Member's Handbook - Introduction

Welcome to the Dueling Modems Member's Handbook. This handbook should answer your questions about our services and how to get the most out of them.

This section, the Introduction, tells you about DM, gives you the highlights of our various services, and has links to other sources of specific information. The sections that follow provide more detailed advice on configuring your software to work with DM and resolving problems.

Throughout this handbook, the term your.id refers to your Dueling Modems userid.

Getting More Help

• Ask in the Group dm.admin.help-desk
• For newsreader-specific questions, try dm.admin.help-desk.newsreaders
• Send email to cs@dm.net
• For help with your web pages, ask in dm.html.q-and-a
• For help with Chat, try dm.chat.helpdesk and dm.chat.irc.software
• For hardware or software questions, try dm.comp.*
• Don't forget the help screens, manuals, and tech support for your software!

Dueling Modems was founded by Nic Grabien in 1996; some of our Forums, or communities, have been active in cyberspace for as long as ten years, on Genie and other services that pioneered the concept of virtual communities.

Services and Forums

Each DM Forum (or subject area) is a virtual community hosted by a Sysop and his or her staff. There are dozens of Forums available to DM members.

Individual Forums offer online conferences in the BBS, web sites, file libraries, and real-time Chats (using the Internet Relay Chat protocol). (For an up-to-date index of available Forums and their offerings, see our Forum pages.)

Your monthly DM membership fee includes access to all of our Forums (except for private Forums, which we host for members of professional organizations, writers' workshops, or other affinity groups).

Dueling Modems also provides commercial web-hosting and other services. (To learn more about these, check our Commercial Services page.)

Policies

• Our Policy Statement
• Our Terms and Conditions Agreement
• Current Information on Rates and Billing

Dueling Modems' BBS is a conferencing system based on the NNTP news protocol. Discussion Groups are maintained as non-propagated NNTP newsgroups on the DM server.

BBS Discussion Groups may be read with an internet browser or a newsreader. Which one you want to use is based on your personal preferences.

• The Web Gateway

  Dueling Modems' Web Gateway displays BBS Discussion Group messages via your web browser (such as Netscape Navigator, Microsoft Internet Explorer, or Lynx) in a linear, non-threaded fashion, with all new messages in a conversation displayed on one continuous page. Reading message via the Gateway is rather like reading messages in Genie, and does not require you to install and configure additional software (if you can read this page, you're ready to use the Gateway).

• Newsreaders

  Newsreaders generally display Groups, conversations, and messages in separate windows or panes; one message is typically displayed at a time. Most newsreaders allow you to sort message by time-and-date, subject, or sender.

Members' personal Groups are part of our Members Forum (your Group, if you requested one, can be found at dm.members.your.id).

Email

Your Dueling Modems account includes a POP3 email address, your.id@dm.net. DM will use this address to contact you, and this will be the reply-by-email address if you post through the Web Gateway, so it's important to read your DM mail.

Your email can be forwarded to an email address at your office, school, or internet service provider (ISP), or we can retain it for you at DM; in that case you'll want to configure your email software to read your mail on our server.

The email address your.id@sfrt.com will also work.

Chat

DM Forums sponsor real-time Chats using the IRC (Internet Relay Chat) protocol. In addition, the Chat Forum hosts general-interest Chats. Chats are open to DM members and to the public. Set your Chat software to irc.dm.net to connect to DM.

For detailed information on Chat software, netiquette, commands, and jargon, see the Chat Forum web page.

Web Pages

If you asked for web space when you joined DM, you will have a home page at http://www.dm.net/~your.id. We'll create a temporary "placeholder" home page for you, but you'll probably want to create your own page.

BACK Button

The button on your browser that returns you to the previous page in the browser's history list; usually this is a left-pointing arrow. Many browsers support the "back" function from the keyboard using ALT + LEFT ARROW (Netscape and Microsoft), LEFT ARROW (Lynx), or SHIFT + ALT + LEFT ARROW.

BBS

Bulletin Board System. A generic name for an online conferencing system.

Conversation

A series of messages on the same subject. Equivalent to "thread" in a newsreader, and similar to a topic on Genie.

CGI

Common Gateway Interface. An interface standard for programs that display items on the Web.

Cross-post

1. To post to multiple Discussion Groups (newsgroups)
2. A reply to a message posted after you created your list of new messages and before your own reply was posted

Flame

To post a vicious personal attack; to start an argument.

Follow-up

A newsgroup message that is a reply to an earlier message.

Forum

A content area on DM concerned with a specific topic or interest (astrology, science fiction, zymurgy). Similar to a Conference or RoundTable on other systems.

FTP

File Transfer Protocol. The method commonly used to upload files such as HTML documents and graphics to a Unix server.

HTML

Hypertext Markup Language. The language used to construct pages for the Web.

ISP

Internet Service Provider. The company that provides you with dial-up (or other) access to the internet. AT&T Worldnet, Netcom, Earthlink, and AOL are all ISPs.

Lynx

A text-based web browser.

Message Header

The routing directions that control where a message is posted and who it was sent by.

Newsreader

Software built specifically for reading and posting messages to Usenet (NNTP) newsgroups.

Non-propagated

Retained on the local server, as opposed to propagated to other Usenet servers around the world.

POP3

Post Office Protocol 3. An internet electronic mail standard.

Post

To send a message to a newsgroup; also, the message itself. Sometimes called a "posting".

Quote

To include part or all of a previous message in a reply to that message, or the quoted text itself. Newsreaders mark quotes with a special character at the start of the row, usually ">," "|" or ":".

Sigfile

Signature File. Text file consisting (typically) of your name, email address, home page URL, and other text which is automatically appended to the bottom of email messages and posts.

Spam

To send unsolicited email, usually a marketing message, especially when the mail is sent to many people at once.

Tagline

A quote or cute saying that is part of a sigfile. Like many cute things, taglines can become tiresome if repeated too frequently.