wex@pws.bull.com (Komarimasen) (05/22/91)
WELCOME TO REC.ARTS.SF-REVIEWS
Rec.arts.sf-reviews (r.a.sf-r for short) is a forum for distributing
reviews of works of interest to fans of science fiction/speculative
fiction/fantasy/horror/and sometimes comics (sf/f/h/c for short).
This "welcome" message consists of the following:
I. Description of subject matter
II. Minimum standards and recommended standards
III. Mechanics
I. Description of subject matter
Two types of articles will be posted to r.a.sf-r:
1. Reviews and critical discussion of works (see below) of interest
to fans of sf/f/h/c
A. A "review" consists of evaluative commentary on the work by
someone who has read (watched, listened to, experienced) the
work, designed to help those who have not read (watched, listened
to, experienced) the work make an informed decision as to whether
or not to do so.
B. If you need a definition of what "critical discussion" is, you
should not attempt it.
2. Reactions to (1) above. Because this is NOT a "discussion group,"
in order to be posted to r.a.sf-r, reactions must add further commentary
on the work. Simple argumentation with the original posting will be
returned to the sender unposted.
In other words, it's generally preferable to write a new review or
critical discussion rather than a reaction piece.
For purposes of r.a.sf-r, the term "works" will be interpreted fairly
liberally:
1. Any book, short story, novella, movie, album, magazine, "graphic
novel," sculpture, etc., etc., whose content is primarily sf/f/h/c is
eligible for review on r.a.sf-r.
Two partial exceptions have been determined:
A. Individual episodes of continuing TV series are are NOT
subject matter for r.a.sf-r. "Arcs" of such series, or full
seasons or runs of such series, are. Miniseries as a whole are
appropriate subject matter for r.a.sf-r.
B. Individual issues of continuing comic books are NOT subject
matter for r.a.sf-r. "Series-within-series," or full runs of such
comics, are. Limited series (in whatever "format") are
appropriate subject matter for r.a.sf-r.
The reasons for these two restrictions are (a) because it seems
desirable to limit the size/volume/bandwidth of this newsgroup, and
(b) because there are generally already outlets (such as
rec.arts.startrek and rec.arts.comics) for the ongoing, short-term
reviews of transient material.
2. Also acceptable for review in r.a.sf-r are
A. Non-sf/f/h/c works by creators generally associated with
sf/f/h/c.
B. Critical works about creators of sf/f/h/c or about the
fields of sf/f/h/c in general.
C. Works "of interest to fans of sf/f/h/c." This is obviously a
rather vague term, and must be interpreted by the moderators (who
are reminded by the posting of this "welcome" message that they
are to interpret it fairly liberally).
II. Minimum standards and recommended standards.
1. Subject lines
The Subject line of r.a.sf-r postings MUST include the title of the work
and the creator's name. Don't worry too much about this, the moderators
will diddle them as needed.
Examples of ideal Subject lines:
Subject: Review of Robert A. Heinlein's FARNHAM'S FREEHOLD
Subject: Review: Robert Forward's DRAGON'S EGG
Subject: DHALGREN, by Delany -- Critique
Subject: Critique of Lucasfilm's STAR WARS I
2. Bibliographic information
The value of a review increases when it is accompanied by some basic
bibliographic information which will help potential readers to find the
work or compare it with others. Publishers usually include this
information on the book jacket and copyright page.
At minimum, you must include:
Author's name
Title
Publisher
Place of publication
Date of publication/Copyright date
ISBN
Price
It would also be nice to include information like:
Series title and volume, if any
(e.g., "Volume 9 in the "Fleurs des Murs" saga")
Copyright date, if different from publication date
Media/format (e.g., hardcover, paperback, comic, videotape, etc.)
Obviously, for reviews of works other than novels, analogous information
is requested. For example, for a movie "Authors" ==> producer, director,
and/or scenarist; "Publisher" ==> releasing studio; "ISBN" is pretty much
irrelevant; "Price" only becomes relevant upon release of a videotape.
We would like this information to be in the UNIX addbib(1) format,
though we can hack that if necessary. The reason for this is that
it makes preparation of indices (see below) much, much easier.
On any Berkeley UNIX system, type "man addbib" for details. The format
uses an alphabetical code to identify different types of information.
The following codes are or may be relevant to rasfr reviewers (an
asterisk [*] denotes a required datum):
* %A Author's name (use a separate %A line for each)
* %B Anthology/collection title for individual stories/articles
%C City (place of publication)
* %D Date of publication
%E Editor (of book or series)
* %G Government order number (use this for ISBN)
%H Header commentary, printed before reference
* %I Issuer (publisher's name and imprint)
%J Journal containing article
%K Keywords
%O Comments/etc. (use for format/price, ordering info)
%P Page number(s) (use for page count)
%S Series title
* %T Title of article or book
%V Volume number
Realistic-type examples (the format we want to encourage), first a
novel in a series, then a critical article in an anthology:
%A Smith, Nancy Q.
%T The Wizard and the Blonde
%I NAL Roc Fantasy
%C New York
%D June 1991
%G ISBN 0-123-45678-9
%P 403 pp.
%S The Wizard's Journey
%V Book 3
%O paperback, US$4.95
%A Milligan, Sterling J.
%T Delany's "Dhalgren": Masterpiece or Solecism?
%B The Big Book of SF Criticism
%E Oliver, Chad
%E Greenberg, Martin
%I Big Books
%C Radnor, PA
%D 1982
%G No ISBN
%P 552 pp.
%O trade paperback, US$12.95
%O order from Big Books, P.O. Box 123, Radnor PA 19304 USA
3. Language/Style
Articles on r.a.sf-r should be written in some close relative of Standard
English. This is not to say you must stick closely to Fowlers' rules; if
there is a Joe-Bob Briggs or a Harlan Ellison out there, the last thing
we would want to do is stifle them. But you should remember that not
everyone in your audience reads English as a first language, and try to
keep your language understandable by, say, someone with an eighth-grade
education.
In other words, your content may be as simple or as abstruse as you
like, but it should be communicated as clearly as possible.
For works in a foreign language, reviews either in that language or in
English will be accepted. If none of the moderators is able to read the
language in which a review is written, we will pass it for posting with
a disclaimer stating that none of us was able to read it and we are not
responsible for content.
4. Spoilers
Reviews and critiques may give away surprise twists and/or endings of
stories. Reviewers and critics are hereby put upon their honor to
inform their readers *IN* *ADVANCE* that this is the case (the Subject
line is a good place for it), and to insert a control-L ("^L") or a
screenful of blank space, to allow the readers to avoid these "spoilers."
The control-L is preferable; however, we realize some primitive text
editors still in use won't handle them.
Some r.a.sf-r moderators may insert these for you, or bounce the
article, if you commit a sufficiently annoying spoiler.
III. Mechanics.
R.a.sf-r is moderated by any one of several moderators. These are
Michael C. Berch
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes
Evelyn Leeper
Wayne Throop
Alan Wexelblat
Bill Wisner
Articles are *NOT* to be mailed to these moderators directly. They
should be mailed to the rec.arts.sf-reviews submission address, from
where they will be forwarded to the appropriate moderator.
The submission address using Internet protocol is
sf-reviews@presto.ig.com
The UUCP address is
uunet!presto.ig.com!sf-reviews or
ames!bionet!ig!sf-reviews
Articles may also be posted using standard news software (such as
"postnews"), which will automatically send it to the moderator(s).
Suggestions, comments, offers to assist, etc., may be mailed to
rasfr-comments@presto.ig.com
Indices of material posted to rec.arts.sf-reviews will be posted on a
quarterly basis.
An anonymous FTP site will be set up to archive reviews and indices.
When this information is available it will be posted and included in
future postings of this "Welcome to" message.
--
--Alan Wexelblat phone: (508)294-6120 (NOTE NEW #)
Bull Worldwide Information Systems internet: wex@pws.bull.com
Billerica, MA wexelblat.chi@xerox.com
By doing a little every day, you can gradually let the problem overwhelm you.