comp.sys.sgi.announce
                Administrivia and Approval Criteria

Overview
--------

This periodic posting is intended to provide answers to the following
questions for the comp.sys.sgi.announce newsgroup:

        * What is the correct procedure for posting messages?

        * What are the criteria used to determine whether or not a
          post will be approved?

        * Will the moderator edit submissions?

If you think that more information needs to be supplied about any of these
topics, please send mail to the newsgroup moderator at the moderator
contact address listed below.

Posting to comp.sys.sgi.announce
------- -- ---------------------

The comp.sys.sgi.announce newsgroup is a moderated newsgroup.  That
means that users do not post directly to the newsgroup, but instead
submit messages to the moderator of the newsgroup for approval.  If
approval is granted, the moderator then posts the messages to the
group.

There are two ways to submit messages for posting to
comp.sys.sgi.announce:

        * Compose and post them as you would other news articles.
          News posting software understands that some newsgroups
          are moderated, and knows how to automatically submit posts
          to newsgroup moderators for approval.

        * E-mail them to sgi-annou...@ornl.gov. (You can also submit
          questions and comments to the moderator at this address.)

Approval Criteria
-------- --------

The comp.sys.sgi.announce newsgroup is for announcements about Silicon
Graphics products, including computer systems and the IRIX operating
system. Whether or not submissions are accepted is up to the judgement
of the moderator, but the following guidelines should help you prepare
announcements that will be accepted and useful to the community.

The best announcements have the following characteristics:

        * They are concise. For instance, if announcing a conference,
          it is better to give an overview and provide a URL where
          more information can be obtained than to go into pages upon
          pages of details.

        * They clearly identify the segments of the SGI community that
          are likely to be interested in the subject of the
          announcement. For instance, if the announcement is about a
          piece of commercial software available for SGI's, the
          announcement should include specific information about which
          platforms and OS versions are supported.

        * They are short on hype and long on facts. Instead of "Our
          REVOLUTIONARY new frobnicator is the FASTEST and CHEAPEST
          available!!!", try "Our new frobnicator is fast and
          inexpensive."

Certain types of submissions will be rejected for procedural or
common-sense reasons:

        * Spam and spam-like postings will be rejected immediately
          without even as much as a rejection letter. Things that
          aren't necessarily spam but that look and feel like it may
          accidentally fall into this category. Well-written
          announcements won't.

        * Cross-posted announcements will only be posted to
          comp.sys.sgi.announce, if at all.

        * Non-announcements will be rejected. Examples include, but
          are not limited to:

              o  Questions (should be posted to the appropriate
                 unmoderated comp.sys.sgi.{admin|apps|audio|bugs|
                 graphics|hardware|misc} group),

              o  For-Sale and Want Ads (should be posted to the
                 appropriate *.for-sale or *.wanted groups),

              o  Job Offers and Resumes (should be posted to the
                 appropriate *.jobs or *.resumes groups), and

              o  Advertisements. E.g., if GeeWhizBang Inc. sells a
                 frobnicator for SGI's, that's great, but it doesn't
                 warrant an announcement unless it's new or recently
                 updated.

        * Announcements that aren't authoritative. If someone or some
          company is offering a product or service, they (or an
          authorized representative) should be the one to announce it.

Acceptance of submissions is at the moderator's discretion. Postings
that do not fall into one of the aforementioned categories may be
rejected if they are deemed inappropriate. On occasion, submission
rejection notices may be accompanied with information about how to
improve them and make them acceptable, or submissions will be accepted
but feedback will be given to help improve future submissions.

Editing
-------

Unless you tell him otherwise, the moderator reserves the right to
edit your submission to meet his standards. Such changes might
include: altering the subject, reformatting the body, removing blatant
hype, and abridging to acceptable length. The moderator usually will
not fix routine spelling and grammar errors.

Dave Sill
Moderator, comp.sys.sgi.announce