spaf@gatech.UUCP (Gene Spafford) (02/19/85)
I've really gotten tired of the junk in net.general, especially all the
test messages that have been posted in the last few weeks. There has
been a fair amount of disucssion about a regular posting to
"net.general" discussing the proper use of that newsgroup. Well, as
the person doing the regular postings to net.announce.newusers, I
figured I ought to write something.
What follows is something I intend to post regularly (monthly) to
net.general and to net.announce.newusers. If you have any comments,
corrections or flames, please let me know.
==============================================
Original from Gene Spafford (gatech!spaf)
[Most recent change: 17 February 1985 by spaf]
This is a short introduction to the proper use of the "net.general"
newsgroup. The "rules" for Usenet are based on convention, common
sense, and tradition. More detail on these rules, and on effective and
proper use of the Usenet in general may be found in the regular
monthly postings in the "net.announce.newusers" newsgroup. If you have
not yet read those postings, DO SO!!! If you read them more than 6
months ago, it might not hurt to read them again. If your system does
not get "net.announce.newusers" then please send me mail and I will try
to obtain copies of those articles for you.
What is appropriate to post to net.general?
The only articles appropriate to net.general are articles of
general interest and importance to *EVERYONE* on the net. This
includes readers of the net in Europe, Asia, Australia, Canada,
and the USA -- readers at over 1100 sites around the world.
Announcements of items for sale, test messages, announcements
of local seminars, postings of sources or bugs, enquiries as to
the whereabouts of old friends, and the like are *NOT* to be
posted to net.general. Followups to articles in net.general are
also NOT supposed to go to net.general; there is a
"net.followup" specifically for that purpose.
By convention, anything posted to net.general should *NOT* be
posted to any other "net" group, except perhaps "net.announce"
(which is a moderated group).
Where do I post those articles then?
Look for a local or regional group first, and use the
distribution feature of "postnews" (see the "man" page for
postnews and/or the articles in "net.announce.newusers" for
specifics on how to do this).
For instance, items for sale in the U.S. might be posted to
"na.forsale". A car for sale could be mentioned in an article
in the "net.auto" group BUT ONLY with the distribution set to
an appropriate value, like "nj" or "ca" -- very few people in
Australia or Denmark will want to read about a Chevy for sale
in Chicago. They also don't want to pay the phone costs to
transmit the article overseas.
Test messages should go to your local "test" newsgroup. Test
messages that MUST be broadcast to the entire world should be
put in "net.test". Please don't send tests to sites on four
continents just to make sure that your link with a single
neighbor works; use an appropriate distribution on net.test ,
or create a "to" newsgroup for such tests.
If you are trying to locate someone, post to "net.net-people".
Most "wanted" requests should go to either "net.wanted" or
"net.wanted.sources".
Where do I post something if I can't figure out where to post it?
Well, if you aren't sure where to post it, it definitely does
NOT belong in net.general. If it doesn't seem to fit in any
newsgroup as described in the list of active groups posted to
net.announce.newusers, you should post it to the "net.misc"
group -- or not post it at all.
Where do I go to get more information about newsgroups and posting?
See the articles in "net.announce.newusers". I post a number
of articles there every month which list all active newsgroups
and their purposes. I also post updated articles on Usenet
rules and conventions. Every Usenet user should familiarlize
himself or herself with the contents of those articles.
You can also ask an "old-timer" for advice or help. Try
sending mail to me (spaf@gatech.uucp), Mark Horton
(mark@cbosgd.uucp), Rick Adams (rick@seismo.uucp) or Chuq Von
Rospach (chuqui@nsc.uucp). We'll be happy to try to answer
your questions -- just don't post them to the net first!
Usenet continues to function due to the co-operative efforts of its
users. Please co-operate and use net.general for its intended
purpose.
==============================================
--
Gene "6 months and counting" Spafford
The Clouds Project, School of ICS, Georgia Tech, Atlanta GA 30332
CSNet: Spaf @ GATech ARPA: Spaf%GATech.CSNet @ CSNet-Relay.ARPA
uucp: ...!{akgua,allegra,hplabs,ihnp4,linus,seismo,ulysses}!gatech!spaf