MathGroup Archive 1995

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  • To: mathgroup at christensen.cybernetics.net
  • Subject: [mg994] newsgroup
  • From: Richard Mercer <richard at seuss.math.wright.edu>
  • Date: Mon, 8 May 1995 03:28:21 -0400

Well, the newsgroup seems to have been a smashing success; traffic has  
increased dramatically. Congratulations and thanks to Steve for this service!

However for those of us still using the mailing list there is the disadvantage  
that our postings now take up to a week to be posted, making it difficult to  
participate in any discussions.

I would consider switching from the mailing list to the newsgroup if it
weren't for the fact that the Mail facility on my NeXT is a couple
orders of magnitude more convenient to use than news.

To use news, I have to telnet to the campus mainframe, log in, ask for
'news', decline to register for any of the newsgroups added since my
last use.  I am then in a 20 line display that refuses to let me
capture lines that have scrolled off the top. To see previous messages
(or the beginning of the current message!) I have to type commands to
do so. I often type two carriage returns instead of one (just being a
little slow is all it takes), miss part of a message, and wonder what's
going on. I have no idea how to copy somebody's posting and include it
in my reply when using the newsgroup. The help facility is poor; the
only hope is to type in 'help' for all commands and print out the
answers, but of course they have scrolled off the top...

In short, it's a major pain in the neck, whereas the Mail facility is a
joy to use. The messages are mine to do with as I please; with a click
I can delete them, archive them, or reply to them. I can make the
reading area larger or smaller, easily scroll through long messages, or
retrieve other messages with a single click.

With the current volume of messages, it is not worth my time to struggle  
through the newsgroup, as much as I'd like to be able to. Any suggestions on  
how to more effectively use news would be appreciated. (NeXTstep 3.0 on a  
NeXTstation turbo color. I've tried NewsGrazer; it has never worked.)

Richard Mercer



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