A Beginner's Guide to the Internet/INTERNET.ISO/text/faqs/tsfaqn38/faqnews.txt

Internet Message Format | 1996-05-06 | 56.0 KB

From [e-mail] Sat Oct 16 00:00:00 1993
Subject: FAQNEWS.TXT contents
                                  Copyright (c) 1993 by Timo Salmi
                                               All rights reserved

FAQNEWS.TXT Frequently (and not so frequently) asked questions
relating to UseNet news with answers.
Comments and corrections are solicited.

..................................................................
Prof. Timo Salmi      Co-moderator of comp.archives.msdos.announce
Moderating at garbo.uwasa.fi anonymous FTP  archives  128.214.87.1
Faculty of Accounting & Industrial Management; University of Vaasa
Internet: [e-mail]  or [e-mail]; FIN-65101,  Finland

--------------------------------------------------------------------
1)  Using a suitable right margin in the news and email.
2)  What does "Subject: Re: none" mean in the news?
3)  Why "Reply by email, I don't read this group" gets flamed?
4)  What is an appropriate maximum length of a signature?
5)  Is there a list of ftp sites (for certain kind of programs)?
6)  How do I extract from comp.binaries.ibm.pc binary postings?
7)  Should I offer to email this utility I have at my disposal?
8)  Someone email me a .zip extractor (or something equally common)
9)  How should I react to "a dying boy's last wish"?
10) How should I react to crackpot messages?
11) How should I react to abusive email or postings?
12) How do I submit my PC program to the binaries?
13) May I just go ahead and post binaries to discussion newsgroups?
14) What is cross-posting? How do I do it?
15) Where can I find the net rules (the "netiquette")?
16) I just posted to a wrong newsgroup. Should I explain it next?
17) Where to put test postings?
18) What is archie?
19) Why do you answer so tersely? It sometimes seems rude.
20) Why don't you mark shareware/freeware/etc status to file lists?
21) How can I send email to CompuServe from InterNet?
22) How does one create a new UseNet newsgroup?
--------------------------------------------------------------------

From [e-mail] Sat Oct 16 00:00:01 1993
Subject: Using a suitable right margin in the news and email.

1. *****
 Q: Using a maximum of 72 column right margin in your news postings,
and a few other tips.

 A: This first item on the list is not really a FAQ (Frequently
Asked Question) but nevertheless something I would like to draw your
attention to. Most users reading the news probably have a 80 column
terminal program. Consider the implications. If you use too broad
lines, the tails of the lines will be wrapped over to the next line
(or be truncated depending on the reader's terminal program
settings) making your text difficult or impossible to follow. Your
chances of getting good follow-ups or useful answers to the
questions you may have asked are radically diminished.
   But this does not end there. If someone quotes your text with the
usual news convention of preceding your text with ">" an overflow
can follow even if your text does not originally exceed the 80
column limit. In fact there can be multiple quotes. Hence a suitable
maximum right margin wrap in writing to the news is 72 columns. Note
that this problem concerns your signature width as well. Even if
quoting signatures is not a good idea, it is often done. Personally
I have set my editor's wrap at column 69. The same goes for email.
Incidentally, the wrap of this text is set at column 69.

 A2: There are some other useful guidelines to posting. If you read
the news.announce.newusers and news.answers newsgroups you'll soon
see that they give useful advice on various aspects of posting, like
 1) Use a reasonable right margin just like I propounded above.
 2) Don't quote excessively. I am sure that you have seen text
quoted innumerable times in the following manner.
> This is quoted text
Quote judiciously. For example, I most often skip the posting if the
quoted part fills the whole first page of the posting. Quote only
what is essential to make it possible for the reader to understand
what your posting is about. As a rule avoid quoting an entire
message (signatures and all). It is not judicious to quote, say, a
hundred lines of discussion just to input a single line of one's
own. Proper quoting is a skill. If you are going to quote, devote
some time to working the quote appropriately. Don't be lazy in this
respect.
 3) Avoid "me too" postings. People send many questions and requests
to the news. If you have a similar request as someone has posted, do
not post a "me too" follow-up. Many newsgroups have huge numbers of
readers. Think what would happen if even one per cent of the readers
of a newsgroup with for example 80000 readers would all post a "me
too". What a good original poster should do is to make a summary of
the answers if s/he gets his/her answer by email instead of the
answers being posted. (See the later item on asking for emailed
replies for some further thoughts.)
--------------------------------------------------------------------

From [e-mail] Sat Oct 16 00:00:02 1993
Subject: <none>

2. *****
 Q: What does "Subject: Re: none" mean in the news?

 A: It means that someone has posted a message without a subject
header. This is an irrational thing to do. On top of that net rules
don't exactly love it, consider the way in which many readers (I
included) read the news. Because of the deluge of postings, readers
first scan the headers (e.g. in rn use =) to decide if anything is
worth a closer look. The most likely result is that postings with no
subjects, or uninformative subjects (such as "Help urgently needed",
"Information requested", "A question", "Read this", and so on) get
summarily bypassed.
   Conclusion: If you post, use informative subject headers. That
way your posting has a much better chance of being noticed by the
potentially interested parties. It works to your own advantage.

 A2: What was said in the above also goes for email messages.
Especially if you receive much email (like I do) you will soon
notice how much easier it is to keep things organized if the email
messages have descriptive subject headers. Often even any subject
header is better than none. To give one example. Even if I am very
pleased to get email stating "thank you for your help" I am usually
left quite baffled. Getting and sending so much email myself I often
have no idea what I am being thanked for. Putting in some kind of a
reference (whether the email concerns thanks or some other
situation) helps the receiver to place your email correctly.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

From [e-mail] Sat Oct 16 00:00:03 1993
Subject: Asking for emailed news replies

3. *****
 Q: Why "(Please) reply by email, I don't usually read this group"
(sometimes a demand rather than a question) gets flamed?

 A: First please note that what I say below is not intended as flame
any individual poster, but as a general analysis of requests to
email the replies because one does not read a newsgroup.
   The problem is that telling people to email because one does not
follow a newsgroup basically is an impolite way of formulating such
a request. If one is interested enough to post to a group, one
should also be prepared to follow up the group. If one asks others
for favors, it is only fair to be prepared to reciprocate.
   Intended or not, the attitude this (email-I-don't-read) decree
easily conveys is "I don't usually care for this wimpy group of
yours, but this time you are allowed to be of service to my exalted
person". What one should do, if following the group is genuinely
problematic (for cost or other reasons), is to offer to make a
summary of the replies. The liturgy often used for this is "Please
reply by email. If there is sufficient interest, I'll summarize".
(This alternative is often advocated also because it is expected to
cut down the traffic). But make it genuine. Not just a lip service.
You might even state why following a group is problematic for you,
but this is up to you.
   The problem with asking emailed replies is that unless one offers
to summarize, or has an extremely specialized subject, the request
will seem selfish. This is because other users may be interested in
seeing the potentially useful replies. On the other hand if everyone
posts an answer, the newsgroup will be swamped for awhile.  This
sometimes happens with common questions where almost everyone knows
the answer.  (An example: How does one bypass pressing Y for del *.*
in MsDos elicited an enormous number of almost identical reply
postings in February 1992 in one of the UseNet newsgroups). It is
not always easy to strike a balance.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

From [e-mail] Sat Oct 16 00:00:04 1993
Subject: Appropriate signature length

4. *****
 Q: What is an appropriate maximum length of a signature?

 A: Net etiquette (the "netiquette") and practice dictate about four
lines at a maximum. The purpose of a signature can be considered
two-fold. It gives your email address, and also acts as a visual
identifier. Often the signatures include some kind of witticism or
aphorism. Even if they are often amusing, and some very clever
indeed, they may annoy some users. But obviously they are here to
stay. If you simply cannot overcome the desire to include one, at
least make it brief. The brief ones are usually the best anyway.
   By the way, I don't personally use one. If I wish to try a pun,
or include a witticism, I try to do it in the body of my message.
(Ok, here is one pun to boggle BBS lovers. Users writing in fowl
language will be twittered. Figure this one out :-). (If I used a
quote in my signature it would probably be "Sounds like a good idea,
but let's use it nevertheless" or "Where there is a will, there is a
won't". There are many more in /pc/ts/tspun13.zip.)
   At worst there are multi-line signatures with elaborate ascii
drawings. They can be entertaining in a sense, but basically they
are but bloated ego-trips, a waste of bandwidth, and severely
frowned upon in the official UseNet net rules.
   One further thing. You can have your signature automatically
included in unix mail systems. Put your signature in a file called
.signature in your main directory.
   From Raymond Chen: "The permissions on the .signature file and
its enclosing directory must be appropriately set.  Ask your system
administrator for details."
   For more on the .sinature file permissions, see the information
in garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/pd2/post16.zip.

 A2: At least if your user id does not contain your name, apply a
signature identifying who you are. I for one find it somewhat
impolite to get emailed queries from users who do not even care to
identify themselves. Use the same courtesy as you would in ordinary
non-electronic communication.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

From [e-mail] Sat Oct 16 00:00:05 1993
Subject: Lists of anonymous ftp sites

5. *****
 Q: Is there a list of ftp sites (for certain kind of programs)?

 A: I have gathered in collaboration with Rhys Weatherley a list of
FTP sites and their moderators, who carry MsDos programs, in
particular. It is available by anonymous FTP and mail server as
garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/pd2/moder*.zip. It has become quite popular. If
readers have additions and/or corrections for that list, I would
very much like to receive such information.  Your help in
maintenance would be very much appreciated. Help is needed to make
the list as covering as possible, and to keep it up to date.
   Also consider getting garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/doc-net/ftp-list.zip. It
is published in the news by Tom Czarnik ([e-mail]). It
is archived at garbo.uwasa.fi by the author's kind permission.
Unfortunately Tom is too pressed for time to continue with
maintaining the list as of autumn 1993. If you wanted to get it
directly from the news, you had to see one of the following groups
where it wass cross-posted: comp.misc, comp.sources.wanted,
alt.sources.wanted and news.answers. Furthermore, I recall having
seen it mentioned (although I haven't checked this by trying it
myself) that the up to date list is also available directly from
pilot.njin.net directory /pub/ftp-lists. Let's hope that someone
takes up the continued maintenance.

 A2: Before using this try getting "Updated Internet Services List"
or at least see garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/pd2/moder*.zip for the current
archie servers, since for example the McGill University system was
persistenly broken at one time, and specifically asked not to be
used.
   There is a system called archie at the McGill University in
Canada. It keeps a list of where you can find programs archived. The
idea is roughly the following. For example if you wish to know which
anonymous ftp sites have tsbat43.zip, you may search archie database
with: prog tsbat. To connect to archie use
    telnet quiche.cs.mcgill.ca
and the userid archie. Then explore on from that point. Note that
archie also accepts email requests of information. To use that
option send email to [e-mail], use eg archie-request as
your subject line, and put send help as your message. The only snag
with archie is that by necessity its information lags behind the
situation of at least for the most active anonymous ftp sites.
   The archie service is also available at several other sites. Note
one problem. One does not know how comprehensive the data base at
each alternative site is.
   Since the McGill archie server has quite a heavy load (and may be
out altogether), consider using an archie site near you. See
garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/pd2/moder*.zip one list of the archie servers.
 * For the most up-to-date list, write to an Archie server and give
   it the command `servers'.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

From [e-mail] Sat Oct 16 00:00:06 1993
Subject: How to extract files from c.b.i.p.

6. *****
 Q: How do I extract from comp.binaries.ibm.pc binary postings?

 A: 1) One handy trick to download multi-part postings from the
binaries to your Unix host is the following.  Use rn (read news) to
store the postings in ~/News/Comp.binaries.ibm.pc.  It must be empty
when you commence. Store in the correct order as indicated in the
subject header n/N.  Then apply automatic combining and uudecoding:
   combine Comp.binaries.ibm.pc
You will end up with the .zoo package on your Unix host.
 2) If you don't already have the combine program, you can create it
yourself. Write the following two lines to a file with any editor
and name the file combine.
   #! /bin/sh
   cat $* | sed '/^END--/,/^BEGIN--/d' | uudecode
Make this script executable by applying
   chmod u+x combine
   or
   chmod 700 combine
For a more generalized combine get garbo.uwasa.fi:/unix/ts/combine.
 3) After you have the (.zoo or whatever) package on your Unix host,
the rest is what should be familiar routine. Transfer the package to
your PC remembering to use the binary option in the transfer (this
goes at least for Kermit and Zmodem). Then extract the files from
the package by using ZOO or LOOZ for PCs. If you are not familiar
with these steps, and have problems, contact a knowledgeable PC
friend near you. (My PD2ANS.TXT instructions file has some more
information.)
 4) This intermediate step is not mandatory, but for your
information. When you have the .zoo package at your Unix host, you
can check it using zoo -test FileName assuming that you have the zoo
program at your Unix host. Naturally you can perform the same test
at your PC.
---
A note from Otto J. Makela ([e-mail]) concerning item 2:
A simpler version is:
   sed '/END--/,/BEGIN--/d' $* | uudecode
---

 A2: Alternatively, stand by until the periodic posting of the
UseNet CBIP Starter's Kit in comp.binaries.ibm.pc. The kit (release
1.9.1 11-Nov-92) contained:
  1) Instructions
  2) BASIC source to create UUDECODE.COM
  3) DEBUG script to create UUDECODE.COM
  4) C source for UUDECODE
  5) Documentation for UUDECODE
  6) BOOZ 2.0, ZOO extractor, in uuencoded form
The kit is also available as garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/doc-net/starter.kit
--------------------------------------------------------------------

From [e-mail] Sat Oct 16 00:00:07 1993
Subject: Offering to email files

7. *****
 Q: Should I offer to email this utility I have at my disposal?

 A: As a general answer I would say that the results of this kind of
an offer often come as a nasty surprise to the person offering the
service.  Several unsuspecting users have had the problem of being
completely inundated with the subsequent email requests, and may
even have had to withdraw the offer.  A much safer avenue is to tell
where the utility is available.  Or if it is not yet available
anywhere on the net, first upload it to a suitable ftp site (don't
forget to notify the moderator).  Most often this means SimTel
and/or garbo.uwasa.fi archives. (If you wish to consider other
sites, see the garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/pd2/moder*.zip list of sites).
   But if you have gullibly made such an offer I suggest that you
grit your teeth, and see things through.  The least you should do is
to make the information available where and how the utility can be
obtained, if you have to go back on your word of emailing directly
to the users.
   Now what to do in the case if you are a user who has seen some
goodies offered, and the offer of emailing then withdrawn.  Back to
the old file lists.  We have several at garbo.uwasa.fi archives.  If
you get the following files you have a good chance of finding what
you are looking for: /pc/INDEX.ZIP, /pc/INDEXTS.ZIP,
/unix/UINDEX.ZIP and /pc/filelist/simlist.zip.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

From [e-mail] Sat Oct 16 00:00:08 1993
Subject: Pleas for extremely common programs

8. *****
 Q: Someone email me a .zip extractor (or something equally common)

 A: This is not a flame but a friendly piece of advice for you, and
others occasionally posting similar wishes concerning easily
available shareware and PD programs.
    Better still than making an offhand request that may end up with
several kind netters duplicating each others' efforts for your
benefit by rushing to email your request to you, how about doing the
work yourself and getting it from an ftp site, or a BBS near you. At
our site the extractors can be found in the /pc/arcers directory.
For .zip files use pkz204g.exe or unz50p1.exe.
   The wares are available by anonymous ftp from garbo.uwasa.fi,
Vaasa, Finland, or by using our mail server (use the latter if, and
only if you don't have anonymous ftp).  If you are not familiar with
anonymous ftp or mail servers, I will be happy to send prerecorded
instructions on your emailed request.  (If you don't get the
instructions from me within a few days, it will mean that your email
address cannot be reached by a simple email reply, and you wouldn't
be able to utilize the mail server anyway. In this case contact your
own system manager for a better mail path.)
   (If you already have /pc/ts/tsfaqn*.zip, the prerecorded
instructions are what is in the PD2ANS.TXT file.)
   If you are in North America, first try a North American mail
server to cut down the overseas traffic. Ditto for Oceania. First
try an Oceanian site.
   If you don't know what directory to look at for the program you
would like to have, first get the following garbo.uwasa.fi file
lists:
     /pc/INDEX.ZIP
     /pc/INDEXTS.ZIP
     /unix/UINDEX.ZIP

 A2: When wanting to get a program you should also take a look at
the Frequently Asked Questions for comp.archives.msdos.d even if it
has some overlap with this FAQ, which you are reading now. It is
available as garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/pd2/camfaq.zip.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

From [e-mail] Sat Oct 16 00:00:09 1993
Subject: Posted hoax petitions

9. *****
 Q: How should I react to "a dying boy's last wish"?

 A: Don't fall into these traps. Some users get their kicks out of
trying to play pranks on unsuspecting neophyte users on the net.
These hoaxes most often take the form of pleas to send email
messages or ordinary post cards (or even money in some blatant
cases). "Dying boy's last wish" and "support a cause" are among the
most common.
   Note that the truth value of the original pleas is NOT the real
issue here. (If you are interested in that aspect eg in the
last-wish case, check the Guinness Book of World Records).
Hall-marks of these plea-postings are that they are either repeats
of age-old themes, or are completely fictitious. Another hall-mark
of these pranks is that fulfilling the petitions would probably
cause havoc on the net and/or the postal system at some address.
   These petitions can occur in innumerable forms. One that has been
very popular in Finland is "write to your congress person about the
impending registration of, and tax-levy on, all modem users". This
always causes a stir, since such idiocy could well be conceivable in
this country.
   The best reaction to these postings is simply to ignore them. At
best the pleas are misplaced. The newsgroups should keep to their
own subjects. Sending a flame would most probably be useless, since
the poster's mail address may be forged, or even someone else's
cracked userid. Better just to hope that some alert system manager
gets wind of who the original prankster is, and takes appropriate
action. What you shouldn't do under any circumstances is trying to
cram the mailbox of the potential culprit. You'll just hurt the
systems along the feed, and you may end up being a worse offender
than the original nitwit. If you feel that you absolutely want to
react in some way, perhaps the best alternative is to see if you can
contact the postmaster or the system manager of the prankster's
site, and discuss the problem with him/her.
   Another childish form of pranks on the net are the bogus
newsgroups (eg alt.swedish.bork.bork.bork, alt.flame.pizza.greasy).
The best course of action for an ordinary user is just to
unsubscribe, and again hope that the alert system managers will put
things right. For the couple of first times these prank newsgroups
may seem funny, but after a while you'll see that they are so
similar repeats of the same themes that they are just plain boring.
(Note: By a bogus newsgroup I mean a newsgroup with no discussion in
it, and which will be rejected by your newsreader. Sometimes there
really are alt newsgroups with these elaborate names with discussion
in them. I am not referring to them, but to the empty
bastardizations).
   It is naturally difficult to generalize the motives behind these
practical jokes, but my understanding is that in many cases it is a
question of a kind of a misplaced creativity rather than outright
malice. It would be much better for everybody if this creativity
were directed in a more productive manner.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

From [e-mail] Sat Oct 16 00:00:10 1993
Subject: Crackpot messages

10. *****
 Q: How should I react to crackpot messages?

 A: Crackpot postings and email are very often religious or sexual
in nature, but sometimes take other peculiar forms. These are in a
way very sad cases, since they are likely reflect bad personal
problems or even mental disturbances. These cases need professional
help, and the net is not the place to try it, nor is it a suitable
media for serious treatment. Flames certainly won't help matters. We
can only wish that the poster realizes his/her own state, and seeks
proper help.
   What should an ordinary user do about such postings on the news.
The best course of action is plain ignore them even if you would
itch to respond. Put the subject (or the offender's address) in your
news kill file. (If you are using rn to read your news, do not know
how to use kill files, see garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/doc-net/killfile.zip).
Following up the crackpot posting by condemning comments is
self-defeating, because many of these ill perverts get a significant
part of their kicks out of the attention they are able to stir up by
their crackpot behavior. In a sick person's disturbed mind even
strongly negative attention is often better than none. Don't oblige
on the net since it will only make matters worse.
   BTW, the most peculiar message I've received so far propounded
"My rabbit's feathers are longer than your rabbit's". But this was a
response to an argument from a notorious fellow Finn (who has a
predilection to create controversy to draw attention to himself).
   In the case of religion, drawing the line is sometimes difficult.
Some otherwise normal, well-meaning, sometimes even highly
professional persons may feel a compulsion to profess their
religious faith publicly, and even try to convert others. These
persons should, however, remember that flaunting one's faith may
offend others, who have different concepts of life.
   Another, and a more complicated question, are the suggestions of
setting up crackpot newsgroups of the type of recent.alien.visitors
or sci.paranormal, and others that have no connection with physical
reality. If you want to respond to such suggestions in the news, at
least take the discussion away from the ordinary newsgroups to
news.groups where it is better placed. The news postings headers
have a field called "Followup-To:". Use that and write news.groups
in there.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

From [e-mail] Sat Oct 16 00:00:11 1993
Subject: What to do about abusive messages

11. *****
 Q: How should I react to abusive email or postings?

 A: There is one further category of problematic net behavior to
point out, that is overly aggressive or abusive postings or email.
These are often written in the heat of the moment, or under the
influence. Or they may result from outright misunderstandings,
because this is not an easy media for conveying subtleties. Also
remember that UseNet is an international net, and not everyone is
fluent in English. On top of that, there are cultural differences in
expressing wishes and views. (For example, I've noticed that email
from one cultural background tends to be abrupt, while another
sometimes seems to be lacking in consideration in asking services
from others). Or someone may have a completely different sense of
humor from yours. Or someone may take friendly advice or guidance as
a flame (a common problem for an active FTP site moderator like
yours truly). The reasons for angry postings can be many, and the
only solid deduction that can be drawn from a single abusive posting
is that someone has truly bad manners or a totally off-key day. The
best way to react is either to reply politely, or not to reply at
all. (There is no sense in responding in the same manner, and being
just another jerk).
   I'll give you an example concerning incompatible humor. I have a
predilection for trying to come up with puns in English, and this is
not always liked. There was a discussion in the news.groups
demanding why an infertility group had not passed in the news. I
just couldn't resist the temptation, and remarked that perhaps it
was because the idea was barren :-). One user obviously had real
personal strife with infertility, and told me to shove the Smiley,
you know where, in as many words.
   To give another example, here is a counter-xenophobic joke
guaranteed to bring flames crashing in from some US users. "There
was this American who was asked wasn't he ever annoyed by the fact
that he didn't really have a language of his very own but had to
speak English. The reply. If English was good enough for Jesus, it's
certainly good enough for me." Seriously, though. Although it is
fortunately very rare, sometimes one encounters netters from the US,
who do not seem to be able quite to grasp the international nature
of the InterNet.
   Here is a story of a case of mutual misunderstanding turning out
right. I sent a note to a user who posted test messages to a
discussion newsgroup, and told him that he shouldn't, and pointed
out that there are special newsgroups just for testing purposes. I
got a very testy (pardon the pun) reply referring to my attitude as
smart-ass. But we started discussing about it, and soon noticed
that: 1) he had misread my intentions, 2) that my message was badly
formulated and gave rise to the possibility of taking it just as an
impolite flame. What happened was that we together worked out a
better formulation for my prerecorded advice on test post (see item
#17), and we both benefited from the process, and enjoyed it.
   If someone continues to post to the UseNet news in a language
that offends you, perhaps the best action is simply not to read any
postings from that person.  Most newsreader programs have what is
called a kill file, where you can specify which subjects or persons
you wish to ignore. (See garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/doc-net/killfile.zip).
   Speaking more generally than just about offensive postings, I
would like to put forward here that unless you are seriously
involved with the maintenance of the relevant newsgroup, if you do
not like someone's posting habits, you should primarily consider the
option of using the kill file. Express your views by all means, but
long-standing UseNet experience tells that attacking will not
achieve anything. Rather it may be counter-productive and can just
lead to what is called a flame-war.
   What to do if the abusive individual persists sending you one
unwelcome message after another, or keeps on harassing you in some
other way. Persisting cases are perhaps best tackled by just
deleting _unread_ all the email and postings from that address. I
apply this method myself, although fortunately I have needed this
drastic option extremely seldom so far. This operation can, in fact,
be automated by an elm email filter. A system I can, and do employ
myself if ever necessary.
   Another understandable, but problematic situation is when one
gets flamed for something one didn't say or do. This sometimes
happens eg when one quotes in the news an offensive posting, and
consequently someone confuses who said what. For example one of my
perfectly neutral postings included a quote from a third person
castigating American freedom in an obviously unfriendly fashion. In
consequence I got a rather indignant message from a reader who
mistook the quote as my opinion. We finally sorted it out to a
friendly conclusion, but much unnecessary effort was involved.
   The more general lesson from the last item above is to be careful
not to confuse the original poster, and the person who is replying
to the posting. It unfortunately happens relatively often that when
I answer a question in the news, someone emails a reply to the
original question mistakenly to me, not to the original poster where
the reply should be directed. And I have been guilty of a similar
mistake myself a couple of times.
   As an archive site moderator getting much email, and having been
quite active on the UseNet news I am exposed to the possibility of
overly aggressive behavior even more than the average user.
Therefore I store the addresses of the intentionally offensive and
hostile individuals for future reference in order to be able to try
to steer clear of such troublesome individuals. It is thoroughly
frustrating that when one tries to help eg by giving information on
the usages of a newsgroup or a pointer to a FAQ (Frequently Asked
Questions), as a result one gets hostile feedback, or even worse a
message that has been devised with the sole intention of heaping
deliberate insults.

 A2: There is a special, related category of net behavior which can
escalate into a real problem. You might encounter a user who is more
interested in picking up a fight with you rather than actually
discussing or even arguing the actual subject. Typically, nothing
that you will say or do will satisfy such a troublemaker. It is not
a simple disagreement, which, of course, are common on the UseNet
news. Rather, he will be looking for any angle to attack you. Any
poster might be targeted, but an active member of the newsgroup
or/and in a known positition is a likely target.
   What to do if you are targeted? Difficult to say, but perhaps the
most sensible thing is to withdraw from further discussion if the
early warning signs show that such a risk might exist. Better safe
than sorry. There are so many users currently on the net that one is
compelled to avoid some the most troublesome cases by trying to
ignore them. The news kill files and email filters can be very
useful automated aids shutting them off.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

From [e-mail] Sat Oct 16 00:00:12 1993
Subject: How to submit a binary posting

12. *****
 Q: How do I submit my PC program to the binaries?

 A: There is a periodic posting in comp.binaries.ibm.pc which
answers all your necessary questions. If you don't want to wait for
it to come round, you can download it from garbo.uwasa.fi as
/pc/doc-net/submbin.txt "CBIP Submissions and Posting Policy".
--------------------------------------------------------------------

From [e-mail] Sat Oct 16 00:00:13 1993
Subject: Do not post binaries directly

13. *****
 Q: May I just go ahead and post binaries to discussion newsgroups?

 A: Let me offer some hopefully useful information about
distributing binaries.
   First of all this should not be taken as a recrimination against
any individual poster of binaries to a discussion newsgroup, but
rather as a reminder to all of us of the potential problems
involved. Because this information is at the same time intended to
help the well-meaning posters of binaries, there are pointers at the
end of this item on how to make your binary available in the proper
way.
   If someone sees these things differently, ok, but please note
that I would rather not get flaming, indignant arguments crashing in
over this issue. I'd prefer not to waste the time with the
bickering. (All civilized views are naturally always welcome).
   Also please note that it does not make a decisive difference
whether these posting in fact just contain sources and no
executables. The problems are similar whatever (binary posting or
something else) we decide call this method of distribution. The same
applies whether the binary posting is a short or a long one. This is
not just a simple question of "band width" (a term some users are so
in love with :-).
   I know and understand that most of who do this mean well, and
wish to contribute to the general usefulness of the news. We all
appreciate that. Nevertheless, I would strongly advise against
posting binaries to unmoderated discussion newsgroups.  On top of
that the net rules don't like it, let's look at this from a purely
practical point of view. If other netters follow suit and start
posting binaries to discussion newsgroups not meant for this
purpose, there are several potential problems:
    1) The traffic will soon explode, since it is bound to be more
       or less haphazard. This is bound to invoke action sooner or
       later from the systems along the feed and/or net
       administration.
    2) There are no guarantees against trojans and other nasties.
       (This does not mean that the other methods are absolutely
       safe, but the likelihood is smaller by far.)
    3) The probability of commercial material being posted over the
       net increases, with all the consequent repercussions.
    4) The idea is very wasteful of net resources. Remember that
       there are over 80000 readers in eg comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d.
       Much better to put/get stuff into/from the orderly moderated
       groups, or use anonymous ftp, mail servers, or good BBSes.
    5) Even should the binary posting be just a short minor one, it
       may easily snowball by invoking others. Even if a single
       binary posting need not be harmful in any way per se, the
       danger of the snowballing effect must be kept in mind.
Now what to do if you have a useful binary you want to distribute. A
much better avenue than posting it, is telling where the utility is
available.  Or if it is not yet available anywhere on the net, first
upload it to a suitable ftp site, or send it to the relevant
moderator of the binary postings (provided there is a suitable
binary group on the net). If you wish to have the instructions for
submitting material to the garbo.uwasa.fi MsDos & Windows archives
I'll be happy to send you our upload instructions if you email me
for them. Or if you wish to FTP the instructions directly, they are
available as garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/UPLOAD.INF.

 A2: It is quite usual that some users facing this information tend
to counter with something along the lines "But that was a very
useful binary". This is missing the actual point. These postings
often include per se useful material. But this does _not_ exempt
any binary posting, however useful, from the problems listed above.
Furthermore, the "ban" on posting binaries to discussion newsgroup
is an established net code of conduct. It is not just my view, even
if I happen to concur. I am just providing the information for the
potential posters.

 A3: Alan Brown [e-mail] offered this additional
point. "Many sites are connected via uucp using 2400bps modems over
LD links. They generally don't take binaries groups because of the
cost involved in getting them and/or a lack of hard drive space.
Posting a binary to a discussion group directly costs them a
considerable amount of money and may cause their disks to overflow."
--------------------------------------------------------------------

From [e-mail] Sat Oct 16 00:00:14 1993
Subject: Instructions about cross-posting

14. *****
 Q: What is cross-posting? How do I do it?

 A: As we all know, UseNet news have the newsgroups divided by the
topic areas. If you want your message to appear in more than one
newsgroup you can achieve this by cross-posting. If you look at the
header in the news you will notice the item Newsgroups:. Put the
names of the newsgroups in there separated by commas. Scan the
headers of almost any newsgroup, and you are bound to see how it is
done.
   The number one rule of cross-posting is that cross-posting should
never be used indiscriminately. If you feel that it is necessary to
cross-post, consider carefully your selection, and keep it down.
Avoid cross-posting to groups that are branches of the same
sub-hierarchy, that is don't cross-post to adjacent newsgroups.
   What goes for newsgroup selection in general, also applies to
cross-posting. Never cross-post to newsgroups which do not coincide
with your subject.
   There is one very important DON'T in cross-posting. Do not send
the same message separately to different newsgroups. Always use the
cross-posting facility of the news (Newsgroups:). If you repeat a
message separately in different newsgroups, the readers will have to
see your posting many times over, and will get annoyed. You have a
good chance of justifiably ending up flamed.
   I have heard that there are some newsreader programs that do not
allow editing the headers. I can only suggest contacting your system
manager or some other local guru about it. I have no further
information on this unusual dilemma since on most news programs
editing the headers is not a problem. Be careful, however, if you
edit the headers. Learn their exact requirements. If you make
mistakes, the posting may fail, and/or the followups to it by other
users may fail because of your editing errors. For example
 Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal,comp.os.msdos.programmer,
would result in an error in following up because of the trailing
comma.

 A2: Here are a couple of further tips when you have got the hang of
cross posting. As you can see there is a "Followup-To:" field in the
news header. Sometimes you might want to direct the replies only a
to single newsgroup even if you have cross posted the original. The
rationale here is to prevent the discussion from scattering to
several newsgroups. Please consider using this option whenever you
cross post.
   Some users put the word poster in there to redirect the potential
replies directly to them by email. The problem with this method is
that even if it should work, it is not guaranteed to do so. Some
system configurations and newsreaders do not handle this correctly.
For example I usually get a bounce if I reply to such a posting.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

From [e-mail] Sat Oct 16 00:00:15 1993
Subject: Where are the net rules available

15. *****
 Q: Where can I find the net rules (the "netiquette")?

 A: The newsgroup news.announce.newusers has a set of useful
periodic postings of net advice and rules. Sometimes one feels that
reading these periodic postings would not hurt the old hands either.
I heartily suggest taking a look. I have stored some of this
information as garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/doc-net/usenews.zip. It includes,
among other things, the often requested information about how to go
about creating a new newsgoup (as explained in another item of this
FAQ).
   Another newsgroup of interest in this connection is news.answers.

 A2: From: [e-mail] (Ellen Keyne Seebacher)
[Reproduced and edited with Ellen's kind permission]
Newsgroups: news.newusers.questions
Subject: Re: Looking for "netiquette" document
Date: 9 Jan 91 23:00:53 GMT
Organization: University of Chicago
:
>I'm looking for a copy of the document entitled "netiquette".
:
There is none by that exact title (though one contains the word).
There _is_ a _series_ of articles referred to loosely as
"netiquette" (net etiquette, of course); their individual titles are
as follows:
        Introduction to news.announce
    List of Active Newsgroups
    Alternative Newsgroup Hierarchies
    Regional Newsgroup Hierarchies
    List of Moderators
    Publicly Accessible Mailing Lists
    List of Periodic Informational Postings
    How to Get Information about Networks
    Rules for posting to Usenet
    How to Create a New Newsgroup
    How to Create a New Trial Newsgroup
    A Primer on How to Work With the Usenet Community
    Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on Netiquette
    Hints on writing style for Usenet
    Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
    USENET Software: History and Sources
--------------------------------------------------------------------

From [e-mail] Sat Oct 16 00:00:16 1993
Subject: What to do about a mislaid posting

16. *****
 Q: I just posted to a wrong newsgroup. Should I explain it in a
follow-up posting?

 A: Not necessarily. Much better to cancel your posting. At least if
you are using rn for reading news, you can cancel your posting by
applying the command C on it.  If you don't want to loose what you
wrote, first save your message to a file with the s option if you
are using rn. See rn help (h) for more details on the commands. This
is much preferable to following up with an explanation.
   It is a good thing that you care where you post. It is
frustrating to see postings that have nothing to do with the
contents of the newsgroup. Some users are way too careless in this
respect. (I must plead occasionally guilty myself). Posting to a
wrong newgroup is not even rational, because the chances of getting
a useful response are diminished. Nevertheless, a follow-up
explanatory posting just doubles the mistake and draws unnecessary
attention (if you cannot cancel what you posted).
--------------------------------------------------------------------

From [e-mail] Sat Oct 16 00:00:17 1993
Subject: Where to put test postings

17. *****
 Q: Where to put test postings?

 A: Let me try to give hopefully helpful information about how best
go about making test postings.
   Please don't take offense by this item. It is meant as a friendly
piece of advice, not as a flame. Novice users, and sometimes even
others, occasionally place these "A test, please ignore" messages in
discussion newsgroups. Please don't do this. It is wasteful of the
resources. These news reach tens of thousands of readers, so a very
wide distribution is involved. Furthermore, many users find the test
messages very annoying in the discussion newsgroups, and you have a
good chance of getting some testy email.
   There is a much better solution for the testing. There are
special test newsgroups just for this purpose, such as alt.test and
misc.test. The misc.test is a good option, since there are several
test echos along the feed. They will automatically send you
email acknowledgements when your test posting reaches these sites.
   One more piece of advice on test posting. Don't start with a
"world" distribution right away. First consider experimenting with
"local", and think of expanding only after that, if this is still
necessary. If you look at the header of a UseNet posting, you'll
notice that it includes the a line for distribution. Don't trust it,
however. The distribution limitation is not guaranteed to work. At
least I have observed problems with this feature. In global
newsgroups a local distribution can easily "leak" since not all
configurations along the feed observe this feature.
   If you are a system manager who has had to do the test this way
for practical reasons, my apologies if this advisory note was not
appropriate in the case of your test. This was only meant as
benevolent advice in case you were not aware of these alternatives.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

From [e-mail] Sat Oct 16 00:00:18 1993
Subject: What is archie

18. *****
 Q: What is archie?

 A: See answer A2 to the question "Is there a list of ftp sites (for
certain kind of programs)?".
--------------------------------------------------------------------

From [e-mail] Sat Oct 16 00:00:19 1993
Subject: My replying habits

19. *****
 Q: Why do you answer so tersely? Why do you not post the full
answer instead of your stupid FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)
referrals?

 A: When one answers as many questions as I have done on the net,
both on the UseNet news and by email, one sometimes omits the
coating, and concentrates on the essential, for better or worse.
This may convey an unintended impression of unfriendliness, which
most certainly is not my purpose nor my attitude.
   A related matter is that I have often posted or emailed a pointer
to the answer by referring to my Frequently Asked Questions and
other collections or porgrams, rather than the actual, full answer.
There are several reasons for this conduct, which some users don't
quite like.
   First, I feel that it is better to help people to learn how to
find the answers, than simply feed them. (I'm supposed to be a
professor underneath, am I not? :-). In the long run such know-how
is much more beneficial for the users. (Recall the proverb about
teaching a man to fish instead of giving him a fish). Also this
method has a curbing effect of the same repeated questions
ballooning and filling a newsgroup.
   Second, the pointed information is often much better
and more accurate what one can provide on the fly. It is much more
easy and thus more efficient to give a pointer rather than to try to
remember, for example, the exact name and/or location of a utility
that a user asks for.
   Third, although being very busy most of the time, I can usually
afford the few moments it takes to write a pointer, but I simply
cannot repeatedly afford the time to look for the same full answer,
and then write it. It's hopefully better to give some information
than none at all. Ask yourself which is better. A pointer or no
answer. Of course, there must be a sensible balance between pointers
to answers and giving the full answers.
   Fourth, I get by email many such questions or requests which,
while still welcome, are not fair in the sense that answering them
would take an inordinate amount of effort from my part. A few
examples of such requests. A typical one is that I should manually
uuencode some package and email it to the user. My standard response
is to send the prerecorded Garbo instructions (/pc/link/pd2ans.txt
which also is included in /pc/ts/tsfaqn*.zip). Believe it or not,
some users see it fit to complain about getting the full prerecorded
Garbo instructions from me as a reply to their emailed Garbo related
standard questions. They seem to think that I should devote my time
to an individualized service carefully editing for them exactly the
information they need. Another excessive one is asking me to see on
the requester's behalf what a package's documentation says, or to
test and then describe a particular package for him/her individually
so that the requester would not have to take the trouble of
downloading it to see for him/herself. There are also many other
similar instances where I must refer the emailer to post the
questions to the UseNet news, to refer him/her to other general
sources of information, or refer him/her to a person to whose domain
the question belongs. I am sometimes surprised (and why not
flattered) of the kind of knowledge the users imagine I have. You
really wouldn't believe some of the requests I get, starting from
asking me to send information about hotels in Finland to foreign
students' enrollment pleas, and even about matters I have never even
heard of in my life like locating some obscure German health
products.
   Fifth, don't let my FAQ referrals deter you from posting your own
answers. They are definitely not meant to discourage anyone else
posting one's own answers. As an aside it is interesting to note
that more than once I have encountered posters who recriminate
giving the FAQ reference and pointedly show off with how to answer
the question in full. They might do it a few times, but after a
while they tend to quit answering at all. So much for their initial
bravado.
   Of course there is a problem to the pointer or FAQ method which I
often use as an answer to questions posed on the UseNet news.
Someone else may have a much better answer than I do. If s/he
doesn't post it because of the pointer I've made to the FAQ, good
answers are foregone by the users.
   For some more on this subject please see the following items in
garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/pd2/post14.zip
 "Advantages and disadvantages of FAQ referrals"
 "Re: what is bandwidth?"
and garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/pd2/post08.zip
 "Re: "Wasted" Bandwidth"
If someone's legitimate postings are bothering you, also see
 garbo.uwasa.fi:/pc/doc-net/killfile.zip
 killfile.zip rn KILL file FAQ from Leanne Phillips
--------------------------------------------------------------------

From [e-mail] Sat Oct 16 00:00:20 1993
Subject: Mark shareware/freeware/etc status to file lists

20. *****
 Q: Why don't you mark shareware/freeware/etc status to file lists?

 A: This is one of the suggestions on improving our FTP site that
seems to recur.  Feedback and ideas from users are always welcome.
Please do not be put off by the fact that in this case the response
has to be negative.
   Unfortunately, what is said below for this particular suggestion
goes for many other welcome ideas as well. They often would cause
too much additional workload strecthed as we are at maintaining our
FTP archives. Thus although the comments below will concern marking
the shareware / freeware status, the comments are partly applicable
to many other kind suggestions we get from our gentle users. But
please do not prevent this from making suggestions and giving
feedback.
  The suggestion to mark the shareware / freeware status to the
files at archive sites is not realistic, not at least on Garbo FTP
archives.  Archive management takes a lot of effort even the way it
is now.  There is no way we can afford the effort to categorize even
all the new incoming material, let alone what we already have.  Try
to categorize, say, a hundred packages you do not know in advance. I
am sure you'll soon see how daunting the task is.  And, if you feel
that I exaggerate the amount of extra effort, offers of volunteer
work are welcome. (The same answer is applicable for the kind
suggestions about putting file sizes into our file indexes).
   There are offshoots of the question of the shareware / freeware
on the archives.  First, some users have been deploring the fact
that they have to download the material before they can see whether
it is free or not.  Well, this is a fact of life, and I can only say
that downloaders just have to adjust to this state of affairs.  As a
moderator of an FTP site, I am somewhat unhappy to see that users
are occasionally somewhat caustic when commenting on the work they
feel they have wasted.  Here, I must suggest a reflection of the
free nature of the FTP site services.
   A second offshoot of this discussion is the question whether the
FTP sites should carry shareware material at all, because shareware
is supposed to be against the non-commercial nature of the net.  I
won't enter into quibbling about manna from heaven vs facilities are
always paid by someone.  There has been ample debate on the
principle during the existence of the news in many newsgroups.  But
FTP sites (and BBSes) carry shareware (and freeware) material.
That's the way it is, and that's the way it'll probably stay.  Who
would sort out the different kind of programs, anyway, in actual
practice. Besides what about the programs that are free for
individuals but payment is required for corporate and similar usage?
   A third offshoot is the concept of shareware itself, and whether
one is obliged to pay for it.  This subject is outside the current
problem, and besides it has been discussed ad nauseum in many UseNet
newsgroups.  I don't want to enter into that. My official position
as a moderator is clear: "Duly observe the shareware rules".
   There is, however, one group of programs, relevant to this
discussion, which I prefer not to have on Garbo archives, that is
the demo versions of fully commercial programs.  Since the UseNet
principle _and_ practice is an unambiguous no with respect to
outright commercial programs.  (It would be illegal to distribute
them through the net for obvious reasons).  Therefore I feel that
there is no reason why we should be carrying part of the marketing
costs of fully commercial producers of programs by accommodating
their demo versions, perhaps with a rare exception of demos of
exceptional interest or usefulness.  I am occasionally accosted by
producers of commercial products. My usual response has been a no
for the reasons given here.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

From [e-mail] Sat Oct 16 00:00:21 1993
Subject: How can I send email to CompuServe from InterNet?

21. *****
 Q: How can I send email to CompuServe from InterNet?

 A: That is simple.  The CompuServe addresses are typically given in
the format [79999,9999]. From InterNet use [e-mail]
where the comma is replaced by the a period.
   The other way round, you can send me email from Compuserve to
InterNet by applying send to ">INTERNET:[e-mail]", where the
[e-mail] naturally means a user's regular InterNet address.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

From [e-mail] Sat Oct 16 00:00:22 1993
Subject: How does one create a new UseNet newsgroup??

22. *****
 Q: How does one create a new UseNet newsgroup?

 A: The creation of a UseNet newsgroup is quite a complicated
process. Not technically, but administratively. The creation process
is described in
  garbo.uwasi.fi:/pc/doc-net/usenews.zip
  Usenet Netiquette, creating new newsgroups, etc advice
Among other things it involves a request for discussion (RFD), a
call for votes (CFV), a waiting period if the votes passes, the
actual creation by the UseNet authorities.
   I was involved in the creation of the two comp.archives.msdos
newsgroups even if the actual voting process was kindly taken care
by another person. I can assure you that it is much hard work and it
takes several months (yes, indeed) to go through the whole process.
Hence it is not realistic to make suggestions of creating new
newsgroups without careful consideration and groundwork.
--------------------------------------------------------------------