Hi blizzard,

> I suppose if a large part of the community uses Newsgroups then that
> is a good reason to stay with Yahoo.
> However newsgroups -- correct me if I'm wrong -- are becoming old
> technology.

To be precise, these groups are not actual (Usenet) newsgroups, but
they can be accessed in two ways:

- as a mailing list (you subscribe once and get every post in your
mailbox until you unsubscribe)

- through the Yahoogroups web interface, which we both don't like ;-)

There *is* a newsgroup mirror, however. Point your newsreader at
news.atkin.com and you'll find many interesting Firebird mailing lists
mirrored there. One thing though: if you post through the Atkin mirror
and you are *not* subscribed to the list, your message may take days
to arrive because it has to pass through the moderator.

> All of my email is online-based with Gmail,

Then your best solution is to subscribe to the mailing list(s) with
your gmail address. You can find instructions here:
http://www.firebirdsql.org/index.php?op=lists


HTH,
Paul Vinkenoog