Feed Your Obsession!

Introduction	Got an obsession? The Internet is a great place to get involved with almost anything that tickles your fancy. No matter how obscure, chances are you'll find tons of stuff about it on the Internet. So let's say you've just seen a little known movie about, oh, the Titanic. You're in love with the performances, the romance, the action, and the high drama! You must know more, not only about the film, but about the actual sinking of the ship in 1912. What do you do?
Note:	The Internet sites described in this section may change. That's the way it goes with the Internet. But don't worry, these scenarios will help you understand principles that can be applied to many such sites and services.
Finding Information on the Web	The first place most people think of when looking for information on the Internet is the World Wide Web, and for good reason, the WWW is chock full of millions of web pages on just about every topic imaginable. Surely there's information about the Titanic on the Web. But where? There are quite a few methods for locating web-based information. We'll talk about three of them here.
Portals	A portal is a web site that, among other things, helps direct users to other sites, much like a sophisticated phone book. Perhaps the most famous portal is Yahoo, located at http://www.yahoo.com . Of course to visit any web site, you will need to learn the basics of using a web browser such as Internet Explorer. Aside from Yahoo, other popular portals include Netscape's Netcenter, located at http://www.netscape.com and Excite, at http://www.excite.com . Using Yahoo as an example, we can find web sites about the historical Titanic by clicking our way through category pages. We'll start with the general category that our topic would most likely be in and get more specific with each sub-category we choose. Since we are looking for information about the history of the Titanic, we'll choose Arts & Humanities , because history is one of the humanities. Next we click Humanities , which takes us to History . From there we can click on By_Subject , then Maritime_History , then Ships , and finally arrive at Titanic . The final link is http://dir.yahoo.com/Arts/Humanities/History/By_Subject/Maritime_History/Ships/Titanic/ Phew! That's a lot of clicking, but we've really narrowed down the topic to ensure that we're going to find information about the ship Titanic and not the movie or anything else we're not interested in. If at any time we had reached the category page that seemed to take us to the wrong direction, we could have backed up by clicking the Back button on Internet Explorer and picked a new category. From here, click on any of the Web sites to be taken to their page. You can then read all about the history of the Titanic on one of the hundreds of Titanic-related sites. Rather than clicking your way down to the Yahoo Titanic page, you can do a faster search for Titanic simply by typing Titanic in the text entry box at the top of Yahoo's web page and clicking on the Search button. Yahoo presents you with a list of all the categories that contain that word, including: Entertainment > Movies and Film > Titles > Drama > Titanic Net Events > Entertainment > Movies and Film > Titanic Business and Economy > Companies > Antiques and Collectibles > Nautical > Ocean Liner Memorabilia > Titanic As you can see, it only takes a few clicks to locate both well-known and obscure facts about your favorite topic-du-jour!
Search Engines	Ok, so let's say for some bizarre reason you couldn't find anything listed in a portal site, or you're more interested in some rare detail about the Titanic. For example, you want to know where in the world the Titanic's steering wheel is located. It would take forever to search through all the sites listed in the portal's listing to find this particular detail. The solution, a search engine. Most portals do have search engine functionality, but if you want to try "brand name" sites that are known primarily for their search engines, try HotBot at http://www.hotbot.com , Google at http://www.google.com , or Altavista at http://www.altavista.com Incidentally, by typing Titanic steering wheel into the HotBot search engine, we learn that the steering wheel is, as of 1998, still "2 1/2 miles below the ocean surface." (http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/resources/hii50670.000/hii50670_0.htm ) Other links describe the steering wheel as it is now -- "We next crossed the full 85-foot width of Titanic, passing over the bronze telemotor, all that remains of Titanic's steering wheel. At its base one of its pneumatic tubes was lying twisted on the deck." (http://www.discovery.com/area/science/titanic/titanic1.3.html ) There are too many sites just about the steering wheel to list!
Just Plain Guessing!	Although there are quite a few sophisticated methods to find stuff on the Web such as portals and search engines, sometimes it's fun (and fast!) to just guess the address. That's right, guess. For example, typing http://www.titanic.com into your browser only takes you to a site under construction. However, http://www.titanicmovie.com leads to the official site of the movie. Incidentally, if you're ever obsessed with a movie and want to know everything about it, you simply must visit the Internet Movie DataBase at http://www.imdb.com . You can find out everything about your favorite movies, including links to reviews, official and unofficial sites, cast and crew information, and more!
Interacting with Others via Newsgroups	While the Web offers a lot of great information, it's often not very interactive. Let's say you have a really specific question, say, about the type of varnish used on the Titanic steering wheel. You've searched the Web for information, but no luck. Usenet, the biggest bulletin board on the planet, is a great place to post your question. Usenet can be accessed through your newsgroup reader application such as Outlook Express. A newsgroup is a collection of messages posted by people. There are thousands of various newsgroups each with their own topic of discussion. When a message is posted to a group, it is displayed for everyone else viewing that newsgroup to see, much like a public forum. In each newsgroup you can read articles, post questions, open new issues for debate, and give your own opinions. A quick search of newsgroup topics includes alt.history.ocean-liners.titanic , alt.movies.titanic , and even rec.arts.theatre.musicals If you would like to search newsgroups, you should give DejaNews at www.deja.com a try. DejaNews is a fantastic way to access Usenet through your web browser. With DejaNews, you can search through old Usenet messages going back several years.
Interacting via E-mail Mailing Lists	Ok, so you've found everything you've always wanted to know about the RMS Titanic, but your thirst for Titanic info isn't satisfied yet. Now that you've learned so much, you want to participate in conversations with other Titanic aficionados. While you could visit some of the Titanic-related newsgroups, another option is to join an e-mail list. An e-mail list allows many people to communicate via e-mail. It's called a mailing list because anyone who is on the subscription list can send an e-mail to a particular address and it will automatically be delivered to all subscribers. Using an e-mail mailing list obviously means you'll be using your e-mail application such as Microsoft Outlook Express. As such, you will need to familiarize yourself with this application. (See Outlook Express 5.0 ) A quick search for Titanic and mailing list on DejaNews points to discussion lists about maritime history (http://post.queensu.ca/~listserv/wwwarch/marhst-l.html ) and the "Titanic - Mystery & Myth" mailing list at TitanicEchoes@usa.net . A list of maritime-themed mailing lists can be found at http://ils.unc.edu/maritime/listserv.html . This page includes a Titanic mailing list as well as instructions for joining it.
Note:	While the convenience of having messages come to your mailbox is appealing, be aware that some popular mailing lists generate hundreds of messages a day.
Chatting in Real-time	So by this time, it's 3 AM, and you want to talk to someone about the Titanic...now. Well, while you're waiting for your new friends on the mailing list to send the group e-mail, you can always talk to Titanic-interested friends on one of the live-chat programs such as Internet Relay Chat (IRC) (http://help.mindspring.com/features/ircintro.htm ), Instant Messenger(See "Instant Messenger" on page 113), or MindSpring's chat rooms on the Web (http://www.talkcity.com?partner=mindspring ). Live chat has the advantage of being instantaneous. You can communicate in real-time with other users from around the world. On the other hand, using real-time chat often involves extra effort to coordinate a meeting time.
And This is Just the Beginning!	As you begin to network with others who share your interest, you'll find more and more doors opening. For example, you may learn that some of your Titanic-obsessed friends have formed a Users Group in your area. Or perhaps you'll discover a Titanic trivia game or a Titanic-themed video game to download. Or someone may recommend a good book on the Titanic or let you know that some rare Titanic artifact is being sold at an online auction. The possibilities are endless. No matter what your obsession, you'll find that the Internet is an amazing resource for learning and communicating with similarly-minded people around the world. Good luck!