jj (06/07/82)
----- News saved at Sun Jun 6 22:33:37 1982 Welcome to net.rec.caves. It is a newsgroup dedicated to caving practices and problems. I propose a few (unenforcible) rules for posting items: 1) NEVER, never, post the location of a cave to the net. 2) Limit the discussion of caving to problems and items that concern caving. Discussions of politics, etc. should never enter into this newsgroup unless they directly affect caving caving practices, or caving safety. 3) Put a keyword in the title of the news item that describes the subject. Try to do this well enough to enable the reader to use n or y in a useful manner. I suggest some subjects for discussion. 1) CAVING SAFETY. The need for discussion of safety in caving is obvious, but made more so every 6 months or so. We don't want anyone to get hurt after reading the net. 2) Caving techniques, both for "normal" and "vertical" caves. I leave out cave diving because of its danger, and need for exceptional training. (Aw Shecks, yourself!) 3) Mapping techniques, included are: a) Survey techniques b) Recording techniques c) Loop-closing techniques, i.e. least squares, etc.etc. 4) Landowner relations. This is fast becoming the one most important problem of the caving community. 5) Contacting of unaffiliated (To the NSS) groups. This is somewhat included under 4), but there are many responsible unaffiliated groups, that don't have a forum. 6) Caving education. 7) Cave preservation I suggest that anyone suggesting a technique for any method of caving include a disclaimer in the article. I don't know what the liabilities of this sort of communication are, and I don't want to find out by experiment. As far as I am concerned, any methods discussed in net.rec.caves are to be considered as untried, and to be available at the user's sole risk.