alt.usenet.reposts (AUR) and alt.usenet.reposts.d (AURd) Frequently Asked Questions

From: aur-cabal@eey.org Newsgroups: alt.usenet.reposts,alt.answers,news.answers Subject: alt.usenet.reposts (AUR) and alt.usenet.reposts.d (AURd) Frequently Asked Questions Supersedes: <usenet/reposts-faq_934285269@rtfm.mit.edu> Followup-To: alt.usenet.reposts.d Date: 24 Aug 1999 12:47:14 GMT Organization: aur cabal Expires: 20 Sep 1999 12:30:37 GMT Message-ID: <usenet/reposts-faq_935497837@rtfm.mit.edu> Reply-To: aur-caballero@eey.org Keywords: AUR,AURd,reposts X-Last-Updated: 1999/04/01 X-Contest-(no-prizes): How does this version differ from the previous one? Archive-name: usenet/reposts-faq Posting-Frequency: 15 days Last-modified: 99/04/01 alt.usenet.reposts (AUR) and alt.usenet.reposts.d (AURd) Frequently Asked Questions ------------------------------ Subject: 0. Invocation and introduction O Muse, all contributions to alt.usenet.reposts (AUR) are welcome, providing their posts conform to the posting guidelines contained in this document. Please read it before posting anything to AUR. This is also the FAQ for alt.usenet.reposts.d (AURd). The latest version of this FAQ can be found here: <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/faqs/usenet/reposts-faq> <ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/news.answers/usenet/reposts-faq.Z> (compressed) ------------------------------ Subject: 1. Table of contents 0. Invocation and introduction 1. Table of contents 2. What is AUR? 3. How to do it 3.1. Participating in AUR 3.2. How to post to AUR 3.3. Uppity news software 4. What you should not do in AUR 4.1. Discussions 4.2. Unwelcome communications 4.3. Cascades 4.4. Crossposts 4.5. Self-abuse 4.6. Non-articles 5. What to post to AURd 5.1. Mission statement 5.2. Discussing articles 5.3. Protocol questions 6. What is missing from this version of the FAQ 7. Credits and valediction ------------------------------ Subject: 2. What is AUR? AUR is alt.usenet.reposts. Like some other newsgroups, it has a purpose. The newsgroup alt.usenet.reposts was created to contain articles that people have read in other newsgroups that other people might find amusing or interesting: There are tens of thousands of groups out there, and even if you wanted to, you could not read them all. For the purpose of AUR, "Usenet" encompasses all newsgroups, not just the classic "Big Eight" hierarchies. AUR is meant to offer a broad range of useful information, witty rejoinders, cute newbie antics, and stimulating flame wars, all of which you can observe from here in perfect safety. (Metaphor only. Actual perfect safety not guaranteed.) AUR differs from rec.humor.funny in that, inter alia, it is limited to reposts of Usenet articles, and from alt.humor.best-of-usenet in that (1) it is unmoderated and (2) it is not limited to humorous material. Any newsgroup article of interest to a wide audience may be reposted to AUR. Another cognate group is alt.best.of.internet (ABOI), which, though like AUR as to points 1 and 2, does not limit its reposts to Usenet. AUR is for reposting only. Please do not post any original articles or existing reposts (e.g., articles found in alt.humor.best-of-usenet) to AUR. ------------------------------ Subject: 3. How to do it 3.1. Participating in AUR AUR is an unmoderated newsgroup. Anyone can post to AUR as long as his posts conform to the guidelines of this FAQ. Please subscribe to AURd if you read AUR. It will be useful if there are any important changes to the group, or if a discussion gets going about some post. Stranger things have happened. (Subject: 5 contains information on AURd.) AUR is based on participation. AUR gets nowhere if people do not bother to post. So please, when you are reading other newsgroups, keep AUR in mind. Reposting an article does not take very long if you know what you are doing, and, for that matter, even if you do not. 3.2. How to post to AUR [a] Read a newsgroup other than AUR. Remarkable articles are found in unlikely places. [b] Find an article (not a binary or a repost) that is funny, entertaining, intelligent, thought-provoking, or otherwise interesting. If you like the article, and you think others might want to read it, that is perfect. And if they do not like it, that is one of the things AURd is for. [c] Historically, AUR formatting has been rather flexible within certain limits. Here is a suggested procedure: (i) "Follow up" the article, but instead of leaving the "Newsgroups:" header as you find it, delete all of the groups and substitute "alt.usenet.reposts". (ii) In addition, create a "Followup-To:" header that contains "alt.usenet.reposts.d". In addition, you may include the originating group, but be careful to put any moderated groups at the end of the list. (iii) Be sure that there is something at the top of the new article's body (the old headers or a clear introductory line) that tells the name of the newsgroup where you found the article and the name in the original "From:" header. (iv) Append "AUR: " to the beginning of the "Subject:" header's argument. If your newsreader added a "Re: " to the original subject line, remove it. (v) Your comments about the article may be added at the top of the body; these should be brief, and probably not be substantive with respect to the theme of the article. Shorten or excerpt the original article only in extreme cases, but do not otherwise "improve" it. Any elisions, or comments that you put in the body of the article, should be clearly distinguishable from the work of the original author. [d] Any method other than "following up" that gets essentially the same results is acceptable. In fact, it is preferable to use a method that does not add a layer of backquote symbols to the original article. [e] If all this is just too overwhelming, simply e-mail the article (including as much of the headers section as possible) to <aur- edit@eey.org> and we shall take care of it for you. (This offer may be administered capriciously and withdrawn at any time. Void where taxed or restricted.) [f] Here is an example of one of the several proper ways to format an AUR article. The first three lines are headers, not the body of the article. Subject: AUR: The Wacky World of Wardrobes Newsgroups: alt.usenet.reposts Followup-To: alt.usenet.reposts.d,alt.wardrobe.moderated The unintended results of those ridiculous wardrobe import controls can lead to some funny moments, as: Jane Q. Public <jqp@eey.org> writes in alt.wardrobe.moderated: >The other day a Colombian wardrobe being held in the warehouse >of a customs broker near Miami International Airport suddenly >burst open, engulfing a friend of mine in a mysterious white, [snip] 3.3. Uppity news software Problem: "I cannot post this article because my news server says 'Error 441: More quoted than new text'." Delete the column of backquote characters on the left end of each line. (These are usually ">".) Then the news server cannot tell which is the quoted text. Make sure the reader of the article still can. ------------------------------ Subject: 4. What you should not do in AUR 4.1. Discussions Do not discuss articles posted to AUR in this group. AUR is only for reposting articles. AURd (alt.usenet.reposts.d) is the place to discuss articles posted to AUR--in fact, this is exactly what AURd was created for. (Subject: 5 contains information on AURd.) To reply to an article posted in AUR use your newsreader's "reply" command, and be sure that the "Newsgroups:" header of the new article does not contain "alt.usenet.reposts". 4.2. Unwelcome communications Do not use AUR for your own advertisements, web site promotion (even if nonprofit), general announcements or appeals (including virus warnings and personals), other spam, or general irrelevancies. (Have we missed anything?) Those who post such messages in AUR should not be surprised if AUR readers use various lawful means, including forceful and repeated complaints to addresses such as <postmaster@___.com>, <root@___.org>, <abuse@___.net>. This has been known to work. On the other hand, if you find the article in one of the taboo categories to be interesting or funny then by all means repost it. 4.3. Cascades Do not build huge, irrelevant, cumulative threads in AUR. Threads called cascades are usually one-line posts that continue a rhyme or a theme. Most people resent having to deal with them. Those who do like them can go to alt.cascade and rec.humor. 4.4. Crossposts Articles to AUR should not be crossposted. A crosspost is an article with more than one group in the "Newsgroups:" header. As the default, replies to crossposts will appear in every group in which the original article appeared. If someone "follows up" with a reply to a message crossposted to AUR, the reply will appear in AUR, thus creating an original article. But original articles are off-topic for AUR, since AUR is only for reposts. What a mess. Exception: Crossposting reposts to ABOI is usually tolerated, since ABOI is also a reposts group. If you do this, remember to put AURd in the "Followup-To:" header. Clarification: This is not intended to rule out putting more than one group in your own repost's "Followup-To:" header, or otherwise crossposting to AURd. 4.5. Self-abuse Do not repost your own article to AUR. When you repost to AUR, you have to make a judgment call: You have to decide whether a certain article is good enough to deserve being reposted. This is your sacred right. (Offer limited to certain Western democracies, and, even then, metaphor only. Actual sacred right not guaranteed.) Unfortunately, this means that just about anybody can post just about anything, as long as it was originally posted somewhere else. Because some people tend to think that their writing is funnier or more interesting than it actually is, self-reposting usually induces eventual remorse. So please do not repost articles you wrote yourself. If your article is really good, someone else may conceivably discover it. Sorry about this rule, but it is something that must be done. 4.6. Non-articles Do not post non-articles, such as messages from mailing lists or WWW pages to AUR. Find a more appropriate group. Try rec.humor for jokes, ABOI or another group for other kinds of messages, to AUR. If it is on Usenet in any form, you can repost it to AUR. Otherwise, take it somewhere else. ------------------------------ Subject: 5. What to post to AURd 5.1. Mission statement AURd was created as a safety valve for AUR. Basically, anything related to AUR that is not a repost can be posted to AURd. If you want to start a discussion and you cannot post to AURd, please e-mail the FAQ-keeper (eeyore@eey.org>), who can post your question to AURd for you and get the discussion going. Of course if you cannot post to AURd the odds are overwhelming that you cannot read it either, so you will miss the ensuing discussion. Well, no sense worrying about that now. 5.2. Discussing articles If you want to discuss an article posted to AUR, you have a few options. You can use e-mail if you want to reply only to one person, such as the author of the original article. But take care that you're not replying to the reposter instead, by mistake. You can also "follow up" to the group that the article came from if you think your reply would be on topic. Unfortunately, sometimes it is hard to tell whether your reply will be on-topic, especially if the original article was obviously off- topic. A third option is to post to AURd. AURd can be used for general discussion of the articles posted to AUR. Or, if you have something to add to an article you reposted to AUR, you might post it to AURd as a reply to your own article. 5.3. Protocol questions Questions of group protocol can be posted to AURd if you are having problems. Also, if you have a suggestion for AUR, start a discussion in AURd. Some, and perhaps all, readers of AUR read AURd and would be interested in hearing suggestions. The rules of AUR are not set in stone, but new policies have to be approved, or at least discussed, by AUR readers in general. The FAQ-keeper makes no material rule changes without a stab at consensus. ------------------------------ Subject: 6. What is missing from this version of the FAQ Previous versions of this FAQ contained an abundance of uplifting words touching on Usenet customs and manners. Fortunately for those who wish to read helpful exhortations in this vein, there remains the ABOI FAQ, from which the great preponderance of that writing was closely adapted. It is at <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/faqs/best-of-internet-faq>. ------------------------------ Subject: 7. Credits and valediction This FAQ is a ruthlessly abbreviated and otherwise roughed-up adaptation by the present FAQ-Keeper (<eeyore@eey.org>) of the one previously adapted by FAQ-keeper Emeritus Marcus Lauer (<melauer@uclink4.berkeley.edu>), to whose spirit AUR owes more than can be properly said here, from Matti Haack's ABOI FAQ. This in turn was based on an older FAQ created by Malinda McCall, a/k/a net.goddess (<mmcall@unix.cc.emory.edu>), and Onno Benschop (<o.benschop@info.curtin.edu.au>). Thanks are also due to: <stremler@rohan.sdsu.edu> <dom@i-cubed.demon.co.uk> <jon@etrigan.demon.co.uk> <jsdy@cais.com> <huttone@peak.org> and others, whose names are lost in the mists of time, who helped correct mistakes and came up with new ideas. The reader is encouraged to aspire to this illustrious list. Special emergency notice: Because of the large administrative workload, e-mail sent to the FAQ-keeper will not be answered unless it is encrypted with the following RSA key: -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- mQA9AzcCyZgAAAEBgMgJ0fLPdtF3eczIer7+nx0G+8NWDOmZWBzXgTqgp5vGUeni wy3fdyr79aLXVsRHhQAFEbQRYXVyLWNhYmFsQGVleS5vcmc= =3jP2 -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

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