# Subscribing to Newsgroups

What is "Subscribing"?

"Subscribing" to a newsgroup means telling a news reader that you are interested in tracking, selecting, and viewing articles in that group. Most news readers support the concept of "subscribing" to newsgroups as a means of simplifying the way that you interact with the news reader. There are probably over 3000 newsgroups in which you are not interested; if you are not subscribed to these newgroups, a news reader need not bother prompting you with information on these groups.

WinVN also supports the concept of subscribing to a newsgroup, but primarily as a means of providing compatibility with other news readers. WinVN's windowed, point-and-click interface makes it less necessary for it to resort to the somewhat artificial distinction between newsgroups in which you are interested and newsgroups in which you are not interested. You can always access any newsgroup simply by scrolling to its name in the main window and clicking on it. If you prefer, you show only the groups to which you subscribe (hiding unsubscribed groups) by disabling Show Unsubscribed in Configure Group-List. or from the toolbar.

Subscribing to New Newsgroups

When WinVN starts up, it can check the news server to see if any new groups have been created since your last session. (See Configuring WinVN.) If WinVN checks and finds that new newsgroups do exist, it displays their names in a scrollable list in a dialog box. Select the groups to which you want to subscribe by selecting a newsgroup category (i.e. "comp", or "sci"), then double-clicking on the names of the desired newsgroups. When you have finished making your selections, click on the OK button. Alternatively, you can click on the Cancel button and WinVN will ignore the new newsgroups altogether.

Subscribing to Existing Newsgroups

Newsgroups to which you are subscribed are displayed in the subscribed color at the top of the main window. Following these groups are all of the unsubscribed group names, in the unsubscribed color and sorted alphabetically. (See Configure Colors).

You subscribe and unsubscribe to newsgroups by selecting them in the main window and using Group Menu Commands. Select groups by clicking on their names. A selected group appears in reverse video (black background) (See Configure Colors). The Subscribe selected groups, Unsubscribe selected groups, and Move selected groups to Top menu options operate on all currently selected newsgroups.

Subscribing to a newsgroup moves its name to the bottom of the list of subscribed groups in the top portion of the main window. Unsubscribing to a newsgroup causes it to be moved to its proper alphabetical place in the unsubscribed portion of the main window.

You can hide the unsubscribed groups from the main view window by toggling the Show Unsubscribed option in the Group-List Options.