Usenet 1993 July/InfoMagic USENET CD-ROM July 1993.ISO/answers/posting-rules/diff1

Internet Message Format | 1993-04-26 | 7.5 KB

Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!enterpoop.mit.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!purdue!not-for-mail
From: [e-mail] (Gene Spafford)
Newsgroups: news.misc,news.answers
Subject: Changes to Rules for posting to Usenet
Supersedes: <[e-mail]>
Followup-To: news.misc
Date: 26 Apr 1993 00:02:39 -0500
Organization: Dept. of Computer Sciences, Purdue Univ.
Lines: 142
Approved: [e-mail]
Expires: 25 Jun 93 17:02:39 GMT
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
NNTP-Posting-Host: ector.cs.purdue.edu
Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu news.misc:9752 news.answers:7899

Archive-name: posting-rules/diff1
Comment: enhanced & edited until 5/93 by [e-mail] (Gene Spafford)
Last-change: 25 Apr 1993 by [e-mail] (Mark Brader)


*** old/rules.n    Mon Feb  1 00:47:20 1993
--- ./src/rules.n    Sun Apr 25 22:45:02 1993
***************
*** 5,7 ****
  Original-author: [e-mail] (Mark Horton)
! Last-change: 10 Jan 1993 by [e-mail] (Gene Spafford)

--- 5,8 ----
  Original-author: [e-mail] (Mark Horton)
! Comment: enhanced & edited until 5/93 by [e-mail] (Gene Spafford)
! Last-change: 25 Apr 1993 by [e-mail] (Mark Brader)

***************
*** 22,32 ****
  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 the "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.)

--- 23,33 ----
  posted to a "comp", "news", "misc", "soc", "sci", "rec" or "talk"
! newsgroup, it will probably go to the sites on every continent with an
! estimated audience of more than 3 million potential readers.  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 the "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.)

***************
*** 95,97 ****
  comp.std.unix        [e-mail]    Unix standards discussion.
! rec.food.recipes    [e-mail]    Discussing favorite recipes.

--- 96,98 ----
  comp.std.unix        [e-mail]    Unix standards discussion.
! rec.food.recipes    [e-mail]    Sharing favorite recipes.

***************
*** 163,165 ****
  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
--- 164,166 ----
  add another line or two for addresses on other major networks where
! you can be reached (e.g., CompuServ, Bitnet).  Long signatures are
  definitely frowned upon.  DO NOT include drawings, pictures, maps, or
***************
*** 203,204 ****
--- 204,264 ----

+ When you post, post to all the newsgroups at the same time rather than
+ posting a separate copy to each newsgroup.  By posting a single
+ article to all the newsgroups you wish to reach, the news software is
+ able to transfer a single copy.  Furthermore, users with "smart"
+ newsreaders will see the article only once.  Making separate postings
+ of your article for each newsgroup you wish to reach tends to annoy
+ readers rather than emphasize the message content as well as waste
+ computational 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 a
+ new topic.  Second, there is a "followup"; this is used when you are
+ posting a response to another news article.  In several newsreaders,
+ including "rn", the "f" command usually generates an original posting
+ if your current position is at the end of the newsgroup, but a
+ followup 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 that
+ indicates to the news system that this article is "related" to the
+ article 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 are
+ following 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't follow
+ up to articles without using the newsreader's "followup" mechanism.
+ Conversely, don't use the followup mechanism to post an article that
+ is an unrelated thread.  Violating this convention sometimes leads to
+ confusion and annoyance of users with threaded newsreaders.
+
+ When posting a followup, be careful about newsgroups.  The article
+ that you're responding to might have been cross-posted to several
+ newsgroups, and by default your followup will go to ALL of those
+ newsgroups.  Or the article might have a Followup-To line in its
+ header, and in that case, by default your followup will go where the
+ Followup-To line says -- which might not be the newsgroup where you're
+ reading the article.  You should ensure that your article is posted
+ only to newsgroups where its actual content is appropriate.  Sometimes
+ it's better to leave the newsgroups on your own article the same as
+ they were, but put a Followup-To line in its header to confine
+ followups to an appropriate group.  In any case, it's best for
+ articles that have a Followup-To line to be posted to whatever groups
+ are mentioned in that line, and to mention in the text of the article
+ that followups are redirected.  The idea is for the threads of
+ articles to make sense in each newsgroup where the articles appear,
+ for people who don't read the others.
+
+
+ if you don't immediately see your posting, don't immediately assume it
+ failed and try to repost it.  Some sites have set up the local
+ software to process news periodically.  Thus, your article will not
+ appear immediately.  If you post again, you will have multiple copies
+ of the article in circulation.
+
+
  If the news system rejects a followup due to "more quoted lines than
***************
*** 241,245 ****
  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.

--- 301,305 ----
  systems on the way there.  Posting a message in the news sends it to
! many tens of 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.

--
Gene Spafford
Software Engineering Research Center & Dept. of Computer Sciences
Purdue University, W. Lafayette IN 47907-1398
Internet:  [e-mail]    phone:  [phone]