Heavy Metal Newsgroups - OzzyFrank's Guide

Heavy Metal Newsgroups

If you're looking for a sociable way to keep informed about goings-on in the Metal world, joining one of the numerous newsgroups out there is the way to go. This is a great way to meet new people and keep up-to-date at the same time, with added benefits like unbiased music/product reviews (OK, and some mighty biased ones!), gig reminders/reviews, amusing debates, and friendly people happy to answer your queries.

Most of the newsgroups are on Yahoo, so if you haven't already got a Yahoo ID, you'll first need to go to www.yahoo.com and join up (it costs no money, just a little time). Once you have done this, you can join up any or all of the recommended newsgroups, as well as search through Yahoo Newsgroups for other Metal groups out there (there are quite a few! Chances are there are ones dedicated to your favourite bands, as well as the many general Metal ones). You'll find a link to join the group at the main page of any newsgroup, and it doesn't take much time to do so (as you basically just give them your Yahoo ID).

Melbourne Metalheads http://groups.yahoo.com/group/melb-metalheads	Aus Metalheads http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AUS_METALHEADS
Melbourne Metal http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Melbourne-Metal	Heavy Metal Heaven http://groups.yahoo.com/group/heavymetalheaven
Black Majesty Newsgroup http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BlackMajesty	Vanishing Point Newsgroup http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Vanishing-Point

Once you have joined a group, you can then go to your Edit My Membership page to choose the way you view the posts, or leave it at the default ("Individual emails"). Here are the pros and cons of each option:

Individual emails: Receive individual email messages for each post. This might clog your Inbox on a busy day, but is by far the easiest method. Each individual post is easily read and deleted.	Daily digest: Receive many emails in one message. Easier on the Inbox, but the downside is that rubbish text at the bottom of posts can mean a lot of scrolling between messages at times.
No email: Receive no emails at all; read the messages at the Web site. You will have to go to the group's page and log on to view messages.	Special notices: Receive only important update emails from the group moderator. You will have to go to the group's page and log on to view normal posts.