[Solved thanks to @tal. See instructions below.]

I’d like to subscribe and occasionally post to some usenet newsgroup like sci.physics or sci.physics.research. It’s difficult! I tried to simply enter “sci.physics” in Thunderbird’s Newsgroup reader, but apparently it doesn’t work simply like that… Even subscribing to news.eternal-september.org didn’t help – I think my understanding of providers and groups is very confused.

Could anyone kindly help?

  • stravanasu@lemmy.caOPEnglish
    2·
    1 day ago

    Fantastic explanation, thank you! Now I understand the difference between “server” and “group”. I finally managed to subscribe now.

    For anyone in my same position:

    • Create an account on news.eternal-september.org
    • Add that newsgroup on Thunderbird (Accounts panel, add new account, and so on)
    • It’s important to tick “Always request authentication” on the Server Settings for that newsgroup account
    • Then you can right-click on that account in the folder list and choose “Subscribe”. You’ll be asked for your eternal-september username and password.
    • The subscription window has a search function to search for the newsgroup you want to subscribe to.

    Done!

    Thanks @tal again very much!