Re: alt.homeless (fwd)
Anitra Again (anitra@speakeasy.org)
Mon, 22 Dec 1997 19:54:04 -0800 (PST)
Bonnie, we're talking about two different animals: mailing lists and
newsgroups.
A newsgroup is sorts-kinda-like the posted archives, only you can post
to it directly. In other words, it doesn't come into your inbox --
you go out to a news service and access the news group, like accessing
a website only it's harder to read (for me, personally).
The advantage of a newsgroup over a mailing list is that it is more
public -- people who are just browsing through the news sites may read
it and get interested. It's a way of reaching a brader variety of
folks.
One of the disadvantages of newsgroups is that it is more public --
it is easier for spammers, trollers, and the other scum of the
electron tunnels to lob stuff into a newsgroup, than a maiing list.
A newsgroup can also be used as a central place to place articles,
and then point people to them -- instead of piling high the mailboxes!
There are advantages and disadvantages to one over the other -- which
is an argument for having both. some people prefer email to
newsgroups, and some prefer newsgrpups to email -- by having both, we
can reach more people.
_________
WRITE ON!
~~ Anitra
http://www.speakeasy.org/~anitra/projects.html for a full list of websites
and webrings because if I list them all here, you will be SO mad at me ...