Path: utzoo!utstat!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen
From: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.COM (Wm E Davidsen Jr)
Newsgroups: news.software.b
Subject: Re: RN bothering users about groups "not in .newsrc"
Message-ID: <2870@crdos1.crd.ge.COM>
Date: 14 Nov 90 19:20:39 GMT
References: <506@tygra.ddmi.com>
Reply-To: davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.com (bill davidsen)
Organization: GE Corp R&D Center, Schenectady NY
Lines: 37

In article <506@tygra.ddmi.com> jpp@tygra.ddmi.com (John Palmer) writes:

| One annoying problem often occurs after a newgroup message adds a
| group to the end of the active file. If the group is later removed
| then any user who has not used rn since the add/delete sequence 
| will be asked about EVERY unsubscribed group. (ie: for each group
| that he is not subscribed to, he will be asked if he wants to add
| it to his newsrc file). 

  This is not tue. I'll try to explain why.

  rn does not care if you are *subscribed* to a group, it checks to see
if you *know about* a group. When it askes you about a group addition,
the correct answer is 'y' in all cases. Then, when you reach the group
the first time you type 'u' to unsubscribe. That's what all those colons
and exclamations in the .newsrc file mean, just as it says in the
documentation.


| Does anyone know of a friendlier newsreader that has been ported to
| Xenix?? Thanks.

  I don't know of any which is easier to use unless you read the manuals.
 
| Oh - by the way - forget getting news patches from UUNET. They've cut
| off their 800 number. The only way to access their system via anonymous
| uucp is to dial a 900 number. I didn't think they'd stoop so low, but
| thats life.

  My impression is that the 800 number is (or was) for subscribers, and
the 900 number for casual users. That's what their documentation seems
to say.
================================================================
           sed 's/rn is broken/I don't know how to use rn/g'
-- 
bill davidsen	(davidsen@crdos1.crd.GE.COM -or- uunet!crdgw1!crdos1!davidsen)
    VMS is a text-only adventure game. If you win you can use unix.