Using Discussion Groups
Discussion groups are kind of like a giant bulletin board where communication between users can be seen by everyone else. One person posts an idea, question or comment, and other users can reply to that posting or move on to another idea.
You need an e-mail address and some sort of e-mail provider to connect to a discussion group. For right now, we are going to use Netscape Communicator to connect to a discussion group.
There are thousands of different discussion groups out there. You can get to some of the educational ones from http://edweb.gsn.org/usenets.html. When you click on a link, like "k12.chat.teacher", the following window opens up. (A similar window opens up in AOL. )
Along the top is a tool bar similar to what you get when you are sending e-mail.
The little triangles in the second
collumn tell you that this a "thread", or a topic that one
or more people have commented on. The first row of words in bold are the
subjects (what the author put in the subject line of their
original e-mail). The last two columns are the names of the
author and the date the message was sent.
To read a message left by someone else,
double-click on the subject line. The message will open up in another
window.
example: 
To reply to a message left by someone
else, you have several options. If click and hold on the
"Reply" button, you get this menu: If you select "to Sender Only", only one
person gets your reply. If you select "to Sender and All
Recipients", your reply goes to the person who originally
wrote the message and everyone else they had written that
message to. If you select "to Discussion", your reply
will go to the discussion group itself, so it can be read by
everyone. If you select "to Sender and Discussion",
a copy of your message goes to the person who wrote the
first message, and a copy goes out to the discussion
group.
To send a message and start a new thread, click "New Message". The address of the discussion group should automatically pop into the "To" section of your e-mail program. You can write your subject heading and message like any other e-mail message.
