Rules for posting to Usenet@import 'http://faqs.org/abstracts/css/default.css';@import 'http://faqs.org/search.css';[ Usenet FAQs | Search | Web FAQs | Documents | RFC Index ] Search the FAQ Archives Rules for posting to UsenetThere are reader questions on this topic!Helpothers by sharing your knowledgeDate: Tue, 28 Dec 1999 09:00:16 GMTMessage-ID: <FnG10G.H6K@tac.nyc.ny.us>From: netannounce@deshaw.com (Mark Moraes)Subject: Rules for posting to UsenetNewsgroups: news.announce.newusersArchive-name: usenet/posting-rules/part1Original-author: mark@stargate.com (Mark Horton)Comment: enhanced & edited until 5/93 by spaf@cs.purdue.edu (Gene Spafford)Last-change: 16 Jan 1998 by netannounce@deshaw.com (Mark Moraes)Changes-posted-to: news.misc,news.answersThis message describes some of the rules of conduct on Usenet. The rulesvary depending on the newsgroup. Some newsgroups are intended for discussions and some for announcementsor queries. It is not usually a good idea to carry on discussions innewsgroups that are designated otherwise. It is never a good idea tocarry on "meta-discussions" about whether a given discussion isappropriate -- such traffic mushrooms until nobody can find articlesthat belong. If you are unhappy with what some user said, send him/hermail, don't post it.Before posting, think about where your article is going. If it's postedto a "comp", "humanities", "news", "misc", "soc", "sci", "rec" or "talk"newsgroup, it will probably go to the sites on every continent with anestimated audience of more than 3 million potential readers. Certainarticles are only of local interest (e.g. used car ads) and it isinappropriate to post them to the whole world. Use the "Distribution"feature to restrict distribution to your local area. If you don't knowhow to use this feature, read the "Answers to Frequently Asked Questionsabout Usenet" in another article in news.announce.newusers. (Note,however, that some sites have broken software or improperly configurednews systems, so sometimes use of a "Distribution" header may not work.)Be considerate with your use of network resources. Your individualusage may not seem like much compared to the net as a whole, but inaggregate, small savings in disk or CPU add up to a great deal. Forinstance, messages offering thanks, jibes, or congratulations willonly need to be seen by the interested parties -- send these by mailrather than posting them. The same goes for simple questions, andespecially for any form of "me too" posting.To help minimize some transfer load and disk usage throughout theUsenet, consider not only how many groups should carry your postingover what distribution area, but also how long it will be useful. Manykinds of postings -- such as those making announcements or offers --have an obvious useful lifetime. Posted questions that aren't answeredwithin a decent interval probably won't be answered at all, andannouncements will have a limited lifetime. All such postings will beusing bandwidth to no purpose after a certain time. When making suchpostings one should determine what that time interval is, based uponthe nature of the posting, the volume of articles on the newsgroup(s)involved, and the habits of the audience, if known. Then include anexpiration date in the posting. This will mark the date after whichthe article should not be retained at each site.To include an expiration date in an article, when posting insert aline in the header below the "Newsgroups:" line with the expiration.For instance, type "Expires: 5 Feb 92" to have the article expireafter Feb 5, 1992. Most news software will also accept expirationdates of the form "Expires: +5days". Please do NOT set expirationdates far into the future simply to have the article stay around.Many sites expire old articles no matter what the header indicates, soyou are unlikely to achieve much other than clutter the disk on a fewsites. Default expiration is normally in the range of 7 to 21 days,depending on disk space at each site.Don't post announcements regarding major news events (e.g. the spaceshuttle has just exploded!) to news groups. By the time most peoplereceive such items, they will long since have been informed byconventional media. If you wish to discuss such an event on the net,use the "misc.headlines" newsgroup.Announcement of professional products or services on Usenet is allowed,provided suitable restraint is exercised. Since someone else is payingthe phone bills for this, it is important that it be of overall benefitto Usenet. One of the few groups where such information is appropriateis comp.newprod. comp.newprod is a moderated group; you can get thesubmission guidelines from the article "Welcome to comp.newprod", postedperiodically to comp.newprod and news.answers. You can also get thisarticle by sending a mail message to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with thesingle line: send usenet-by-group/news.answers/newprodIf your posting is really relevant to some other newsgroup, particularlyone of the *.announce newsgroups, you may consider posting it there; somemoderators allow product announcements in the *.announce newsgroups. e.g.an announcement about an Amiga product could go incomp.sys.amiga.announce. Before you post any such announcements, makesure that you carefully read all of the administrative documents for thegroup. Also, read the regular messages in the group itself for at leasta week to make sure that your announcement is consistent with what otherpeople post. Of course, this is true for *any* post, but especially truefor commercial announcements.General guidelines: Clearly mark your article as a product announcementin the subject. Never repeat these -- one article per product at themost; preferably group everything into one article. Advertising hype isespecially frowned upon -- stick to technical facts. Obnoxious orinappropriate announcements or articles violating this policy willgenerally be rejected. This policy is, of course, subject to change ifit becomes a problem.There exists an alternative hierarchy called "biz" specifically forcommercial postings. See the articles "Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies,Part ...", posted periodically to several newsgroups, includingnews.lists.misc. You can also get these articles by sending a mail messageto mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with the lines: send usenet-by-group/news.answers/alt-hierarchies/part1 send usenet-by-group/news.answers/alt-hierarchies/part2Some newsgroups are moderated. In these groups, you cannot postdirectly, either by convention or because the software prevents it. Topost to these newsgroups, send mail to the moderator. Examples:Newsgroup Moderator Purpose--------- --------- -------news.announce.important announce@stargate.com Important announcements for everyone.comp.std.unix std-unix@uunet.uu.net Unix standards discussion.rec.food.recipes recipes@taronga.com Sharing favorite recipes.Some newsgroups have special purpose rules:Newsgroup Rules--------- -----news.announce.important Moderated, no direct postings, important things only.misc.wanted Queries, "I want an x", "Anyone want my x?". No discussions. Don't post to more than one xxx.wanted. Use the smallest appropriate wanted (e.g. used car ads to nj.wanted.) Requests for sources, termcaps, etc. should go to the "comp.sources.wanted" newsgroup.rec.humor Clean humor only; anything offensive must be rotated; no discussions -- humor only. Discussions go in rec.humor.drec.arts.movies Don't post anything revealing part of a movie without marking it (spoiler) in the subject.rec.arts.* Same as movies -- mark spoilers in the subject line.news.groups Discussions about new groups: whether to create them and what to call them. Don't post yes/no votes, mail them to the authormisc.test Use the smallest test group possible, e.g. "test" or "ucb.test". Say in the body of the message what you are testing.If you're thinking of posting anything that was written by someone else(eg. article, song, picture), make sure that you are familiar with thecopyright issues. If you're not sure about the copyright issues, then findout before posting. For instance, you must not post anything that you wereallowed to see only because of a confidentiality agreement, such as a UNIXsource license.It is generally considered rude to post private e-mail correspondencewithout the permission of the author of that mail, and furthermore, it'slikely a copyright violation as well.All opinions or statements made in messages posted to Usenet should betaken as the opinions of the person who wrote the message. They do notnecessarily represent the opinions of the employer of that person, theowner of the computer from which the message was posted, or anyoneinvolved with Usenet or the underlying networks of which Usenet is madeup. All responsibility for statements made in Usenet messages restswith the individual posting the message.Posting of information on Usenet is to be viewed as similar topublication. Because of this, do not post instructions for how to dosome illegal act (such as jamming radar or obtaining cable TV serviceillegally); also do not ask how to do illegal acts by posting to thenet.If you have a standard signature you like to append to your articles,and you are running a form of news software that supports automaticinclusion of a signature file, it is usually enabled by putting it ina file called .signature in your home directory. The posting softwareyou use should automatically append it to your article. Please keepyour signatures concise, as people do not appreciate seeing lengthysignatures, nor paying the phone bills to repeatedly transmit them. 2or 3 lines are usually plenty. Sometimes it is also appropriate toadd another line or two for addresses on other major networks whereyou can be reached (e.g., CompuServ, Bitnet). Long signatures aredefinitely frowned upon. DO NOT include drawings, pictures, maps, orother graphics in your signature -- it is not the appropriate placefor such material and is viewed as rude by other readers.If you post an article and remember something you've left out or realizeyou've made a factual error, you can cancel the article and (if canceledquickly enough) prevent its distribution. Then you can correct whateverwas wrong and post a new copy. In "rn", "trn", "nn" and "readnews", (andprobably most other newsreaders) an article that you posted can becanceled with the "C" command. In "tin", use "D" (delete) to cancel anarticle. Newer newsreaders typically offer "Cancel" from a menu. Beaware, however, that some people may have already read the incorrectversion so the sooner you cancel something, the better.Before posting a question to the net (especially one that you thinkwill be easy for experts to answer), consider carefully whetherposting is the most appropriate way to get the answer. There are manyways to find answers without using up network resources and forcingthousands of people to read your question (and several helpfulvolunteers to spend time responding). Many newsgroups have aFrequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list that is posted periodically(usually every few weeks), and they are also usually cross-postedto news.answers. They usually have explicit expiration dates set, sothey shouldn't be expired until a new version has been posted, so ifyou can't find the FAQ in either the newsgroup or news.answers, thereprobably isn't one (thus, it's probably not useful to post a questionasking whether there is one). If you have local experts (or simplymore experienced users than yourself) at your site, try asking thembefore posting. If you're trying to find where you can FTP softwareor a newsgroup archive, try using the Archie service; see postings innews.answers for details. Many newsgroups are also archived in WideArea Information Service (WAIS) databases; WAIS client software may beFTPed from ftp.think.com, or you may use WAIS by telnetting toquake.think.com and logging in as "wais". Finally, you should alsocheck the manuals for your system; if you don't, and you post aquestion that's answered there, you'll likely receive a number ofresponses that scream "RTFM" (Read the F*ing Manual).Usually, it is sufficient to post any article to a single newsgroup; theone that's most relevant to the subject of your article. If the articleis really relevant to multiple newsgroups, then "cross-post" to therelevant newsgroups by posting the article only once with all newsgroupsnamed on the "Newsgroups" header line. For example: Newsgroups: comp.fish,misc.sheep,talk.ketchupwould cause an article to be posted to comp.fish, misc.sheep, andtalk.ketchup simultaneously.If you are using TIN, please do not use the "crosspost" function toaccomplish this. This is a misleadingly named command that really shouldbe called "repost."By posting a single article to all the newsgroups you wish to reach, thenews software is able to transfer a single copy. Furthermore, users with"smart" newsreaders will see the article only once. Making separatepostings of your article for each newsgroup you wish to reach tends toannoy readers rather than emphasize the message content as well as wastecomputational resources.All newsreaders should have two ways to post a news article. First,there is an original posting; this is used whenever you are starting anew topic. Second, there is a "followup"; this is used when you areposting a response to another news article. In several newsreaders,including "rn", the "f" command usually generates an original postingif your current position is at the end of the newsgroup, but afollowup when you have a current article; you can also use the "Pnews"command outside of rn to make an original posting.The news posting software does special things in the second case thatindicates to the news system that this article is "related" to thearticle to which you are following up. First, the newsreader adds"Re: " before the existing subject line to tell people that this is"regarding" a previous article. Second, the software adds a"References" line that contains the Message-ID of the article you arefollowing up. This header is used by threaded news readers such as"trn" to follow "threads" of discussion.It is important that these two posting methods not be confused. Don'tfollow up to articles without using the newsreader's "followup" mechanism.Conversely, don't use the followup mechanism to post an article that isan unrelated thread. Violating this convention sometimes leads toconfusion and annoyance of users with threaded newsreaders.When posting a followup, be careful about newsgroups. The articlethat you're responding to might have been cross-posted to severalnewsgroups, and by default your followup will go to ALL of thosenewsgroups. Or the article might have a Followup-To line in itsheader, and in that case, by default your followup will go where theFollowup-To line says -- which might not be the newsgroup where you'rereading the article. You should ensure that your article is postedonly to newsgroups where its actual content is appropriate. Sometimesit's better to leave the newsgroups on your own article the same asthey were, but put a Followup-To line in its header to confinefollowups to an appropriate group. In any case, it's best forarticles that have a Followup-To line to be posted to whatever groupsare mentioned in that line, and to mention in the text of the articlethat followups are redirected. The idea is for the threads ofarticles to make sense in each newsgroup where the articles appear,for people who don't read the others.If you don't see your posting immediately, don't assume it failed and tryto repost it at once. Some sites have set up the local software toprocess news periodically. Thus, your article will not appearimmediately. If you post again, you will have multiple copies of thearticle in circulation.If the news system rejects a followup due to "more quoted lines thannew text," please do not use "filler" lines to make up for this.Instead, if after careful editing, you have more to quote than towrite, change the citation character. For example, in the displayeditor vi, you could use the incantation: :%s/^>/</Be careful not to do the very similar: :%s/>/</which will affect >'s that are not being used as the citationcharacter. (In particular, it will damage the "References" line in thearticle header.)In preparing an article, be aware that other people's machines arenot the same as yours. The following is a list of things to keepin mind: * Keep your lines under 80 characters, and under 72 if possible (so that the lines won't get longer than 80 when people include them when responding to your postings). Most editors have a fill or format mode that will do this for you automatically. Make sure that it actually puts ("hard") newline characters into the file, rather than just wrapping the displayed lines on your screen. * Right justified text may look "prettier" in some sense, but it is almost always harder to read than leaving ragged right margins; don't justify your articles. * Most special control characters will not work for most readers. In fact, the space character is about the only one you can be sure will work consistently. Even tabs aren't always the same from machine to machine, and should be avoided. Many mail agents will strip or remap control characters. * Pictures and diagrams should not use embedded tabs. * Refer to articles by Message-ID, and never by article number. Article numbers vary on every news system, Message-IDs are always preserved throughout the network. * What you think is the previous article is unlikely to be so elsewhere. * Submissions in a single case (all upper or all lower) are difficult to read.In general, when a mailing to somebody fails, DON'T post a messageabout it! Think for a moment: you are trying to send something tosomeone on ONE system. Your message might go through (at most) TENsystems on the way there. Posting a message in the news sends it tomany tens of thousands of systems throughout the world! There is noway to justify adding to the news load of all those machines simplybecause you cannot determine how to get your mail through.If your message is important, contact someone who knows more about themail system and who might be able to help you get your messagethrough. Your local system administrator, for instance, or the adminof the next site "upstream," might be able to help. You can also sendmail to "postmaster" at one of the major Usenet sites. Almost all ofthese people would rather see an occasional plea for help in theirmailbox than read another broadcast in the news system. If yourmessage is *really* important, pick up the phone and try to call theother person.
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