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Have you always wanted to meet others who love Thai cooking (or swing dancing, or political thrillers) as much as you? Want to get the lowdown on the best places to skydive, or the secret to growing prize-winning tomatoes? Well, you're in luck because now you can discover a discussion group about...well, just about anything! Message boards and newsgroups are like public bulletin boards with subjects ranging from aardvarks to zygotes.
It's simple. Find a topic that interests you. No matter how common or obscure.
Read opinions from others on the topic.
Voice your opinion. You can have everyone in the discussion group read it, or have just one person read it.
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FINDING NEWSGROUPS
First check with your Internet Service Provider for a selection of them. Newsgroups can vary from region to region, and not all providers carry all groups. For example, America Online has its own newsgroups.
FINDING TOPICS
You've got a huge number of newsgroup topics in front of you. Now what do you do? A good place to start is knowing what the naming system is and what those weird prefixes -- alt., biz, rec., etc. -- stand for. Each prefix tells you what the "big picture" is. Here's a brief list that should help you get started.
alt. alternative, wide variety of topics
biz. business postings and business-related topics
comp. discussions about the world of computers
rec. recreation and hobbies
sci. science topics
talk. controversial issues
GET SPECIFIC. HOW DO YOU REALLY LIKE YOUR COFFEE?
As you go further to the right of the prefix, the topic gets more specific. For example: alt.food.coffee.decaf.organic.shade grown.Argentina
That would be a general discussion of shade grown, organic, decaffeinated coffee from Argentina. Now if you happened to have 50 burlap bags of it that you wanted to sell, you would go to the newsgroup beginning with the prefix biz. instead of alt!
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SUBSCRIBING TO NEWSGROUPS
You can conduct a specific search, or just browse around. Aha! You found a group discussing the latest movies (rec.arts.cinema) and you can finally see if anyone agrees with you on that latest flick. Subscribing to that newsgroup will make things much easier for you. You'll be able to update it and get to it quickly without weeding through the whole list. (And it's free...not like subscribing to a magazine.)
READ OPINIONS
You've subscribed to your movie newsgroup. Now it's time to read what people are talking about. Every time a new topic is raised, a new thread begins. Every comment related to that topic continues the thread.
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VOICE YOUR OPINIONS
Posting your own message can be lots of fun. Just click on New Message and type away. Let's say you're in the Oprah Goes Online community boards specifically in the folder about Web site recommendations. And let's also say you want to start a new 'thread' about superior sites related to the care and feeding of exotic birds. You might type in "Sites about Pets" or "Sites about Birds." That will tell folks what that thread is about, and they can choose to respond, read, or move along.
Replying to a message can be done for all to see, or you can privately e-mail the person to whom you're writing. Just make sure you know who is going to see your message before you send it.
Canceling a Message. Oops. You meant to refer to the leading man as dull....not as a doll. How do you take it back!? Cancel the message.
PUT OUT THE FLAMES
Someone says the movie's camera work was bad. You write that you liked it. Then you get flamed! A flame is a nasty, insulting message. If you get flamed, ignore it. And by all means, don't do any flaming yourself. That's just good netiquette.
MESSAGE BOARDS
Message Boards are very much like newsgroups. You can easily find many Web sites, including ours, that host communities where people can post and read messages on topics that interest, intrigue, and irk them. When you go to the Oprah Goes Online message boards you'll find a community of women who, like you, are making their way online. Meanwhile, on the message boards at Oprah.com, you'll find topics from running the Race for the Cure to connecting to your spirit.
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