From ts@uwasa.fi Fri Feb 9 00:00:00 1996 Subject: FAQNEWS2.TXT contents Copyright (c) 1993-1996 by Timo Salmi All rights reserved FAQNEWS2.TXT Frequently (and not so frequently) asked questions relating to Usenet news with answers. Part 2/2. The items are in no particular order. You are free to quote brief passages from this file provided you clearly indicate the source with a proper acknowledgment. Comments and corrections are solicited. However, if you wish to ask for individual consultation, please do not email your question to me. Instead post your questions to a suitable Usenet newsgroup like news:news.newusers.questions. It is much more efficient than asking me by email. I'd like to help, but because of my many activities I am very pressed for time. I prefer to pick the questions I answer on the Usenet news. Thus I can answer publicly at one go if I happen to have an answer. Besides, the newsgroups have a number of other readers who might know a better or an alternative answer. Don't be discouraged, though, if you get a reply like this from me. I am always glad to hear from fellow Usenet news readers. .................................................................... Prof. Timo Salmi Co-moderator of news:comp.archives.msdos.announce Moderating at ftp:// & http://garbo.uwasa.fi archives 193.166.120.5 Department of Accounting and Business Finance ; University of Vaasa ts@uwasa.fi http://uwasa.fi/~ts BBS 961-3170972; FIN-65101, Finland -------------------------------------------------------------------- 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? 23) I am having problem with canceling my posting. What to do? 24) What are the distribution area codes for Usenet news postings? 25) Should I thank for posted advice? 26) Can I say hello and find friends on news.newusers.questions? 27) How long will my posting stay on the Usenet news? 28) Where did my Usenet posting disappear? 29) Why are Usenet news postings out of sequence? 30) How should I react to chain letters? 31) Where do I find a complete list of Usenet newsgroups? 32) Someone broke the netiquette. Should I email advice? -------------------------------------------------------------------- From ts@uwasa.fi Fri Feb 9 00:00:20 1996 Subject: Mark shareware/freeware/etc status to file lists 20. ***** Q: Why don't you mark shareware/freeware/etc status to Garbo's 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 stretched 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 ts@uwasa.fi Fri Feb 9 00:00:21 1996 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 79999.9999@compuserve.com 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:user@site.domain", where the user@site.domain naturally means a user's regular InterNet address. -------------------------------------------------------------------- From ts@uwasa.fi Fri Feb 9 00:00:22 1996 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 ftp://garbo.uwasa.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. Carefully think is it really a newsgroup you wish to have. In many cases, especially if the need is local, you might instead wish to consider setting up a mailing list. A2: From Sethu Rathinam rathinam@ins.infonet.net. Reprinted with permission. If you want to create a Usenet newsgroup, you need to read at least the following documents - they are posted to news.answers and/or news.groups periodically. Read these groups often for at least 6 months before attempting to create a newsgroup. 1. How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup 2. So you want to Create an Alt Newsgroup 3. Usenet Newsgroup Creation Companion The above is a *minimum* requirement. Strong Advice: If you are in a hurry to create a newsgroup, you shouldn't be creating one. A3: A point by David DeLaney dbd@martha.utcc.utk.edu. Before you do anything else, you check to make sure that there are no existing groups that already cover the area. -------------------------------------------------------------------- From ts@uwasa.fi Fri Feb 9 00:00:23 1996 Subject: Canceling postings 23. ***** Q: I am having problem with canceling my posting. What to do? A: How one cancels one's own posting is naturally dependent on the newsreader program that one uses. In rn you can cancel your posting by pressing C (that is shift-c) when reading your own posting. In other newsreaders check their help function for the cancel command. For example in tin the cancel command is D. Confusingly, it may happen that you are unable to cancel your own posting but get a "You can't cancel someone else's posting" message instead. That implies that the newssystem at your side has been configured badly. The sender and your own id do not match. It is not your fault. There is nothing you can do about that yourself. It is up to your local newsmanager to set the system right. Contact him/her in case of this problem. -------------------------------------------------------------------- From ts@uwasa.fi Fri Feb 9 00:00:24 1996 Subject: Limiting news distribution 24. ***** Q: What are the distribution area codes for Usenet news postings? A: If you look at the header of a Usenet news posting, you'll observe that it includes the a line "Distribution:" where you might put a limited area code like usa, na (North America), local etc. Don't trust this. The distribution limitation is not guaranteed to work. In global newsgroups a local distribution can easily "leak" since not all configurations along the feed observe this feature. Thus the distribution field in the header is best left unchanged. The best advice is always assume that the newsgroups default will take precedence. In practice that means a "world" distribution in news hierarchies like news. and comp. The New users' newsgroup news.newusers.questions is a good case in point. Always assume world distribution. Hence the frequent question where to find the different distribution codes is somewhat moot. Kent_Landfield@sterling.com writes on this in is own FAQ (reprinted with permission): In theory the distributions work as intended, but in practice, due to lack of verification by posting agents, misconfigured news transport agents, wide-area sites which pick up all news regardless of distribution, and inadequate controls on the names of the distributions, they are relatively useless. -------------------------------------------------------------------- From ts@uwasa.fi Fri Feb 9 00:00:25 1996 Subject: Should I thank for posted advice? 25. ***** Q: Should I post a thank-you note about a response I have got on the Usenet news. A: Good manners never hurt, even if not everyone automatically expects to be thanked for posting advice. However, if you do, there are some very important considerations to think of. If you wish to send a thank-you response, use email, and email only. Do _not_ post your individual thank you note to the Usenet news. Many newsgroups have over a hundred thousand readers. Hence posted thank-you notes are, quite rightly, considered superfluous traffic. If you have received emailed advice from many quarters and wish to thank collectively, please do not do that either on the Usenet news. One notable exception. If you summarize for the benefit of the other readers the information which you have received. If you use email, then tell your benefactor what you are thanking him/her for. Some users handle so much Usenet postings and email that unless you do they will have no idea what your thanks is related to. They'll just be baffled. -------------------------------------------------------------------- From ts@uwasa.fi Fri Feb 9 00:00:26 1996 Subject: Can I say hello and find friends on news.newusers.questions? 26. ***** Q: I am new and would love to receive messages from far away! A: >>> Please do not post hello messages to new.newusers.questions <<< Dear New Users ("Newbies"), welcome to news.newusers.questions. This message is meant as helpful guidance from an old user to help you to find your way with regard to the no-no of posting hello messages, or posting replies to them. The newsgroup news.newusers.questions is intended for the "Questions and Answers of users new to Usenet". Since so many of the users are new here, there are a lot of aspects of net usages and conduct, which a number of the readers are not aware of. This posting is to inform you of one of the pitfalls. There are frequent postings by new users introducing themselves in the style "I am new and would love messages from far away". This is nice, BUT it is _*NOT*_ the thing to do. The newsgroup is for asking new users' questions, not for socializing, however friendly the intent. IMPORTANT: If you see a "hello" posting on news.newusers.questions, and absolutely wish to respond to it by saying your own friendly hello, do not post - I repeat DO NOT POST - your reply to this newsgroup, but send your greetings by EMAIL! At the count in April 1995 there were some 390,000(!) users reading news.newusers.questions. There will be a total chaos if the new users continue posting hello messages in this newsgroup. Besides, there is a real danger that your mailbox might virtually explode with responses from all over the world if you solicit hellos on news.newusers.questions. The number one tenet on news.newusers.questions is to start by reading, not by posting. Watch, learn and get your bearings before starting to post yourself. If you wish to socialize there are special newsgroups for the purpose like soc.penpals, alt.personals.ads and alt.personals.misc. The newsgroups in the "talk" hierarchy might also interest you. Furthermore, you might try to find out about special alternatives like IRC (Internet Relay Chat) from a more seasoned friend. For a more comprehensive treatment of alternative newsgroups for socializing please see "A Guide to Social Newsgroups and Mailing Lists" by Dave Taylor. It is posted regularly to news.answers. It is also available from rtfm.mit.edu by their mail server: To receive it by email send email to "mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu" with the command "send pub/usenet-by-group/news.answers/usenet/social-newsgroups/part1" (no quotes). What was being said here about the no-no of hello postings goes for test postings, too. Do not post tests to news.newusers.questions! For more information on the right places to post tests please see my weekly >>> Please don't test here: A Weekly FAQ on test postings <<< (The item "Where to put test postings?" in this file) P.S. While the word newbie is unfortunately often used derisively, I use it here solely in a positive sense and would hope to see it gain this more friendly connotation. -------------------------------------------------------------------- From ts@uwasa.fi Fri Feb 9 00:00:27 1996 Subject: How long will my posting stay on the Usenet news? 27. ***** Q: How long will my or someone else's posting stay on the news? A: There are some Usenet news related questions which cannot have a unique answer. This is one of them. Each site (your host) receiving the newsfeed can define how long a news posting is kept before it is deleted, that is before it expires. The expiry can even be made to vary at a site depending on the newsgroup. In fact this is fairly common. The default expiry lengths at the various sites are influenced by many factors like local policy, the relevance of the newsgroup, the capacity of the local newsserver computer, and so on. The current Usenet news volumes are staggering. This puts pressures on many sites to use quick expiry spans. Since the news travel at different speeds from the different parts of the net, and parts of the net may occasionally be down along the feed, the news arrive at differing lags. Unfortunately this means that at worst some newspostings can even have expired when they finally arrive. If you look at the header of a news posting you will note an "Expires:" line in the header. This can be used to TRY to alter the expiry. The format is "Expires: Sun, 14 May 1995 10:00:00 GMT" without the double quotes. Please don't use this feature unless you have a very good reason and know what you are doing. Also note that many hosts override the users' expiry redefinitions. -------------------------------------------------------------------- From ts@uwasa.fi Fri Feb 9 00:00:28 1996 Subject: Where did my Usenet posting disappear? 28. ***** Q: I just made a posting to the Usenet news but it is not there! A: This is a fairly common complaint, but most often it is unfounded. You see, most, if not all newsreader programs no longer show a posting once it has been read. Else you would see the same posting over and over again, but it does not mean that the posting has been deleted, i.e. expired. You just have to force your way back to postings that already have been read. How to do that depends on your newsreader program. See your newsreader's help for more. For example in rn and trn the key to press to go backwards to any posting is P. When you have made a posting to the news, for some reason it can become read under some newsreaders, even if it shouldn't. Thus it might appear that your posting did not make it even if it did. Force the newsreader to go back / forward to read messages to see your posting if your configuration has these kinds of problems. Another dilemma is that depending on your local arrangements the newsposting may take a (short) while before your newsserver makes it accessible. Some newsgroups are moderated newsgroups. If you post to a moderated newsgroup, instead of making it appear right away, your newsreader program will email your posting to the newsgroups moderates who eventually posts it to the newsgroup (or rejects it). There is one pitfall with submitting a moderated posting. If you cross-post to a moderated newsgroup and non-moderated newsgroups, your posting will not appear in the non-moderated newsgroup, but will be emailed to the moderator. Whether he/she heeds to your cross-posting definition is up to him/her. The blanket advice is not to use cross-posting at all when submitting a posting to a moderated newsgroup. -------------------------------------------------------------------- From ts@uwasa.fi Fri Feb 9 00:00:29 1996 Subject: Why are Usenet news postings out of sequence? 29. ***** Q: Why are Usenet news postings out of sequence? A: The Usenet news postings travel at different speeds from the different parts of the net, and parts of the net may occasionally be down along the feed. Thus the news postings arrive at differing, volatile lags. Take a look at the "Date:" line in the posting's header. You'll see much variation and will note that quite a lot of the postings are out of chronological sequence. It is not at all uncommon to see replies to postings before seeing the original posting which is being replied to. Nevertheless, the newspostings are numbered sequentially at the receiving sites. The numbering is unique to each receiving site. Hence you cannot identify a posting by its number (not at least to anyone outside your own site)! Don't to refer to a posting by the sequential number number even if your own newsreader program may display and use these numbers. (The only way to identify a posting unequivocally is from the "Message-Id" line from the posting's header.) -------------------------------------------------------------------- From ts@uwasa.fi Fri Feb 9 00:00:30 1996 Subject: Chain letters 30. ***** Q: How should I react to chain letters? A: One of the most frequent net abuses is posting make money fast chain letter schemes. Not only are they against the netiquette, but they are outright illegal in many countries. For example for the U.S. see 3404 Jul 22 1995 ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pub/pc/doc-net/chain.txt chain.txt About chain letters, from the U.S. postmaster general These scams come in many variations on the net. If you are a newcomer to the Usenet news, don't do anything about it. In particular do not become another offender by continuing the chain. Many system administrators are quite fed up with this form of abuse. They often will cancel the culprit's computer account without further ado. If you are an experienced user, you may want to notify the relevant postmaster. If you do, please bear in mind a few obvious things. 1) Copy the full headers of the posting for her/him. The scam postings often are forgeries just to annoy the net. The full headers make it a bit easier to try asses this. 2) Delete most of the body of the scam, since it serves no informative purpose. 3) Be polite and to the point. The following newsgroups have more information on errant behavior on the Usenet news:news.admin.net-abuse.announce Information regarding network resource abuse (moderated) news:news.admin.net-abuse.misc Network facility abuse, including spamming. -------------------------------------------------------------------- From ts@uwasa.fi Fri Feb 9 00:00:31 1996 Subject: List of newsgroups 31. ***** Q: Where do I find a complete list of Usenet newsgroups? A: The lists of the various newsgroups annotated with one-line topic descriptions are contained in ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/doc-net/newsgrps.zip newsgrps.zip Lists of Active Newsgroups, David Lawrence + al. If you do not know how to go about getting this file, please read the instructions in "PD2ANS.TXT Q&As on uwasa.fi archives & more" included in this package. -------------------------------------------------------------------- From ts@uwasa.fi Fri Feb 9 00:00:32 1996 Subject: Typical responses to advice 32. ***** Q: Someone broke the netiquette. Should I email advice? A: When you have gained more experience on Usenet you may wish to help other users to find they way on the net. This requires diplomacy! Mistakes are not remedied by scolding the errant user. It just will get you enemies on the net. Learn to distinguish genuine, well-meaning ignorance from deliberate net abuse. Let's consider in this item the genuine mistakes. If you absolutely feel that you must write to the errant user, try to help by giving constructive advice. This is very important. If you are not constructive your advice will be wasted, or worse. Too many mistakes are made on the net in this respect. Be prepared for varying kinds of responses. Since I have myself managed to gain a reasonable amount of experience on the net on giving advice to fellow users, below are some of my observations. These are typically the kind of responses one tends to get when giving unsolicited emailed advice about matters like where one should put binary postings, what are the relevant newsgroup's topics and so on. 1: Cooperative. Quite common. The user understands the nature of the advice correctly, considers it useful, and that's normally the end of it. Or s/he may email me a brief (welcome) note acknowledging the information without further ado, sometimes complimenting on the fact that there was no "flame" involved. (My response in this case: It is a real pleasure to deal with users like you, and I look forward to meeting you again on the net.) 2: Apologetic. Perhaps the most usual reaction. This is not a necessary feeling since the information is genuinely meant to help the user to find his/her way on the newsgroups. There is no criticism involved in my sending the advice. (My response in this case: Please do not be discouraged by my note. We all make mistakes. Please go on and enjoy the net.) 3: Patronizing. Especially some experienced users feel embarrassed by their mistake, may agree, but wish save face by whatever rationalizations happen to become handy. A fairly common additional hallmark of this category is including suggestions that would cause an inordinate amount of extra work at my end. (My response in this case: We both seem know the true ropes. So just let's leave be without further parrying.) 4: Indignant. This reaction is fortunately not common. The user does not actually refute having misposted, but the user's ego is for some reason bruised from getting the unsolicited guidance. Consequently s/he throws some form of a tantrum. Typically the user also finds severe fault with the content of the advice. If the note is short, s/he'll complain that it is too curt, if the note is extensive, s/he'll complain that a couple of rows would have been enough. There is no satisfying a user in this frame of mind. (My response in this case: Please first try to properly calm down. Then reread the information which I sent you from a more detached and receptive perspective.) 5: Abusive. Fortunately this has happened very, very rarely. The user calls me names, tells me to f**k off, tells me to mind my own g*d d**n f**king business, and that he damn well posts whatever, wherever, and whenever he pleases. He also confuses my giving the information with trying to "police" the net. (My response in this rare case: I am afraid you seem to be beyond redemption, a forgery, or under the influence. Please try learn the some elementary manners if you intend to frequent the net.) 6: Imperial. The user wants all things handed to him/her on a silver platter. Goes something like in this spirit. "How dare you send me a prerecorded message. I do not have the time to read through long FAQ material (FAQ = Frequently Asked Questions). I want a good, brief and customized answer to my question and to my question only." (My response in this case: Sorry. While I try to help I am not everyone's obedient servant. If you wish to have commercial quality personal service, please turn to commercial providers.) --------------------------------------------------------------------