Viewing This News Group

[Guest]

I have been enjoying this discussion group via the internet for the past 7
months and finally caught on that this is a "NewsGroup". I downloaded Forte
Agent and loaded the Microsoft Discussion Group and got all 2000+ groups
showing up ... quite confusing.

Evidently it is not the best, but the internet front end is handy with the
hyperlinks in a table of contents format...I am having a hard time figuring
out what is what in Forte Agent, which group is which.

Would someone share some thoughts on which groups address matches what?
Does microsoft.public.access = General questions? or does it have all the
sub groups? And...when you want to post to the newsgroup it appears you have
to put an e-mail address in.

Maybe in a nutshell I need to read "Newsgroups for Dummies"..Someone giving
guidence would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[Fred Boer]

Dear Jeff C:

I am not familiar with Forte Agent, being a user of Outlook Express, so I
can't speak to that software. The Microsoft sponsored newsgroups have the
following naming structure: microsoft.public.access."topic here...". So, for
example, "microsoft.public.access.forms" is a newsgroup for questions
relating to forms; "microsoft.public.access.reports" is a newsgroup for
questions relating to reports and so on...

In Outlook Express you "subscribe" to selected newsgroups from all of the
many newsgroups available.

Do *NOT* use your real email address when sending posts to newsgroups. Many
spammers "harvest" email addresses from newsgroups; I had to abandon an
email address because of this when I used my real email address. Hide your
actual email address by "munging" the address. For example, my "munged"
email address is "(e-mail address removed). This prevents spammers from
grabbing the real email. (Note: google "munging" for more information - my
model may not be the most effective or correct method...)

Check out the suggestions and netiquette rules at:
http://www.mvps.org/access/netiquette.htm

HTH
Fred Boer

 

[Fred Boer]

P.S...

As to "microsoft.public.access", I'm not certain, but I think it is meant as
a "catch-all" newsgroup for topics which don't fit into any of the
sub-groups..

The name of that newsgroup is unfortunate, as it leads many to believe it is
a newsgroup for general "access" to Microsoft...

Cheers!
Fred Boer

 

[Ken Snell [MVP]]

P.S...

As to "microsoft.public.access", I'm not certain, but I think it is meant
as
a "catch-all" newsgroup for topics which don't fit into any of the
sub-groups..

"microsoft.public.access" is designed to be a general newsgroup for ACCESS
software, where people can post general questions instead of going to the
specific group on the desired topic. As such, it's even more general than
"microsoft.public.access.gettingstarted" .....

 

[Fred Boer]

Hi Ken:

When Jeff C said that he'd been enjoying this discussion group, I assumed
that he meant the Access newsgroups (i.e. related to Microsoft Access). I
should have been more careful, though, and specified Microsoft Access, the
database program, as the focus of the microsoft.public.access newsgroups.
Thanks for the clarification!

Cheers!
Fred