rensberry@p4.f22.n140.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Clark Rensberry) (05/24/91)
In your message to dated <23 May 91 15:18>, you say: PD> Hello Gurus -- PD> PD> Remember that Help Wanted Posting? --- well PD> ignore it....I just got an e-mail message from one PD> of us on the SIG that informed me that this sort PD> of posting is a definite taboo ....in fact cause PD> for prosecution...and i believe every word of PD> it!!!...as litigious as just general living has PD> become these days (daze?) .... How does one find out about what's appropriate and not? I could easily have done the same thing as I don't know what's appropriate. Perhaps this post is not appropriate either - how do I find out? Thanks - hope I didn't bother anyone. Clark -- "One must admit that even among intellectuals | rensberry@weyr.fidonet.org there are sometimes highly intelligent people.." | - Mikhail Bulgakov "The Master & Margarita" | "The cure is obscure" - Me
gwyn@smoke.brl.mil (Doug Gwyn) (05/27/91)
In article <248.283DFE17@weyr.FIDONET.ORG> rensberry@p4.f22.n140.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Clark Rensberry) writes: >How does one find out about what's appropriate and not? If you're using Usenet news facilities, there should have been a "new users" article displayed that explained such things. In any case the relevant points are: (1) Each newsgroup has its relevant subject area. For a technical newsgroup, such as comp.lang.c, commercial use lies outside the scope of the newsgroup. (2) While it is POSSIBLE to post any old garbage to any unmoderated newsgroup, continued utility of the newsgroup for its assigned purpose depends on the voluntary cooperation of its posters, who must exert some self-discipline or the news service will collapse. Many of the most valuable contributors to the C and UNIX newsgroups, for example, long ago decided that they couldn't stomach any more of the net abuse and withdrew from active participation. (3) Many newsgroups are gatewayed with DoD Internet mailing lists; for example, comp.lang.c started out as the INFO-C mailing list. Since the Internet is taxpayer funded, its rules prohibit commercial exploitation. (4) There are all sorts of channels for "for sale" and "job offer" transactions, including some newsgroups not relayed via Internet, but also including want ads in computer rags such as Computer Shopper. It costs net sites a considerable amount to propagate your articles, and if they are for personal gain it is most unfair to expect others to bear the financial burden. Many sites have had to curtail the use of net news because they couldn't justify the benefit versus the cost.