HyperNews Instructions (at Tecfa):

Becoming a Member

Becoming a "member" of a HyperNews forum entitles you to certain rights; these rights vary from site to site depending on how the administrator has configured HyperNews. You may be required to become a member in order to write messages, for example. To find out which rights you will be given, visit the membership page in that forum.

To become a member of a HyperNews forum, click on the "Members" button on any page in that forum. Fill out the form and submit it.

Your User ID is the identifier that is associated with all the personal information about you. This information includes the following:

Password (8 character maximum)
Name (e.g. Joe User)
Personal URL - your home page.
Email Address (e.g. name@domain).
Optional Phone Number and Snail Mail Address.

Your userid can be the same as your email address, or you can use a shorter nickname, as long is it is not being used by someone else.

HyperNews will use your Name and Personal URL whenever you add a message. Your name will be a link to your personal URL. Your email address will be a "mailto" URL.

The New Password field may be left empty, but you are encouraged to create a good password. Never use the password of your login. There is no way for HyperNews to tell you your password since it is immediately encrypted, so please try to remember it. If you forget your password, you may be able to reset it to a new random password that will be emailed to you. (This is a configurable option.) Then you can change the password to one you can remember.

If membership is required to do something (i.e. adding a message), your password will be requested once by your browser, but thereafter you won't have to keep reentering your User ID and password. Membership applies to all pages on the site that have the same URL prefix, e.g., "http://union.ncsa.uiuc.edu/HyperNews/" for the HyperNews home site. Use the same password each time. However, you may set up a different User ID and/or password on every HyperNews site that you participate in.

Changing your membership information

You can change your membership information later by following the same instructions above. You only need to enter the data that is changed - if you leave a field blank, that field will remain unchanged.

If you are currently using your e-mail address as your userid and wish to use a nickname instead, go to the membership page and enter the nickname in the UserID field, and your current userid (e-mail address) in the E-mail Address field. You must use your original password when changing your userid; they cannot be changed at the same time.

If you wish to change your password, click on the "Members" button and enter you userid, your new password (twice to verify) and your old password.

After clicking on the "Do It" button at the bottom, it should tell you which information has been changed for you. You should also recieve e-mail telling you the same thing.

D.K.S.