot. These are just examples, but I'm sure you get my drift.

The alt.discuss Hierarchy

This section will be dedicated to finding groups, voting for or against groups, proposing groups, and other relevant items.

Last month you learned in "How To Get There" that looking at the Table of Contents pages will give you all of the group names broken down in hierarchical order. For an alphabetical listing of all of the groups on one page see The Alt.Discuss Newsgroups List compiled by Anthony S.

The Voting Process

Have you been looking for a group that doesn't seem to be there? It may have been proposed and is in the voting process. To find out, go to news:alt.discuss.config and look for the daily post entitled "alt.discuss Vote Status for Day, Date" from nobody@vote.munitions.com. In this post are all the groups that have been proposed prior to 1:00 AM of the date. They are in alphabetical, not chronological, order.

So, you see a group that you would like to participate in. The next step is to vote for it. There are three ways to vote, and each way has its pros and cons:

1. The "Official" Way
Use the "Newsgroup Creation and Voting Rules." Follow the instructions carefully, since it's a robotic system and is stupid. You can find the instructions in news:alt.discuss.config. Once a month they are posted by nobody@vote.munitions.com, then Javelin (a WebTV user) re-posts them throughout the month. They can usually be found on the first page. Or, they are permanently archived at Anthony S's site.

2. Web pages
You can also vote through a Web site. For example, you can cast your vote through the World Wide Web Watcher's voting page. This is much easier to use than the "official" system, but they are maintained by users and though they are regularly updated, real life can sometimes interfere and occasionally a day or two might be missed. So always check the daily status post to make sure you're not missing something that you'd like to vote for or against.

3. Buttons in Posts and Emails
Never click on a button unless you know exactly where the information is going and what that information is. To find out what a button is going to do, you'll need to Bounce it by forwarding the post (click on Send) or email (click on Forward) to yourself and putting