button (some older versions of HyperNews called it
"Subscribe" or "Notification") at the bottom of the page.
Subscribing means that you will be notified by email when any new messages are added to a forum or message that you are interested in (or any replies to those messages etc). This page describes how. Also see HyperNews Email Gateway for related issues.
Note that "subscribing" is very different from "registering" or "joining" as a member. You might be able to subscribe (and get email) without being a member, and you are not subscribed to anything just because you are a member. See the HyperNews Membership for details on that. Nevertheless, recent versions of HyperNews now have an 'all-member' forum option that automatically subscribes all members to particular forums.
When someone posts a message, the people who will be notified by email include all the subscribers for each message above the new message in the thread up to and including the forum itself.
If you are the author of a message, and you provided your correct email address, then you are automatically subscribed; you need do nothing. We make the assumption that you will be interested in finding out about any replies to your messages. You may explicitly Unsubscribe, either when you post the message by unselecting the "Notify me..." box, or by using the Subscribe and Unsubscribe form described here. (A configuration option can change this default behavior.)
To subscribe, unsubscribe, or inquire about your subscription status
for a particular forum or message, first make sure you are displaying
the forum or message that you are interested in. Then select the
button (some older versions of HyperNews called it
"Subscribe" or "Notification") at the bottom of the page.
But don't subscribe to this forum, unless you are interested in discussions on HyperNews Email. Also, unsubscribing here won't help you unsubscribe from other forums.
On the subscription form that you get, enter your User ID or Email address. If you are not a member of the site, then you must give your Email address.
The subscription form allows you to change the subscription info for the message you were displaying, and any of its "ancestors" all the way up to the forum itself. The title of the forum or each message is displayed in a list, and for each you can select either "Subscribe", "Unsubscribe" or "Not Specified". Here is what that looks like:
If you select "Not Specified", that means HyperNews will use whatever you select at the next level up. At the top level, "Not Specified" means you are not subscribed. But also see the Instructions for Becoming a Member for more options related to default subscriptions.
Before submitting the form with the "Do It" button, make sure that you have selected the right choice (if a choice is available), either "Inquire about User ID" or "Submit Changes". Inquiring about a user (such as yourself) shows you whether that user is subscribed or unsubscribed to the message or one of its "ancestors" up to the top level.
The subscription feature can be used in several ways. You could subscribe at the forum level and unsubscribe to discussions that have diverged into areas you are not interested. Or you could stay unsubscribed at the forum level and only subscribe to discussions that you are interested in - you'll have to find out about them first, of course, by browsing through the messages.