Talk amongst yourselves with MSN TV Discussion Groups By Erfert Fenton Have a question about your dog's nutritional needs? Feel like talking about a movie or TV show you just saw? Want to read some clever tips about using MSN TV? You can talk to other MSN TV users about practically anything, thanks to discussion groups.

A discussion group is a place on the Internet where people post messages for anyone to see and respond to — kind of like tacking a card to a bulletin board. (Internet old-timers will recall that discussion groups were originally called bulletin board systems, or BBSs.) The comments can be hours or even days apart, and each post is sorted by discussion topics, called threads.

Note: A discussion group is different from Chat. In chat rooms, a message appears on the screen seconds after you type it, and the discussion is not organized or sorted in any way.

There are thousands of discussion groups out there. Chances are your favorite topic, no matter how obscure, has a corresponding discussion group. Here's a small sample of discussion topics: courtship behavior of greater black-backed gulls; the origins of the African Bela Kawe dance; a recipe for mock chopped herring; and so on.

When you visit a discussion group, you can simply read what other people have posted, or you can contribute your own comments to the discussion.

Tip: When you're reading a posting, choose Respond if you want to add a comment that everyone who visits that group can see. If you'd like to send a response just to the person who wrote that posting, choose Mail to.

As in any discussion, some people in online discussion groups tend to stray from the subject. Although it's against discussion group rules to add irrelevant postings, sell things, and so on, not everybody plays by the rules. If you see a posting that's not related to the subject at hand, just ignore it and continue with the real discussion. (It's an especially good idea to ignore trolls, who enjoy posting messages that will annoy or offend others in the group. Responding to their posts makes them happy, while ignoring them generally makes them go away.)

Searching for a topic
When you go to the main Discuss page, you'll see a list of featured topics. If you don't see the topic you're looking for, choose All groups at the top of the page to see a comprehensive list of discussion groups. Or, if you prefer, you can search for a particular topic.

To search for a discussion topic:

1. Choose Discuss from the home page.
2. Type a topic in the box at the bottom of the page (for example: "American Idol").
3. Choose Look for.

Tip: If you visit a discussion group often, you can save it as a Favorite. Keep in mind, though, that when you save a discussion group you're saving a link to the overall discussion site, not to the specific conversation taking place when you pressed the Save key. So the next time you return to the group, the threads may be completely different.
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Helpful discussion groups
Before visiting these discussion groups, please take a look at these discussion group basics.

To visit the WebTV discussion group, choose Discuss from the home page, and select WebTV.

You may also want to visit the Everything WebTV site for more helpful tips on using MSN TV.
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