If you are not familiar with USENET, some symbols in the text may be unfamiliar to you. Here is a brief explanation.
Any line beginning with a '>' is a quote from another person. A number of these articles were written in response to other peoples' articles, and the other person's text will always be preceded by a '>'. If there are two such symbols ('>>' for example), this means that the quoted person is quoting YET ANOTHER person, and so on.
The symbols
:-) ;-) 8-) and so on...
are smiley faces (tilt your head to the left and you will see the eyes, nose, and mouth). They indicate the presence of humor. Similarly,
:-(
is a frowning face, indicating sadness or a thumbtack in the butt.
Finally, certain abbreviations may be new to you:
| BTW | By The Way |
| FYI | For Your Information |
| IMHO | In My Humble Opinion |
| ROTFL | Roll On The Floor Laughing! |
| WYSIWYG | What You See Is What You Get |
| MNIGAIHAPON"M" | My Name Is George And I Have A Pet Otter Named "Maude". :-) |