home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!faqserv
- From: aur-cabal@eey.org
- Newsgroups: alt.usenet.reposts,alt.answers,news.answers
- Subject: alt.usenet.reposts (AUR) and alt.usenet.reposts.d (AURd) Frequently Asked Questions
- Supersedes: <usenet/reposts-faq_875959534@rtfm.mit.edu>
- Followup-To: alt.usenet.reposts.d
- Date: 17 Oct 1997 10:19:30 GMT
- Organization: aur cabal
- Lines: 331
- Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU
- Expires: 13 Nov 1997 10:16:41 GMT
- Message-ID: <usenet/reposts-faq_877083401@rtfm.mit.edu>
- Reply-To: aur-caballero@eey.org
- NNTP-Posting-Host: penguin-lust.mit.edu
- Keywords: AUR,AURd,reposts
- X-Last-Updated: 1997/08/24
- Originator: faqserv@penguin-lust.MIT.EDU
- Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu alt.usenet.reposts:692 alt.answers:29672 news.answers:114698
-
- Archive-name: usenet/reposts-faq
- Posting-Frequency: 13 days
- Last-modified: 97/08/24
-
- alt.usenet.reposts (AUR) and alt.usenet.reposts.d (AURd)
- Frequently Asked Questions
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 0. Invocation and introduction
-
- O Muse, all contributions to alt.usenet.reposts (AUR) are welcome,
- providing their posts conform to the posting guidelines contained in
- this document. Please read it before posting anything to AUR.
-
- This is also the FAQ for alt.usenet.reposts.d (AURd).
-
- The latest version of this FAQ can be found here:
- <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/faqs/usenet/reposts-faq>
- <ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/news.answers/usenet/reposts-faq.Z> (compressed)
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 1. Table of contents
-
- 0. Invocation and introduction
- 1. Table of contents
- 2. What is AUR?
- 3. How to do it
- 3.1. Participating in AUR
- 3.2. How to post to AUR
- 3.3. Uppity news software
- 4. What you should not do in AUR
- 4.1. Discussions
- 4.2. Unwelcome communications
- 4.3. Cascades
- 4.4. Crossposts
- 4.5. Self-abuse
- 4.6. Non-articles
- 5. What to post to AURd
- 5.1. Mission statement
- 5.2. Discussing articles
- 5.3. Protocol questions
- 6. What is missing from this version of the FAQ
- 7. Credits and valediction
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 2. What is AUR?
-
- AUR is alt.usenet.reposts. Like some other newsgroups, it has a
- purpose.
-
- The newsgroup alt.usenet.reposts was created to contain articles that
- people have read in other newsgroups that other people might find
- amusing or interesting: There are tens of thousands of groups out
- there, and even if you wanted to, you could not read them all.
-
- For the purpose of AUR, "Usenet" encompasses all newsgroups, not just
- the classic "Big Eight" hierarchies.
-
- AUR is meant to offer a broad range of useful information, witty
- rejoinders, cute newbie antics, and stimulating flame wars, all of which
- you can observe from here in perfect safety. (Metaphor only. Actual
- perfect safety not guaranteed.)
-
- AUR differs from rec.humor.funny in that, inter alia, it is limited to
- reposts of Usenet articles, and from alt.humor.best-of-usenet in that
- (1) it is unmoderated and (2) it is not limited to humorous material.
- Any newsgroup article of interest to a wide audience may be reposted to
- AUR. Another cognate group is alt.best.of.internet (ABOI), which,
- though like AUR as to points 1 and 2, does not limit its reposts to
- Usenet.
-
- AUR is for reposting only. Please do not post any original articles or
- existing reposts (e.g., articles found in alt.humor.best-of-usenet) to
- AUR.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 3. How to do it
-
- 3.1. Participating in AUR
-
- AUR is an unmoderated newsgroup. Anyone can post to AUR as long as his
- posts conform to the guidelines of this FAQ.
-
- Please subscribe to AURd if you read AUR. It will be useful if there
- are any important changes to the group, or if a discussion gets going
- about some post. Stranger things have happened. (Subject: 5 contains
- information on AURd.)
-
- AUR is based on participation. AUR gets nowhere if people do not bother
- to post. So please, when you are reading other newsgroups, keep AUR in
- mind. Reposting an article does not take very long if you know what you
- are doing, and, for that matter, even if you do not.
-
- 3.2. How to post to AUR
-
- [a] Read a newsgroup other than AUR. Remarkable articles are found
- in unlikely places.
-
- [b] Find an article (not a binary or a repost) that is funny,
- entertaining, intelligent, thought-provoking, or otherwise
- interesting. If you like the article, and you think others might
- want to read it, that is perfect. And if they do not like it, that
- is one of the things AURd is for.
-
- [c] Historically, AUR formatting has been rather flexible within
- certain limits. Here is a suggested procedure:
-
- (i) "Follow up" the article, but instead of leaving the
- "Newsgroups:" header as you find it, delete all of the groups
- and substitute "alt.usenet.reposts".
-
- (ii) In addition, create a "Followup-To:" header that contains
- "alt.usenet.reposts.d". In addition, you may include the
- originating group, but be careful to put any moderated groups at
- the end of the list.
-
- (iii) Be sure that there is something at the top of the new
- article's body (the old headers or a clear introductory line)
- that tells the name of the newsgroup where you found the article
- and the name in the original "From:" header.
-
- (iv) Append "AUR: " to the beginning of the "Subject:" header's
- argument. If your newsreader added a "Re: " to the original
- subject line, remove it.
-
- (v) Your comments about the article may be added at the top of
- the body; these should be brief, and probably not be substantive
- with respect to the theme of the article. Shorten or excerpt
- the original article only in extreme cases, but do not otherwise
- "improve" it. Any elisions, or comments that you put in the
- body of the article, should be clearly distinguishable from the work
- of the original author.
-
- [d] Any method other than "following up" that gets essentially the
- same results is acceptable. In fact, it is preferable to use a
- method that does not add a layer of backquote symbols to the
- original article.
-
- [e] If all this is just too overwhelming, simply e-mail the article
- (including as much of the headers section as possible) to <aur-
- edit@eey.org> and we shall take care of it for you. (This offer
- may be administered capriciously and withdrawn at any time. Void where
- taxed or restricted.)
-
- [f] Here is an example of one of the several proper ways to format
- an AUR article. The first three lines are headers, not the body of the
- article.
-
- Subject: AUR: The Wacky World of Wardrobes
- Newsgroups: alt.usenet.reposts
- Followup-To: alt.usenet.reposts.d,alt.wardrobe.moderated
-
- The unintended results of those ridiculous wardrobe import
- controls can lead to some funny moments, as:
-
- Jane Q. Public <jqp@eey.org> writes in alt.wardrobe.moderated:
-
- >The other day a Colombian wardrobe being held in the warehouse
- >of a customs broker near Miami International Airport suddenly
- >burst open, engulfing a friend of mine in a mysterious white,
-
- [snip]
-
- 3.3. Uppity news software
-
- Problem: "I cannot post this article because my news server says 'Error
- 441: More quoted than new text'."
-
- Delete the column of backquote characters on the left end of each line.
- (These are usually ">".) Then the news server cannot tell which is the
- quoted text. Make sure the reader of the article still can.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 4. What you should not do in AUR
-
- 4.1. Discussions
-
- Do not discuss articles posted to AUR in this group. AUR is only for
- reposting articles. AURd (alt.usenet.reposts.d) is the place to discuss
- articles posted to AUR--in fact, this is exactly what AURd was created
- for. (Subject: 5 contains information on AURd.) To reply to an article
- posted in AUR use your newsreader's "reply" command, and be sure that
- the "Newsgroups:" header of the new article does not contain
- "alt.usenet.reposts".
-
- 4.2. Unwelcome communications
-
- Do not use AUR for your own advertisements, web site promotion (even if
- nonprofit), general announcements or appeals (including virus warnings
- and personals), other spam, or general irrelevancies. (Have we missed
- anything?)
-
- Those who post such messages in AUR should not be surprised if AUR
- readers use various lawful means, including forceful and repeated
- complaints to addresses such as <postmaster@___.com>, <root@___.org>,
- <abuse@___.net>. This has been known to work.
-
- On the other hand, if you find the article in one of the taboo
- categories to be interesting or funny then by all means repost it.
-
- 4.3. Cascades
-
- Do not build huge, irrelevant, cumulative threads in AUR. Threads
- called cascades are usually one-line posts that continue a rhyme or a
- theme. Most people resent having to deal with them. Those who do like
- them can go to alt.cascade and rec.humor.
-
- 4.4. Crossposts
-
- Articles to AUR should not be crossposted. A crosspost is an article
- with more than one group in the "Newsgroups:" header. As the default,
- replies to crossposts will appear in every group in which the original
- article appeared. If someone "follows up" with a reply to a message
- crossposted to AUR, the reply will appear in AUR, thus creating an
- original article. But original articles are off-topic for AUR, since
- AUR is only for reposts. What a mess.
-
- Exception: Crossposting reposts to ABOI is usually tolerated, since
- ABOI is also a reposts group. If you do this, remember to put AURd in
- the "Followup-To:" header.
-
- Clarification: This is not intended to rule out putting more than one
- group in your own repost's "Followup-To:" header, or otherwise
- crossposting to AURd.
-
- 4.5. Self-abuse
-
- Do not repost your own article to AUR.
-
- When you repost to AUR, you have to make a judgment call: You have to
- decide whether a certain article is good enough to deserve being
- reposted. This is your sacred right. (Offer limited to certain Western
- democracies, and, even then, metaphor only. Actual sacred right not
- guaranteed.)
-
- Unfortunately, this means that just about anybody can post just about
- anything, as long as it was originally posted somewhere else. Because
- some people tend to think that their writing is funnier or more
- interesting than it actually is, self-reposting usually induces eventual
- remorse. So please do not repost articles you wrote yourself. If your
- article is really good, someone else may conceivably discover it. Sorry
- about this rule, but it is something that must be done.
-
- 4.6. Non-articles
-
- Do not post non-articles, such as messages from mailing lists or WWW
- pages to AUR. Find a more appropriate group. Try rec.humor for jokes,
- ABOI or another group for other kinds of messages, to AUR. If it is on
- Usenet in any form, you can repost it to AUR. Otherwise, take it
- somewhere else.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 5. What to post to AURd
-
- 5.1. Mission statement
-
- AURd was created as a safety valve for AUR. Basically, anything related
- to AUR that is not a repost can be posted to AURd. If you want to start
- a discussion and you cannot post to AURd, please e-mail the FAQ-keeper
- (eeyore@eey.org>), who can post your question to AURd for you and get
- the discussion going. Of course if you cannot post to AURd the odds are
- overwhelming that you cannot read it either, so you will miss the
- ensuing discussion. Well, no sense worrying about that now.
-
- 5.2. Discussing articles
-
- If you want to discuss an article posted to AUR, you have a few options.
- You can use e-mail if you want to reply only to one person, such as the
- author of the original article. But take care that you're not replying
- to the reposter instead, by mistake. You can also "follow up" to the
- group that the article came from if you think your reply would be on
- topic. Unfortunately, sometimes it is hard to tell whether your reply
- will be on-topic, especially if the original article was obviously off-
- topic.
-
- A third option is to post to AURd. AURd can be used for general
- discussion of the articles posted to AUR. Or, if you have something to
- add to an article you reposted to AUR, you might post it to AURd as a
- reply to your own article.
-
- 5.3. Protocol questions
-
- Questions of group protocol can be posted to AURd if you are having
- problems. Also, if you have a suggestion for AUR, start a discussion in
- AURd. Some, and perhaps all, readers of AUR read AURd and would be
- interested in hearing suggestions. The rules of AUR are not set in
- stone, but new policies have to be approved, or at least discussed, by
- AUR readers in general. The FAQ-keeper makes no material rule changes
- without a stab at consensus.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 6. What is missing from this version of the FAQ
-
- Previous versions of this FAQ contained an abundance of uplifting words
- touching on Usenet customs and manners. Fortunately for those who wish
- to read helpful exhortations in this vein, there remains the ABOI FAQ,
- from which the great preponderance of that writing was closely adapted.
- It is at <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/faqs/best-of-internet-faq>.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Subject: 7. Credits and valediction
-
- This FAQ is a ruthlessly abbreviated and otherwise roughed-up adaptation
- by the present FAQ-Keeper (<eeyore@eey.org>) of the one previously
- adapted by FAQ-keeper Emeritus Marcus Lauer (<melauer@uclink4.berkeley.edu>),
- to whose spirit AUR owes more than can be properly said here, from
-
- Matti Haack's ABOI FAQ. This in turn was based on an older FAQ
- created by Malinda McCall, a/k/a net.goddess (<mmcall@unix.cc.emory.edu>),
- and Onno Benschop (<o.benschop@info.curtin.edu.au>).
-
- Thanks are also due to:
-
- <stremler@rohan.sdsu.edu>
- <dom@i-cubed.demon.co.uk>
- <jon@etrigan.demon.co.uk>
- <jsdy@cais.com>
- <huttone@peak.org>
-
- and others, whose names are lost in the mists of time, who helped
- correct mistakes and came up with new ideas. The reader is encouraged
- to aspire to this illustrious list.
-
-