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Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!dreaderd!not-for-mail Message-ID: <backrubs/faq/part1_1041497631@rtfm.mit.edu> Supersedes: <backrubs/faq/part1_1039684303@rtfm.mit.edu> References: <backrubs/faq/intro_1041497631@rtfm.mit.edu> X-Last-Updated: 2002/12/12 From: *jamie@csd.uwo.ca* (J. `send no junk mail' Blustein) Newsgroups: alt.backrubs,alt.answers,news.answers Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Subject: [alt.backrubs] Frequently Asked Questions (FAQL), (1/5) Reply-To: jamie@csd.uwo.ca (J. Blustein) Followup-To: alt.backrubs Distribution: world Organization: Computer Science Dept., Univ. of Western Ontario, London, Canada X-Copyright: copyright (c) Jamie Blustein 1994-2002. All rights reserved. See question 0.7 for details. Summary: Answers to frequently asked basic questions about alt.backrubs and massage. Keywords: faql answer massage bodywork backrub advice massage anonymous acronym help Originator: faqserv@penguin-lust.MIT.EDU Date: 02 Jan 2003 08:58:32 GMT Lines: 295 NNTP-Posting-Host: penguin-lust.mit.edu X-Trace: 1041497912 senator-bedfellow.mit.edu 3937 18.181.0.29 Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu alt.backrubs:25555 alt.answers:65568 news.answers:243974 Archive-name: backrubs/faq/part1 Last-modified: 25 October 2002 Maintainer: J. Blustein <jamie@csd.uwo.ca> Copyright: (c) 1994-2002 J. Blustein. All rights reserved. See question 0.7 for details. *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** * * * This FAQ list will not be posted after January 2003 * * * *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** Section 1 -- General Questions This posting contains answers to the following questions: 1.1) What is alt.backrubs about? 1.2) I have a question not answered here. Should I post? 1.3) What does this acronym stand for? 1.4) Help! I'm new to this whole Usenet/'net thing 1.5) What must I know about anonymous posts? 1.6) What should I do about 'net abuse (spams, scams & advertisements)? 1.7) Does anyone discuss anything here anymore? Each question begins with `Subject:' on a line of its own. Users with suitably equipped newsreaders can automatically skip to the start of the next question, e.g. trn will display the start of the question when you press ^G (control-G). Of course if your newsreader doesn't do this automatically, you can still use a search command to find the next question. To find the answer to question 1.2 search for a line beginning with `Q1.2)', there will be only one. ------------------------------ Your suggestions for changes to these articles are welcome. Please see section 0 (entitled Administrivia and Acknowledgements) in the earlier posting for information about whom to contact and what changes are planned. The questions are divided into the following general sections. Questions from each section are answered in articles of their own. A list of all questions appears in the first article (section 0). Section 0 Administrivia and Acknowledgements Section 1 General Questions Section 2 Basics of Massage Section 3 Novice Questions Section 4 Professional Massage Section 5 Other Sources of Information ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 1 -- General Questions Subject: What is the alt.backrubs newsgroup about? Q1.1) This newsgroup functions primarily as a place for discussion of massage techniques and principles, and issues related to massage including bodywork therapies, e.g. Rolfing. Although you'd be wasting energy by posting messages seeking sexual partners here, there have been some interesting discussions about areas of overlap between massage and sex. See the archive for collections of such postings. Details about the archive appear in question 5.1.2. Question 5.2 has a list of other network resources, e.g. newsgroups, with related material. Of particular interest to professional massage therapists and students is the BODYWORK mailing-list (see question 5.2.4 b). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: I have a question not answered here. Should I post? Q1.2) If you think your question is relevant to alt.backrubs (see question 1.1 for a description of what alt.backrubs is about) and is not answered in any of the six parts of this frequently asked questions list then your question may have already have been answered and placed in the archive. The archive contains over 3 Megabytes of postings along with some indexes. Many of the answers in this document have been adapted from postings in the archive; it usually provides more detailed answers to those questions. Many questions that are answered in the archive do not appear here. You'll have to decide for yourself if the archive has the answer to your question but you will usually benefit by exploring it. If you're not sure where to look for an answer to your question then check out the lists of related network resources in section 5. There is information there about what newsgroups to read, to post to, as well as what essays and lists are available electronically to help answer your health and body related questions. Question 5.2.6 is the most general. If you do ask a question by posting please remember to request that replies be sent to you by mail so that you can summarize them for the rest of us. Be sure to say something like `please reply by mail, I'll post as summary,' or it is likely that someone will think that you want replies by mail only because you are too lazy to read the group -- I kid you not. When it comes time to post your summary take some time to actually summarize the mail you received. It isn't necessary to specify who gave each answer or to quote them exactly. Do not concatenate all the messages into one posting! By taking the time to make a proper summary you are helping all the present and future readers of alt.backrubs. That group includes the people who took time to write to you. Much more advice about how to best work with the Usenet community can be found in question 1.4. The archive is the subject of question 5.1.2 (in section 5). A complete list of all the questions in this FAQL appears in section 0 (entitled Administrivia and Acknowledgements). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Acronyms Q1.3) a) Acronyms peculiar to alt.backrubs: CMT = Certified MT (see LMT and RMT) CTS = Carpal Tunnel Syndrome LITA = Look In The alt.backrubs Archive LMT = Licensed MT (compare with RMT, see question 4.1 for more information about licensing) MT = Massage Therapist (Massage Technician, in some places) RMT = Registered MT (usually abbreviated to MT, compare LMT) RSI = Repetitive Stress Injury TCM = Traditional Chinese Medicine TMJ = dysfunction of the jaw (temporomandibular joint pain-dysfunction syndrome) ------------------------------ b) Organizations: ACCET = USA Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and Training ABMP = Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals AMTA = American Massage Therapy Association AOBTA = American Oriental Body Therapy Association AMR'TA = Alchemical Medicine Research and Teaching Association CCA = USA Career College Association Accrediting Commission on Trade and Technical Schools COMTAA = USA Commission on Massage Training Accreditation/Approval NCETMB = USA National Certification Exam for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork NCBTMB = USA National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork ------------------------------ c) Other acronyms and abbreviations you should be familiar with: ETLA = Extended TLA, i.e. a four letter acronym FAQ = Frequently Asked Question (this is also the traditional acronym for a list of FAQs) FAQL = Frequently Asked Question List FTP = File Transfer Protocol GMT = Greenwich Mean Time ISBN = International Standard Book Number TLA = Three Letter Acronym TM = Trademark URL = Universal Resource Locator, a computer network address standard developed in conjunction with the World Wide Web USA = United States of America WAIS = Wide Area Information Servers (a type of automated index of documents available via the Internet) WWW = World Wide Web (a global network of hypermedia documents connected by links implemented using the Internet) :-) = An emoticon often used to express humorous intent or happiness, also used to abate a strong statement so as not to offend :) = ditto (but less formal) ------------------------------ d) `Please, sir, I want some more.' For more definitions see `Frequently Asked Questions about Usenet' which is regularly posted to the news.announce.newusers and news.answers newsgroups. There is a list of resources to help you understand acronyms at <URL:http://dir.yahoo.com/Reference/Acronyms_and_Abbreviations/>. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Help! I'm new to this whole Usenet/'net thing Q1.4) The following two newsgroups contain some excellent introductory postings: news.announce.newusers and news.newusers.questions. Whoever is providing you with access to Usenet should be able to give you some basic introduction or instruction. This isn't because they are necessarily nice, but because if they don't at least attempt to tell you the basics then they can't blame you when you do something awful. If they haven't offered you any advice or instruction then ask someone responsible for some pointers to useful information. I advise you not to ask another newcomer -- that is a great way to propagate misconceptions. There are many introductory books about the global Internet and Usenet. If you learn well from books then you might consider buying one or borrowing it from a library. Some books are available for free, others are available for sampling online as an enticement to get you to buy them. For a fuller discussion of such books see a) the misc.books.technical newsgroup, b) the Unofficial Internet Book List at the rtfm.mit.edu FTP site (filename `book-list' in the directory `pub/usenet/news.answers/internet-services') that's written <URL:ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/internet-services> in the standard notation. See question 5.2.4 for more information about the rtfm.mit.edu FTP site. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Anonymous Posts Q1.5) There isn't a lot of tolerance for anonymous posting in alt.backrubs. This intolerance is often expressed by people not following up or responding to anonymous posts. If there is some reason you must post using an anonymous service you will find people more co-operative if you give your real name and e-mail address as well as explaining why you must use the service. In case you must remain anonymous you are advised to mention the reason in your post. There is some discussion of this in the `anonymous.posts' file in the archive (see question 5.1.2). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: What should I do about 'net abuse (spams, scams & ads)? Q1.6) You've just seen a chain letter, or spam, or an unsolicited and apparently inappropriate advertisement, posted to alt.backrubs. You are enraged. What should you do? First, take a deep breath and exhale slowly; Calm down, this is only Usenet! :) Resolve *not* to post a message about this to alt.backrubs -- you'll just annoy the rest of us more. Next, read the resources listed here and choose a moral and legal course of action (or inaction) then carry it out. I don't like to duplicate information that is available in more general frequent postings. Instead, I direct you to the following three documents. This list was current as of 9 October 1995. 1) Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Usenet Posted to news.announce.newusers and news.answers by Mark Moraes <netannounce@deshaw.com>. 2) How to Get Rid of Junk Mail, Spam, and Telemarketers <URL:http://www.csn.net/~felbel/jnkmail.html> [Entry updated on 25 August 1996] 3) Boycott Internet spam! <URL:http://www.vix.com/spam/> [Entry added on 25 October 1996] 4) Blacklist of Internet Advertisers maintained by Axel Boldt <axel@uni-paderborn.de>. <URL:http://math-www.uni-paderborn.de/~axel/blacklist.html> 5) Advertising on Usenet: How To Do It, How Not To Do It Posted to news.announce.newusers, news.admin.misc, misc.entrepreneurs, news.admin.net-abuse.misc, news.misc, misc.answers, and news.answers by Joel K. Furr <jfurr@acpub.duke.edu>. Also at <URL:http://www.danger.com/advo.html> [Entry updated 11 August 1996, URL included 13 Feb 1997] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Does anyone discuss anything here anymore? Q1.7) As you can see from the archive (see question 5.1.2), for a long time there was very interesting, exciting, and sometimes insightful discussion in this newsgroup. Alas you might find there is far less discussion of any sort here anymore. Why is that, and more importantly, what can you do to find the sort of information and discussion you want? Why is that? Briefly, there was such an influx of new posters who had no understanding of (or concern with) how Usenet functioned that they overwhelmed the resources of the people who posted to and read discussions in alt.backrubs. (Some say that alt.backrubs was hit harder by the so-called September That Never Ended than other groups, but any discussion of that is beyond the scope of this list.) Over time many of the former regulars stopped reading the group and they were not replaced by posters who maintained the former type of discourse. Some of the those former posters have continued discussions in mailing lists and other networked fora. See question 5.2 for some examples. What can you do to find the sort of discussion and information that you want? The `group.split' file in the archive contains excerpts from previous discussion of related problems with the group. Here are some suggestions from previous discussions (from least to most radical): * Make postings of the sort you want to see, or at least about topics that you are interested in. As Bill Arnett wrote, alt.backrubs is a newsgroup not a magazine. If you want to read something in it then you have to write something (a question, comment, answer, summary, etc.). * If you have a suitably equipped newsreader you can use killfiles and scorefiles so that you don't have to see posts you wouldn't read anyway. (You may have a copy of my trn style killfile just by asking for it.) * Abandon this newsgroup in favour of mailing lists and other fora (see questions 4.2(a) about the BODYWORK mailing list, and 5.2.4 and 5.2.5 about online discussion fora such as misc.health.alternative). * The most radical notion is to create a new newsgroup but it is far from clear that any new group would be free from the trouble that has afflicted alt.backrubs. The alt.health.massage-therapy newsgroup is an example of such a group. With your help it could succeed. That group was created in mid-March 2001. Some discussion preceding the creation is in the archive's `group.split' file. When there is a description of the group then it will appear in question 5.2.4(m). [question added 13 November 2000, latest update 13 October 2001] -- Jamie Blustein `No trees were destroyed to make this post' <jamie@csd.uwo.ca> The disclaimer is the subject of question 0.6 See also http://www.ii.uib.no/~kjartan/backrubfaq/ This document is archived in ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/alt.backrubs/