10. Ques: What are the different sets of Preferences?
1. Main newsgroups Global Preferences
MarkAllott and Monika Krug answer :
From the main newsgroups screen (Keyword : USENET), there is a
button labeled "Set Preferences". If you press this, you will
then be taken to a general preferences screen for your newsgroups
with three tabs: Viewing, Posting, and Filtering.
On the Viewing tab you can choose whether you want to see
"no headers" (this will actually display a short, 4-line header
at the top of each message, namely Subject, Author, Date, and
Message-ID), or the full headers (about 10 lines, includes
useful information, like which newsgroups this article was posted to,
but also usually uninteresting information, like which newsreader
the person used) and that one either at the top or at the bottom.
No headers is the standard.
Also on the Viewing tab you can choose whether you want to see
the articles in the order newest to oldest or oldest to newest or in
alphabetical order.
If you want to read offline, you should definitely change the setting
from the standard "newest first" to "oldest first".
JIROMI adds :
Alphabetical listing makes a lot of sense if you read your newsgroups
online, and if you keep current with them.
Listing in alphabetical order helps keep threads together, because
when reading online, the threads will sometimes branch off, depending
on whether someone replies to the original post or to various replies.
The Alphabetical listing also makes it easier to find a particular
thread that you are interested in.]
Also on the Viewing tab you can choose whether you want to see
the real internet newsgroups names (like "aol.newsgroups.help"),
or a description (like "A place to ask questions"). You can also limit
how many articles you want to download maximally, so that flash
sessions will not last forever. If you read online, you don't have to
bother about that.
On the Posting tab, there is a box to fill in which name should be
displayed behind your e-mail address. This can be your full real name,
your first name, a nick name, or anything you like. Do not choose
something offensive. If you do not choose anything, your screen name
will be displayed as your name.
Note: Some newsgroups and hierarchies require you to use your
full real name. You should always lurk in (read only) a new newsgroup
for a while (1-2 weeks) before you start posting, and always read any
available FAQs. By then you will have found out if that particular
newsgroup accepts nicknames / first names / screen names. Most do.
The next box is for adding a junk block to your e-mail address. If you
type in "abcxyz" your e-mail address will end in @aol.comabcxyz
instead of in @aol.com. This is supposed to make your e-mail address
useless for e-mail harvesting bots, which randomly collect e-mail
addresses in newsgroups for the purpose of spamming. (See part V
for definition of spam.) A person who wants to reply to your articles
by e-mail can just delete the junk block. You can, maybe even should,
point to your junk block in your signature (see below). Even then
it will happen that people forget removing it. This can be annoying,
and the undeliverable mail causes more work for the mail admin
(of the sender). The junk block also will not completely prevent you
from getting spam. These are reasons why a) many people don't
use junk blocks anyway b) some newsgroups and hierarchies
prohibit the use of junk blocks. Inform yourself if they are acceptable
where you want to post. (See above the note about not posting real
names.)
The next box is for your signature. This is text that will be displayed
below your messages. Online you can switch it off for particular
messages, offline it will always be appended.
Your signature should not have more than 4 lines. Before that put a line
with only "-- " (minus, minus, space) in it (so including this line you
have up to 5 lines). If you intend to only post in AOL's internal
newsgroups, you can use HTML. If you intend to post to other newsgroups,
too, do not use any HTML, neither in your sig (short for signature) nor
in the body.
Sample:
--
Enjoy life, the alternative is boring.
My homepage: http://www.whereever.com/users/myname
Remove the junk block letters abcxyz from my e-mail address to reply.
This person could have one more line, but of course it's not necessary to
have _at least_ 4 lines - 4 is the maximum suggested.
The third tab lets you choose filters. There are two types, one at the
top the other one at the bottom.
The top one let's you type in e.g. an e-mail address
(example: You dislike what dumbguy@somedomain.com
writes, so you don't want to read his posts anymore, so you type in
dumbguy@somedomain.com in that box, set the listbox to "Author is"
and then click on Add - this is called "plonking" dumbguy,
"killfiling" dumbguy, sometimes even "killing" dumbguy. The killfile
is the list of people whom you don't like so do not read anymore.)
or certain words (e.g. you could type in "sex", set the listbox to
"Subject contains", and press Add; any post with the word sex in
the subject line will be filtered out.)
The bottom one let's you check certain options. These filters do not
workfor AOL's internal newsgroups, as they evaluate NoCeM (cancel)
messages, and the NoCeM bots do not get to AOL's internal newsgroups.
That does not matter, as in the internal newsgroups MzLindyOne (Carol)
cancels posts that violate the TOS anyway. You should check
the box for "Make Money Fast" (these are useless annoying posts;
they tell you you could make money by sending them everywhere,
which is rubbish) and make sure the box for "Messages longer
than ... charcters" is UN-checked. You should also check the
box "Binaries posted to non-binary newsgroups", especially if
you read offline.
Finally, when you are finished, make sure you press "Save",
otherwise all your changes will be lost.
The other button at the main newsgroups screen, labelled "Parental
Controls", gives acces to another set of preferences for the
newsgroups. One point to note here is that these preferences are
only accessible from the main screenname account, from which you
can alter the individual accounts access rights.
Pressing the "Parental Controls" button will then give you the
option of which screennames rights you want to alter. Once you
have chosen the account, another screen will appear which will
then give you options as to what can and can't be done for that
screenname.
Once you have selected the appropriate settings for your
screenname, make sure that you press the "Save" button on this
screen, otherwise your new settings will not take effect.
2. Individual newsgroups
MarkAllott and Monika Krug answer :
From the main newsgroups screen (Keyword : USENET), if you select
"Read my newsgroups", then select a newsgroup to read, you will be
given a new screen with the unread articles for that newsgroup
displayed as well as a few buttons.
If you press the "Preferences" button for that particular
newsgroup, you will then be able to alter individual settings
for the newsgroup you are in.
There are filters like in the global preferences (so you e.g. plonk
a person only in one group, or filter out any messages about dogs
in your favorite cat newsgroup, while leaving them in your favorite
dog newsgroup). Again make sure the filter "Don't show me messages
longer than ... characters" is UNselected. Obviously only filter
out binaries in non-binary newsgroups.
The two most important features are: "Enable offline reading for
this newsgroup" (only do this if you know how to use your offline
reader, described in part I and in detail in part IV of this FAQ)
and "Show message no more than ... days old (Max. 30 days)". The
standard setting is 14 days, the maximum is 30 days. In high traffic
newsgroups you should set it to a lower number. If you set it e.g.
to 7, any post that is older than 7 days will not show up on your
unread list anymore. This feature is also useful when you use List All
(i.e. also already read articles, e.g. when looking for older posts).
3. Members menu
MzLindyOne answers :
The "Members" menu, Preferences Section, Areas That Effect
Newsgroups
General: Display Text - small, medium, or large. Experiment to
see which one you like best.
"Automatically scroll documents" - should be UN-checked or you
will immediately be scrolled to the bottom on opening news
articles. [Does anyone have any idea of the possible use for
this feature?]
Download: Display images on download - determines whether or not
a picture you download from Usenet will be viewable on download.
Your download will go faster if this box is UN-checked.
Automatically decompress files at sign-off - this is an automatic
unzipping utility. It is recommended that you NOT use this
utility, as it is impossible to be sure what is inside a zip file
this way. Better to view the individual files inside with another
utility such as WinZip before decompression.
Delete ZIP files after decompression - fine for just graphics, but
you may want to keep a back-up for programs.
Confirm additions to my download list - this means that when you
use the "Download later" option, it will be confirmed with a
dialog box.
Retain information about my last ___ downloads - with these
pointers in "Files you've downloaded", you can easily try another
download if the first one was bad.
Mail: (Included due to overlap with Newsgroups in Filing Cabinet)
Confirm mail after it has been sent - a good idea with AOL, even
if it means an extra "OK" to push.
Close mail after it has been sent - Saves that extra click.
Retain all mail I send in my Personal Filing Cabinet - Saves
copies of mail you send, whether online or in FlashSession. The
default for this seems to now be "Yes". Be aware that saved mail
can fill the Filing Cabinet and thus effect downloading. Be sure
to clean out the area frequently if you are saving mail.
Retain all mail I read in my Personal Filing Cabinet - Same as
above, but for mail you receive.
Use AOL style quoting in mail - That means the <<< >>> rather
than the single > down the left side. Please don't use this.
UN-check the box.
Personal Filing Cabinet:
Issue warning if file size reaches __ megabytes - limits the size
of the Filing Cabinet.
Issue warning if free space reaches __ percent - free space in
this case refers to space that items have been deleted from. The
space is not truly usable again until the Filing Cabinet is
compacted.
Confirm before deleting single items - a chance to turn back if
you hit the wrong button!
Confirm before deleting multiple items - same as above, but when
multiple files are chosen for deleting at once.
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