Re: New to group -- ? about DSC QP6 Kit

[Marc_F_Hult <MFHult@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 31 Jan 2007 20:38:10 -0800, "dcalarms" <mdcalvert@xxxxxxx> wrote in
message  <1170304690.732983.103840@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:

>I appreciate the group's existence.  I have read a lot of the posts
>and I think I will learn a lot by just being able to read and exchange
>postings.  I do have a couple of questions.
>
>How do I get the new post screen to be full width so that I don't
>to hit a end-of-line Return key in order to keep the text in the
>viewable area of the screen?  I have not had to do that since
>I last operated a KSR-33 Teletype Terminal in the 70's.
>
>Is there any way the forum owner can change the lay out at the
>bottom of the new post screen?

There are  chat rooms, user groups, and forums other than usenet in which
the posting format is controlled by the "owner", but usenet is not one of
these private entities.

The comp.* hierarchy is one of the "Big Seven" newsgroup hierarchies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newsgroup

and comp.home.automation (aka cha and c.h.a. ) is not 'moderated' so there
is no "owner". In any case, formatting is defined by your newsreader client
among other things. See my other response to your post for suggestions in
this regard.

Usenet began ca. 1979 so google.com  is a newcomer to usenet although in
Microsoft style, it swallowed up dejanews.com which itself became an
indispensable part of usenet by providing a much-needed repository
("archive" ) for usenet.

The Multics Continuum created by earth scientists in the US that I used in
the late 1970's antedates usenet. http://www.multicians.org/site-usgs.html.
It was not threaded and not nearly as powerful as usenet wrt structure.

"Forum" was a  bulletin board system  derived from "Continuum" that was
developed in the early 1980's. It was reportedly renamed to "Forum" because
the abbreviation for Continuum is an obscene word in French.('Nuff said ;-)

Point is that usenet is the predecessor of many of the other user groups
that you may be familiar with but has a different structure and
'governance'. It is public, not private; self-policing, not "administered":
and 'free', not intrinsically commercial.

... Marc
Marc_F_Hult
www.ECOntrol.org