alt.best.of.internet FAQ
James Anatidae
Posting-Frequency: ~ monthly
Last-modified: 1998/01/29
Version: 2.4
alt.best.of.internet Frequently Asked Questions
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0. Introduction
1. What to Post in ABOI
2. How to participate
3. What you should not do in ABOI
3.0 Do not use ABOI to announce/advertise/solict hits to your webpage
3.1 Do not use ABOI as your personal flame forum
3.2 Do not use ABOI for adverts
3.3 Do not use ABOI for topics covered by other groups
3.4 MAKE.MONEY.FAST == LOSE.ACCOUNT.FAST
3.5 Do not follow-up to ABOI
3.6 Do not cross-post to ABOI
3.7 Do not post tests or personal mail to ABOI
4. Why is there so much off-topic dross in here ?
5. Why isn't ABOI moderated ?
6. Some general notes about general using Usenet
6.1 Always read before posting
6.2 Where do I find help and other FAQs ?
6.3 Everyone is allowed to use the Internet, but...
6.4 Use Netiquette
6.5 Don't abuse others
6.6 How to communicate with others
7. Is there an archive for ABOI?
8. Fasten your seat-belt...
9. The Mini-FAQ.
10.Who created this FAQ - corrections, comments, feedback
** If you read nothing else, please read section 3 !!!!! **
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0. Introduction.
This is the regularly posted FAQ for this newsgroup.
All contributions to alt.best.of.internet (ABOI) are most welcome,
providing they follow the posting guidelines contained in this
document.
Please read this document before posting anything to ABOI.
If you fail to read this, or if you read this and choose to ignore it,
you will almost certainly receive numerous email responses from around
the world. Some of these responses will helpfully point you in the
right direction; some of these responses will be copies of the FAQ;
some of these responses will sadly be flames; only the first of these
actions is approved of by the maintainers of this FAQ. If you do wish
to pass on the FAQ and posting rules to an off-topic poster, mail the
mini-FAQ contained in this document along with your *helpful* response
to the poster.
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1. What to Post in ABOI.
ABOI is alt.best.of.internet. Like all newsgroups, it was created
to address a specific need.
The newsgroup alt.best.of.internet was created to contain articles
that people have read in other newsgroups and which other people
might find amusing or interesting: there are over 10,000 groups out
there, and many more mailing lists and Web pages and even if you
wanted to, you couldn't read every one. Instead, you can read ABOI,
and read about the violent end of flame wars, newbieisms too
clueless for words, witty responses and other articles that a wider
audience might find interesting.
ALT.BEST.OF.INTERNET IS FOR REPOSTS ONLY
Do not post original articles to ABOI. Repost other articles.
Let me put it another way: Go to another group, mailing list or Web
page, find an interesting or amusing article, and repost it in ABOI.
The key point being -- bring articles *from* ELSEWHERE *to* ABOI.
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2. Here's how to participate:
[a] find a newsgroup (other than ABOI), a mailing list or a Web page;
[b] find an article that is funny, entertaining, intelligent,
thought-provoking, or otherwise interesting;
For articles reposted from another newsgroup:
[c] pretend you are going to 'follow-up' but instead of leaving
the "Newsgroups:" line as you find it, you delete all of the
groups and add "alt.best.of.internet" and instead of leaving the
"Followup-To:" line alone, set it to the original list of groups.
Some newsreaders do not automatically insert a Followup-To line -
if this is the case with your newsreader, you should attempt to
insert such a line manually;
For articles reposted from a mailing list:
[c] Take a copy of the article and post it to ABOI, noting the origin
of the article at the top. Make sure you add a header line saying
"Followup-To: poster", so that all followups to the article will be
directed to you (poster) or junk, rather than ABOI.
For articles reposted from a Web page:
[c] Save an ASCII copy of the page, and remove all the HTML code, to
leave a plain text document, noting the URL of the page at the
top. Make sure you add a header line saying "Followup-To:
poster", so that all followups to the article will be directed
to you (poster) or junk, rather than ABOI.
[d] prepend ABOI to the Subject line to help the readers filter out
reposts from originals: only do this if you have succeeded in
adding a valid Followup-To: line.
You should not post original articles here, just post *copies* of
articles with their source, so people can follow-up to the
source. For that reason, it is polite to note clearly where you
found the article.
Here is what the skeleton of an ABOI article looks like:
Subject: ABOI: The Wacky World of Wardrobes
Newsgroups: alt.best.of.internet
Followup-To: alt.wardrobe.lovers
I found this in alt.wardrobe.lovers - a very strange group!
In article <blather> John Q. Public <j...@aol.com> writes:
> <the article>
OR
Subject: ABOI: The Wacky World of Wardrobes
Newsgroups: alt.best.of.internet
Followup-To: junk
This was on the wardrobe-lovers mailing list
(wardrob...@foo.bar.edu):
> <the article>
OR
Subject: ABOI: The Wacky World of Wardrobes
Newsgroups: alt.best.of.internet
Followup-To: junk
This was on a wardrobe-lover's web page
(http://www.foo.bar.edu/~fred/wardrobe.html)
> <the WWW page WITH THE HTML TAGS STRIPPED OUT SO WE CAN READ IT>
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3. What you should *not* do in ABOI
3.0 Do not use ABOI to announce/advertise/solict hits to your webpage.
A web-page is a source of repostable information. A URL is *not*.
A URL is a set of _directions_ on how to find a resource, it is
not the resource itself.
See section 3.3.
3.1 Do not use ABOI as your personal flame forum. Go to alt.flame
ABOI only contains *copies* of posts. If you want to comment on the
post: *follow-up to the original group, or mail the poster*. If you
enjoy arguing and insulting others, go to alt.flame. If you want to
insult one flamer in particular, stop, take a deep breath and count
to 10. If you still feel compelled to flame a poster, then do it by
email, not by following-up to ABOI.
If, despite reading this, you feel that you really must comment on
someone's post in ABOI, then do it in a positive way: find an
amusing or interesting article elsewhere on the net, repost it in
ABOI as a followup to the article that you are responding to, and
place your comments at the top of the article. Remember to set
followups to poster or junk to stop a thread forming.
3.2 Do not use ABOI or other inappropriate groups for adverts.
I cannot say this enough: alt.best.of.internet is for REPOSTING
articles of interest to other people on the net. ABOI, like most
Internet newsgroups, is not for advertising ANYTHING. Go to groups
with names containing "marketplace", "forsale", "wanted" and "biz".
Here are some examples of such groups:
rec.arts.comics.marketplace - for buying & selling comics.
misc.forsale.computers - for selling computers and related goods.
If you still want to sell us something, don't be like Canter &
Siegel - read the 'How to advertise on Usenet' FAQ, posted regularly
to news.answers, and do it the right way.
3.3 Do not use ABOI for topics covered by other groups.
If you wish to tell people about your brilliant new WWW page, then
do it through comp.infosystems.www.announce, or point your browser
at http://ep.com/faq/webannounce.html for a full description of how
and where to announce your page.
Jokes really belong in rec.humor.funny. alt.best.of.internet is a home
for things that are intrinsically rather than intentionally humorous.
And yes, we have heard about the $250 cookie recipe - if you want the
the full story on that, go to alt.folklore.urban.
3.4 MAKE.MONEY.FAST == LOSE.ACCOUNT.FAST.
Do not even think of posting the infamous chain-letter "MAKE.MONEY.FAST"
(sometimes called MMF, FASTCASH, QUICKCASH etc.). It is illegal and
posting it has already resulted in at least one jail sentence, and
many more people have lost their net access. As well as the basic
MMF post, there are several variants at large, including the "Recipe
List" and various high-charging phone number scams - they are all
equally unwelcome in ABOI and on the rest of Usenet.
If you see a MMF post, do *NOT* follow-up. The correct way to
deal with a MMF post is to mail the poster and the postmaster at their
site notifying them of the post. Posting a followup simply perpetuates
the thread and wastes additional net resources. So don't.
MMF articles are now generally cancelled on sight by the regulars in
the news.admin.net-abuse hierarchy, so they rarely survive in the
news stream for long these days.
3.5 Do not create a huge irrelevant thread on ABOI to annoy others.
Post a follow-up to the original group or mail the person who
posted the article. Irrelevant threads, called cascades, are
usually one-line posts that continue a rhyme or a theme. Most
people resent having to deal with cascades. Those who DO like
cascades can go to alt.cascade and alt.humor.
3.6 Do not crosspost to ABOI.
A crosspost is an article with more than one group in the Newsgroups
line in the header. Unless followups have been set, replies to
crosspostings will appear in every group in which the original
article appeared. If someone follows up with a reply to a message
crossposted to ABOI, the reply will appear in ABOI, thus creating a
thread. But threads are off-topic for ABOI, and ABOI is only for
reposts - not original articles. Please work out how to use your
mailer and news posting software to remove the extraneous newsgroups
from the message header. In other words, Read The Fine Manual.
3.7 Do not post tests, personal mail, or personal messages to ABOI.
Test messages can be posted to misc.test, alt.test or
alt.test.test.
These test messages will result in e-mail responses directly to
you from all over the globe. If you would prefer NOT to get these
e-mail responses, post to the test groups with "ignore" in the
"Subject:" line.
Before you use one of these groups, try to find a more local group -
many local hierarchies have .test groups that do not propagate beyond
that site, and thus save bandwidth and disk space around the world.
Personal mail or messages for one person, belong in your friend's
(or enemy's...see [2] above) personal mailbox: they are original
posts and thus off-topic in ABOI.
If you are lonely and want to post a personal ad or meet people, do
it in alt.personals, or find a penfriend in soc.penpals.
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4. Why is there so much off-topic dross in here ?
People make off-topic posts for many reasons, the main one being
that they've seen the group name, thought "Hey, that sounds like a
good place to post!", not read the FAQ and hit the "Post" button on
their newsreader. And in many cases, this is _not_ their fault - it
is the fault of their Internet Service Providers who have given
them access to the net without telling them the importance of
reading news.announce.newusers, respecting FAQs etc., etc.. So if
you see an off-topic post or newbie question in ABOI, please don't
just fire off a flame - be helpful with your response.
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5. Why isn't ABOI moderated ?
ABOI is not moderated because that's the way it was created and many of
the regular contributors prefer to be able to post direct to the group
without the intervention of a moderator. If you would like to read a
moderated group with a similar purpose and content to ABOI, try looking
at alt.humor.best-of-usenet. Attempting to get ABOI moderated would not
be easy - and the last time it was suggested, the rush of people
volunteering to moderate the group was somewhat
underwhelming. However, as a result of this last debate, a new
group with a clearer and (probably more importantly) alphabetically
later name was created to perform a similar function to ABOI. That
group is called alt.usenet.reposts, and although its propagation is
not as extensive as ABOI's, it currently has a much better signal
to noise ratio. If your site doesn't carry this group, mail your
news administrator (try use...@your.site or postm...@your.site)
and ask them to carry the group.
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6. Some general notes about using Usenet
6.1 Always read a few days' worth of articles in a newsgroup before
you post anything to that newsgroup. If you read a newsgroup prior
to posting there, you can avoid making embarrassing (for you) and
annoying (for everyone else) mistakes.
6.2 All users should subscribe to and occasionally read the newsgroup
news.announce.newusers. Many useful and informative answers can be
found there.
If you need help regarding the Internet, the proper place
to ask is: news.newusers.questions
alt.newbie
or any other 'newuser' or 'newbie' newsgroup like
de.newuser.questions
If you want to find out which newsgroup you should ask a question
in, post to news.groups.questions, saying "Which group discusses
X?".
Please read a group's FAQ before you post to it - it will save you a
lot of time, and reduce the number of frequently asked questions
posted, which makes the group much easier to read.
Many FAQs are available by FTP at rtfm.mit.edu and various mirrors in
the
directory /pub/usenet-by-hierarchy.
You may obtain the latest copy of the ABOI FAQ from rtfm.mit.edu by
retrieving the file best-of-internet-faq from the
/pub/usenet/news.answers
directory or by pointing your browser at this URL:
http://www.etrigan.demon.co.uk/aboi/aboi-faq.html.
6.3 Remember everyone IS allowed to use the Internet.
The Internet is a network of networks. The Internet community is
comprised of the people using the Internet. It exists by the grace
of many volunteers and a few paid staff scattered around the
globe. No one type of access, server, computer, et cetera is
superior to any other. You may wish to argue about this - please do
so in a .advocacy group, *not* in ABOI. Not all types are equal,
however. Some sites do not follow the RFC's, and break things. (For
example, many QWK readers totally trash Usenet headers, and if
you're using such a OLR, expect to get flamed on a regular basis.)
If you wish to argue about the moral superiority of one type of
site (example: .edu, .mil, .gov) over other types of sites
(examples: aol.com, bbs.com, compuserve.com, delphi.com) then
take it elsewhere.
Asking where to get access, for example if you are moving to a new
area, or wish to change to a better service provider is a meritable
question, but it should be directed elsewhere: alt.internet.services
and alt.internet.access-wanted are the groups to look in, and the
alt.online-service hierarchy covers many of the popular service
providers.
Don't be a twit and annoy everyone with your rudeness. You will
receive many rude responses, perhaps even flames and unsolicited
copies of the FAQ.
6.4 Please remember to be courteous of others...use Netiquette.
The Internet and NetNews are means of communicating.
"Do unto others as you would have them do to you."
Read "Emily Postnews' Guide to Netiquette" (found in
news.announce.newusers) for a description of what behaviour is
regarded as acceptable and unacceptable on Usenet.
6.5 Do not use your computer to abuse others, you *will* get caught.
Every post and e-mail message contains an unique identifier. Even
if you change your name and your reply address, you can be traced.
Remailers won't hide you. Hacking your address won't hide you.
Using a "deeptht" account won't hide you. Using "chfn" won't hide
you. So you might as well be an adult and treat people nicely.
6.6 E-mail is the only (mostly) fool-proof way to communicate with others.
Want to talk to someone? Mail them.
Want to tell lots of people what you have just read? Post it.
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7. Is there an archive for alt.best.of.internet?
No, not at present. If you have any disk-space and you think that
it's worth your while to fill it with the best of the internet,
let me (j...@etrigan.demon.co.uk) know and I'll arrange for a regular
digest to be archived to your site.
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8. Always fasten your seat-belt on the Information Highway.
It moves fast, but you may have to stop suddenly for road-works.
Sit down, sit tight and enjoy. Take time to help others and swallow
your pride and allow others with more experience help YOU if necessary.
And remember, everyone with a grain of sense abhors that stupid
"Information Highway" analogy. Even us.
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9. The Mini-FAQ.
This is the "Mini-FAQ" for ABOI. If you see an off-topic post in ABOI
and
can supply a helpful answer to the poster, you may wish to include this
in your mail. FAQ-only posts and mail-bombs are *not* to be encouraged.
The Mini-FAQ
1] Do not post original articles to ABOI. Repost other articles.
2] Do not use ABOI as your personal flame forum. Go to alt.flame.
3] Do not use ABOI or other inappropriate groups for adverts.
4] Do not use ABOI to tell us about your new Web page.
5] Do not create a huge irrelevant thread on ABOI to annoy others.
6] Do not post tests, personal mail, or personal messages to ABOI.
7] Remember everyone IS allowed to use the Internet.
8] Please remember to be courteous of others...use Netiquette.
9] Do not use your computer to abuse others, you will get caught.
10] E-mail is the only mostly-fool-proof way to communicate with others.
11] Always fasten your seat-belt on the Information Highway.
An HTMLized version is available at
http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~stremler/aboi/mini.faq.html
http://www.etrigan.demon.co.uk/aboi/aboi-faq.html
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10. Who created this FAQ.
For questions, comments or feedback, send an e-mail message to
stre...@rohan.sdsu.edu.
This FAQ is a revision of the one created & maintend by Jon Abbot
(j...@etrigan.demon.co.uk), who in turn based it on an older FAQ
created by Malinda McCall & Onno Benschop (mmc...@unix.cc.emory.edu,
aka net.goddess & o.ben...@info.curtin.edu.au).
Matti Haack (ma...@mattis.tng.oche.de) decided to update the FAQ and
regularly post it to help keep ABOI on-topic.
Jon Abbott (j...@etrigan.demon.co.uk) did a bit of polishing before
endeavoring to get the FAQ posted to *.answers and is the ex-current
FAQ-maintainer - please direct all queries, comments or corrections
away from that address.
Thanks to:
Jon Abbot (j...@etrigan.demon.co.uk)
Matti Haack (ma...@mattis.tng.oche.de)
Dom (d...@i-cubed.demon.co.uk)
Seth Krostich (sk0...@uhura.cc.rochester.edu)
Scott R. Godin (sgo...@chelsea.ios.com) *
* email address has changed
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--
Stewart Stremler stremler @ rohan . sdsu .
edu
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--
My egress was rapid, if not graceful.
-- Micheal H. McCabe
(1999)
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