Newsgroups and forums are online discussion groups for talking about topics of mutual interest. They are like bulletin boards: messages are posted which anyone can read, and anyone can post followup messages. The messages stay up for a while (depending on the kind of discussion group), so you do not have to be online at the same time as the people you are corresponding with.
Learn more about newsgroups in the Sympatico Internet Tutorial.
Sympatico members have access to several methods of participating in discussions: Usenet newsgroups, Web-based forums, and chat.
Usenet newsgroupsUsenet newsgroups were one of the original methods of sharing information online. Reading Usenet newsgroups requires newsreading software (included in the Sympatico software), although you can use Deja News to search for and read newsgroups using your Web browser.
- Sympatico Member Services support Usenet newsgroup
- Sympatico Member Services service announcements Usenet newsgroup
- Sympatico Member practice Usenet newsgroup (may not be available from all Sympatico service providers)
Finding and reading Usenet newsgroups with:
- Netscape Communicator
- Microsoft Internet Explorer
- Netscape Navigator 3
- Web-based newsgroup readers: DejaNews.
The news server that you will use depends on your Sympatico service provider. Look at our Sympatico settings table for the list of news servers across Canada.
Netscape News software enables you to search for specific newsgroups using a keyword, but only if the keyword is in the newsgroup name. Alternatively, you can search the Sympatico Usenet newsgroups by keyword using the search box below.
Web-based forums
Web-based discussions (also called forums) are also very popular. They are very similar to Usenet newsgroups except that they are accessed with a Web browser.
- Sympatico Forums - Web-based discussion groups on a wide variety of topics
Chat is different from other kinds of discussion groups in that the participants of a chat are all online at the same time and talk to each other in real time.
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