VIM - Newsgroup and Usenet

VIM does not have a newsgroup of it's own. But the appropriate newsgroup to post to is comp.editors.

But before asking please contact a local guru and ask him whether he can solve the problem. Also, take a look at the huge helptexts using ":help". Search through them with keywords that might have to do with the problem.

If you think that noone can help you locally then you might consider posting it on Usenet. But before posting please put together some info which is usually requested.

HowTo post on Usenet about Vim

General Stuff

Some people think they can avoid or at least lessen the spam they receive by posting with in invalid address, so address harvesters cannot use it. Well, it is partially true. But it is a pain to those who want to reply to you by email. Therefore, please consider this setup:

	From:     FirstName LastName <pseudoaddress.invalid>
	Reply-To: FirstName LastName <real.address>

First, adding ".invalid" (mind the dot) to your pseudo address tells newsreaders to give its user a warning when replying by email. This is nice because you tell humans that this is a fake address without having them figure it own by their own. Making them scan all of your article before they reply simply costs too much time. So - be nice!

Second, adding a Reply-To line with a *real* address (one that accepts mails without complaining) is nice because it allows readers to reply to you by email. Now, you may think that address harvesters also get addresses from the Reply-To line. Good thinking - but this hardly happens. The Reply-To usually is *not* in the overview data you can get from a newsserver, you see. So you'd actually have to download all articles and *then* scan the headers for Reply-To lines. Apparently only a few harvesters do that. So a Reply-To line is *almost* safe - and nice to real readers.

Third, please post with your real name. While there are reasons for using a fake name or a pseudonym on the net, of course, by is there a reason to use one on comp.editors? I don't think so. And if you newsreader does not allow to adjust your posting setup based on the current newsgroup - then get a better newsreader! ;-)

Check the old articles!

Avoid posting FAQs! Do a little research first. Try to find articles about the problem before you post.

If you do not have a good newsreader then you can use the URLs below to query the news services Altavista and Dejanews. I cannot promise that the given URLs will find your stuff, but they can give you an example on how to find articles with these. Furthermore, you can get an instant reply for your search - and that's usually better than having to write a post and wait for answers.

Version Info

Please give info on the vim version! Since vim-5.2b you can request the info from the command ":version" on the command line with the option "--version" , too. You can redirect this output easily into a file:

	vim --version > vimvers.txt

Here is an example:

$ vim --version > vimvers.txt
$ more vimvers.txt
VIM - Vi IMproved 5.2d ALPHA (1998 Jun 1, compiled Jun 11 1998 17:45:33)
Compiled with (+) or without (-):
+autocmd -browse +builtin_terms +cindent -cscope +dialogue_con +digraphs
-emacs_tags +eval +ex_extra +extra_search -farsi +file_in_path +find_in_path
+fork() +GUI_Athena +insert_expand -langmap +lispindent +modify_fname +mouse
-mouse_dec -mouse_netterm +mouse_xterm -multi_byte +perl +quickfix -python
-rightleft +showcmd +smartindent -sniff +syntax +tag_binary +tag_old_static
-tag_any_white -tcl +terminfo +textobjects +viminfo +writebackup -xterm_save
+X11
   system vimrc file: "$VIM/vimrc"
     user vimrc file: "$HOME/.vimrc"
      user exrc file: "$HOME/.exrc"
  system gvimrc file: "$VIM/gvimrc"
    user gvimrc file: "$HOME/.gvimrc"
    system menu file: "$VIM/menu.vim"
    default for $VIM: "/Vol/Pub/share/vim"
Compilation: gcc -c -I. -Iproto -DHAVE_CONFIG_H  -DUSE_GUI_ATHENA  -I. -O3 -pipe -I/Vol/pub/include -I/Vol/X11R6/include -Wall -Wshadow -I/Vol/X11R6/include  -I/Vol/pub/lib/perl5/sun4-sunos/5.00401/CORE
Linking: gcc -s -L/Vol/pub/lib -o vim -L. -L/Vol/X11R6/lib  -lXaw -lXmu -lXext -lXt -lX11  -lncurses    /Vol/pub/lib/perl5/sun4-sunos/5.00401/auto/DynaLoader/DynaLoader.a -L/Vol/pub/lib/perl5/sun4-sunos/5.00401/CORE -lperl -lgdbm -ldbm -ldb -ldl -lm -lc -lposix

Also, which operating system are you using vim on? Let us know! Use one of these commands to find out about your current system:

	UNIX:	uname -a
	DOS:	version

Values of Options

For all things that involve options please give their values! Remember that you can look at values with :set option? , eg ":set textwidth?".

Examples

Give examples! Please make sure that the example is reproducible.

Put "vim" into the Subject line

When asking questions about vim then please say so in the Subject: line by making "vim" the first word. Add other keywords, too, for example variable or command names.

	Subject: vim - Qp and textwidth

	Subject: :g vs :v [vim]

When following up on a post about Vim *wihout* "vim" in the Subject line then please *add* "[vim]" to it. Then at least the followup can be scored accordingly. The brackets around "vim" also tell readers that this is the name of the program more visually.

Reading about Vim on Usenet

If you do not have a newsreader to read Usenet News (what a pity) then you can read News via DejaNews or Altavista.

To make this easier for you here are some links which already extract info about vim:

DejaNews - (g)vim: NewsService: DejaNews; Newsgroups: comp.editors; Search for: "vim" OR "gvim"; Sorting: by Date; Format: terse; Maximum Hits: 100
Altavista - (g)vim: NewsService: Altavista; Newsgroups: comp.editors; Search for: "vim" OR "gvim"; Note: Altavista starts with oldest article first. :-(

Thanks for the URLs, Richard! :-)

Back to the -> VIM Home Page

URL:         http://www.math.fu-berlin.de/~guckes/vim/newsgroup.html
URL:         http://www.vim.org/newsgroup.html (mirror)
Created:     Fri Dec  1 00:00:00 MET 1995

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Sven Guckes guckes@vim.org