Newsgroups: rec.music.beatles.info,rec.music.beatles
Subject: The rmb guide to netiquette
Date: 11 Jan 1997 04:40:38 GMT

INTRODUCTION TO NETIQUETTE
Written and edited by saki (saki@evolution.bchs.uh.edu) and
Edward Chen (edc@evolution.bchs.uh.edu)
Last Update: 15 November 1996
----

Imagine there's a newsgroup.

It's easy if you try....

That's just what some people did about nine years ago---created a Usenet
discussion group for Beatles fans worldwide.

And now there are three of them:

 - rec.music.beatles (unmoderated): all Beatles-related topics
 - rec.music.beatles.info (moderated): news, press events, reviews
 - rec.music.beatles.moderated (moderated): in-depth analysis

Each discussion group on Usenet has its own net-etiquette, its own 
set of regulars and characters. The rmb's are no exception. 

Usenet newsgroups have a long-standing cyber-heritage, and are quite
different from chat rooms and Web sites. Our approach is almost like
a public sounding-board where fans of all persuasions debate and
discuss topics at many levels of expertise. Some are verbose, some
are brief. And you don't have to read all three newsgroups to find
your comfort level.

There are a passel of new words and concepts to learn...not just
ADT and flanging and revolving Leslie speakers, but "flame", "troll",
and the distinction between private email and public debate.

Politeness is a topic as old as the hills but it has its place here
too.

You might want to arm yourself with a few resource books and sail
into the fracas...but here are some tips for navigating the netiquette
waves of Cyber-Beatlemania.

To make it quick (if you don't want to read any further):

PLEASE:

Be polite. Don't flame. Ignore flames and trolls. Stick to the topic.

Don't post if you intend to email. Learn your news software. Learn
netiquette.

Edit the subject line if necessary. Don't quote the whole prior
article.

No chain letters. Do surveys by email. No binaries.

And the details:

(1)	Try to be civil. It's a simple request. You can't see the face
	of the electronic companion next to you, but he or she is a
	real person, with real passions and interests. Respect is
	contagious. Whether or not you're used to using it in everyday 
	life, try it here. It works wonders.

(2)	Flames are unpleasant. To "flame" a fellow rmb'er is to insult
	him or her. It hurts the target, and it hurts the newsgroup.
	Please try to refrain. Opinions are widely various; that's human
	nature. Fussing and fighting are counterproductive. Ignore 
	flame wars as best you can. If you can't, take it to email, or 
	to alt.flame. Or take a walk to calm down. In particular,
	please refrain from profanity, harassment, and verbal abuse;
	some people use r.m.b. as a resource, some for
	pleasure...and some are very young, under the age of
	consent. Please do not violate r.m.b. protocols by resorting
	inappropriate language or threats.

(3)	Ignore random flames. Many people will post silly messages such as
	"The Beatles suck. Oasis is much better" with the sole intent of
	provoking a response. If you react, they win. And that's what they
	want. They win, you lose...if you play. Don't. You'll feel better.

	Some newsgroups have even been infected with the equivalent of a
	living, human "virus"---strange folks who "troll" for thrills. Their
	daily delight comes from infiltrating various newsgroups and posting
	inappropriate, provocative, or insulting messages with the hope of
	forcing regular members to leave or lose their normally civil-minded
	tempers. *Don't fall for this*. You're smarter. Prove it. Don't
	respond to trolls.

	Silence and stark non-responsiveness will often work wonders.
	Give it a try. If you're just too exasperated, ask your system
	administrator to instruct you on establishing a filtering rule
	called a "kill" file, which will eliminate specific writers
	and/or threads of conversation from your news queue. If you're
	posting from newsreaders via Netscape or from AOL, you won't
	be able to use killfiles...sorry. Just ignore net
	irritants!

(4)	Stick to the subject! Remarks about politics, society, what a bad
      	day you're having, etc., are not appropriate for r.m.b. unless 
      	there's discernable Beatles content in your post. Use your best
      	judgment on this one, please.

(5)   	There's a distinction between email and news. Even if you post
      	via a mail gateway, please observe protocols. If your message is
      	a *personal* one intended for one person's interest, please use
      	email to send it to him or her. 

	Please also consider net traffic and be mindful of contributing
	unnecessarily to it. This is your call. If your response is one
	line of commentary and not entirely relevant to the point, you
	might *seriously* consider using email instead.

(6)   	Learn to use your newsreader! Most newsreaders include on-line
      	instruction of some form or another. If you cannot access it 
      	yourself, contact your system administrator for help. If you are
      	still having trouble, dozens of printed books (check your nearest
      	bookstore), and the group news.announce.newusers exist for
      	your edification. Your newsreader and editor will allow you
      	to properly post, respond (with quotations), edit, and adjust
      	wordwrap so everyone can read what you have to say. 

(7)   	Learn basic "netiquette". A fair number of conventions are helpful
      	in making your posts more intelligible to the mainstream, and will
      	help *you* understand what others are saying. Learning things such 
      	as the smiley ":-)", acronyms (BTW, IMHO, YMMV, RTFM, TANSTAAFL),
      	emphasizing words (via *__*), not shouting (ALL CAPITAL LETTERS), 
      	and using reasonably approximate spelling should help you go far.

(8)   	Check your Subject line and *edit it* if necessary; if you're
      	responding to a previous article but have a slightly different
      	slant, the old Subject may no longer be accurate.

(9)  	Please don't quote an entire message; it's very bad form (people have 
      	already read it once!) Use your editor to delete extraneous lines; 
      	use your own best judgment. In general you can delete all but a line
      	or two from the previous article, so people get the idea what you're
      	answering. At the very least, please quote the name of the poster
      	to whom you're responding, and a brief summary of his/her article.
      	It helps others follow your train of thought.

(10)  	Do not post chain letters to USENET. The most common electronic
      	chain letter originated from a fellow named Dave Rhodes, and it
      	*is* illegal, despite what the message itself says. 

      	Also, advertising is not welcomed on the net. If you have something
      	to sell (a CD, record, memorabilia) or trade, a brief mention
      	and solicitation of email responses is permissible; you can then
      	conduct your commerce off-line. But regularly-appearing ads for
      	discount phone services, diet fads, even mail-order record shopping
      	are out of line.

(11)  	If a survey seems interesting to you (viz., what's your favorite
      	song, Beatle, food, etc.), please consider whether such a survey
      	has already been done in the past. If you *still* want to carry
      	one out, please ask for the results BY EMAIL ONLY and post a
      	SUMMARY of the results. This will, one hopes, cut down on a lot
      	of excessive articles and generate a more quality-conscious
      	compendium of Beatles information.

(12)	Please don't post binary (graphic) files---jpeg, .gif, .bmp---
	to rec.music.beatles. These files are too large for many readers
	to reliably download, and some sites will cut off a discussion
	newsgroup if it's too packed with stuff. Post to alt.binaries
	and mention it in r.m.b. That should work just fine.

Do these things, and you'll be discussing arcane Beatles trivia like
any expert! If you're still having trouble, obtain the long version of
this file, available via e-mail (saki@evolution.bchs.uh.edu), anonymous ftp 
(bobcat.bbn.com), gopher, and WWW. Or look for the messages "Rules for
for Posting to USENET," and "Hints on writing style for USENET" in
news.announce.newusers.

-- 
"Well, it's all right, even if you're old and grey; well 
it's all right, you've still got something to say".
--------------------------------------------------------
saki@evolution.bchs.uh.edu * dlm3@midway.uchicago.edu

