A: A newsgroup is a way for people to share their ideas with anyone else who joins that group. Newsgroups are usually organized by topic.
A: It's called orst.eli.162 (you can think of it as large to small - Oregon State, ELI, 162 with orst.eli.162)
A: You can use Pine, Netscape, or (best choice) an option like NewsWatcher to read a newsgroup. You need to subscribe to orst.eli.162 to read it. Here's how:
Pine: Choose Folders from the main menu, then move down
with the arrow key until you get to the list of Newsgroups. It's easiest
to get to orst.eli.162 by typing G to Go to a folder, then orst.eli.162
Use the arrow keys to get to the message you want, then press Enter
to read it.
Netscape: Choose Netscape News from the Windows menu, then choose Add a newsgroup from the File menu. Type in orst.eli.162, and you'll see it appear on the screen. You can change the size of each column to be able to read the topics better. Click on orst.eli.162 to see a list of messages on the right side of the screen; click on any message to read it.
NewsWatcher: Add orst.eli.162, then click on any message to read it.
A: You should read what others have written, then add your comments. I will start questions from time to time, as well. Make sure that you are polite and to the point; you are speaking/writing to your classmates, so write the way you would like others to write to you.
If you have questions, drop me a line at Deborah.Healey@orst.edu and I'll see what I can do to answer them.