*** ANSWERMAN INTERNET EXTRA *** For the week of December 30, 1996 Happy new year! This is the weekly newsletter for the community of Internet users on America Online. This week, AnswerMan's Focus is Mailing Lists. Plus, check out the new INTERNET TUTORIAL. =*=*= IN THIS ISSUE =*=*= AnswerMan's Update -- Mailing Lists Eagle's Exploits -- More Mailing Lists Free Book of the Week -- 24 Hours In Cyberspace Upcoming Weekly Focus & Chats -- What's coming in 1997 The End -- How to contact us or unsubscribe =*=*= WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK WITH ANSWERMAN =*=*= Go to keyword: For: AM FOCUS Links to mailing lists & free online books ANSWERMAN Internet message board, daily tips, more good stuff AM CHAT Read transcripts of Internet chats that you missed AM GLOSSARY RTFM to decrypt that Internet jargon NET HELP Get quick help for your Internet questions NET TUTORIAL Clueless about the Internet? Start here! Here are direct links for AOL 3.0 users: Go to keyword AnswerMan AnswerMan Focus =*=*= ANSWERMAN'S UPDATE -- Mailing Lists =*=*= by Kevin Savetz (AnswerMan) First thing's first: To all of the new AOL users who have joined the AnswerMan community in the past week, welcome! Many of you got a new computer or modem for the holidays and logged on to AOL for the first time in the last few days. We're happy to have you aboard. The AnswerMan Internet Extra is the weekly newsletter of AnswerMan, America Online's area for folks who want to learn about the Internet. AnswerMan's purpose in life is to get you started on the Internet, teach you about the useful and fun things you can do with the Net, and help you make the Internet a useful part of your online existence, rather than just a curiosity to dabble with. If you're completely clueless about the Internet, don't worry! We'll get you up to speed in no time. Start by going to keyword NET TUTORIAL. That's AnswerMan's brand-spanking-new tutorial that explains what the Internet is, how it is related to America Online, and what Web, Newsgroups, e-mail and all that other Net stuff is all about. Why did you get this newsletter in your mailbox? Because you subscribed to it. This newsletter, as well as everything you'll find at keyword ANSWERMAN, is free -- just part of your monthly AOL fee. If you don't want to receive this newsletter any longer (please don't go!) scroll down to the very end of this message for instructions on how to unsubscribe. -.-.- Mailing Lists -.-.- Every week, AnswerMan focuses on a particular facet of using the Internet. This week's AnswerMan Focus is the wonderful world of Internet mailing lists. Internet mailing lists aren't anything like the mailing lists that companies use to send catalogs to you via snail mail, and they don't have anything to do with those exasperating companies that spam your electronic mail box with junk mail. A mailing list is simply a special electronic mail address that redistributes any mail that's sent to it to other e-mail addresses -- to people who have chosen to "subscribe" to that list. Mailing lists are a way to reach a few, a few dozen or a few thousand people who are interested in a specific topic. People who are interested in a particular discussion or topic can subscribe to a list focusing on that topic. When someone sends mail to the mailing list, the message is distributed via e-mail to all of the list's subscribers. Most mailing lists are available to the Internet public, so anyone interested in that topic may join that list. Others are private -- for instance, there may be a list to which only registered nurses may subscribe. Other lists are moderated -- that is, only messages that have been approved by a moderator pass through the gates to your e-mailbox. A lot of mailing lists are for discussion -- others are for distributing newsletters and other information. (This newsletter is sent with a mailing list.) Now, before you can subscribe to a list, you have to find one (or more) that's of interest to you -- there are tens of thousands of different lists available. Some random examples of the myriad of lists out there are discussions about acting, bird watching, futurology, drug-dependency and the Dutch-language. There are a few Web pages that provide excellent indices to mailing lists. They are CataList (at http://www.lsoft.com/lists/listref.html), Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists (at http://www.neosoft.com/internet/paml), and the Liszt Directory of E-Mail Discussion Groups (at http://www.liszt.com). You can get detailed information about what these three sites offer at keyword AM FOCUS. Subscribing to a list is easy -- you send a message with a SUBSCRIBE command to a special e-mail address. That e-mail address is usually monitored by a computer program that will automatically subscribe you to the list. The exact address and subscribe command are different for every mailing list -- subscription instructions for every list are given at the Web indices I mentioned. If you don't like the list after all, you can stop receiving its mailings by sending an UNSUBSCRIBE command to that same address. Some lists have only a trickle of mail -- these are called low volume lists. Very popular lists may carry dozens or even hundreds of messages each day -- high volume. If you don't check your e-mail often, don't subscribe yourself to a zillion lists; on the other hand, if you love to get e-mail, by all means, subscribe to those lists! If you've used Usenet Newsgroups, you may have noticed that mailing lists sound awfully similar. Newsgroups also let you talk about every topic under the sun, although the messages aren't delivered via e-mail. Indeed, there is a lot of overlap. Mailing list discussions tend to be a little more private, with fewer "lurkers" (people who read but don't participate in the conversation) and fewer off-topic messages than newsgroups. Mailing lists also exist on topics that are too specific to warrant a mailing list -- such as news from the Musuem of Bad Art, and discussions about chemical management, for example. For more information about mailing lists, go to keyword AM FOCUS. For even more, try keyword MAILING LISTS. Here are direct links for AOL 3.0 users: AnswerMan Focus AnswerMan Community Center *** ANSWERMAN INTERNET EXTRA *** For the week of January 6, 1997 Happy new year! This is the weekly newsletter for the community of Internet users on America Online. This week, AnswerMan's Focus is Welcome to the Internet! =*=*= IN THIS ISSUE =*=*= AnswerMan's Update -- Welcome to the Internet Free Book of the Week -- Curious About the Internet? Upcoming Weekly Focus & Chats -- What's coming up The End -- How to contact us or unsubscribe =*=*= WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK WITH ANSWERMAN =*=*= Go to keyword: For: AM FOCUS Links to all manner of Net stuff, neatly categorized ANSWERMAN Internet message board, daily tips, more good stuff NET HELP Get quick help for your Internet questions NET TUTORIAL Clueless about the Internet? Start here! AM CHAT Read transcripts of Internet chats that you missed AM GLOSSARY RTFM to decrypt that Internet jargon Here are direct links for AOL 3.0 users: Go to keyword AnswerMan AnswerMan Focus Net Tutorial =*=*= ANSWERMAN'S UPDATE -- Welcome to the Internet =*=*= by Kevin Savetz (AnswerMan) Long-time AnswerMan-readin', Net-lovin', power-usin' folks: read this paragraph. This edition of the AnswerMan Internet Extra isn't for you. You know this stuff. This edition is dedicated to the basics, it is dedicated to the newbies who've recently joined AOL. Oh sure, you can check out the free online book of the week, but then go water the cat or feed the petunias, because this newsletter is for newbies only. Don't despair: starting next week and for the rest of the month, AnswerMan will be showing you how to do some advanced, mondo cool stuff he's never delved into before -- Internet Relay Chat, streaming audio and Internet phone software. Now away with you. Alright! Now that those pesky know-it-alls are gone, its just you and me. I can hear you asking yourself "What's this newsletter all about?" Well, the AnswerMan Internet Extra is the weekly newsletter of AnswerMan, America Online's area for folks who want to learn about the Internet. AnswerMan's for complete "newbies" as well as folks who are well beyond the basics but want to continue learning how the Internet can be useful to them. Why did you get this newsletter in your mailbox? Because you subscribed to it -- probably by clicking on the Subscribe button from the AnswerMan area. This newsletter, as well as everything you'll find at keyword ANSWERMAN, is free -- just part of your regular AOL fee. How do you get back to the AnswerMan area? You can get to the AnswerMan forum -- or any AOL area that you know the name of -- in two easy steps. First, pick KEYWORD from the GO TO item in your menu bar. Second, in the window that appears, type the keyword of the place that you want to go (in this case, ANSWERMAN) and press Go. This is called going to a keyword and you'll get very used to this quick method of navigating AOL. What is the Internet? As an AOL user, you are "on the Internet." The Internet is the world's largest computer network, connecting millions of computers, people and organizations worldwide. You can use it to reach people and access information from around the globe. To most of the people who use the Internet, the Internet isn't about networks, protocols, and operating systems; it's a community of people. A very large community. You access the Internet using different tools, such as electronic mail, a World Wide Web browser and a Newsgroup reader. All of these Internet access tools are built into AOL. What's the difference between AOL and the World Wide Web? The World Wide Web (also known as simply "the Web" or "WWW") is the fastest-growing -- and coolest -- part of the Internet. It combines graphics and text to present information in "hypertext" format: when you see something that interests you, just click on it for more information. The Web is just one tool you can use to access the Internet's resources. A Web site address looks like this -- http://something.or.other. If you have the address of a Web site that you'd like to visit, you can jump straight there just like you can jump to a keyword. To go to a Web site quickly, again pick KEYWORD from your GO TO menu, then type the address -- for instance http://www.yahoo.com -- and press Go. A Web site address is also called a "URL." (That stands for Universal Resource Locator, but that won't be on the quiz.) For your next step in getting aquatinted with the Internet, go to keyword NET TUTORIAL. That's AnswerMan's brand-spanking-new tutorial that explains what the Internet is, how it is related to America Online, and what various Internet tools are for. (We've touched on a couple of these things here. Would a little review be all that bad?) Next up, go to keyword AM FOCUS -- that's the AnswerMan focus area, where each week we add new info about using the Internet. You can go there to get the skinny on Internet electronic mail, using the Net to find a job, Usenet Newsgroups, making your own web page and lot of other good stuff. Now, once you've been on the Web for, oh, 5 minutes, you're probably going to want to know how to search for information that interests you -- your hobbies, your field of work, whatever. There are several special Web pages whose purpose is to help you find information on the Web. These are called "search engines". There are a bunch of them -- Excite, Lycos, Alta Vista -- and frankly it doesn't matter much which one you use, as long as you're comfortable with it. But the one that I recommend for new Internet users is called Yahoo! Yahoo, at http://www.yahoo.com, lets you search the Web in two ways. You can either enter some search words and it will search for Web pages on that topic, or you can just browse though a nifty categorized list of topics (business, computing, news and so on.) Try it, you'll like it. Here are direct links for AOL 3.0 users: Net Tutorial AnswerMan Focus AnswerMan Community Center Yahoo! =*=*= FREE BOOK OF THE WEEK =*=*= Did you know that there are free books about the Internet, on the Internet? AnswerMan found more than 25 online books on every aspect of the Internet. With them, you can delve into Net culture, learn how to make a Web page, and get experts' picks of great Web sites. All of these books are available in digital format on the Web, in their entirety, for free. (Most of these books are also available in traditional printed format, for a price. This is more expensive than the online version but easier to read while you're on the bus or in the bath.) For the next several weeks, AnswerMan will be highlighting one of these online books. This week's pick is "Curious About the Internet?" by Ned Snell. This book is an introduction to the Net and what it's good for. Unlike many other Internet books, it doesn't tell you how to use the Internet; it instead explains the fundamentals wile avoiding technical how-to details. It's a nice little guide for newbies. Chapters include: What Is the Internet, How Does the Internet Make the World a Better Place?, Why Do Some People Worry About the Internet?, How Do People Pick Up Information from the Internet? and What Fun Do People Have on the Internet? To get to this and the other 26 free online books, go to keyword AM FOCUS and press the "Free Books" button. Here is a direct link for AOL 3.0 users: Free Books =*=*= THE WEEKLY FOCUS & CHAT =*=*= Every Sunday, AnswerMan hosts a live chat to close out that week's Focus topic. Here's what's coming this Sunday, January 12, at 6PM ET: Welcome to the Internet - Not sure what the Internet's all about, how it's related to America Online, or even why you should care? This hour, AnswerMan will give you a quick and easy introduction to the Internet and its most important tools: electronic mail, the World Wide Web and Usenet Newsgroups. If you're new to AOL and curious about the Internet, you'll find this chat indispensable. Every week, AnswerMan focuses on a particular facet of using the Internet. Here are the Weekly Focus topics we'll be covering in the near future: Jan 13 - Jan 19: Internet Relay Chat Jan 20 - Jan 26: Internet Phone Jan 27 - Feb 2: Streaming Audio Here is a direct link for AOL 3.0 users: AnswerMan Chat and Transcripts. =*=*= THE END =*=*= That's all for this week. Got comments about this newsletter? We want to hear them! Send 'em to AnswerMan. The e-mail address is "AnswerMan@aol.com". We would hate to see you go, but if you must leave, there are two easy ways to unsubscribe yourself from this newsletter. You can use either. #1: Send an e-mail message -- To: LISTSERV@LISTSERV.AOL.COM Subject: UNSUBSCRIBE Body: UNSUBSCRIBE ANSWERMAN #2: For AOL 3.0 users only: Click here then press "Unsubscribe". Copyright 1997 by America Online. All rights reserved. This newsletter contains less than 2% of the recommended daily allowance of riboflavin.