Reading and adding to the news—or the gossip, tirades, and misinformation that often pass for news in Internet newsgroups—is as simple as reading or sending your e-mail. All you need to do is specify a newsgroup and select a message, and then either read the message or click a button to respond to it.
In the Folders list, expand the list under the news server if necessary, and click the newsgroup you want.
Click a news message to display it. To open the message in a separate window, double-click the message.
Click the type of message you want to create:
Write Message to create a new message under its own topic (to start a new thread)
Reply Group to respond to the selected message and have your message added under that message (to add it to the thread)
Reply to send an e-mail message to the author of the message only but not to add your message to the newsgroup
Forward to send the message by e-mail to someone else
Compose your message. If you’re posting a new message, select the type of message you want to create.
A "thread" is a series of messages: one person posts a message and others reply to the message and/or to the replies.
Unscrupulous people search through newsgroups to find valid e-mail addresses that they list and sell to spammers. To avoid extra junk mail, when you post a message, you can either use a fake e-mail address or a secondary account that you can easily purge of spam. When you use a fake e-mail address, people can’t respond to your message by e-mail.