Re: [Pan-users] New To This - Server will not load

[Duncan]

Randy Hoff posted on Fri, 25 Mar 2016 18:07:11 -0400 as excerpted:

> <div dir="ltr"><div><div>Started up Pan, selected my news server after
> setting an acct. But nothing happened. Probably because I have no groups
> to subscribe to but now to do that when the news server you are now
> subscribing to does not even recognized your connection? I looked at
> some your documentation and I so far cannot find the answer. Can you
> please?<br><br></div>Thanks,<br></div>R<br></div>

Keep reading.  Your question is answered below, but there's a little 
matter to get out of the way first...

I've no idea if the raw HTML you posted, as quoted above, will come out 
as raw and ugly as it does on pan (because I and others participate on 
this mailing list as a newsgroup, in pan, via gmane.org's list2news 
service), but please quit posting in HTML!  HTML is for web pages, not 
mail and news messages, where it doesn't add a whole lot of value except 
to spammers and malware purveyors who can exploit it if your mail client 
parses HTML.  So preferably, don't use a client that parses HTML in 
ordered to avoid being exploited yourself, and even more preferably, 
don't post it to others, encouraging them to use a mail client that 
parses HTML and can thus very likely be exploited in various ways.

But, if you INSIST on posting in HTML to others, at /least/ have the 
respect to only post in plain text to the pan list.  There's a reason 
pan's one of the few news clients that gets a 100% score on GNKSA, and by 
posting HTML, you're dissing pan and all of its users and developers over 
the years who have placed such high values on that.  Just. Don't. Do. 
It.  At least on the pan lists, but probably elsewhere to some extent as 
well, you'll irritate the folks who are likely to have your answers FAR 
less by choosing plain text instead of HTML.

Because what you're doing with such posts is forcing security aware 
people who don't like the HTML abuse to choose between killfiling you 
outright as a security risk and netiquette abuser, in which case you'll 
simply never see their replies to that or any other posts of yours, or 
posting the reply, with or without the actual answer to whatever question 
was asked, and asking people to discontinue the abuse, hoping they'll do 
so for future posts.  FWIW, my personal policy is normally to ignore it 
if I can't help with an answer to the question, but if I answer the 
question, I make sure I make clear that I'd like the netiquette and 
security abuse to stop, as part of that message.  Then if people continue 
their abuse, I can killfile them in good conscience, knowing it can 
hardly be an accident any longer, and I asked.  But others may killfile 
HTML posters on sight, or simply skip replying to people who abuse the 
lists/groups/ like that, choosing instead to spend their time replying to 
posters who are obviously rather more netiquette aware and considerate of 
their readers.

(Similarly but preemptively in this case, don't top-post your replies as 
it makes further replies in context difficult and as a result is another 
GNKSA violation.  But while bothersome, at least that's not a potential 
security issue like HTML mail is.)

Umm... now that I've got /that/ out of my system (and you should have 
seen it before I toned it down, deciding flame-broiling you wasn't a 
particularly good way to win friends and hopefully positively influence 
your future choices in this area! =:^)... to your question...


The step you probably missed is downloading the list of newsgroups, so 
you have something to subscribe to. =:^)  See under Groups menu, Refresh 
group list.

That should download the lists of newsgroups if your server information 
is configured correctly (and assuming you're connected to the net and the 
connection to the server isn't blocked by a firewall rule or the like).  
You can then subscribe to lists and commence downloading, etc.

If refreshing the group list doesn't work, chances are something's 
configured wrong somewhere.  We can work thru that step by step, if 
necessary.  Of course if it comes to posting your server info, mask out 
your specific login info (username and password), if any, using xxx/yyy 
or the generic username and password, literal words.  (And it shouldn't 
need said, but unfortunately it's far more common than it should be so 
we'll cover the base, if your password really is password, or even 
PassworD or p455w0rD, do yourself a favor and change it to be at least 
/somewhat/ secure! I doubt either you or your provider will appreciate it 
if a spammer or malware publisher gets ahold of your account, and that 
sort of password is begging for just that! =:^)

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman