Software Vault: The Gold Collection/Software Vault - The Gold Collection (American Databankers) (1993).ISO/cdr35/usenet2.zip/BLT.001

Text File | 1993-06-26 | 87KB | 1,736 lines

This message describes some of the rules of conduct on Usenet.  The rules
vary depending on the newsgroup.


Some newsgroups are intended for discussions and some for announcements
or queries.  It is not usually a good idea to carry on discussions in
newsgroups that are designated otherwise.  It is never a good idea to
carry on "meta-discussions" about whether a given discussion is
appropriate -- such traffic mushrooms until nobody can find articles
that belong.  If you are unhappy with what some user said, send him/her
mail, don't post it.


Before posting, think about where your article is going.  If it's
posted to a "comp", "news", "misc", "soc", "sci", "rec" or "talk"
newsgroup, it will probably go to the USA, Canada, Europe, Australia,
and many countries in Asia.  Certain articles are only of local
interest (e.g. used car ads) and it is inappropriate to post them to
the whole world.  Use the "Distribution" feature to restrict
distribution to your local area.  If you don't know how to use this
feature, read "Frequently Submitted Items" in another article in
news.announce.newusers. (Note, however, that some sites have broken
software or improperly configured news systems, so sometimes use of a
"Distribution" header may not work.)


Be considerate with your use of network resources.  Your individual
usage may not seem like much compared to the net as a whole, but in
aggregate, small savings in disk or CPU add up to a great deal.  For
instance, messages offering thanks, jibes, or congratulations will
only need to be seen by the interested parties -- send these by mail
rather than posting them. The same goes for simple questions, and
especially for any form of "me too" posting.

To help minimize some transfer load and disk usage throughout the
Usenet, consider not only how many groups should carry your posting
over what distribution area, but also how long it will be useful. Many
kinds of postings -- such as those making announcements or offers --
have a obvious useful lifetime. Posted questions that aren't answered
within a decent interval probably won't be answered at all, and
announcements will have a limited lifetime. All such postings will be
using bandwidth to no purpose after a certain time.  When making such
postings one should determine what that time interval is, based upon
the nature of the posting, the volume of articles on the newsgroup(s)
involved, and the habits of the audience, if known. Then include an
expiration date in the posting. This will mark the date after which
the article should not be retained at each site.

To include an expiration date in an article, when posting insert a
line in the header below the "Newsgroups:" line with the expiration.
For instance, type "Expires: 5 Feb 92" to have the article expire
after Feb 5, 1992.  Most news software will also accept expiration
dates of the form "Expires: +5days".  Please do NOT set expiration
dates far into the future simply to have the article stay around.
Many sites expire old articles no matter what the header indicates, so
you are unlikely to achieve much other than clutter the disk on a few
sites.  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 space
shuttle has just exploded!) to news groups.  By the time most people
receive such items, they will long since have been informed by
conventional 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;
however, since someone else is paying the phone bills for this, it is
important that it be of overall benefit to Usenet.  Post to the
appropriate newsgroup -- comp.newprod -- never to a general purpose
newsgroup such as "misc.misc".  Clearly mark your article as a product
announcement in the subject.  Never repeat these -- one article per
product at the most; preferably group everything into one article.
Advertising hype is especially frowned upon -- stick to technical
facts.  Obnoxious or inappropriate announcements or articles violating
this policy will generally be rejected.  This policy is, of course,
subject to change if it becomes a problem.


Some newsgroups are moderated.  In these groups, you cannot post
directly, either by convention or because the software prevents it.  To
post to these newsgroups, send mail to the moderator. Examples:

Newsgroup               Moderator       Purpose
---------               ---------       -------
news.announce.important stargate!announce       Important announcements for everyone
comp.std.unix           uunet!std-unix  Unix standards discussion
comp.std.mumps          plus5!std-mumps ANSI Mumps standards discussion
comp.unix               zorba!modunix   Discussion of Unix* features and bugs

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.d
rec.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 author
misc.test               Use the smallest test group possible, e.g.

                        "test" or "ucb.test".  Say in the body of the
                        message what you are testing.


It is perfectly legal to reproduce short extracts of a copyrighted work
for critical purposes, but reproduction in whole is strictly and
explicitly forbidden by US and international copyright law.  (Otherwise,
there would be no way for the artist to make money, and there would
thus be less motive for people to go to the trouble of making their art
available at all.  The crime of theft is as serious in this context as
any other, even though you may not have to pick locks, mask your face,
or conceal merchandise.)

It is generally considered rude to post private e-mail correspondence
without the permission of the author of that mail.  Furthermore, under
copyright statutes, the author of the e-mail possesses a copyright on
mail that he or she wrote; posting it to the net or mailing it on to
others without permission of the author is likely a violation of that
copyright as well as being rude.

All opinions or statements made in messages posted to Usenet should be
taken as the opinions of the person who wrote the message.  They do not
necessarily represent the opinions of the employer of that person, the
owner of the computer from which the message was posted, or anyone
involved with Usenet or the underlying networks of which Usenet is made
up.  All responsibility for statements made in Usenet messages rests
with the individual posting the message.


Posting of information on Usenet is to be viewed as similar to
publication.  Because of this, do not post instructions for how to do
some illegal act (such as jamming radar or obtaining cable TV service
illegally); also do not ask how to do illegal acts by posting to the
net.


If you have a standard signature you like to append to your articles,
put it in a file called .signature in your home directory.  "postnews"
and "inews" will automatically append it to your article.  Please keep
your signatures concise, as people do not appreciate seeing lengthy
signatures, nor paying the phone bills to repeatedly transmit them.  2
or 3 lines are usually plenty.  Sometimes it is also appropriate to add
another line or two for addresses on other major networks where you can
be reached (e.g., Internet, Bitnet).  Long signatures are
definitely frowned upon.  DO NOT include drawings, pictures, maps, or
other graphics in your signature -- it is not the appropriate place
for such material and is viewed as rude by other readers.


If you post an article and remember something you've left out or
realize you've made a factual error, you can cancel the article and (if
canceled quickly enough) prevent its distribution.  Then you can
correct whatever was wrong and post a new copy.  In "rn" and
"readnews", an article that you posted can be canceled with the "C"
command.  Be aware, however, that some people may have already read the
incorrect version so the sooner you cancel something, the better.


Before posting a question to the net (especially one that you think
will be easy for experts to answer), consider carefully whether
posting is the most appropriate way to get the answer.  There are many
ways to find answers without using up network resources and forcing
thousands of people to read your question (and several helpful
volunteers to spend time responding).  Many newsgroups have a
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list that is posted periodically
(usually about once a month), and they are also usually cross-posted
to news.answers.  They usually have explicit expiration dates set, so
they shouldn't be expired until a new version has been posted, so if
you can't find the FAQ in either the newsgroup or news.answers, there
probably isn't one (thus, it's probably not useful to post a question
asking whether there is one).  If you have local experts (or simply
more experienced users than yourself) at your site, try asking them
before posting.  If you're trying to find where you can FTP software
or a newsgroup archive, try using the Archie service; see postings in
news.answers for details.  Many newsgroups are also archived in Wide
Area Information Service (WAIS) databases; WAIS client software may be
FTPed from ftp.think.com, or you may use WAIS by telnetting to
quake.think.com and logging in as "wais".  Finally, you should also
check the manuals for your system; if you don't, and you post a
question that's answered there, you'll likely receive a number of
responses that scream "RTFM" (Read the F*ing Manual).


If the news system rejects a followup due to "more quoted lines than
new text," please do not use "filler" lines to make up for this.
Instead, if after careful editing, you have more to quote than to
write, change the citation character.  For example, in the display
editor 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 citation
character.  (In particular, it will damage the "References" line in the
article header.)


In preparing an article, be aware that other people's machines are
not the same as yours.  The following is a list of things to keep
in mind:
 * Except for source, keep your lines under 80 characters, and
   under 72 if possible.  (most editors have a fill or format
   mode that will do this for you automatically)
 * 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.
 * 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 message
about it!  Think for a moment: you are trying to send something to
someone on ONE system.  Your message might go through (at most) TEN
systems on the way there.  Posting a message in the news sends it to
many thousands of systems throughout the world!  There is no way to

justify adding to the news load of all those machines simply because
you cannot determine how to get your mail through.

If your message is important, contact someone who knows more about the
mail system and who might be able to help you get your message
through.  Your local system administrator, for instance, or the admin
of the next site "upstream," might be able to help. You can also send
mail to "postmaster" at one of the major Usenet sites.  Almost all of
these people would rather see an occasional plea for help in their
mailbox than read another broadcast in the news system.  If your
message is *really* important, pick up the phone and try to call the
other person.
--

The first thing to understand about Usenet is that it is widely
misunderstood.  Every day on Usenet, the "blind men and the elephant"
phenomenon is evident, in spades.  In my opinion, more flame wars
arise because of a lack of understanding of the nature of Usenet than
from any other source.  And consider that such flame wars arise, of
necessity, among people who are on Usenet.  Imagine, then, how poorly
understood Usenet must be by those outside!

Any essay on the nature of Usenet cannot ignore the erroneous
impressions held by many Usenet users.  Therefore, this article will
treat falsehoods first.  Keep reading for truth.  (Beauty, alas, is
not relevant to Usenet.)

WHAT USENET IS NOT
------------------
 1. Usenet is not an organization.

    No person or group has authority over Usenet as a whole.  No one
    controls who gets a news feed, which articles are propagated
    where, who can post articles, or anything else.  There is no
    "Usenet Incorporated," nor is there a "Usenet User's Group."
    You're on your own.

    Granted, there are various activities organized by means of Usenet
    newsgroups.  The newsgroup creation process is one such
    activity.  But it would be a mistake to equate Usenet with the
    organized activities it makes possible.  If they were to stop
    tomorrow, Usenet would go on without them.

 2. Usenet is not a democracy.

    Since there is no person or group in charge of Usenet as a whole
    -- i.e. there is no Usenet "government" -- it follows that Usenet
    cannot be a democracy, autocracy, or any other kind of "-acy."
    (But see "The Camel's Nose?" below.)

 3. Usenet is not fair.

    After all, who shall decide what's fair?  For that matter, if
    someone is behaving unfairly, who's going to stop him?  Neither
    you nor I, that's certain.

 4. Usenet is not a right.

    Some people misunderstand their local right of "freedom of speech"
    to mean that they have a legal right to use others' computers to
    say what they wish in whatever way they wish, and the owners of
    said computers have no right to stop them.

    Those people are wrong.  Freedom of speech also means freedom not
    to speak.  If I choose not to use my computer to aid your speech,
    that is my right.  Freedom of the press belongs to those who own
    one.

 5. Usenet is not a public utility.

    Some Usenet sites are publicly funded or subsidized.  Most of
    them, by plain count, are not.  There is no government monopoly
    on Usenet, and little or no government control.

 6. Usenet is not an academic network.

    It is no surprise that many Usenet sites are universities,
    research labs or other academic institutions.  Usenet originated
    with a link between two universities, and the exchange of ideas
    and information is what such institutions are all about.  But the
    passage of years has changed Usenet's character.  Today, by plain
    count, most Usenet sites are commercial entities.

 7. Usenet is not an advertising medium.

    Because of Usenet's roots in academia, and because Usenet depends
    so heavily on cooperation (sometimes among competitors), custom
    dictates that advertising be kept to a minimum.  It is tolerated
    if it is infrequent, informative, and low-hype.

    The "comp.newprod" newsgroup is NOT an exception to this rule:
    product announcements are screened by a moderator in an attempt to
    keep the hype-to-information ratio in check.

    If you must engage in flackery for your company, use the "biz"
    hierarchy, which is explicitly "advertising-allowed", and which
    (like all of Usenet) is carried only by those sites that want it.

 8. Usenet is not the Internet.

    The Internet is a wide-ranging network, parts of which are
    subsidized by various governments.  It carries many kinds of
    traffic, of which Usenet is only one.  And the Internet is only
    one of the various networks carrying Usenet traffic.

 9. Usenet is not a UUCP network.

    UUCP is a protocol (actually a "protocol suite," but that's a
    technical quibble) for sending data over point-to-point
    connections, typically using dialup modems.  Sites use UUCP to
    carry many kinds of traffic, of which Usenet is only one.  And
    UUCP is only one of the various transports carrying Usenet
    traffic.

10. Usenet is not a United States network.

    It is true that Usenet originated in the United States, and the
    fastest growth in Usenet sites has been there.  Nowadays, however,
    Usenet extends worldwide.

    The heaviest concentrations of Usenet sites outside the U.S. seem
    to be in Canada, Europe, Australia and Japan.

    Keep Usenet's worldwide nature in mind when you post articles.
    Even those who can read your language may have a culture wildly
    different from yours.  When your words are read, they might not
    mean what you think they mean.

11. Usenet is not a UNIX network.

    Don't assume that everyone is using "rn" on a UNIX machine.  Among
    the systems used to read and post to Usenet are Vaxen running VMS,
    IBM mainframes, Amigas, and MS-DOS PCs.

12. Usenet is not an ASCII network.

    The A in ASCII stands for "American".  Sites in other countries
    often use character sets better suited to their language(s) of
    choice; such are typically, though not always, supersets of ASCII.
    Even in the United States, ASCII is not universally used: IBM
    mainframes use (shudder) EBCDIC.  Ignore non-ASCII sites if you
    like, but they exist.

13. Usenet is not software.

    There are dozens of software packages used at various sites to
    transport and read Usenet articles.  So no one program or package

    can be called "the Usenet software."

    Software designed to support Usenet traffic can be (and is) used
    for other kinds of communication, usually without risk of mixing
    the two.  Such private communication networks are typically kept
    distinct from Usenet by the invention of newsgroup names different
    from the universally-recognized ones.

Well, enough negativity.

WHAT USENET IS
--------------
Usenet is the set of people who exchange articles tagged with one or
more universally-recognized labels, called "newsgroups" (or "groups"
for short).

(Note that the term "newsgroup" is correct, while "area," "base,"
"board," "bboard," "conference," "round table," "SIG," etc.  are
incorrect.  If you want to be understood, be accurate.)

DIVERSITY
---------
If the above definition of Usenet sounds vague, that's because it is.

It is almost impossible to generalize over all Usenet sites in any
non-trivial way.  Usenet encompasses government agencies, large
universities, high schools, businesses of all sizes, home computers of
all descriptions, etc, etc.

(In response to the above paragraphs, it has been written that there
is nothing vague about a network that carries megabytes of traffic per
day.  I agree.  But at the fringes of Usenet, traffic is not so heavy.
In the shadowy world of news-mail gateways and mailing lists, the line
between Usenet and not-Usenet becomes very hard to draw.)

CONTROL
-------
Every administrator controls his own site.  No one has any real
control over any site but his own.

The administrator gets her power from the owner of the system she
administers.  As long as her job performance pleases the owner, she
can do whatever she pleases, up to and including cutting off Usenet
entirely.  Them's the breaks.

Sites are not entirely without influence on their neighbors, however.
There is a vague notion of "upstream" and "downstream" related to the
direction of high-volume news flow.  To the extent that "upstream"
sites decide what traffic they will carry for their "downstream"
neighbors, those "upstream" sites have some influence on their
neighbors' participation in Usenet.  But such influence is usually
easy to circumvent; and heavy-handed manipulation typically results in
a backlash of resentment.

PERIODIC POSTINGS
-----------------
To help hold Usenet together, various articles (including this one)
are periodically posted in newsgroups in the "news" hierarchy.  These
articles are provided as a public service by various volunteers.
They are few but valuable.  Learn them well.

Among the periodic postings are lists of active newsgroups, both
"standard" (for lack of a better term) and "alternative."  These
lists, maintained by Gene Spafford, reflect his personal view of
Usenet, and as such are not "official" in any sense of the word.
However, if you're looking for a description of subjects discussed on
Usenet, or if you're starting up a new Usenet site, Gene's lists are
an eminently reasonable place to start.

PROPAGATION
-----------
In the old days, when UUCP over long-distance dialup lines was the
dominant means of article transmission, a few well-connected sites had
real influence in determining which newsgroups would be carried where.
Those sites called themselves "the backbone."

But things have changed.  Nowadays, even the smallest Internet site
has connectivity the likes of which the backbone admin of yesteryear
could only dream.  In addition, in the U.S., the advent of cheaper
long-distance calls and high-speed modems has made long-distance
Usenet feeds thinkable for smaller companies.

There is only one pre-eminent site for UUCP transport of Usenet in the
U.S., namely UUNET.  But UUNET isn't a player in the propagation wars,
because it never refuses any traffic.  UUNET charges by the minute,
after all; and besides, to refuse based on content might jeopardize
its legal status as an enhanced service provider.

All of the above applies to the U.S.  In Europe, different cost
structures favored the creation of strictly controlled hierarchical
organizations with central registries.  This is all very unlike the
traditional mode of U.S. sites (pick a name, get the software, get a
feed, you're on).  Europe's "benign monopolies," long uncontested, now
face competition from looser organizations patterned after the U.S.
model.

NEWSGROUP CREATION
------------------
The document that describes the current procedure for creating a new
newsgroup is entitled "How To Create A New Newsgroup."  Its common
name, however, is "the guidelines."

If you follow the guidelines, it is probable that your group will be
created and will be widely propagated.

HOWEVER: Because of the nature of Usenet, there is no way for any user
to enforce the results of a newsgroup vote (or any other decision, for
that matter).  Therefore, for your new newsgroup to be propagated
widely, you must not only follow the letter of the guidelines; you
must also follow its spirit.  And you must not allow even a whiff of
shady dealings or dirty tricks to mar the vote.  In other words, don't
tick off system administrators; they will get their revenge.

So, you may ask: How is a new user supposed to know anything about the
"spirit" of the guidelines?  Obviously, he can't.  This fact leads
inexorably to the following recommendation:

 >> If you are a new user, don't try to create a new newsgroup. <<

If you have a good newsgroup idea, then read the "news.groups"
newsgroup for a while (six months, at least) to find out how things
work.  If you're too impatient to wait six months, then you really
need to learn; read "news.groups" for a year instead.  If you just
can't wait, find a Usenet old hand to run the vote for you.

Readers may think this advice unnecessarily strict.  Ignore it at your
peril.  It is embarrassing to speak before learning.  It is foolish to
jump into a society you don't understand with your mouth open.  And it
is futile to try to force your will on people who can tune you out
with the press of a key.

THE CAMEL'S NOSE?
-----------------
As was observed above in "What Usenet Is Not," Usenet as a whole is
not a democracy.  However, there is exactly one feature of Usenet that
has a form of democracy: newsgroup creation.

A new newsgroup is unlikely to be widely propagated unless its sponsor
follows the newsgroup creation guidelines; and the current guidelines
require a new newsgroup to pass an open vote.


There are those who consider the newsgroup creation process to be a
remarkably powerful form of democracy, since without any coercion, its
decisions are almost always carried out.  In their view, the
democratic aspect of newsgroup creation is the precursor to an
organized and democratic Usenet Of The Future.

On the other hand, some consider the democratic aspect of the
newsgroup creation process a sham and a fraud, since there is no power
of enforcement behind its decisions, and since there appears little
likelihood that any such power of enforcement will ever be given it.
For them, the appearance of democracy is only a tool used to keep
proponents of flawed newsgroup proposals from complaining about their
losses.

So, is Usenet on its way to full democracy?  Or will property rights
and mistrust of central authority win the day?  Beats me.

IF YOU ARE UNHAPPY...
---------------------
Property rights being what they are, there is no higher authority on
Usenet than the people who own the machines on which Usenet traffic is
carried.  If the owner of the machine you use says, "We will not carry
alt.sex on this machine," and you are not happy with that order, you
have no Usenet recourse.  What can we outsiders do, after all?

That doesn't mean you are without options.  Depending on the nature of
your site, you may have some internal political recourse.  Or you
might find external pressure helpful.  Or, with a minimal investment,
you can get a feed of your own from somewhere else. Computers capable
of taking Usenet feeds are down in the $500 range now, and
UNIX-capable boxes are going for under $2000, and there are at least
two UNIX lookalikes in the $100 price range.

No matter what, though, appealing to "Usenet" won't help.  Even if
those who read such an appeal are sympathetic to your cause, they will
almost certainly have even less influence at your site than you do.

By the same token, if you don't like what some user at another site is
doing, only the administrator and owner of that site have any
authority to do anything about it.  Persuade them that the user in
question is a problem for them, and they might do something -- if they
feel like it, that is.

If the user in question is the administrator or owner of the site from
which she posts, forget it; you can't win.  If you can, arrange for
your newsreading software to ignore articles from her; and chalk one
up to experience.

WORDS TO LIVE BY #1:
 USENET AS SOCIETY
--------------------
  Those who have never tried electronic communication may not be aware
  of what a "social skill" really is.  One social skill that must be
  learned, is that other people have points of view that are not only
  different, but *threatening*, to your own.  In turn, your opinions may
  be threatening to others.  There is nothing wrong with this.  Your
  beliefs need not be hidden behind a facade, as happens with
  face-to-face conversation.  Not everybody in the world is a bosom
  buddy, but you can still have a meaningful conversation with them.
  The person who cannot do this lacks in social skills.

                                     -- Nick Szabo

WORDS TO LIVE BY #2:
 USENET AS ANARCHY
--------------------
  Anarchy means having to put up with things that really piss you off.

                                     -- Unknown

              A Primer on How to Work With the USENET Community
                             Chuq Von Rospach



  *** You now have access to Usenet, a network of thousands of
  computers.  Other documents or your system administrator will provide
  detailed technical documentation.  This message describes the Usenet
  culture and customs that have developed over time.  All new users should
  read this message to find out how Usenet works. ***
  *** (Old users could read it, too, to refresh their memories.)  ***

  USENET is a large collection of computers that share data with each
  other.  It is the people on these computers that make USENET worth
  the effort to read and maintain, and for USENET to function properly
  those people must be able to interact in productive ways.  This
  document is intended as a guide to using the net in ways that will
  be pleasant and productive for everyone.

  This document is not intended to teach you how to use USENET.  Instead, it
  is a guide to using it politely, effectively and efficiently.
  Communication by computer is new to almost everybody, and there are
  certain aspects that can make it a frustrating experience until you get
  used to them.  This document should help you avoid the worst traps.

  The easiest way to learn how to use USENET is to watch how others use it.
  Start reading the news and try to figure out what people are doing and
  why.  After a couple of weeks you will start understanding why certain
  things are done and what things shouldn't be done.  There are documents
  available describing the technical details of how to use the software.
  These are different depending on which programs you use to access the
  news.  You can get copies of these from your system administrator.  If you
  do not know who that person is, they can be contacted on most systems by
  mailing to account "usenet".


           Never Forget that the Person on the Other Side is Human

  Because your interaction with the network is through a computer it is easy
  to forget that there are people "out there." Situations arise where
  emotions erupt into a verbal free-for-all that can lead to hurt feelings.

  Please remember that people all over the world are reading your words.  Do
  not attack people if you cannot persuade them with your presentation of
  the facts.  Screaming, cursing, and abusing others only serves to make
  people think less of you and less willing to help you when you need it.

  If you are upset at something or someone, wait until you have had a
  chance to calm down and think about it.  A cup of (decaf!) coffee or
  a good night's sleep works wonders on your perspective.  Hasty words
  create more problems than they solve.  Try not to say anything to
  others you would not say to them in person in a room full of people.

            Don't Blame System Admins for their Users' Behavior

  Sometimes, you may find it necessary to write to a system administrator
  about something concerning his or her site.  Maybe it is a case of the
  software not working, or a control message escaped, or maybe one of the
  users at that site has done something you feel requires comment.  No matter
  how steamed you may be, be polite to the sysadmin -- he or she may not have
  any idea of what you are going to say, and may not have any part in the
  incidents involved.  By being civil and temperate, you are more likely to
  obtain their courteous attention and assistance.

                    Be Careful What You Say About Others

  Please remember -- you read netnews; so do as many as 2,500,000 other
  people.  This group quite possibly includes your boss, your friend's
  boss, your girl friend's brother's best friend and one of your
  father's beer buddies.  Information posted on the net can come back
  to haunt you or the person you are talking about.

  Think twice before you post personal information about yourself or
  others.  This applies especially strongly to groups like soc.singles
  and alt.sex but even postings in groups like talk.politics.misc have
  included information about the personal life of third parties that
  could get them into serious trouble if it got into the wrong hands.

                                  Be Brief

  Never say in ten words what you can say in fewer.  Say it succinctly and
  it will have a greater impact.  Remember that the longer you make your
  article, the fewer people will bother to read it.

             Your Postings Reflect Upon You -- Be Proud of Them

  Most people on USENET will know you only by what you say and how well you
  say it.  They may someday be your co-workers or friends.  Take some time
  to make sure each posting is something that will not embarrass you later.
  Minimize your spelling errors and make sure that the article is easy to
  read and understand.  Writing is an art and to do it well requires
  practice.  Since much of how people judge you on the net is based on your
  writing, such time is well spent.

                           Use Descriptive Titles

  The subject line of an article is there to enable a person with a limited
  amount of time to decide whether or not to read your article.  Tell people
  what the article is about before they read it.  A title like "Car for
  Sale" to rec.autos does not help as much as "66 MG Midget for sale:
  Beaverton OR." Don't expect people to read your article to find out what
  it is about because many of them won't bother.  Some sites truncate the
  length of the subject line to 40 characters so keep your subjects short
  and to the point.

                         Think About Your Audience

  When you post an article, think about the people you are trying to
  reach.  Asking UNIX(*) questions on rec.autos will not reach as many

  of the people you want to reach as if you asked them on
  comp.unix.questions or comp.unix.internals.  Try to get the most
  appropriate audience for your message, not the widest.

  It is considered bad form to post both to misc.misc, soc.net-people,
  or misc.wanted and to some other newsgroup.  If it belongs in that
  other newsgroup, it does not belong in misc.misc, soc.net-people,
  or misc.wanted.

  If your message is of interest to a limited geographic area (apartments,
  car sales, meetings, concerts, etc...), restrict the distribution of the
  message to your local area.  Some areas have special newsgroups with
  geographical limitations, and the recent versions of the news software
  allow you to limit the distribution of material sent to world-wide
  newsgroups.  Check with your system administrator to see what newsgroups
  are available and how to use them.

  If you want to try a test of something, do not use a world-wide newsgroup!
  Messages in misc.misc that say "This is a test" are likely to cause
  large numbers of caustic messages to flow into your mailbox.  There are
  newsgroups that are local to your computer or area that should be used.
  Your system administrator can tell you what they are.

  Be familiar with the group you are posting to before you post!  You
  shouldn't post to groups you do not read, or post to groups you've
  only read a few articles from -- you may not be familiar with the on-going
  conventions and themes of the group.  One normally does not join
  a conversation by just walking up and talking.  Instead, you listen
  first and then join in if you have something pertinent to contribute.

                     Be Careful with Humor and Sarcasm

  Without the voice inflections and body language of personal
  communications, it is easy for a remark meant to be funny to be
  misinterpreted.  Subtle humor tends to get lost, so take steps to make
  sure that people realize you are trying to be funny.  The net has
  developed a symbol called the smiley face.  It looks like ":-)" and points
  out sections of articles with humorous intent.  No matter how broad the
  humor or satire, it is safer to remind people that you are being funny.

  But also be aware that quite frequently satire is posted without any
  explicit indications.  If an article outrages you strongly, you
  should ask yourself if it just may have been unmarked satire.
  Several self-proclaimed connoisseurs refuse to use smiley faces, so
  take heed or you may make a temporary fool of yourself.

                          Only Post a Message Once

  Avoid posting messages to more than one newsgroup unless you are sure
  it is appropriate.  If you do post to multiple newsgroups, do not
  post to each group separately.  Instead, specify all the groups on a
  single copy of the message.  This reduces network overhead and lets
  people who subscribe to more than one of those groups see the message
  once instead of having to wade through each copy.

              Please Rotate Messages With Questionable Content

  Certain newsgroups (such as rec.humor) have messages in them that may
  be offensive to some people.  To make sure that these messages are
  not read unless they are explicitly requested, these messages should
  be encrypted.  The standard encryption method is to rotate each
  letter by thirteen characters so that an "a" becomes an "n".  This is
  known on the network as "rot13" and when you rotate a message the
  word "rot13" should be in the "Subject:" line.  Most of the software
  used to read usenet articles have some way of encrypting and
  decrypting messages.  Your system administrator can tell you how the
  software on your system works, or you can use the Unix command "tr
  [a-z][A-Z] [n-z][a-m][N-Z][A-M]". (Note that some versions of Unix
  don't require the [] in the "tr" command.  In fact, some systems will
  get upset if you use them in an unquoted manner.  The following
  should work for everyone, but may be shortened on some systems:
        tr '[a-m][n-z][A-M][N-Z]' '[n-z][a-m][N-Z][A-M]'
  Don't forget the single quotes!)

                    Summarize What You are Following Up

  When you are following up someone's article, please summarize the parts of
  the article to which you are responding.  This allows readers to
  appreciate your comments rather than trying to remember what the original
  article said.  It is also possible for your response to get to some sites
  before the original article.

  Summarization is best done by including appropriate quotes from the
  original article.  Do not include the entire article since it will
  irritate the people who have already seen it.  Even if you are responding
  to the entire article, summarize only the major points you are discussing.

                        When Summarizing, Summarize!

  When you request information from the network, it is common courtesy to
  report your findings so that others can benefit as well.  The best way of
  doing this is to take all the responses that you received and edit them
  into a single article that is posted to the places where you originally
  posted your question.  Take the time to strip headers, combine duplicate
  information, and write a short summary.  Try to credit the information to
  the people that sent it to you, where possible.

                      Use Mail, Don't Post a Follow-up

  One of the biggest problems we have on the network is that when someone
  asks a question, many people send out identical answers.  When this
  happens, dozens of identical answers pour through the net.  Mail your
  answer to the person and suggest that they summarize to the network.  This
  way the net will only see a single copy of the answers, no matter how many
  people answer the question.

  If you post a question, please remind people to send you the answers by
  mail and at least offer to summarize them to the network.

      Read All Follow-ups and Don't Repeat What Has Already Been Said

  Before you submit a follow-up to a message, read the rest of the messages
  in the newsgroup to see whether someone has already said what you want to
  say.  If someone has, don't repeat it.

                    Check the Headers When Following Up

  The news software has provisions to specify that follow-ups to an
  article should go to a specific set of newsgroups -- possibly
  different from the newsgroups to which the original article was
  posted.  Sometimes the groups chosen for follow-ups are totally

  inappropriate, especially as a thread of discussion changes with
  repeated postings.  You should carefully check the groups and
  distributions given in the header and edit them as appropriate.  If
  you change the groups named in the header, or if you direct
  follow-ups to a particular group, say so in the body of the message
  -- not everyone reads the headers of postings.


                  Be Careful About Copyrights and Licenses

  Once something is posted onto the network, it is *probably* in the
  public domain unless you own the appropriate rights (most notably,
  if you wrote the thing yourself) and you post it with a valid
  copyright notice; a court would have to decide the specifics and
  there are arguments for both sides of the issue. Now that the US has
  ratified the Berne convention, the issue is even murkier.  For all
  practical purposes, though, assume that you effectively give up the
  copyright if you don't put in a notice.  Of course, the
  *information* becomes public, so you mustn't post trade secrets that
  way.  When posting material to the network, keep in mind that
  material that is UNIX-related may be restricted by the license you
  or your company signed with AT&T and be careful not to violate it.
  You should also be aware that posting movie reviews, song lyrics, or
  anything else published under a copyright could cause you, your
  company, or members of the net community to be held liable for
  damages, so we highly recommend caution in using this material.

                        Cite Appropriate References

  If you are using facts to support a cause, state where they came from.
  Don't take someone else's ideas and use them as your own.  You don't want
  someone pretending that your ideas are theirs; show them the same respect.

                    Mark or Rotate Answers and Spoilers

  When you post something (like a movie review that discusses a detail of
  the plot) which might spoil a surprise for other people, please mark your
  message with a warning so that they can skip the message.  Another
  alternative would be to use the "rot13" protocol to encrypt the message so
  it cannot be read accidentally.  When you post a message with a spoiler in
  it make sure the word "spoiler" is part of the "Subject:" line.

                     Spelling Flames Considered Harmful

  Every few months a plague descends on USENET called the spelling flame.
  It starts out when someone posts an article correcting the spelling or
  grammar in some article.  The immediate result seems to be for everyone on
  the net to turn into a 6th grade English teacher and pick apart each other's
  postings for a few weeks.  This is not productive and tends to cause
  people who used to be friends to get angry with each other.

  It is important to remember that we all make mistakes, and that
  there are many users on the net who use English as a second
  language.  There are also a number of people who suffer from
  dyslexia and who have difficulty noticing their spelling mistakes.
  If you feel that you must make a comment on the quality of a
  posting, please do so by mail, not on the network.

                          Don't Overdo Signatures

  Signatures are nice, and many people can have a signature added to
  their postings automatically by placing it in a file called
  "$HOME/.signature".  Don't overdo it.  Signatures can tell the world
  something about you, but keep them short.  A signature that is longer
  than the message itself is considered to be in bad taste.  The main
  purpose of a signature is to help people locate you, not to tell your
  life story.  Every signature should include at least your return
  address relative to a major, known site on the network and a proper
  domain-format address.   Your system administrator can give this to
  you.  Some news posters attempt to enforce a 4 line limit on
  signature files -- an amount that should be more than sufficient to
  provide a return address and attribution.

               Limit Line Length and Avoid Control Characters

  Try to keep your text in a generic format.  Many (if not most) of
  the people reading Usenet do so from 80 column terminals or from
  workstations with 80 column terminal windows.  Try to keep your
  lines of text to less than 80 characters for optimal readability.
  If people quote part of your article in a followup, short lines will
  probably show up better, too.

  Also realize that there are many, many different forms of terminals
  in use.  If you enter special control characters in your message, it
  may result in your message being unreadable on some terminal types;
  a character sequence that causes reverse video on your screen may
  result in a keyboard lock and graphics mode on someone else's
  terminal.  You should also try to avoid the use of tabs, too, since
  they may also be interpreted differently on terminals other than
  your own.


                       Summary of Things to Remember


       Never forget that the person on the other side is human
       Don't blame system admins for their users' behavior
       Be careful what you say about others
       Be brief
       Your postings reflect upon you; be proud of them
       Use descriptive titles
       Think about your audience
       Be careful with humor and sarcasm
       Only post a message once
       Please rotate material with questionable content
       Summarize what you are following up
       Use mail, don't post a follow-up
       Read all follow-ups and don't repeat what has already been said
       Double-check follow-up newsgroups and distributions.
       Be careful about copyrights and licenses
       Cite appropriate references
       When summarizing, summarize
       Mark or rotate answers or spoilers
       Spelling flames considered harmful
       Don't overdo signatures
       Limit line length and avoid control characters

(*)UNIX is a registered trademark of AT&T.

-----------
      This document is in the public domain and may be reproduced or
      excerpted by anyone wishing to do so.
--

                      Frequently Submitted Items

This document discusses some questions and topics that occur
repeatedly on USENET.  They frequently are submitted by new users, and
result in many followups, sometimes swamping groups for weeks. The
purpose of this note is to head off these annoying events by answering
some questions and warning about the inevitable consequence of asking
others.  If you don't like these answers, let [e-mail] know.

Note that some newsgroups have their own special "Frequent Questions &
Answers" posting.  You should read a group for a while before posting
any questions, because the answers may already be present.
Comp.unix.questions and comp.unix.internals are examples -- Steve Hayman
regularly posts an article that answers common questions, including
some of the ones asked here.

This list is often referred to as FAQ -- the Frequently Asked
Questions.  If you are a new user of the Usenet and don't find an
answer to your questions here, you can try asking in the
news.newusers.questions group.  You might also read through other FAQ
lists, cross-posted to the news.answers group.


                               Contents
                               ========

 1.  What does UNIX stand for?
 2.  What is the derivation of "foo" as a filler word?
 3.  Is a machine at "foo" on the net?
 4.  What does "rc" at the end of files like .newsrc mean?
 5.  What does :-) mean?
 6.  How do I decrypt jokes in rec.humor?
 7.  misc.misc or misc.wanted: Is John Doe out there anywhere?
 8.  sci.math: Proofs that 1=0.
 9.  rec.games.*: Where can I get the source for empire or rogue?
10.  comp.unix.questions: How do I remove files with non-ascii
     characters in their names?
11.  comp.unix.internals: There is a bug in the way UNIX handles
     protection for programs that run suid, or any other report of
     bugs with standard software.
12.  Volatile topics, e.g., soc.women: What do you think about abortion?
13.  soc.singles: What do MOTOS, MOTSS, and MOTAS  stand for?
     What does LJBF mean?
14.  soc.singles and elsewhere:  What does HASA stand for?
15.  sci.space.shuttle: Shouldn't this group be merged with sci.space?
16.  How do I use the "Distribution" feature?
17.  Why do some people put funny lines ("bug killers") at the beginning
     of their articles?
18.  What is the address or phone number of the "foo" company?
19.  What is the origin of the name "grep"?
20.  How do I get from BITNET to UUCP, Internet to BITNET, JANET etc. etc.?
21.  Didn't some state once pass a law setting pi equal to 3 ?
22.  Where can I get the necessary software to get a "smart"
     mail system running on my machine that will take advantage
     of the postings in comp.mail.maps?  (E.g., pathalias, smail, etc.)
23.  What is "food for the NSA line-eater"?
24.  Does anyone know the {pinouts, schematics, switch settings,
     what does jumper J3 do} for widget X?
25.  What is "anonymous ftp"?
26.  What is UUNET?
27.  Isn't the posting mechanism broken?  When I post an article to both
     a moderated group and unmoderated groups, it gets mailed to the
     moderator and not posted to the unmoderated groups.
28.  comp.arch and elsewhere:  What do FYI and IMHO mean?
29.  Would someone repost {large software distribution}?
30.  How do I contact the moderator of an Internet mailing list rather than
     post to the entire list?
31.  I see BTW (or "btw"), wrt and RTFM in postings.  What do they mean?
32.  Are there any restrictions on posting e-mail someone sends to me?
33.  What's an FQDN?
34.  How do you pronounce "char" in C, "ioctl" in UNIX, the character
     "#", etc., etc.?
35.  How do you pronounce "TeX"?
36.  What is the last year of the 20th century A.D.?
37.  I heard these stories about a dying child wanting
     postcards/get-well cards/business cards to get in the Guinness Book
     of World Records.  Where can I post the address for people to help?
38.  I just heard about a scheme the FCC has to implement a tax on
     modems!  Where can I post a message so everyone will hear about
     this and do something to prevent it?
39.  Is there a public access Unix system near me?  How can I get
     access to system for news and mail?
40.  In rec.pets: My pet has suddenly developed the following symptoms
     .... Is it serious?  In sci.med: I have these symptoms .... Is it
     serious?
41.  I have this great idea to make money.  Alternatively, wouldn't an
     electronic chain letter be a nifty idea?
42.  Where can I get archives of Usenet postings?
43.  Is it possible to post messages to the Usenet via electronic mail?
44.  Is it possible to read Usenet newsgroups via electronic mail?
45.  How do I get the news software to include a signature with my
     postings?
46.  I'm on Bitnet -- can I connect to the net?


                        Questions and Answers
                        =====================

 1.  What does UNIX stand for?

     It is not an acronym, but is a pun on "Multics".  Multics is a
     large operating system that was being developed shortly before
     UNIX was created.  Brian Kernighan is credited with the name.

 2.  What is the derivation of "foo" as a filler word?

     The favorite story is that it comes from "fubar" which is an
     acronym for "fouled up beyond all recognition", which is supposed
     to be a military term.  (Various forms of this exist, "fouled"
     usually being replaced by a stronger word.) "Foo" and "Bar" have
     the same derivation.

 3.  Is a machine at "foo" on the net?

     These questions belong in news.config (if anywhere), but in fact
     your best bet is usually to phone somebody at "foo" to find out.
     If you don't know anybody at "foo" you can always try calling and

     asking for the "comp center."  Also, see the newsgroup
     comp.mail.maps where maps of USENET and the uucp network are posted
     regularly.  If you have access to telnet, connect to nic.ddn.mil
     and try the "whois" command.  (See also the answer to question
     #7, below.)

 4.  What does "rc" at the end of files like .newsrc mean?

     It is related to the phrase "run commands." It is used for any
     file that contains startup information for a command.  The use of
     "rc" in startup files derives from the /etc/rc command file used
     to start multi-user UNIX.

 5.  What does :-) mean?

      This is the net convention for a "smiley face".  It means that
      something is being said in jest.  If it doesn't look like a smiley
      face to you, flop your head over to the left and look again.
      Variants exist and mean related things; for instance, :-( is sad.

      Collections of smileys are posted to various newsgroups from
      time to time. One was posted to comp.sources.misc in v23i102.

 6.  How do I decrypt jokes in rec.humor?

     The standard cypher used in rec.humor is called "rot13."  Each
     letter is replaced by the letter 13 farther along in the alphabet
     (cycling around at the end).  Most systems have a built-in
     command to decrypt such articles; readnews and nn have the "D"
     command, emacs/gnus has the "^C^R" combination, rn has the "X" or
     "^X" commands, notes has "%" or "R", and VMS news has the
     read/rot13 command.  If your system doesn't have a program to
     encrypt and decrypt these, you can quickly create a shell script
     using "tr":
        tr A-Za-z N-ZA-Mn-za-m
     On some versions of UNIX, the "tr" command should be written as:
        tr "[a-m][n-z][A-M][N-Z]" "[n-z][a-m][N-Z][A-M]"

 7.  misc.misc or misc.wanted: Is John Doe out there anywhere?

     I suspect that these items are people looking for Freshman room-
     mates that they haven't seen in ten years.  If you have some idea
     where the person is, you are usually better off calling the
     organization.  For example, if you call any Bell Labs location and
     request John Doe's number they can give it to you even if he works
     at a different location.  If you must try the net, use newsgroup
     soc.net-people *NOT* misc.misc or misc.wanted.  Also, you can try
     the "whois" command (see item #3).  There is a periodic posting
     in the news.newusers.questions and news.answers newsgroups that
     gives information on other ways to locate people.

 8.  sci.math: Proofs that 1=0.

     Almost everyone has seen one or more of these in high school.
     They are almost always based on either division by 0, confusing
     the positive and negative square roots of a number, or performing
     some ill-defined operation.

 9.  rec.games.*: Where can I get the source for empire or rogue?

     You can't get the source of rogue.  The authors of the game, as is
     their right, have chosen not to make the sources available.
     However, several rogue-like games have been posted to the
     comp.sources.games group and they are available in the archives.

     You can obtain the source to a version of empire if you provide
     a tape and SASE *plus* a photocopy of your UNIX source license.
     To obtain further info, contact mcnc!rti-sel!polyof!john.
     You can also call John at [phone] (9am-9pm EST only).

     Sites with Internet access can ftp several versions of empire
     from site g.ms.uky.edu

     Also, please note that the wizards' passwords in games like these
     are usually system-dependent and it does no good to ask the
     net-at-large what they are.

10.  comp.unix.questions: How do I remove files with non-ascii
     characters in their names?

     You can try to find a pattern that uniquely identifies the file.
     This sometimes fails because a peculiarity of some shells is that
     they strip off the highorder bit of characters in command lines.
     Next, you can try an rm -i, or rm -r. Finally, you can mess around
     with i-node numbers and "find".

     Some Emacs editors allow you to directly edit a directory, and
     this provides yet another way to remove a file with a funny name
     (assuming you have Emacs and figure out how to use it!).

     To remove a file named "-" from your directory, simply do:
     rm ./-

11.  comp.unix.internals: There is a bug in the way UNIX handles
     protection for programs that run suid, or any other report of
     bugs with standard software.

     There are indeed problems with the treatment of protection in
     setuid programs.  When this is brought up, suggestions for changes
     range from implementing a full capability list arrangement to new
     kernel calls for allowing more control over when the effective id
     is used and when the real id is used to control accesses.  Sooner
     or later you can expect this to be improved.  For now you just
     have to live with it.

     Always discuss suspected bugs or problems with your site software
     experts before you post to the net.  It is likely that the bugs
     have already been reported.  They might also be local changes and
     not something you need to describe to the whole Usenet.

12.  Volatile topics, e.g., soc.women: What do you think about abortion?

     Although abortion might appear to be an appropriate topic for
     soc.women, more heat than light is generated when it is brought
     up.  All abortion-related discussion should take place in the
     newsgroup talk.abortion.  If your site administrators have chosen
     not to receive this group, you should respect this and not post
     articles about abortion at all.

     This principle applies to other topics: religious upbringing of
     children should be restricted to talk.religion.misc and kept out
     of misc.kids.  Similarly, rape discussions should be kept to
     talk.rape and not in soc.singles, alt.sex and/or soc.women,
     Zionism discussions should be kept to talk.politics.mideast and
     not in soc.culture.jewish; likewise, discussions of Jesus or of
     religions other than Judaism should go to newsgroups for the
     appropriate religion or to talk.religion.misc or alt.messianic.
     Any attempts to proselytize any religious view belongs in
     talk.religion.misc, if it belongs on the net at all.
     Discussions on the merits of Affirmative Action and racial quotas

     belong in talk.politics or alt.discrimination, not in
     soc.culture.african.american.  Discussions about evolution vs.
     creationism should be confined to the talk.origins group.

     USENET newsgroups are named for mostly historical reasons, and
     are not intended to be fully general discussion groups for
     everything about the named topic.  Please accept this and post
     articles in their appropriate forums.

13.  soc.singles: What do MOTOS, MOTSS, MOTAS, and SO stand for?
     What does LJBF mean?

     Member of the opposite sex, member of the same sex, and member of
     the appropriate sex, respectively.  SO stands for "significant
     other."

     LJBF means "Let's just be friends."  This phrase is often heard
     when you least want it.

14.  soc.singles and elsewhere:  What does HASA stand for?

     The acronym HASA originated with the Heathen and Atheistic SCUM
     Alliance; the Hedonistic Asti-Spumante Alliance, Heroes Against
     Spaghetti Altering, the Society for Creative Atheism (SCATHE),
     SASA, SALSA, PASTA, and many others too numerous to mention all
     followed.  HASA started in (what is now) talk.religion.misc and
     also turns up in soc.singles, talk.bizarre, et al. because members
     post there too.

15.  sci.space.shuttle: Shouldn't this group be merged with sci.space?

     No.  sci.space.shuttle is for timely news bulletins.  sci.space is for
     discussions.

16.  How do I use the "Distribution" feature?

     When your posting software (e.g., Pnews or postnews) prompts you
     for a distribution, it's asking how widely distributed you want
     your article.  The set of possible replies is different,
     depending on where you are, but at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New
     Jersey, possibilities include (for example):
        local   local to this machine
        mh      Bell Labs, Murray Hill Branch
        nj      all sites in New Jersey
        btl     All Bell Labs machines
        att     All AT&T machines
        usa     Everywhere in the USA
        na      Everywhere in North America
        world   Everywhere on USENET in the world
     Many of the posting programs will provide a list of
     distributions, if your site admin has kept the files up-to-date.

     If you hit return, you'll get the default, which is usually
     "world.".  This default is often not appropriate -- PLEASE take a
     moment to think about how far away people are likely to be
     interested in what you have to say.  Used car ads, housing wanted
     ads, and things for sale other than specialized equipment like
     computers certainly shouldn't be distributed to Europe and Korea,
     or even to the next state.

     It is generally not possible to post an article to a distribution
     that your own machine does not receive.  For instance, if you
     live in Indiana, you can't post an article for distribution only
     in New Jersey or Germany unless your site happens to exchange
     those particular distributions with another site.  Try mailing
     the article to someone in the appropriate area and asking them to
     post it for you.

     If you cannot determine what distributions are valid for your
     site, ask someone locally rather than posting a query to the
     whole network!

17.  Why do some people put funny lines ("bug killers") at the beginning
     of their articles?

     Some earlier versions (mid-80s) of news had a bug which would
     drop the first 512 or 1024 bytes of text of certain articles.
     The bug was triggered whenever the article started with
     whitespace (a blank or a tab).  A fix many people adopted was to
     begin their articles with a line containing a character other
     than white space.  This gradually evolved into the habit of
     including amusing first lines.

     The original bug has since been fixed in newer version of news,
     and sites running older versions of news have applied a patch to
     prevent articles from losing text.  The "bug-killer" lines are
     therefore probably no longer needed, but they linger on.

18.  What is the address or phone number of the "foo" company?

     Try the white and yellow pages of your phone directory, first; a
     sales representative will surely know, and if you're a potential
     customer they will be who you're looking for.  Phone books for
     other cities are usually available in libraries of any size.
     Whoever buys or recommends things for your company will probably
     have some buyer's guides or national company directories. Call or
     visit the reference desk of your library; they have several
     company and organization directories and many will answer
     questions like this over the phone.  Remember if you only know
     the city where the company is, you can telephone to find out
     their full address or a dealer.  Calls to 1-800-555-1212 will
     reveal if the company has an "800" number you can call for
     information.  The network is NOT a free resource, although it may
     look like that to some people.  It is far better to spend a few
     minutes of your own time researching an answer rather than
     broadcast your laziness and/or ineptitude to the net.

19.  What is the origin of the name "grep"?

     The original UNIX text editor "ed" has a construct g/re/p,
     where "re" stands for a regular expression, to Globally
     search for matches to the Regular Expression and Print the
     lines containing them.  This was so often used that it was
     packaged up into its own command, thus named "grep".  According
     to Dennis Ritchie, this is the true origin of the command.

20.  How do I get from BITNET to UUCP, Internet to BITNET, JANET etc.?

     There are so many networks and mail systems in use now, it would
     take a book to describe all of them and how to send mail between
     them.  Luckily, there are a couple of excellent books that do
     exactly that, and in a helpful, easy-to-use manner:

         "!%@:: A Directory of Electronic Mail Addressing & Networks"
         by Donnalyn Frey and Rick Adams, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc,
         2nd edition 1990.

         "The Matrix: Computer Networks and Conferencing Systems
         Worldwide" by John Quarterman, Digital Press, 1990.

     Another excellent book to have on your bookshelf (to keep those
     two company) is "The User's Directory of Computer Networks" edited
     by Tracy LaQuey, Digital Press, 1990.


21.  Didn't some state once pass a law setting pi equal to 3 ?

     Indiana House Bill #246 was introduced on 18 January 1897, and
     referred to the Committee on Canals "midst general cheerfulness."
     The text states, "the ratio of the diameter and circumference is
     as five-fourths to four", which makes pi 3.2 (not 3), but there
     are internal contradictions in the bill as well as contradictions
     with reality.  The author was a mathematical crank.  The bill was
     passed by the state House on 5 February, but indefinitely tabled
     by the state Senate, in part thanks to the fortuitous presence
     on other business of a Purdue professor of mathematics.

     For details, including an annotated text of the bill, read the
     article by D. Singmaster in "The Mathematical Intelligencer" v7
     #2, pp 69-72.

22.  Where can I get the necessary software to get a "smart"
     mail system running on my machine that will take advantage
     of the postings in comp.mail.maps?  (E.g., pathalias, smail, etc.)

     There are a couple of packages available through the supporters of
     the comp.sources.unix archives.  If sites next to you don't have
     what you want, contact your nearest comp.sources.unix archive, or
     the moderator.  Information on archive sites, and indices of
     comp.sources.unix back issues are posted regularly in
     comp.sources.unix and comp.sources.d.

23.  What is "food for the NSA line-eater"?

     This refers to the alleged scanning of all USENET traffic by the
     National Security Agency (and possibly other intelligence
     organizations) for interesting keywords.  The "food" is believed
     to contain some of those keywords in the fond hope of overloading
     NSA's poor computers.  A little thought should convince anyone
     that this is unlikely to occur.  Other posters have taken up this
     practice, either as an ambiguous form of political statement, or
     as an attempt at humor.  The bottom line is that excessive
     signatures in any form are discouraged, the joke has worn stale
     amongst long-time net readers, and there are specific newsgroups
     for the discussion of politics.

24.  Does anyone know the {pinouts, schematics, switch settings,
     what does jumper J3 do} for widget X?

     These postings are almost always inappropriate unless the
     manufacturer has gone out of business or no longer supports the
     device.  If neither of these is the case, you're likely to get a
     better and faster response by simply telephoning the
     manufacturer.

25.  What is "anonymous ftp"?

     "FTP" stands for File Transfer Protocol; on many systems, it's
     also the name of a user-level program that implements that
     protocol.  This program allows a user to transfer files to and
     from a remote network site, provided that network site is
     reachable via the Internet or a similar facility.  (Ftp is
     also usable on many local-area networks.)

     "Anonymous FTP" indicates that a user may log into the remote
     system as user "anonymous" with an arbitrary password.  A common
     convention is that some sort of identification is supplied as the
     password, e.g. "mumble@foo".  This is sometimes useful to those
     sites that track ftp usage.  Also note that most sites restrict
     when transfers can be made, or at least suggest that large
     transfers be made only during non-peak hours.

26.  What is UUNET?

     UUNET is a for-profit communications service designed to provide
     access to USENET news, mail, and various source archives at low
     cost by obtaining volume discounts.  Charges are calculated to
     recover costs.

     For more information send your US mail address to
     [e-mail] (uunet!info).

27.  Isn't the posting mechanism broken?  When I post an article to both
     a moderated group and unmoderated groups, it gets mailed to the
     moderator and not posted to the unmoderated groups.

     This is a question that is debated every few months.  The answer
     is "No, it was designed to work that way."  The software is
     designed so that the moderator can crosspost the article so it
     appears in the regular groups as well as the moderated group, if
     appropriate.  If the article were to be posted immediately to the
     unmoderated groups, the moderated group name would have to be
     deleted from the header and you would lose the crossposting.

     Whether or not this is correct behavior is a matter of opinion.
     If you want your article to go out immediately to the unmoderated
     groups, post it twice -- once to the unmoderated groups and once
     to the moderated groups.

28.  comp.arch and elsewhere:  What do FYI and IMHO mean?

     Those are abbreviations for common phrases.  FYI is "For Your
     Information" and IMHO is "In My Humble Opinion" or "In My
     Honest Opinion."  This is used sarcastically as often as not.

29.  Would someone repost {large software distribution}?

     This question should never be posted unless you are reporting a
     widespread problem in article propagation. Lamentably, there ARE
     occasional glitches in article transport. Large source or binary
     postings, by their sheer size, are an inviting target.

     If the problem is isolated, it is much better to take it upon
     yourself to obtain the bad portions of the program than to ask
     thousands of sites to spend thousands of dollars to needlessly
     move several hundred kilobytes of code. There are archive sites
     around the net that make most source/binary newsgroups available
     via anonymous FTP and UUCP. If you get desperate, you can always
     mail the author a blank disk or magnetic tape with provisions for
     return postage.

30.  How do I contact the moderator of an Internet mailing list rather than
     post to the entire list?

     To do this you should know that there are, by convention, two
     mailing addresses for every mailing list (except where noted by
     the List of Lists):

             list@host          (e.g. [e-mail])
             list-request@host  (e.g. [e-mail])

     When you have something for everyone on the mailing list to read,
     mail to the list@host address. HOWEVER, if you have an
     administrative request to make (e.g. "please add me to this list",
     "please remove me from this list", "where are the archives?",

     "what is this mailer error I got from sending to this list?"), it
     should be directed to the list-request@host address, which goes
     only to the mailing list administrator.

     It is considered to be in bad taste to send administrative
     requests to the entire mailing list in question, and if (as is
     often the case) the administrator does not read the mailing list
     (i.e. he just takes care of the admin tasks for the list), he will
     not see your request if you don't send it to the right address.

31.  I see BTW (or "btw"), wrt and RTFM in postings.  What do they mean?

     BTW is shorthand for "by the way."  WRT is "With respect to".

     RTFM is generally used as an admonition and means "read the f*ing
     manual" (choice of f-words varies according to reader).  The
     implication is that the answer to a query or complaint is easy to
     find if one looks in the appropriate location FIRST.  Most FAQ
     postings (Frequently-Asked Questions) that answer these questions
     may be found cross-posted in news.answers.

32.  Are there any restrictions on posting e-mail someone sends to me?

     At a minimum, it is only polite for you to contact the author of
     the letter and secure her or his permission to post it to the net.

     On a more serious note, it can be argued that posting someone's
     e-mail to the net without their permission is a violation of
     copyright law.  Under that law, even though a letter was
     addressed to you, it does not grant you the right to publish the
     contents, as that is the work of the author and the author
     retains copyright (even if no explicit copyright mark appears).

     Basically, your letters are your intellectual property.  If
     someone publishes your letters they are violating your copyright.
     This principle is well-founded in "paper media," and while
     untested in electronic forums such as Usenet, the same would
     probably apply if tested in court.

33.  What's an FQDN?

     A fully-qualified domain name.  That is, a hostname containing
     full, dotted qualification of its name up to the root of the
     Internet domain naming system tree.  Example: uiucuxc is the
     single-word hostname (suitable for, e.g., UUCP transport
     purposes) of the machine whose FQDN is uxc.cso.uiuc.edu.

34.  How do you pronounce "char" in C, "ioctl" in UNIX, the character
     "#", etc., etc.?

     Opinions differ.  Pick pronunciations close to what your
     colleagues use.  After all, they're the ones you need to
     communicate with.

35.  How do you pronounce "TeX"?

     To quote Donald Knuth, the creator of TeX: "Insiders pronounce
     the X of TeX as a Greek chi, not as an 'x', so that TeX rhymes
     with the word blecchhh.  It's the 'ch' sound in Scottish words
     like loch or German words like ach; it's a Spanish 'j' and a
     Russian 'kh'.  When you say it correctly to your computer, the
     terminal may become slightly moist."  [The TeXbook, 1986, Addison
     Wesley, page 1]

36.  What is the last year of the 20th century A.D.?

     The A.D. (Latin, Anno Domini, In the Year of Our Lord) system was
     devised before "origin 0 counting" was invented.  The year during
     which Jesus was (incorrectly) assumed to have been born was
     numbered 1.  (The preceding year was 1 B.C.)  So the 1st century
     was 1 to 100, the 2nd was 101 to 200, the 20th is 1901 to 2000.
     This is standard terminology no matter how much some of you may
     dislike it.  However, "a" century is any span of 100 years; so if
     you want to celebrate the end of "the century", meaning the
     1900's, on December 31, 1999, nobody will stop you.  It just
     isn't the end of the "20th century A.D.".

37.  I heard these stories about a dying child wanting
     postcards/get-well cards/business cards to get in the Guinness
     Book of World Records.  Where can I post the address for people to
     help?

     Post it to "junk," or better yet, don't post it at all.  The
     story of the little boy keeps popping up, even though his mother
     and the agencies involved have been appealing for people to stop.
     So many postcards were sent (33 million as of May 1991) that the
     agencies involved in the effort don't know what to do with them.
     The Guinness people have recorded the boy, Craig Shergold, as the
     record holder in the category (cf. page 207 of the 1992 US
     edition).  However, they will not accept claims for a new try at
     the record.  For confirmation, you can see page 24 of the 29 July
     1990 NY Times or call the publisher of the Guinness Book (in the
     US, call "Facts on File" @ 212-683-2244).

     If you want to do something noble, donate the cost of a stamp and
     postcard (or more) to a worthwhile charity like UNICEF or the
     International Red Cross (Red Crescent, Red Magen David).  There are
     tens of thousands of children dying around the world daily, and
     they could use more than a postcard.

38.  I just heard about a scheme the FCC has to implement a tax on
     modems!  Where can I post a message so everyone will hear about
     this and do something to prevent it?

     Post it the same place as the articles in response to #37, above.
     This is an old, old story that just won't die.  Something like
     this was proposed many YEARS back and defeated.  However, the
     rumor keeps spreading and people who hear about it for the first
     time get all upset.  Before posting stories like this, check with
     the organizations involved (like the FCC) to see if the story is
     true and current.

39.  Is there a public access Unix system near me?  How can I get
     access to system for news and mail?

     Phil Eschallier posts a list of open access Unix sites (he calls
     them "Nixpub" sites) on a regular basis to the following
     newsgroups: comp.misc and alt.bbs.   Check his posting
     for information on sites you can contact.

     Furthermore, a list of open access sites that are not necessarily
     Unix sites is posted regularly in alt.bbs.lists; see the postings
     entitled "NetPub listing" for more information.

40.  In rec.pets: My pet has suddenly developed the following symptoms
     .... Is it serious?  In sci.med: I have these symptoms .... Is it
     serious?

     Could be.  The only way to tell for sure is to see an expert.  The

     network reaches a vast audience with considerable talent, but that
     can never replace the expert observation and diagnosis of a
     trained professional.  Do yourself or your pet a big favor -- if
     there is a problem, go see an appropriate practitioner.  If there
     is a serious problem, it is important that it is dealt with promptly.

 41. I have this great idea to make money.  Alternatively, wouldn't an
     electronic chain letter be a nifty idea?

     In a few words: don't even think about it.  Trying to use the net
     to make vast sums of money or send chain letters is a very bad
     idea.  First of all, it is an inappropriate use of resources, and
     tends to use up vast amounts of net bandwidth.  Second, such usage
     of the net tends to produce extremely negative reactions by people
     on the net, adding even more to the volume -- most of it directed
     to you.  Users, particular system admins, do not like that kind of
     activity, and they will flood your mailbox with notices to that
     effect.

     And last, and perhaps most important, some of this activity is
     against the law in many places.  In the US, you can (and will) be
     reported by hacked-off system administrators for suspicion of wire
     fraud or mail fraud.  In one incident, at *least* a half dozen
     people reported the poster to Postal Service inspectors; I'm not
     sure what the outcome was, but it probably was not a nice
     experience.

     Bottom line: don't try clever schemes to sell things, solicit
     donations, or run any kind of pyramid or Ponzi scheme.  Also,
     don't start or support electronic chain letters.

 42. Where can I get archives of Usenet postings?

     Most Usenet newsgroups are not archived in any organized fashion,
     though it's likely that if you look hard enough someone will have
     kept much or most of the traffic (either on disk or on some tape
     gathering dust somewhere).  The volume on Usenet is simply too
     high to keep everything on rotating magnetic media forever,
     however.  The signal-to-noise ratio is too low in many groups to
     make them good candidates for archiving.

     One person's signal is another person's noise; if you're lucky,
     you'll find someone who has been keeping the good parts of a
     particular newsgroup in their own personal stash to save up for
     later.  How to get access to a group that *is* archived depends
     on what kind of group it is:

     * The "sources" and "binaries" groups are generally archived at
       multiple sites; for more information about getting access to
       them, see the posting entitled "How to find sources" in
       comp.sources.wanted.

     * Some non-source newsgroups can be found by asking "archie"
       about the group name.  See the comp.sources.wanted posting
       mentioned above for information about how to use "archie."

     * In other groups, if the group has a Frequently Asked Questions
       posting or another periodic posting about the group, check that
       posting to see if it mentions where the group is archived.  If
       not, then you'll have to post a message in the newsgroup and
       ask if it is archived anywhere.

 43. Is it possible to post messages to the Usenet via electronic mail?

     There are a few sites on the Usenet that offer a full-scale mail
     to news gateway, so that you can post via E-mail to any newsgroup
     support.

     The most well-known gateway of this sort is ucbvax.berkeley.edu.
     To post a message to the Usenet through that gateway, you take
     the name of the newsgroup to which you want to post and convert
     all of the periods to dashes, and use that as the address to
     which to send your message.  For example, to post a message to
     news.newusers.questions, you would mail it to
     [e-mail].

     Please do not use this service if you have other posting access
     to the Usenet.

 44. Is it possible to read Usenet newsgroups via electronic mail?

     Most Usenet newsgroups do not correspond to any mailing list, so
     the conventional answer to this question is "no" for most groups.
     However, there are some newsgroups that are gatewayed to mailing
     lists.  For a list of them, see the "List of Active Newsgroups"
     posting in news.announce.newusers.

     If you know a Usenet site admin who is willing to act as a
     personal gateway for you, you might be able to get him/her to set
     up his/her system to forward messages from individual newsgroups
     to you via E-mail.  However, most admins don't like to do this
     because it adds to the outgoing traffic from their site, so don't
     post messages to the net saying, "Hey, is there someone willing
     to gateway newsgroups to me?"

 45. How do I get the news software to include a signature with my
     postings?

     This is a question that is best answered by examining the
     documentation for the software you're using, as the answer
     varies depending on the software.

     However, if you're reading news on a Unix machine, then you can
     probably get a signature to appear on your outgoing messages by
     creating a file called ".signature" in your home directory.  Two
     important things to remember are:

     1. Many article-posting programs will restrict the length of the
        signature.  For example, the "inews" program will often only
        include the first four lines.  This is not something you
        should be trying to find a way to defeat; it is there for
        a reason.  If your signature is too long, according to the
        software, then shorten it.  Even if the software does not
        complain, keep your .signature under four lines as a courtesy
        to others.

     2. Under some news configurations, your .signature file must be
        world-readable, and your home directory world-executable, for
        your signature to be included correctly in your articles.  If
        your .signature does not get included, try running these
        commands:
           chmod a+x $HOME
           chmod a+r $HOME/.signature

 46. I'm on BitNet -- can I connect to the Usenet?

     Many BitNet sites also have connections to other networks. Some
     of these sites may be receiving Usenet with NNTP or by other
     methods. IBM VM/CMS sites which only have a connection to BitNet

     may still gain access to Usenet if they get a software package
     called NetNews, which is available from Penn State University at
     no charge. The PSU NetNews software allows sites to receive
     Usenet news over BITNET.  Talk to your local site administraters
     to find out if your site has this software installed and how to
     access it from your account.

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