Alt.Baldspot left in the Dust?

Over the past several months, the only newsgroup on the entire usenet service dedicated to hair loss, almost embarrasingly named "alt.baldspot", has become a cesspool of useless posts and incessant trolling. As a result, a group of users came up with the idea of founding a new newsgroup for hair loss sufferers. HairlossTalk had the honor of naming it "alt.hairloss", and a group of dedicated users is making it happen. For a short period of time, you will need to connect directly to it via an IP address with your news reader, but soon, it will be all over usenet known as alt.hairloss.d (d is a suffix identifying it as a moderated newsgroup).

Connecting to alt.hairloss.d using Gravity Newsreader

We're so convinced that this is the most functional newsreader on the market, we've put together a step by step on how to get it set up and running, as well as providing it here for download. Be advised that the company that made it is no longer putting out new versions, so this is a final version, and it is now free to register. We've included that info below as well.

Click to Download

Gravity Newsreader - 2.4MB

1. Click to "Install" or find the file and double click. Click "I Accept", then "Proceed with Install".
2. Launch Gravity when you click a link in your web browser? This is recommended.
3. After install, start the program. The Gravity intro screen will appear, click "Ok".
4. News Server Nickname: type "Newsgroups"
   News Server Address: Type "207.21.225.251"
   Mail Server: Example - mail.home.com You must get this information from your ISP.
   Email Address: Whatever email address you want displayed when posting
   Advanced: Make sure "No Password Required" is selected.".
   
5. A window will appear with alt.hairloss.d listed. Click it once, then click the "Add" button.
6. Click "Done". At the bottom you'll see Gravity retrieving headers (messages) from the server. Wait until it is done doing this, then double click "alt.hairloss.d" and you will see all the most recent messages in the middle window pane. You can drag the each of the three panels to desired heights with your mouse. We typically leave the top panel displaying alt.hairloss.d very small, the second panel displaying the message list a little bigger, and the bottom panel displaying the message body the biggest.
7. Double Click a message to view its contents. Single click can be setup in the options.
8. To post a new message, click the Megaphone icon at the top.
9. To learn about all the features this program has (it has hundreds of incredibly cool ways to mix and match your messages, killfile annoying posters, mark important threads, etc.) use the Help feature at the top of the program, and click "Getting the Most out of Gravity".

Special Tip: Go up to "View" and click "Global Options". Read through all the various options and set things the way you'd like them. This program is *fully* customizable in every way, so take advantage of the many features.

Final Tip: What if you want to keep reading your other newsgroups using your regular newsgroup server? Until alt.hairloss.d propogates into the worldwide usenet system, you can set up two different newsgroup servers so you can access both. Doing this is easy: Just go up to "Server" and "Add/Remove". Here you can add your standard server. Simply go up to "Server" in the future and select which you'd like to use at any time.

Connecting via Microsoft Outlook Express:

Tools/Accounts/Add/News
Enter your name
Enter your email adress
Where it asks for server enter : 207.21.225.251
Make sure "my news server requires me to log on " is NOT checked.

Multiple Servers for Agent Users:
Those of you using the newsreader known as "Agent". Here are instructions on how to set up multiple servers (read your regular usenet groups and also set up alt.hairloss.d) using that program:
http://www.slyck.com/multiagent.html