Quit Smoking Internet Discussion Groups, Part A (groupsa.html)

* Chat rooms

* Chat Special Programs (ICQ, IRC)

* Newsgroups

* Web-based Bulletin Board Systems

* Message Boards of Online Services (e.g. AOL, Compuserve, MSN)

* Email Pen Pals

* Email Mailing Lists

* Losing Weight Forums For QuitSmokers

* Support Groups Of All Types (e.g. alcohol, gambling, drugs, etc.)

* Groups Operated By Nicotine Anonymous Members

* Notes on Nicotine Anonymous Affiliations

This table only lists links with groups of medium or high activity, and without descriptions. See the tables below this table for more detailed descriptions, and for a few other groups.

Note: for Parachat chatrooms: if the chat applet has trouble loading, try quitting your browser and disconnecting, restart your browser, and click on the URL again (or enter it).

All chatrooms are available to anyone with a web browser that does Java scripts (Internet Explorer 3.0 and above, Netscape 3.0 and above), unless otherwise noted.

The chatrooms listed above do not require any software other than a capable browser. (With the exception that the AOL chatrooms require AOL software and AOL membership). In contrast special chat programs such as IRC and ICQ are programs which must be downloaded. I've never used these programs myself, so I don't really understand them. But they are worthwhile because I understand that quit-smoking chat is available via IRC and ICQ pretty much around the clock. Whereas even the most active chatrooms listed above are often empty except for approximately 8 pm to 11 pm Eastern U.S.

LINK OR NAME

DESCRIPTION

See the chat explanation page at chatguru.html#ChatPrograms

At this point in time, where I don't have a very good understanding of chat programs, I decided not to try to summarize them here. Rather, I will refer you to the page chatguru.html (see link to the left). That page is also by me but includes some bits and snippets from others about what these programs are.

Internet newsgroups are discussion groups, most of which have nothing to do with news. They are much superior to web-based forums in terms of efficiency and organization -- but one can only access them through software called newsreaders, or (much less efficiently) via a service such as DejaNews or Remarq. A good newsreader, such as FreeAgent, available for free download from www.download.com and many other software sites, is necessary for fast and easy navigation. However, to read a few messages or do research, www.dejanews.com or www.remarq.com can be used. DejaNews has a great search engine, whereas Remarq has a poor one. However, Dejanews shows only one message per page, whereas Remarq shows an entire thread (up to 20 or so messages) per page.

LINK OR NAME

DESCRIPTION

alt.recovery.nicotine newsgroup (NicA).

alt.recovery.nicotine is the unofficial newsgroup of Nicotine Anonymous. (Nicotine Anonymous does not have an official newsgroup). The traffic in the newsgroup is light, maybe 20 postings a week. Many people, particularly those early in a quit, wish for a much higher level of traffic. But some people appreciate that the low number of postings make the newsgroup easy to follow and does not require a lot of time to follow. This group very much welcomes additional postings!

alt.support.stop-smoking newsgroup.

alt.support.stop-smoking is one great newsgroup. (Unfortunately, or fortunately, its traffic is quite heavy, about 350 postings a day!) This newsgroup is focused strictly on helping each other to quit and stay quit. (Beware of some other newsgroups that have similar names, such as alt.support.non-smokers -- they are in to the politics of smoking, and are full of nasty flame wars.)

alt.quit.smoking.support newsgroup.

alt.quit.smoking.support is quite active but not as voluminous as alt.support.stop-smoking.

Web-based bulletin boards, also called message boards, are places where you can post a message, and read messages that other people have posted. No software other than a web-browser is required.

Some I describe as high-volume. This means at least 100 postings a day.

Heh, I'm sorry to slam the technical features of some bulletin boards, particularly the "one click per message, one message per page" ones. But I like to save some whole threads (discussions) for offline reading and archiving, and it is very difficult with boards that display only one message per page. Also, these kinds of message boards do take considerably longer to read even online. In particular, I'm upset with boards that stick a new ad in your face with every message (taking a considerable time to load), and I'm going to tell you about those!!

Actually, I wouldn't even bother to list any "one click per message, one message per page" ones except, well, some are popular, like Blair's, and some have special contents, like the unofficial Nicotine Anonymous (NicA) ones. Maybe it isn't a big deal if you don't archive threads and you have a 56K modem, I don't know.

LINK OR NAME

DESCRIPTION

The About.com Quit Smoking Message Board at http://forums.about.com/ab-quitsmoking/start/

This is also high-volume. In Spring 1999, they've upgraded their software and now display a message + all responses on a page.

Blair's Newer And Plenty Active Quit Smoking message board at http://network54.com/Hide/Forum/76750 . (PAGE DOWN PAST THE LISTING OF FORUMS TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE TO SEE THE MESSAGE BOARD I'M TALKING ABOUT!!!).

Do check out the associated chatroom at the same URL. Click on Calendar to see the chatroom schedule.