Created by the author of YA-NW, Brian Clark, Thoth is somewhat easier to use than YA-NW (which isn't saying much), particularly in configuring it for multiple news servers. Thoth (shareware $25) (View Screen Shot) "Thoth" is easily the worst name ever given to a newsreader (try saying it five times fast).As for setting up YA-NW to access multiple news servers, you will lose your mind by the time you are finished with this complex procedure. YA-NewsWatcher (freeware) YA-NewsWatcher is especially popular with binaries groups enthusiasts, but setting up filters and configuration of personalities is not terribly intuitive.MT-NW has finally been carbonized for OS X, to the great joy of many MT-NW loyalists. There have also been memory-related problems reported by some users, and your author has (unfortunately) experienced repeated problems with MT-NW freezing up with external USB modems. MT-NW's handling of binaries is weak, however (until version 3.0, it couldn't even be used to post binaries). Setting up filters to highlight/kill articles meeting certain criteria is also quite painless. Compared to its cousins, MT-NW is extremely easy to configure for multiple personalities and multiple news servers. ![]() MT-NewsWatcher (freeware) (View Screen Shot) MT-NewsWatcher is the most popular of the NewsWatcher offspring due to its (relative) ease of use.In addition to the ones cited below (MT- and YA-NewsWatcher plus Thoth), more obscure/obsolete varieties include VA-NewsWatcher, WS-NewsWatcher, and NewsWatcher X (carbonized for Mac OS X). The Mac newsreaders most widely used by serious Usenet junkies are descendants of NewsWatcher, a program created at Northwestern University by John Norstad.There are several other (and much better) alternatives available: You probably already have one or two newsreaders already installed on your computer: Microsoft Outlook Express and Netscape Communicator's news reading feature. Generally you reach these discussion areas using a program called a newsreader. Although Usenet is part of the Internet, it is not part of the World Wide Web, even if one happens to be reading news group messages via Google Groups. (Of course, none of you would be interested in that, would you?) Newsgroups are sometimes referred to collectively as Usenet. There are (depending on the news feed involved) 30,000-50,000 different newsgroups, ongoing discussions on every conceivable topic (music, television, computers, religion, politics, hobbies, sports, etc.) There are also special binary newsgroups, from which one can download, among other things, MP3 files, illegal copies of software, and pictures of nude women. ![]() Instead, they are electronic bulletin boards with messages that can be read by anyone on the Internet. Newsgroups, oddly enough, have nothing to do with news, nor are they groups. A Treatise on Newsgroups and Newsreaders Reading the News (or: It's the Thoth That Counts)
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