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- It's easy. It's free. It's a lot more fun than piano
- or swimming lessons, and you can't get hurt if you
- do something wrong.
-
- Welcome to the New Member Practice RoundTable! This
- new practice area has been provided so that GEnie
- members just like you can get experience using
- common RoundTable features. What's more, all the
- major areas of the Practice RoundTable -- the
- Bulletin Board, Real Time Conference, and Software
- Library -- are free of standard GEnie connect
- charges. Simply type PRACTICE (or M1485) at any
- GEnie page prompt to check it out.
-
- Practice Bulletin Board
-
- First on the Practice menu is the Bulletin Board,
- which is full of informative topics about using
- GEnie. The topics are actually mini-tutorials,
- featuring brief but thorough explanations of just
- about anything most people will ever want to do
- online. In these topics you can learn how to
- navigate GEnie, use GE Mail, enter messages on a
- Bulletin Board, participate in a Real Time
- Conference (RTC) or Chat Line (and understand Chat
- Line lingo!), upload and download files, get
- involved in online games, send FEEDBACK to GEnie,
- and more.
-
- Category 6 provides a place where you can put into
- practice what you learn about using Bulletin Boards.
- You can post messages there and even start your own
- topics. A welcome feature of this Category is that
- even if you make a mistake, nobody will ever see it;
- when you leave the Bulletin Board, all of the
- messages you posted in the Practice Category are
- deleted.
-
- The Scary Stuff: RTCs and Downloading
-
- The other two practice areas are sure to be welcome
- to anyone who wants a low-risk way to learn the ins
- and outs of Real-Time Conferences and Software
- Libraries. (They're probably also welcome to those
- of us who have always wanted to get some practice at
- one of these but never had a chance, other than
- learning it the "hard way.")
-
- The Real-Time Conference practice area lets you hook
- up with a member of the GENIEus HelpDesk staff for a
- live, online conversation. You can do this just for
- practice, or you can take advantage of the staff
- member's presence by asking questions you may have.
- (DISCLAIMER: The HelpDesk staff might not know the
- answers to trivia questions. They will, however, be
- able to help you with questions about GEnie.)
-
- The Practice Software Library is the place to
- experiment with downloading files from GEnie, or
- even practice uploading them. A handy file to try as
- a first download is file #1 MANUAL.TXT. This is the
- GEnie User's Manual, which certainly deserves a
- place in the top 10 most useful files on all of
- GEnie.
-
- Not Just For Beginners
-
- The New Member Practice RoundTable has plenty to
- offer veteran members, too. For one thing, there may
- well be information available in the Bulletin Board
- or Software Library that could make a seasoned
- user's on-line time even more productive. (Let's
- face it--how many of us really read instruction
- manuals? There are tidbits hiding in there meant to
- make life easier!) Also, the Bulletin Board goes
- beyond the basics; it includes lists of advanced
- commands, including how to effectively use the
- powerful GE Mail Command Mode.
-
- The Sysops also recommend two other sources of
- general information and assistance for users new and
- old: the GEnie Online Manual (accessed by typing
- MANUAL at any page prompt) and the GENIEus
- RoundTable (type GENIEUS or M150).
-
- Practice to your heart's content on GEnie now,
- without worrying about standard connect charges
- during evenings, weekends and holidays. Just type
- PRACTICE to get started!
-