Hello IP........
Yes, I do have lots to learn, and have had Usenet for many many years.
For one thing, I believe it helped me out with prostate cancer to this very
day!  If it were not for stumbling on this news group back in the late
1999's and realizing the many choices I had concerning prostate
cancer/diagnosis/and treatment items........I would really be in a dark
alley with a rolex watch on.
Also going through the ED process I learned many things concerning the
problem and the solutions available.
I have to admit, that with nerve loss, and eye and brain contact, Usenet
helped me regain severe nerve damage.....
I do not have to go into detail, but visuals really help with male ED......
I would compare this to any trauma and nerve function as to exciting the
nerve endings enough to actually make a contact.  Kind of like a freyed
wire, and jiggling it until a better connection occurs.......hum....
I do believe that nerve function also helps with incontitnence.  (they are
all related in the feelings in that area of concern)

I also discovered Digital Photography workshops, World Wide discussion
groups.....friends, etc.
Anyway, thanks for the advice, and I have been in that alley, with a
flashlight, and a Longs Drugs wrist watch, wearing jeans.......Funny thing
is that I meet similiar folks in that same alley........

I will learn more, and read more concerning news group and the internet.....
John Loomis (my real name)

Here's a suggestion for you I.P.

Get a free email account on Yahoo.  Use that to post to Usenet.
Yahoo's spam filters are pretty good and are picking up about 97%
of the spam I receive.  Of the 200 or so spams I get each day,
only about five get through, and some days none at all.

I can't recall ever having had a personal email sent to me that
got trashed by the spam filter - though I have had some mailing
list emails trashed, a problem that I can cure by putting the
mailing list "from" address in my Yahoo address book.

I've configured Outlook Express to use my Yahoo address, so the
email I send to this newsgroup and to some other places doesn't
even have the Yahoo ad tagline at the bottom.

It's a constant battle between the spammers and anti-spammers.
As Yahoo gets close to 100% coverage, the spammers come up with a
new trick.  Yahoo gets wise to that, then another new trick
appears.  But at least you have Yahoo's professionals fighting
the battle for you.  You don't have to wade through hundreds of
emails to find the real ones.

I used to use my real ISP email address when I was with Netcom
(which became Mindspring which became Earthlink) and it got
unbearable.  Now my ISP address is only given to friends and
co-workers and I use Yahoo for all Internet postings.

Having an address like that is convenient for a lot of reasons.
It allows you to participate in email lists and to give an email
address to online merchants (who may sell it to spammers) without
risking your private address.  And of course it allows other
newsgroup members to communicate privately with you.

Some of the other free services like Hotmail or Gmail may also
have good spam filters.  I've been pretty satisfied with Yahoo so
I haven't bothered to try them.

So now when people want to communicate with me, they don't have
to just "fuhgheddaboutit."

   Alan