Why does my address appear as part of my name 2497

No, they don't show up in a mailbox. They show up in a newsgroup. I thought I never would have to explain this on usenet itself, but here we go. News is the "broadcast cousin" of e-mail. It is built by the same tools as e-mail, and read with similar tools. The exception is that the message is not transmitted to persons directly, but is posted for many people to read. When I say many, this does not imply it is public. Much of it is, but at several PPOE's we've had corporate news sites.

Just as you can use a web-mailer to read and write e-mail you can also use a newsweb for newsreading and posting. This may look similar to discussion fora; so all participants may not realise the worldwide scope of what they are saying.

I mentioned news articles show up in a newsgroup. They are crosslinked, ready for threading as well. Getting the threading right is important for readbility. That is why some of us are rather picky about news clients.

It is perfectly doable to watch the goings about for half a dozen newsgroups with a hundred postings per day without spending too much time, when you have a good reader.

As I said, some people don't realise how global the scope of a news posting is. I read this locally in my own home, no external servers are involved when I post this. (They soon will be, otherwise you won't get to see the posting).

-- mrr