CMC208 - Squad Communications
Instructor: Boa

Introduction

Communications via newsgroups is one of the aspects of the Cutthroats Mercenary Company that sets us apart from other squadrons. This communication network is much more efficient and useful then chatting on-line or using e-mail. It keeps the Cutthroats informed without bombarding them with e-mail. It also allows a central discussion to happen without complex tools, or scheduled meetings.

An overview of the newsgroup structure

Newgroups live on a server, most commonly called a news server. A newsgroup is different then e-mail because it's viewable by many people and when you post messages in a newsgroup you do not need specify a specific person as the recipient. Also, in the case of the CMC's newsgroups, the messages need not be sent from server to server. The secnews3 server which contains these newsgroups is self-contained.

The CMC newsgroups are never expired (messages posted stay forever, with one exception noted below), so one may trace the history of the squadron by reading all the messages posted here.

For the most current list of newsgroups available to the CMC, please see the Communications section of the CMC home page.

How to use Newsgroups

These instructions will assume the user is using the Netscape Communicator 4.04 and beyond but there are other newsreaders capable of being used here.

Accessing Newsgroups

If your browser has a newsreader built in (or is configured with one) then simply click the appropriate newsgroup in our Communications section.

An alternate method is to connect to the CMC's news server: hq.cutthroats.com on port 119 and use the Subscribe to Discussion Groups feature available in the right click menu to add the newsgroup you want. From this dialog you can also browse existing groups to find the ones you're interested in.  As a cutthroat, you should subscribe to all groups in the cutthroat hierarchy.

Subscribing to a Newsgroup

If you find a newsgroup that interests you and that you plan on reading often, it's a good idea to subscribe to it.  This is done by clicking on the dot next to the newsgroup name.

Once clicked, the dot changes to a checkmark and the newsgroup is "subscribed to". From now on, you can simply open the news server entry to get at these newsgroups. Some prefer to continue using the Communications listing. Either method is fine.

Reading Messages

Your newsreader keeps track of messages that you've read on each newsgroup. In default mode, most newsreaders will only show messages that you have not yet read. If you read a message and decide that you would like to read it again sometime, you may want to mark it as unread by clicking on the dot next to the subject.  This marks the message in bold and with a green dot.

Note: When you post a new message, many newsreaders will not show the post until you've refreshed the newsgroup view (the easiest way to do this is to close and reopen the server by clicking on the +/- icon):

Please make sure you refresh your message view after posting. This is a very common mistake, as the poster continues to post her/his message over and over again since they don't get the expected feedback right away.

You may click on the links next to the References: header to trace backward in the reply chain if the message you are currently reading is a reply to an older message.

Posting a Message

If you are posting a message that is the start of a new thread, use the POST or New Msg button. If you want to reply or add a comment to a particular message, select the message that you wish to reply to and use the REPLY button and select Reply to Group.

One common mistake is to use the Reply to Sender (via e-mail) option which means your message will be sent via e-mail to the poster of the message you were responding too. No one else will be able to read it as it won't get posted in the newsgroup.

If you are replying to a message, you will most likely want to quote the message you are replying to in order to provide some context for your post. Communicator's newsreader does this by default (although you have an option to override this). A quoted message will begin with "such and such wrote:" followed by lines indented and marked with ">" (Navigator will also display quoted text as italicized).  There are 2 schools of thought regarding proper use of the quote feature. One is that no part of the post should be modified as you may very well change the intended meaning of the original poster. The other is that you should quote only the piece of the message that is relevant to your reply. This keeps the conversation more efficient.

Cancelling a Message

If you are the author of a particular message, you may chose that delete, or Cancel, your message at a later time. Click on the message you wish to delete and use the Edit/Cancel Message menu item.

NOTE: It is considered very poor taste to cancel a message that has already been replied to. In the CMC Cancelling should be limited to errors that need correction or if you accidentally posted to the wrong group.

Followups and other fancy stuff

If you are posting a message to one newsgroup, but want the replies to this message going to a different newsgroup, just use the Followups To: header.  In Communicator, you get to this by clicking on one of the To or Cc headers and chosing followups from the drop down menu.

You can create a link to a newsgroup by following this URL convention: news://server_name/newsgroup_name. In the case of the CMC, the server_name is hq.cutthroats.com. Here's an example link to the cutthroats newsgroup: news://hq.cutthroats.com/cutthroats.

You may also make a link to a message using this URL structure: news://server_name/message-id. You get the message-id from the message headers. Use View/Headers/All. Now right click on the link next to the Message-ID: header field. Chose Copy Link Location from the menu that pops up. Your clipboard now contains the link referring to this message. Click on this link for an example: news://hq.cutthroats.com/3264078B.708C@netscape.com.

You can attach files to your posts by clicking the Paperclip icon in the headers or the one in the toolbar.

File Formats

Use open standards whenever possible. For example, if you want to post a picture of yourself, post a .GIF or .JPG. If you post a .BMP then you are wasting bandwidth (.BMPs are not compressed) and using a Window's only standard. Despite what Bill Gates wants you to believe, not everone uses Windows... Do not zip .GIF or .JPG files as they can be displayed inline with most browsers/news readers and it'll save the readers the extra step of having to extract and view the files.

If you want to post a .CAM file (Air Warrior film) please .ZIP it first. For window's users I strongly recommend WinZip (don't forget to register this singly most useful utility). Please do not post .CAM files to the discussion groups. Post films to newsgoups with names ending with a .films.

If you want to post a document created in another program, first try converting to HTML, then TXT format. Only as a last resort should you post word processor files. Again, your audience may not have the tools to read your attachment if you don't go with the standards.

Remember to keep the files as small as possible. For each minute that you upload the message, imagine that everyone who will be reading this message is going to have to download it again.

Conclusion

Learn to use this medium and you will find a new richness in the way our squad communicates. Become an expert and participate. We have had excellent successes because of this mechanism and you're really missing out if you're not part of it.

Comments or questions?  E-mail Boa or post a message <g>.

Last updated: 5/23/98

©1996, 1997, 1998 Julius Cisek aka "Boa"