FAQ : How to get "uk.rec.climbing" ?

From: marsland@liverpool.ac.uk (Dr J.S. Marsland)

Newsgroups: rec.climbing

Subject: How to get uk.rec.climbing [bimonthly post]

Date: Tue, 31 Oct 1995 10:02:54 GMT

Organization: Liverpool University

What is uk.rec.climbing ?

uk.rec.climbing is a newsgroup for climbing related discussions which are primarily of concern to climbers in the United Kingdom; that is Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and England. It was created in November 1994 after a vote was taken by a neutral third party. The voting procedure and the result were posted to rec.climbing. If you do not get uk.rec.climbing on your newserver this is what to do:

How to get uk.rec.climbing :

Step 1. Check your newserver for the uk hierarchy.

The vast majority of sites / service providers in the UK and many outside the UK (such as AOL) take the uk heirarchy of net news which should included uk.rec.climbing. Check your news service to see if it contains popular uk groups such as uk.misc, uk.politics or uk.rec.cycling. If it does go to Step 2 and if not go to Step 3.

Step 2. Ask for uk.rec.climbing to be newgrouped.

If you get the uk heirarchy but not uk.rec.climbing this is probably due to the poor propagation of the newgroup control message when the group was initially created. Contact the news administrator at your site / service provider and ask them to newgroup uk.rec.climbing. Note that uk.rec.climbing is a bona fide group and ask them to consult the checkgroups messages sent by control@usenet.org.uk or alternatively the net news archive at Birmingham University - see below for details.

Step 3. If you can select your NNTP server.

If not proceed to step 4. If you can configure your newsreader to select any NNTP server there is at least one (and I suspect many) public access news servers carrying uk.rec.climbing - I would prefer not to specify just one - perhaps if you find one you could let me know and I will compile a list. This is not an option for many people on multiuser systems where the source of news is controlled by an administrator.

Step 4. Use the Birmingham Usenet to gopher gateway.

This is not as convenient as an ordinary news connection but it is reliable, up-to-date and has a long expiry time. The Usenet to gopher gateway is provided by the University of Birmingham - note that this is primarily intended for local users and is not supported/guaranteed for anyone else. The URL for the server is :

gopher://news.bham.ac.uk:70/11/Usenet

which takes you into a top level directory - from there it is fairly easy to find uk.rec.climbing.

The gopher server is read only but you can still post to uk.rec.climbing using one of a number of mail to news gateways. Try mailling your article to the following address:

uk.rec.climbing@news.demon.co.uk

Finally the University of Birmingham provides a gateway (again only supported for local users) at

mail2news@birmingham.ac.uk

Your message must included the following line with exactly this capitalisation:

Newsgroups: uk.rec.climbing

Step 5. If you still can't get uk.rec.climbing.

I have not tried out all of the above myself so if it's incorrect or just not as straight forward as I have described please contact me and I will try to help. Please note that uk.rec.climbing is not an isolationist cliche turning it's back on the rest of the world - readers and posters from outside the UK are more than welcome.

All the best, John.