Usenet news groups - have you got yours

**MathewA** · 3rd September 2005, 07:36 PM

Back in Canada it I belonged to a large woodworking group, we had about 400 members. But non that I talked to ever heard of the Usenet news groups. It als seems that few if any here know about them also so I thought I'd tell ya all about them.

Over the years they have been an invaluable resource to me. There are three groups that I have been frequenting for the past 10 years. They are: rec.crafts.metalworking; rec.crafts.woodturning; and rec.woodworking. These are the three I have stayed with for atleast the past decade, there are over 50,000.

There are two way that I know to access these groups. The first is my preferred method. Most of you who use windows machine will have or can easily get outlook express (OE) or free. Lots of people slag OE but it's done a good job for me over the years so why change...

To use OE you will first need to contact your service provider and find out if they have a news server. If they do they will guide you through the process for setting up an account. Only thing I will say is don't use your email address when filling the reply address box, use a hotmail account. I prefer using a news reader because it allows the user to filter and tweak the program to suite me.

The other method is to go to google.com (or google.com.au for the patriotic) and click on groups at the top of the page. Do a search for woodworking, woodturning, or metalworking (these searches will not find the group if you only put in metalwork instead of metalworking). The search will bring up a list of related groups at the top of the page and in that list should be one of the groups I mentioned. You can also browse the groups but there are thousands so that could take a while. I think you will have to sign up at google to be able to post to the groups but reading is something everyone can do.

The groups are no where near as fun as this board but the wealth of knowledge is beyond compare. There are litterally thousands world wide who participate in these groups daily.

**Grunt** · 3rd September 2005, 07:44 PM

Mathew, go on admit it, you really hang around the group alt.binaries.pigmys.groupsex

**Groggy** · 3rd September 2005, 07:53 PM

Mathew, before anyone jumps into rec.woodworking or some of the other groups, be advised there are some pretty disgusting trolls trying to destroy them by posting rubbish or inflammatory material.

The way around this is to NEVER respond to their posts and to upload the filters freely available to make them disappear from sight.

There is another news group that is supposed to be moderated but is (I strongly suspect) in fact run by the trolls so they can cross-post to the main groups - I won't bother giving it credence by mentioning it, suffice to say I haven't seen a worthwhile post yet.

I recommend rec.woodworking but you really need to apply some filtering software. Doug Miller posts it on occasion and has links in his posts.

**MathewA** · 3rd September 2005, 08:08 PM

Originally Posted by Grunt

Mathew, go on admit it, you really hang around the group alt.binaries.pigmys.groupsex

I guess the secrets out.

**MathewA** · 3rd September 2005, 08:11 PM

Originally Posted by Groggy

Mathew, before anyone jumps into rec.woodworking or some of the other groups, be advised there are some pretty disgusting trolls trying to destroy them by posting rubbish or inflammatory material.

The way around this is to NEVER respond to their posts and to upload the filters freely available to make them disappear from sight.

There is another news group that is supposed to be moderated but is (I strongly suspect) in fact run by the trolls so they can cross-post to the main groups - I won't bother giving it credence by mentioning it, suffice to say I haven't seen a worthwhile post yet.

I recommend rec.woodworking but you really need to apply some filtering software. Doug Miller posts it on occasion and has links in his posts.

Thats why I use a news reader. I just add pretty well every foul word I can think of to the filter and it takes care of most of the idiots.

**soundman** · 3rd September 2005, 10:34 PM

Now there's an interesting pass time.
Thinking up foul words to put in filters.

I supose somewhere there are people paid to do this.
I have a vision of a profanity R&D section. The usual cubical farm occupied by warfies, bikes and all sorts of reprobates engaged in the serious work of naughty words.

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