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Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!gatech!news.mathworks.com!uhog.mit.edu!news.mtholyoke.edu!news.amherst.edu!amhux4.amherst.edu!erotica From: erotica@unix.amherst.edu (Discord) Newsgroups: rec.arts.erotica,alt.sex,alt.sex.stories.d,rec.arts.prose,rec.answers,alt.answers,news.answers Subject: ADMIN: rec.arts.erotica introduction Followup-To: alt.sex.stories.d Date: 10 Aug 1995 06:51:04 GMT Organization: Amherst College, Amherst MA, USA Lines: 547 Approved: erotica@unix.amherst.edu, news-answers-request@mit.edu Message-ID: <raefaq_808037283@amhux3.amherst.com> Reply-To: tina@tezcat.com NNTP-Posting-Host: abby.amherst.edu Summary: rec.arts.erotica Frequently Asked Questions and submission guidelines Originator: erotica@amhux4.amherst.edu Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu rec.arts.erotica:1752 alt.sex:258160 alt.sex.stories.d:15057 rec.arts.prose:5409 rec.answers:13921 alt.answers:11289 news.answers:50394 Archive-name: erotica-faq Frequency: monthly Last-modified: 25 July 1995 INTRODUCTION TO REC.ARTS.EROTICA AND FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS [ Last changed: July 25, 1995 ] CREDITS Originally by: Evan Leibovich (evan@telly.on.ca) Later by: Tim Pierce (twpierce@unix.amherst.edu) Now maintained by: Discord (tina@tezcat.com) Copyright 1995 by Discord. Permission is granted to copy and redistribute this document electronically provided that it remains complete and unmodified. CD publishers take note: this does not include you. This FAQ has been substantially rewritten as of 06/10/95, upon my taking over from Tim Pierce as moderator for the group. While I feel that Tim's policies were well thought out and wise, and am keeping many of them, I felt the FAQ needed a good overhaul, and I will be making some changes. For the most up-to-date copy of this FAQ, send mail to erotica@unix.amherst.edu with the subject "FAQ". The FAQ will be placed on the Web very shortly. You can also retrieve the most recently posted version of the FAQ via ftp from MIT or one of its mirrors: ftp rtfm.mit.edu /pub/usenet/news.answers/erotica.faq or via the FAQ archive on the Web at: http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/FAQ-List.html Moderator of rec.arts.erotica: Discord (tina@tezcat.com). Backup moderator: Michael Handler (grendel@netaxs.com). Contents-list: Q: What's rec.arts.erotica all about, anyhow? Q: What will happen if I post to rec.arts.erotica? Q: What do you base your reviews on? Q: What types of stories will be rejected? Q: What are the guidelines for violent posts? Q: What should I include in my submission? Q: Do you ever edit or modify submissions before approving them? Q: What if my submission is rejected? Q: Can I post anonymously? Q: Can you please cancel my last post? Q: There's never anything in this group but this FAQ. What's wrong? Q: How do I subscribe to this group?/How do I get hot stories sent to me? (And other such questions.) Q: Can I get rec.arts.erotica via e-mail? Q: Is there a publicly-accessible site which archives this group? Q: Where can I get sexy GIFs? Q: What do you do with non-story mail? ------------------------------ Q: What's rec.arts.erotica all about, anyhow? [kept from last version, unchanged] This news group is intended to be a low-volume, noise-free environment in which to find erotic literature, and pointers of where to find other erotic materials. It is here for the enjoyment of the Usenet community and no other reason. Original submissions, and works either released into the public domain, or copyrighted but without restriction of distribution, are welcome. There aren't many rules here, but there are some. I don't think they're too outlandish, and I'm always open to change if some policy is too restrictive. But your reasons had better be good... If you have suggestions or problems regarding the answers that follow, please write me. Posting to the newsgroup should also work, because most news systems automatically mail posts to moderated groups (such as rec.arts.erotica) to the moderator's mailbox. Do not post or mail requests for stories of names of archive sites. Such requests will go ignored. ------------------------------ Q: What will happen if I post to rec.arts.erotica? [kept from last version, virtually unchanged] For information on canceling articles that have already been posted, please see below. First, your post will be sent to me automatically via e-mail, so that I can review it. Therefore, don't expect your post to show up within a few minutes after being composed. It'll have to wait until the next time I log on and have time to review new submissions. If traffic is high, this might be more than a few days (and has taken two weeks or more in the past). Next, I check it over for acceptability (see below). If your submission meets all of the guidelines required of rec.arts.erotica postings, I will "approve" it and have it posted to the newsgroup. I will also save a copy of your post in the rec.arts.erotica archives. Please note that by submitting to this newsgroup, you are implicitly granting permission for your work to be archived here and at any other archive of rec.arts.erotica that someone might be maintaining. Before approving a submission, however, I will add a Keywords header line to your submission containing a list of the topics explored therein. This permits people who are either strongly interested or strongly disinterested in particular topics to determine quickly whether they will find your post interesting. The following keywords are used to describe a post's content: admin: administrative announcements, indexes of stories, etc. anal: anal penetration/fisting animal: bestiality and animals annc: announcements other than administrative: freeware, etc. bond: bondage (physical restraint) fdom: domination by females f-solo: female masturbation and other solitary activities ff: female-female contact furry: sentient non-human characters (e.g. "Journal Entries") gothic: vampires and other Gothic subjects (e.g. "Night Music") group: group sex and threesomes heavy: "heavy" forms of bdsm hist: historical/medieval pieces that do -not- necessarily fall into the genre of "speculative fiction" humor: joke posts or amusing stories (e.g. "Barbeque of Doom") incest: incestuous relationships m-solo: male masturbation and other solitary activities mc: mind control mdom: domination by males mf: male-female contact mild: "mild" forms of bdsm mm: male-male contact mutual: mutual masturbation or other non-solo masturbatory depictions nc: non-consensual situations oral: mouth-to-genital contact pedo: pedophilia (pre-pubescent) (e.g. "Misty") poem: poetry rape: rape scenes and other violent non-consensual sexuality romance: heavily romantic pieces rough: rough sex that is consensual but not precisely S&M scat: scatology and coprophilia series: long stories split into sections (e.g. "Marie") sexless: no overt sexual depiction sf: speculative fiction: sci-fi, heavy fantasy, and the like sm: sadism and masochism teen: consensual sex involving teenagers and postpubescents tg: transgendered (all stages) tv: cross-dressing, feminization violence: violent, not (necessarily) sexual/sadistic water: watersports and urophilia Before posting an article to rec.arts.erotica, I also add a header line entitled "X-Moderator-Review." This line contains a numeric rating which may fall between 1 and 10, and a one-line summary of my opinion of the post. This entire header is purely subjective, and may freely be ignored if you do not find it useful. ------------------------------ Q: What do you base your reviews on? My opinion, and my opinion only. Obviously, this isn't necessarily going to be your opinion or even -anyone- else's. However, once you read for a while, my reviews and ratings will probably give you a rule of thumb to help you scan through the stories, and that is the purpose of such a review. Some things I particularly look at in a story include: * Grammar, spelling, and the like. If there are minor errors or occasional run-on sentences, I'm not going to mind, but major flaws ruin a story for me. [Really poor grammar or spelling may get a post rejected.] * Dialogue. Poorly executed dialogue really bugs me. I'm not looking for perfection here, but things like "oh baby, do me hard with your throbbing man meat" are going to turn me off, turn my stomach, and lower my rating. * Continuity. This one is harder to explain, but I'm basically looking for a certain flow to a story. If it jumps around or is somehow choppy, it isn't likely to hold my interest, or that of other readers. * Realism. I don't mean "realistic" in the sense that I think everything in the story should be real-world possible, I mean believable plot lines and situations, and internally consistent ones as well. * Originality. This one is very important. There are only so many stories in the world, but it is possible to tell the with a fresh outlook. The fresher the outlook, the more likely I am to like the story. Stories that basically boil down to "boy meets girl, boy fucks girl, boy goes home" really aren't what I consider original, but if there's good detail involved, things that fill in the spaces well, I will think more highly of the story. ------------------------------ Q: What types of stories will be rejected? Stories with formatting, grammar, or spelling that is sufficiently poor as to make the story difficult to read. The following things will probably get your post rejected (taken [mostly] verbatim from the old version of the FAQ): * Screen lines of more than 75 characters. * Right-justified margins. They are good in theory but, when using a fixed-width printing medium, make text nearly illegible. * Inconsistent (or, worse, consistent) misspellings. I don't mean an occasional misspelling; I'm talking about a great quantity. * An embarrassment of ellipses. * Paragraphs that continue for more than a screen's worth of text (24 lines in most cases). * Accidental changes of tense in the middle of a story. * Any common grammar mistake that hasn't already been mentioned. Unlike the old moderator, I am unwilling to correct minor errors in the spelling or grammar of a story; if they are truly minor, then they go out the way they came in. If they are in great quantity, then back the story goes to the submitter, with a note asking them to please make the corrections (or send the story elsewhere, if they prefer). Other types of posts I will reject include: * Anything that I do not classify as erotica. Note that "erotica" and "sex" are -not- equivalent terms. * Ads, personals, discussion/comments, or other non-story postings. Discussion should be done in alt.sex.stories.d (and all stories will have the followup set that that group). * Copyrighted work that is not electronically redistributable. These stories -are- being archived. * Stories about copyrighted or trade-marked characters. * Anything submitted from a remailer that does not allow for return mail. [See below for more detail.] * Extremely violent stories. [See below for more detail.] * Binaries of any type. * Anything that has previously been posted on rec.arts.erotica. * Stories containing full names. If you want to use "Mr. Smith", that's fine. If you want to use "Jean", that's fine. Using "Gertrude Hepstein" is not; it may be fictional, but it may not be, and I'm not willing to take that risk. ------------------------------ Q: What are the guidelines for violent posts? Posts in which the violence is either in the form of, for the lack of a better phrase, tastefully done rapes is fine. BDSM related stories are also fine; I know those can get fairly extreme, and I will post them if there seems to be a -reason- for the violence within them. However, posts in which there is what I feel to be gratuitous violence or non-consensual acts will probably be rejected. I realize there is a fine line between these two categories, and I may reject something that someone else would find to be perfectly valid. However, I do not wish to argue about rejections made on this basis. If you have a story rejected on these grounds but feel it deserves to be posted, you have the option of posting to alt.sex.stories, which is unmoderated. Some of you may recall that I myself have written BDSM stories with, if not extreme by some people's standards, at least fairly heavy S&M content. I think that I can judge what is within the bounds of a reasonable part of a story and what is done merely for shock value; I don't feel this group needs the latter. Also in the category of violent posts are snuff stories. I realize that many people find these to be valid, but I myself do -not- consider them to be erotica. I will not make a prohibition against such stories, and I will take them on a case-by-case basis, but do not be surprised if you submit a snuff story and I reject it based on this guideline. ------------------------------ Q: What should I include in my submission? [kept nearly unchanged from the previous version] Approved postings now carry an "Archive-name" header which is parsable by "rkive" and other archive-maintenance software. Because of this, it would make my life slightly easier if you include *both*: * a descriptive Subject line. Note that "story" and "submission" are not what I consider descriptive. * a suggestion for a one-word archive name. The archive name should be no longer than 14 characters if possible, and should consist only of alphanumeric characters and hyphens. If you do not include an archive name, one will be chosen for you. ------------------------------ Q: Do you ever edit or modify submissions before approving them? Aside from adding the review header and keywords, I will not be editing posts in any way. This is a change from the way Tim Pierce handled the group. As I mentioned above regarding grammar and spelling, if there are only a few errors, the post will go out the way it is. I do not have any inclination to be a proofreader (at least not for free). Adding that to my duties would, I feel, distract me from the main purpose of this group, which is to get (reasonably) well-written erotica out on the 'net for people to read. I -may- make an exception in the case of excessive line length, if that is the sole problem with the post. ------------------------------ Q: What if my submission is rejected? [kept unchanged from previous version] An unmoderated newsgroup for erotica, alt.sex.stories, was created some time ago. There are also other newsgroups for posting general fiction and verse, such as rec.arts.prose and rec.arts.poems. If your post is rejected from rec.arts.erotica, you may either edit it so that it falls within the guidelines for submission and then resubmit it, or you may post it directly to one of the above-named unmoderated newsgroups. ------------------------------ Q: Can I post anonymously? Old readers and posters take note! This represents a definite change from the old policy on this group. Any post to rec.arts.erotica must be submitted by someone with a valid e-mail address. This means, I must be able to send a piece of mail to the address that is on the post. I -will- be allowing submissions from Penet accounts, as well as from what I recognize as established sites that allow anonymous accounts. Currently, this means Nyx and the freenets. There must be some sort of name connected with the signon, but it doesn't have to be a "real" name (i.e., it can be a "handle"). The remailers where return mail cannot be sent to the poster are specifically excluded, in other words. There needs to be some way for return mail to get to you. The reason I require these limitations is that, if something in in the story is offensive (or worse) to someone, I don't want to deal with the flak; all author's are responsible for the content of their own stories. (Critics take note.) I will continue to not accept submissions from "root", "guest", "news", "postmaster", and the like. ------------------------------ Q: Can you please cancel my last post? [kept unchanged from previous version] I reserve the right to cancel posts which have already been approved to rec.arts.erotica, for any reason. This includes, but is not limited to, submissions which violate someone's copyright, which are subsequently shown to be reposts of old rec.arts.erotica material, or which prove to be intended primarily to harass or humiliate another Usenet participant. I also reserve the right to refuse to cancel any post which was sent somehow in error. It is your responsibility to check and proofread messages before they are sent, to know your local site's policy on postings to Usenet, and to understand what it means to have your name appear in the header of a post to rec.arts.erotica. I cannot be responsible for such mistakes, and I don't think it's appropriate to unnecessarily inconvenience readers of this newsgroup by canceling posts that were submitted carelessly. ------------------------------ Q: There's never anything in this group but this FAQ. What's wrong? [kept unchanged from previous version] The most likely problem is that although the newsgroup appears on your system locally, for some reason some site upstream from you is not passing it along. As a result, you will only receive rec.arts.erotica articles which have been cross-posted to newsgroups that *are* sent to you. This FAQ is one such article; it is cross-posted to news.answers and rec.answers, among others. To solve this problem you will need to speak with your system administrator, or with the administrator of a site that feeds you news. I am afraid that I cannot help you further in this. ------------------------------ Q: How do I subscribe to this group?/How do I get hot stories sent to me? (And other such questions.) My consultant rates for Unix-related questions are $80/hr, one quarter hour minimum, payable in advance for e-mail questions. Alternately, you can ask tech support on your local system to show you how to subscribe to a newsgroup. ------------------------------ Q: Is there a publicly-accessible site which archives this group? [kept unchanged from previous version] * NOTE: I do not have the time to send individual posts in * * the rec.arts.erotica archive to people, nor do I have * * the resources to make the archive available via FTP or * * mail server. Any requests I receive for reposts, old * * old submissions, or to be subscribed or unsubscribed * * from mailing lists, are likely to be dropped in the bit- * * bucket without comment or acknowledgment. * Such archive sites almost certainly do exist, but many do not wish to make their existence publicly known because of the crush of archive requests which invariably results from such an announcement. Please do not jeopardize the existence of erotica archive sites by posting their names. I will include the name of such a site here only if the administrator of the service has given me permission. If you manage such an archive site and are willing to announce it publicly, please notify me and I will include it in this posting, which I hope will be updated from time to time with new information of this kind. If you are willing to *publicly* archive rec.arts.erotica but do not have copies of the archives, I will be happy to supply you with copies of past submissions. NOTE: I am presently attempting to resolve some difficult copyright issues with respect to the rec.arts.erotica archives. Until I have finished, I will be unable to send even archivists copies of this material. Please have patience. The following archives of rec.arts.erotica have been made known to me: FTP sites: None. If you manage such a site, please let me know so I can include the information in this FAQ. Mail Servers: * server@hermes.acm.rpi.edu Send mail to server@hermes.acm.rpi.edu with the word "help" in the body of the message. Note that this archive contains a variety of erotic texts, but does not presently archive all posts to rec.arts.erotica. * louvre@dido.fa.indiana.edu Send mail to louvre@dido.fa.indiana.edu with the Subject header "LIST" to get an alphabetical list of available files and retrieval instructions. "LIST-NEW" will return a list of files ordered from newest to oldest. Appending "-SIZE" to either of these commands tells the server to include the size of each available file as well as its name. Follow these instructions *exactly* or it will not work. If you experience problems or confusion, send mail to dhuberma@indiana.edu and ask for assistance. Like the hermes server above, this one does not presently include everything posted to rec.arts.erotica. (Note that the name of this machine is "dido," not "dildo." For the literary-minded among you, "Dido" was Aeneas's lover. Do not send mail to "dildo.fa.indiana.edu" or you will look very silly.) WWW Servers: * http://zeus.genie.uottawa.ca:8000/~lavoie/Stories/erotica/ This site maintains a partial archive of rec.arts.erotica and alt.sex.stories. It indexes the stories by archive name and includes an extremely powerful search engine for easy retrieval of posts which match particular criteria. For questions or problems relating to this service, send mail to Philippe Lavoie (lavoie@zeus.genie.uottowa.ca). PLEASE DO NOT SEND ME MAIL IF YOU EXPERIENCE PROBLEMS WITH THESE SERVICES. I WILL BE UNABLE TO HELP YOU. If you are willing to offer your resources to augment any of these services, *please* let me know. I would like to distribute the load of archive requests and mailing list subscriptions over as wide a base as possible, in order to prevent any single site from becoming overwhelmed. ------------------------------ Q: Can I get rec.arts.erotica via e-mail? [kept unchanged from previous version] I do not know of any mailing list reflector of rec.arts.erotica currently in operation. If you administer such a mailing list and would like it advertised here, please let me know. ------------------------------ Q: Where can I get sexy GIFs? [kept unchanged from previous version] I haven't a clue. Nor do I wish to get one, on this subject. ------------------------------ Q: What do you do with non-story mail? It depends. There are several classes non-story mail falls under, although I deal with many of them by simply deleting them. Anything that is covered elsewhere in this FAQ (such as "how do I subscribe" messages): delete unanswered: I will send someone a copy of the FAQ if they tell me that they don't have access to the group and that's why they are asking; ditto if it's been a while since the last time the FAQ has been posted. Spammage: ("Make Money Fast" and things I -know- to be posted in multiple groups of this nature): delete unanswered, unless it happens multiple times, at which point I send a note to them, CC'd to the postmaster at their site. "I want to get laid" and other similar notes: delete unanswered. Ads: I may or may not post an ad. The decision is based on the topic of the ad and just how commercial it comes across. I'm currently debating whether or not to post ads for BBSs. I may post ads for people looking for story submissions to webzines and other, similar things. I do not post ads selling sex; those are dealt with by a note to the postmaster of the originating system. Discussion-oriented notes: generally, I delete these unanswered when it is obvious there was a crosspost to rec.arts.erotica. "Discussion" of the "write me for hot chat" type I delete unanswered. Other types of discussion I will respond to with an explanation that rec.arts.erotica is not a discussion group. GIFs and other images: delete unanswered. Questions not covered by the FAQ, or people asking for clarification of things in the FAQ: answer as soon as I can. Sometimes this may be a while. It's likely to take less time if these are directed to tina@tezcat.com. Praise or insults: Usually I save the praise and delete the insults, and answer neither. Originally I was going to answer all the praise and supportive notes I've gotten, but they numbered, um, LOTS. So, A Generic Thank-You (but nonethless a heartfelt one) applies to all those. The "delete unanswered" method may seem harsh, but if I took the time to answer every single piece of mail asking me a question covered by the FAQ, it would defeat the purpose of the FAQ. The autoreply that -every- note gets contains instructions on how to get the FAQ. -- Moderator, rec.arts.erotica. Submissions to erotica@unix.amherst.edu. Administrative mail to tina@tezcat.com. Please, no reposts, first drafts, or requests for "subscriptions," stories, GIFs, or archive sites.