A Primer on How to Work With the Usenet Community
*** This message describes the Usenet culture and customs that have
developed over time. Other documents in this newsgroup describe what
Usenet is and manuals or on-line help on your system should provide
detailed technical documentation. All new users should read this
message to acclimate themselves to Usenet. (Old users could read it,
too, to refresh their memories.) ***
It is the people participating in Usenet that make it worth the effort
to read and maintain; for Usenet to function properly those people
must be able to interact in productive ways. This document is intended
as a guide to using the net in ways that will be pleasant and
productive for everyone.
This document is not intended to teach you how to use Usenet. Instead,
it is a guide to using it politely, effectively and efficiently.
Communication by computer is new to almost everybody, and there are
certain aspects that can make it a frustrating experience until you
get used to them. This document should help you avoid the worst traps.
The easiest way to learn how to use Usenet is to watch how others use
it. Start reading the news and try to figure out what people are doing
and why. After a couple of weeks you will start understanding why
certain things are done and what things shouldn't be done. There are
documents available describing the technical details of how to use the
software. These are different depending on which programs you use to
access the news. You can get copies of these from your system
administrator. If you do not know who that person is, they can be
contacted on most systems by mailing to account "news", "usenet" or
"postmaster".
Never Forget that the Person on the Other Side is Human.
Because your interaction with the network is through a computer it is
easy to forget that there are people "out there." Situations arise
where emotions erupt into a verbal free-for-all that can lead to hurt
feelings.
Please remember that people all over the world are reading your words.
Do not attack people if you cannot persuade them with your
presentation of the facts. Screaming, cursing, and abusing others only
serves to make people think less of you and less willing to help you
when you need it.
If you are upset at something or someone, wait until you have had a
chance to calm down and think about it. A cup of (decaf!) coffee or a
good night's sleep works wonders on your perspective. Hasty words
create more problems than they solve. Try not to say anything to
others you would not say to them in person in a room full of people.
Don't Blame System Admins for their Users' Behavior.
Sometimes, you may find it necessary to write to a system
administrator about something concerning his or her site. Maybe it is
a case of the software not working, or a control message escaped, or
maybe one of the users at that site has done something you feel
requires comment. No matter how steamed you may be, be polite to the
sysadmin -- he or she may not have any idea of what you are going to
say, and may not have any part in the incidents involved. By being
civil and temperate, you are more likely to obtain their courteous
attention and assistance.
Never assume that a person is speaking for their organization.
Many people who post to Usenet do so from machines at their office or
school. Despite that, never assume that the person is speaking for the
organization that they are posting their articles from (unless the
person explicitly says so). Some people put explicit disclaimers to
this effect in their messages, but this is a good general rule. If you
find an article offensive, consider taking it up with the person
directly, or ignoring it. Learn about "kill files" in your newsreader,
and other techniques for ignoring people whose postings you find
offensive.
Be Careful What You Say About Others.
Please remember -- you read netnews; so do as many as 3,000,000 other
people. This group quite possibly includes your boss, your friend's
boss, your girl friend's brother's best friend and one of your
father's beer buddies. Information posted on the net can come back to
haunt you or the person you are talking about.
Think twice before you post personal information about yourself or
others. This applies especially strongly to groups like soc.singles
and alt.sex but even postings in groups like talk.politics.misc have
included information about the personal life of third parties that
could get them into serious trouble if it got into the wrong hands.
Be Brief.
Never say in ten words what you can say in fewer. Say it succinctly
and it will have a greater impact. Remember that the longer you make
your article, the fewer people will bother to read it.
Your Postings Reflect Upon You -- Be Proud of Them.
Most people on Usenet will know you only by what you say and how well
you say it. They may someday be your co-workers or friends. Take some
time to make sure each posting is something that will not embarrass
you later. Minimize your spelling errors and make sure that the
article is easy to read and understand. Writing is an art and to do it
well requires practice. Since much of how people judge you on the net
is based on your writing, such time is well spent.
Use Descriptive Titles.
The subject line of an article is there to enable a person with a
limited amount of time to decide whether or not to read your article.
Tell people what the article is about before they read it. A title
like "Car for Sale" to rec.autos does not help as much as "66 MG
Midget for sale: Beaverton OR." Don't expect people to read your
article to find out what it is about because many of them won't
bother. Some sites truncate the length of the subject line to 40
characters so keep your subjects short and to the point.
Think About Your Audience.
When you post an article, think about the people you are trying to
reach. Asking UNIX(*) questions on rec.autos will not reach as many of
the people you want to reach as if you asked them on
comp.unix.questions or comp.unix.internals. Try to get the most
appropriate audience for your message, not the widest.
It is considered bad form to post both to misc.misc, soc.net-people,
or misc.wanted and to some other newsgroup. If it belongs in that
other newsgroup, it does not belong in misc.misc, soc.net-people, or
misc.wanted.
If your message is of interest to a limited geographic area
(apartments, car sales, meetings, concerts, etc...), restrict the
distribution of the message to your local area. Some areas have
special newsgroups with geographical limitations, and the recent
versions of the news software allow you to limit the distribution of
material sent to world-wide newsgroups. Check with your system
administrator to see what newsgroups are available and how to use
them.
If you want to try a test of something, do not use a world-wide
newsgroup! Messages in misc.misc that say "This is a test" are likely
to cause large numbers of caustic messages to flow into your mailbox.
There are newsgroups that are local to your computer or area that
should be used. Your system administrator can tell you what they are.
Be familiar with the group you are posting to before you post! You
shouldn't post to groups you do not read, or post to groups you've
only read a few articles from -- you may not be familiar with the
on-going conventions and themes of the group. One normally does not
join a conversation by just walking up and talking. Instead, you
listen first and then join in if you have something pertinent to
contribute.
Be Careful with Humor and Sarcasm.
Without the voice inflections and body language of personal
communications, it is easy for a remark meant to be funny to be
misinterpreted. Subtle humor tends to get lost, so take steps to make
sure that people realize you are trying to be funny. The net has
developed a symbol called the smiley face. It looks like ":-)" and
points out sections of articles with humorous intent. No matter how
broad the humor or satire, it is safer to remind people that you are
being funny.
But also be aware that quite frequently satire is posted without any
explicit indications. If an article outrages you strongly, you should
ask yourself if it just may have been unmarked satire. Several
self-proclaimed connoisseurs refuse to use smiley faces, so take heed
or you may make a temporary fool of yourself.
Only Post a Message Once.
Avoid posting messages to more than one newsgroup unless you are sure
it is appropriate. If you do post to multiple newsgroups, do not post
to each group separately. Instead, specify all the groups on a single
copy of the message. This reduces network overhead and lets people who
subscribe to more than one of those groups see the message once
instead of having to wade through each copy.
Please Rotate Messages With Questionable Content.
Certain newsgroups (such as rec.humor) have messages in them that may
be offensive to some people. To make sure that these messages are not
read unless they are explicitly requested, these messages should be
encrypted. The standard encryption method is to rotate each letter by
thirteen characters so that an "a" becomes an "n". This is known on
the network as "rot13" and when you rotate a message the word "rot13"
should be in the "Subject:" line. Most of the software used to read
Usenet articles have some way of encrypting and decrypting messages.
Your system administrator can tell you how the software on your system
works, or you can use the Unix command tr '[a-m][n-z][A-M][N-Z]'
'[n-z][a-m][N-Z][A-M]' Don't forget the single quotes!)
Summarize What You are Following Up.
When you are following up someone's article, please summarize the
parts of the article to which you are responding. This allows readers
to appreciate your comments rather than trying to remember what the
original article said. It is also possible for your response to get to
some sites before the original article.
Summarization is best done by including appropriate quotes from the
original article. Do not include the entire article since it will
irritate the people who have already seen it. Even if you are
responding to the entire article, summarize only the major points you
are discussing.
When Summarizing, Summarize!
When you request information from the network, it is common courtesy
to report your findings so that others can benefit as well. The best
way of doing this is to take all the responses that you received and
edit them into a single article that is posted to the places where you
originally posted your question. Take the time to strip headers,
combine duplicate information, and write a short summary. Try to
credit the information to the people that sent it to you, where
possible.
Use Mail, Don't Post a Follow-up.
One of the biggest problems we have on the network is that when
someone asks a question, many people send out identical answers. When
this happens, dozens of identical answers pour through the net. Mail
your answer to the person and suggest that they summarize to the
network. This way the net will only see a single copy of the answers,
no matter how many people answer the question.
If you post a question, please remind people to send you the answers
by mail and at least offer to summarize them to the network.
Read All Follow-ups and Don't Repeat What Has Already Been Said.
Before you submit a follow-up to a message, read the rest of the
messages in the newsgroup to see whether someone has already said what
you want to say. If someone has, don't repeat it.
Check the Headers When Following Up.
The news software has provisions to specify that follow-ups to an
article should go to a specific set of newsgroups -- possibly
different from the newsgroups to which the original article was
posted. Sometimes the groups chosen for follow-ups are totally
inappropriate, especially as a thread of discussion changes with
repeated postings. You should carefully check the groups and
distributions given in the header and edit them as appropriate. If you
change the groups named in the header, or if you direct follow-ups to
a particular group, say so in the body of the message -- not everyone
reads the headers of postings.
Be Careful About Copyrights and Licenses.
Once something is posted onto the network, it is *probably* in the
public domain unless you own the appropriate rights (most notably, if
you wrote the thing yourself) and you post it with a valid copyright
notice; a court would have to decide the specifics and there are
arguments for both sides of the issue. Now that the US has ratified
the Berne convention, the issue is even murkier (if you are a poster
in the US). For all practical purposes, though, assume that you
effectively give up the copyright if you don't put in a notice. Of
course, the *information* becomes public, so you mustn't post trade
secrets that way.
When posting material to the network, keep in mind that material that
is UNIX-related may be restricted by the license you or your company
signed with AT&T and be careful not to violate it. You should also be
aware that posting movie reviews, song lyrics, or anything else
published under a copyright could cause you, your company, or members
of the net community to be held liable for damages, so we highly
recommend caution in using this material.
Cite Appropriate References.
If you are using facts to support a cause, state where they came from.
Don't take someone else's ideas and use them as your own. You don't
want someone pretending that your ideas are theirs; show them the same
respect.
Mark or Rotate Answers and Spoilers.
When you post something (like a movie review that discusses a detail
of the plot) which might spoil a surprise for other people, please
mark your message with a warning so that they can skip the message.
Another alternative would be to use the "rot13" protocol to encrypt
the message so it cannot be read accidentally. When you post a message
with a spoiler in it make sure the word "spoiler" is part of the
"Subject:" line.
Spelling Flames Considered Harmful.
Every few months a plague descends on Usenet called the spelling
flame. It starts out when someone posts an article correcting the
spelling or grammar in some article. The immediate result seems to be
for everyone on the net to turn into a 6th grade English teacher and
pick apart each other's postings for a few weeks. This is not
productive and tends to cause people who used to be friends to get
angry with each other.
It is important to remember that we all make mistakes, and that there
are many users on the net who use English as a second language. There
are also a number of people who suffer from dyslexia and who have
difficulty noticing their spelling mistakes. If you feel that you must
make a comment on the quality of a posting, please do so by mail, not
on the network.
Don't Overdo Signatures.
Signatures are nice, and many people can have a signature added to
their postings automatically by placing it in a file called
"$HOME/.signature". Don't overdo it. Signatures can tell the world
something about you, but keep them short. A signature that is longer
than the message itself is considered to be in bad taste. The main
purpose of a signature is to help people locate you, not to tell your
life story. Every signature should include at least your return
address relative to a major, known site on the network and a proper
domain-format address. Your system administrator can give this to you.
Some news posters attempt to enforce a 4 line limit on signature files
-- an amount that should be more than sufficient to provide a return
address and attribution.
Limit Line Length and Avoid Control Characters.
Try to keep your text in a generic format. Many (if not most) of the
people reading Usenet do so from 80 column terminals or from
workstations with 80 column terminal windows. Try to keep your lines
of text to less than 80 characters for optimal readability. If people
quote part of your article in a followup, short lines will probably
show up better, too.
Also realize that there are many, many different forms of terminals in
use. If you enter special control characters in your message, it may
result in your message being unreadable on some terminal types; a
character sequence that causes reverse video on your screen may result
in a keyboard lock and graphics mode on someone else's terminal. You
should also try to avoid the use of tabs, too, since they may also be
interpreted differently on terminals other than your own.
Please do not use Usenet as a resource for homework assignments.
Usenet is not a resource for homework or class assignments. A common
new user reaction to learning of all these people out there holding
discussions is to view them as a great resource for gathering
information for reports and papers. Trouble is, after seeing a few
hundred such requests, most people get tired of them, and won't reply
anyway. Certainly not in the expected or hoped-for numbers. Posting
student questionnaires automatically brands you a "newbie" and does
not usually garner much more than a tiny number of replies. Further,
some of those replies are likely to be incorrect.
Instead, read the group of interest for a while, and find out what the
main "threads" are - what are people discussing? Are there any themes
you can discover? Are there different schools of thought?
Only post something after you've followed the group for a few weeks,
after you have read the Frequently Asked Questions posting if the
group has one, and if you still have a question or opinion that others
will probably find interesting. If you have something interesting to
contribute, you'll find that you gain almost instant acceptance, and
your posting will generate a large number of follow-up postings. Use
these in your research; it is a far more efficient (and accepted) way
to learn about the group than to follow that first instinct and post a
simple questionnaire.
Please do not use Usenet as an advertising medium.
Advertisements on Usenet are rarely appreciated. In general, the
louder or more inappropriate the ad is, the more antagonism it will
stir up. The accompanying posting "Rules for posting to Usenet" has
more on this in the section about "Announcement of professional
products or services". Try the biz.* hierarchies instead.
Avoid posting to multiple newsgroups.
Few things annoy Usenet readers as much as multiple copies of a
posting appearing in multiple newsgroups. (called 'spamming' for
historical reasons) A posting that is cross-posted (i.e lists multiple
newsgroups on the Newsgroups: header line) to a few appropriate
newsgroups is fine, but even with cross-posts, restraint is advised.
For a cross-post, you may want to set the Followup-To: header line to
the most suitable group for the rest of the discussion.
Summary of Things to Remember
* Never forget that the person on the other side is human.
* Don't blame system admins for their users' behavior.
* Never assume that a person is speaking for their organization.
* Be careful what you say about others.
* Be brief.
* Your postings reflect upon you; be proud of them.
* Use descriptive titles
* Think about your audience.
* Be careful with humor and sarcasm.
* Only post a message once.
* Please rotate material with questionable content.
* Summarize what you are following up.
* Use mail, don't post a follow-up.
* Read all follow-ups and don't repeat what has already been said.
* Double-check follow-up newsgroups and distributions.
* Be careful about copyrights and licenses.
* Cite appropriate references.
* When summarizing, summarize.
* Mark or rotate answers or spoilers.
* Spelling flames considered harmful.
* Don't overdo signatures.
* Limit line length and avoid control characters.
* Please do not use Usenet as a resource for homework assignments.
* Please do not use Usenet as an advertising medium.
* Avoid posting to multiple newsgroups.
(*)UNIX is a registered trademark of X/Open.
_________________________________________________________________
Original-author: [log in to unmask] (Chuq Von Rospach) Comment: enhanced &
edited until 5/93 by [log in to unmask] (Gene Spafford) This document
is in the public domain and may be reproduced or excerpted by anyone
wishing to do so.
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