By Ellen L. Fox

Finding "The Rest of the Story" with Dejanews

Dejanews focuses exclusively on searching the Usenet news groups. Though many people view Usenet primarily as the Internet source for flame wars, tasteless pictures and maniacal ranting (and you'll certainly find those in abundance), Usenet is also a terrific source for the real scoop on a wide variety of topics.

Suppose you've decided to take your 8-year-old to Disneyland, and you're wondering which package tour to buy -- or if you should buy one at all. You could go to the Disney web site, which naturally, will tell you that all Disney packages are wonderful, with the most expensive being the most wonderful of all. You might wish you could talk to someone who has been there recently and could give you a more impartial opinion. That's when you should head over to Dejanews.

You arrive at the Dejanews web site wondering where to start. Enter keyword search terms in the primary search window or scroll down to a second search window that lets you enter a keyword and then returns a list of groups the search engine considers relevant to your topic. Type "Disneyland" in this search window. You will get a short list of groups in which the search engine has determined your keyword appears frequently. Two likely looking candidates are rec.arts.disney.parks and alt.disney.disneyland.

Click on one of these group names, and Dejanews will pull up a list of its recent postings. Scroll through the subject headings to see if any of the topics look relevant. As with any area of the Internet, it will take some time to sort through the chaff and get to the wheat. You can make your search more efficient by going back to the primary search window, entering the name of the group you've selected and adding a few more keywords, "package tours" perhaps. All articles with discussions using the terms "package" and "tours" will be pulled up. Again, not all of these will be relevant, but your search will be considerably shorter than it might have been.

You can use Dejanews to look for a particular group's FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) file, as well. You don't want to post a question to any newsgroup without first checking to see whether that question has been asked and answered so many times that the group's regulars have answered it in the FAQ. Asking a Frequently Asked Question is certain to get you flamed by the regulars. Dejanews can help you find the FAQ file quickly and spare you hurt feelings.

Now suppose you have a question about some software you've been using. You've been reading the relevant newsgroup for a few weeks, and you've come to have considerable respect for one of the regular posters. You can use Dejanews to search for her name and find out if she has written anything about your question within the last few months. You can also find out if she posts to any other groups you're interested in so you can follow what she has to say on other topics. Though some posters resist having their posts archived by Dejanews and change their posting headers to prevent their being archived, most people still let their posts go into the hopper to be searched by others.

Dejanews can also serve as your primary newsreader. This is particularly helpful if your Internet service provider doesn't carry many newsgroups or doesn't carry the one you're interested in. Dejanews allows you to post to newsgroups and to mail directly to individuals regarding their posts. This can be very helpful if you have searched the FAQ, as well as the last three months of newsgroup discussion, and still haven't found what you're looking for. You can post your question directly to the group. Explain that you have looked around, but haven't found an answer to your question and are requesting that some kind soul offer advice. Or select a particular individual who seems informed and helpful and mail directly to her. Your trip to Disneyland might be much more economical and rewarding than it would have been without the help of Usenet and Dejanews.