A Usenet Primer
Netiquette Niceties for Usenet
Table of Contents
- General Usenet Netiquette
- Lurk Before You Leap
- Check Out the Newcomer Newsgroups
- Read the Frequently Asked Questions Lists
- A Primer on Posting Politesse
- Use Your Subject Line to Warn Others
- Pick Your Groups with Care
- Practice Posting Patience
- Avoiding Follow-up Faux Pas
A commercial society whose members are essentially ascetic and indifferent in
social ritual has to be provided with blueprints and specifications for evoking
the right tone for every occasion.
—Marshall McLuhan
General Usenet Netiquette
In Usenet lingo, a newbie is someone new to the Net. Although the term sounds sort of cute, it's actually an insult you'll want to avoid at all costs. How do you do that? Easy: just read this chapter and take its lessons to heart, and in everyone's eyes you'll appear to be a true Net veteran (which, of course, you will be before long). Most Netiquette applies to all Usenetters, but there are a few guidelines aimed specifically at newcomers. These are covered in the next few sections.
Lurk Before You Leap
You might sorely be tempted to dive right in to the Usenet deep end and start posting articles left, right, and center. However, you should first get the lay of the Netnews land by picking out a few interesting-sounding groups and limiting yourself to just reading articles posted by others. This gives you a chance to gauge the tone of the group, the intellectual level of the articles, and the interests of the various group members. Then, after you feel comfortable with the newsgroup (which could take as little as a few days or as long as a few weeks, depending on how often you're on the Net), you can start posting some original articles and following up on articles written by your group colleagues.
One caveat: Introverted types, or those uncomfortable with their writing skills, might decide to become full-time lurkers, never posting their own articles. That's their decision, of course, but it's considered bad form in Usenet circles. Why? Well, Usenet thrives on participation and the constant thrust and parry of post and follow-up. Mere rubbernecking adds no value whatsoever to a group, so everyone is expected to post sooner or later. If you're really reluctant, feel the fear and do it anyway (to borrow a book title). You'll be amazed at the pride and sense of accomplishment you'll feel when you see your first post appear in a newsgroup.
Check Out the Newcomer Newsgroups
The news hierarchy contains a couple of dozen newsgroups devoted exclusively to Usenet topics. There are, however, two groups you should read religiously when you're just starting out:
- news.announce.newusers: This group posts regular articles (these are called periodic postings) that explain Usenet concepts to beginners. Some good articles to look for include "What Is Usenet?" "Hints on writing style for Usenet," and "A Primer on How to Work with the Usenet Community."
- news.newusers.questions: This is the group in which Usenet rookies ask questions about Netiquette, newsreaders, groups, and lots more. In particular, be sure to read the article titled "Welcome to news.newusers.questions," which is posted weekly.
Read the Frequently Asked Questions Lists
In your travels through the alt hierarchy, you might come across, say, the newsgroup alt.buddha.short.fat.guy (really!). This group could be described as "Buddhism with an attitude," and it can be a lot of fun. So you check it out for a while, and when you decide to post, the first question that comes to mind is "Who the heck was the Buddha, anyway?" That's a good question, but the problem is that most of the other readers of this group probably asked the same question when they were newcomers. You can imagine how thrilled the group regulars are to answer this question for the thousandth time.
To avoid these kinds of annoyingly repetitive queries, many newsgroups have a Frequently Asked Questions list, or FAQ (which is pronounced fack). Before you even think about posting to a newsgroup for the first time, give the group's FAQ a thorough going over to see whether your question has come up in the past.
How do you get a FAQ for a group? There are lots of methods you can use, but the following four are the most common:
- Check out the newsgroup itself. Some newsgroups post their own FAQs regularly (usually monthly).
- Look in the answers group under each mainstream hierarchy (such as rec.answers or comp.answers). These groups are set up to hold nothing but FAQ lists for the various groups in the hierarchy. Alternatively, the news.answers group contains periodic FAQ postings from most groups that have them.
- Use anonymous FTP to log in to rtfm.mit.edu and head for the /pub/usenet-by-group/news.answers directory. This directory contains the archived FAQ for every group that has one.
By the way, Usenet has its own FAQ called "Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About Usenet." It's posted monthly in both news.announce.newusers and news.answers. If you can't find it there, FTP to rtfm.mit.edu and grab the file named part1 in the /pub/usenet-by-group/news.answers/usenet/faq directory.
A Primer on Posting Politesse
OK, you've had a lengthy lurk in your favorite newsgroups, you've faithfully scoured news.announce.newusers and news.newusers.questions, and you've studied the appropriate FAQ files. Now you can just plow ahead and start posting willy-nilly, right? Wrong. There's a whole slew of Netiquette niceties related to posting, which isn't surprising because posting is the lifeblood of the Usenet system. To get you prepared, the next few sections tell you everything you need to know.
Use Your Subject Line to Warn Others
Use the Subject line of your article to warn others of material that might be offensive. In brackets, write Offensive to x, where x is the group your article is slamming (such as computer book authors). Similarly, if your article gives away an ending to a movie, TV show, or book, or if it contains the answer to a riddle, include Spoiler in the Subject line so that everyone knows what's coming.
Pick Your Groups with Care
If you put together a list of the top Usenet pet peeves, "articles posted to inappropriate groups" would be a shoo-in to appear on the list. For whatever reasons, Usenet participants always seem to blow a gasket when they come across an article that doesn't fit into their group's theme. To keep the Net on your good side, think carefully about which newsgroup would welcome your article with open arms. Not only will you avoid some wrathful replies, but you'll be more likely to get a good response to your post.
Here are a few other points to bear in mind when selecting a newsgroup:
- Although cross-posting is occasionally useful, you should rarely need to do it. If you're debating sending an article to a couple of closely related groups, keep in mind that the same people probably read both groups, so your potential audience won't be any bigger. (And, believe me, nobody likes to read the same article twice!)
- If your article applies only to a specific geographic area (if you're selling a car, for example, or if you're discussing a local restaurant), be sure to post to the appropriate newsgroup in a hierarchy that covers your area. For example, Toronto Usenetters can post classifieds to the tor.forsale group or want ads to the tor.jobs group. If you don't have any local newsgroups, you can post to one of the main groups, but be sure to specify in the Subject line that your article applies only to a certain area. (An example is Cubic zirconia jewelry for sale: Hoboken, NJ in rec.collecting.)
- If you want to run a test to see whether your newsreader is posting articles properly, be sure to use one of the test newsgroups (such as misc.test). Do not—repeat, do not—use any of the regular newsgroups, unless you want your e-mail inbox stuffed with angry complaints. For faster feedback, use a test group in your area. (Many access providers have set up their own test groups, and you'll find that it's best to use them.)
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TIP: HOW TO AVOID AUTOMATIC TEST REPLIES | |
Many Usenet sites have programs that will automatically fire off e-mail messages to you when they receive your test posts. If you'd prefer not to receive these messages, include the word ignore in the Subject line of your test article.
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- If you want to advertise a product on Usenet, you need to be very careful how you go about it. (Remember what happened to those green-card lawyers!) If you really want to advertise, use the groups in the biz hierarchy (for example, biz.comp.software).
Practice Posting Patience
If you post an article and it doesn't show up in the newsgroup five minutes later, don't resend the article. A posted article goes on quite a journey as it wends its way through the highways and byways of the Internet. As a result, it can often take a day or two before your article appears in the newsgroup. (This is why it's also considered bad Usenet form to post articles "announcing" some current news event. By the time the article appears, the event is likely to be old news to most readers, and you'll end up looking just plain silly. If you're aching to discuss it with someone, try the misc.headlines group.)
Avoiding Follow-up Faux Pas
One of the best ways to get your Usenet feet wet is to respond to an existing article with a follow-up message. You can answer questions, correct errors, or just weigh in with your own opinions on whatever the topic at hand happens to be. Following up has its own Netiquette rules, however, and I've summarized the most important ones here:
- Read any existing follow-ups first. Before diving in, check to see whether the article already has any follow-ups. If so, read them to make sure that your own follow-up won't just repeat something that has already been said.
- Use your newsreader's follow-up command. Don't respond to an article by posting another original article. Instead, use your newsreader's follow-up command to make sure that your article becomes part of the appropriate thread.
- Quote the original article sparingly. To make sure that others know what you're responding to, include the appropriate lines from the original article in your follow-up. You'll need to use some judgment here, though. Quoting the entire article is wasteful (especially if the article was a long one) and should be avoided at all costs.
- Reply by e-mail. If you think your follow-up will have interest only to the original author and not the group as a whole, send your response directly to the author's e-mail address.
- Avoid "Me too" or "Thanks" replies. Few Usenet experiences are more frustrating than a follow-up that consists only of a brain-dead "Me too!" or "Thanks for the info" response (especially if the dope sending the follow-up has quoted the entire original article!). If you feel the need to send missives of this kind, do it via e-mail.
- Use summaries to reduce group clutter. Some posts can elicit many different replies. For example, sending a request for "mother-in-law jokes" to rec.humor could get you all kinds of responses from disgruntled spouses. To avoid cluttering the group with all these follow-ups (especially if there's a chance the replies will have lots of repeats), tell the respondents to send their jokes (or whatever) to you via e-mail, and offer to summarize the results. Then, when all the follow-ups are in, post your own follow-up that includes a summary of the responses you received.
The artwork displayed throughout this primer is Copyright © Judd Winick.
Copyright © 1995-2008 Paul McFedries and Logophilia Limited
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