PING news.individual.net users - IMPORTANT

":::Jerry::::" wrote

You might in that case want to check out:

free.teranews.com or news.readfreenews.net

the former includes binaries, but with a severely restricted download limit and access can be difficult at times. The latter only supports text newsgroups.

Having said that 10 Euros per annum is hardly likely to bankrupt anyone.

John.

You are quite correct, but unless people know about this they will be left wondering why they can't connect come April - Visiting the individual.net home page was hardly a requiment....

Teranews is not free any more:-

"* Due to the overwhelming response to our free account offer and the costs associated with verifying credit card information we have begun charging a one time setup fee of $3.95. Their are no recurring monthly fees with our

All this in the same week as AOL desubscribed from Usenet. It wouldn't surprise me if BT and other ISP's started charging for newsgroup access as well.

(kim)

Teranews (an NSP, not an ISP) has been making this one-time charge on new sign-ups for several years. Bubbanews provides the same access to the same server with no sign-up fee (but CC no. still required for verification). Yottanews provides 1GB per month free of charge (actually 1,250,000,000 bytes) - the account is tied to your IP address, so if you're on dial-up you have to resubscribe each time. Valuenews provides 2Gb per day for $5.95/month - as low as $0.10/Gb.

I'm not surprised, since this has been a free service provided by the University of Berlin for several years. I guess they can no longer support an ever-increasing number of outside customers.

Not strictly true - readfreenews supports text *posts* in *any* group. Tera allows posting, while RFN doesn't.

It's not really free, it's included in your Comcast subscription.

(Just like Outlook Express isn't really a newsreader.)

The average PC user will have fallen asleep half way through your post. Like me they buy a PC to use, not to learn about PC's. They expect what they buy to work, not to have to download and install a load of fixes. Some of the posters in hobby newsgroups are interested in PC's. Most aren't.

(kim)

Well I hope you don't drive then, if you fall to sleep that easy...

They don't need to download anything....

Some of the

Well piss off if you don't want to learn how to use the medium, do you not read the instruction when you want to know how to take the body of a loco or do you just start pulling bits of that you think need top be removed ?...

What you really mean is that you can't be arsed to learn.

"kim" wrote

Disagree, the cursor being at the top of the original post is ideally positioned to allow editing of the previous message to take place.

Note this edited message is posted using OE - it appears to tackle the issue of editing your original posting far more effectively than your news-reader.

Or is it really just a question of how much effort the poster is prepared to make in responding to a previous posting?

John.

Before I understood what top-posting was I was in the habit of starting from the top line.

I am using OE! Have been ever since AOL's servers went belly up last Xmas.

I don't have any difficulty editing with OE but a lot of newbies seem to.

(kim)

You see, the thing is Jerry this is a model rail newsgroup, not a PC newsgroup. If I wanted to learn how a PC worked I would ask in a PC newsgroup. I've already gone further than most posters would by configuring OE to work with AOL, subscribing to NIN, etc. As far as I'm concerned the PC is a means to an end, if I could live without it I would. I have no interest in the PC other than what I can do with it. Likewise when I buy a RTR locomotive I don't expect to have to learn how to remove the body to fix things that should have been installed correctly at the factory. (See the letter about Bachmann's Jinty in MREXmag for an example).

You and some other posters here are interested in how a PC works and that is fine. Most of us are not.

(kim)

And, if you want it, there is the excellent "OE-Quotefix" plugin thingie which neatly deals with signature files, puts the cursor at the bottom, etc. Can even colour code the quoted text if you want it to and other visual toys (I don't).

However, bottom line is that its down to the poster to trim the old posting so its relevant to the new contribution.

- Nigel

If someone couldn't be bothered to reposition the cursor manually, what makes you think they'd be willing to download and install Quotefix?

(kim)

So...

If I wanted to learn how a PC worked I would ask in a PC

You're not learning how a PC works, you are learning how to communicate correctly, did you not bother to learn to write when at school or did you just scrawl over your work sheets ? Think about it.

I've already gone further than most posters would by configuring

Well a car is a means to an end, a telephone is a means to an end, cooking is a means to an end, are you seriously suggesting that you don't both to do those things correctly - perhaps you enjoy, crashing your car, phoning the wrong number or under cooking chicken....

I have no interest

We have noticed, but that is not excuse.

Likewise when I buy a RTR

Obviously you don't super-detail or use DCC....

As I said, it's nothing what so ever to do with 'how a PC works', it's ALL to do with efficient communications.

Actually it was the latter, IIRC I'm severely dyslexic. Without the aid of a word processor or PC I'm barely able to write at all. There was no special help for kids like me in those days.

I know how a TV works, I learned because I was interested. Most people don't because they're not interested, they just switch on and expect it to work and they have every right to.

Those additions are a personal choice. A RTR model should still work correctly wihtout having to take it apart and reassemble it. Likewise a PC and any software which comes pre-installed should work correctly and instinctively and not require major investigation on the part of its owner.

(kim)

Xnews does all that right out of the box. (Actually the latest revision puts the cursor at the top but scrolls the reply window to the bottom!)

True - not just for OE.

Direct your complaints to snipped-for-privacy@microsoft.com

They have sent existing users an email informing them of the change.