ADMIN: FAQ for rec.boats.marketplace
Rec.boats.marketplace moderator
Posting-frequency: monthly
Last-modified: 1998/3/23
Version: 1.8
Author: boat-mark...@bayview.com (William R. Ward)
URL: http://www.bayview.com/boat-market/faq.html
Lines changed are marked with a ! in the first column.
Lines added are marked with a + in the first column.
[Note: No changes since March 23, 1998]
FAQ for rec.boats.marketplace
William R. Ward, boat-mark...@bayview.com
Version 1.8, 1998/3/23
This posting contains information needed to submit advertisements to
the rec.boats.marketplace moderated newsgroup.
______________________________________________________________________
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
1.1 Why isn't my message showing up right away?
1.2 Are there archives of the newsgroup?
1.3 Where can I get an up-to-date copy of this FAQ?
1.4 What other documents do you recommend?
2. Composing Your Ad
2.1 What types of advertisements are allowed?
2.2 Can I post commercial advertisements?
2.3 Can I attach a JPEG or GIF picture of my boat?
2.4 Can I send an HTML document as my ad?
2.5 Can I send any other kind of MIME attachment?
2.6 Can I send an attachment using UUENCODE?
2.7 What should be the format of the Subject: line?
2.8 What should be in the Body of my message?
2.9 What language may my advertisement be in?
3. Posting Your Ad
3.1 Who should submit advertisements?
3.2 How do I submit an advertisement?
3.3 Can I cross-post to other newsgroups?
3.4 How often may I post my ad?
3.5 I posted my message to the newsgroup but I can't find it. Where is it?
3.6 My message was posted with wrong information. How can I fix it?
3.7 I sold my boat. How can I remove my ad?
3.8 May I post a followup to an ad?
4. Disclaimer
______________________________________________________________________
1. Introduction
Welcome to rec.boats.marketplace! This is the advertising group of
the rec.boats USENET newsgroup hierarchy. This group is intended for
posting ads offering to buy or sell boats and boating-related goods
and services.
This document attempts to answer most questions which you might have
about posting a boating-related advertisement in USENET. Please read
it before attempting to submit an ad, or before asking the moderator
for help.
1.1. Why isn't my message showing up right away?
This is a moderated newsgroup. This means that all messages must be
approved by the moderator before they will appear in the newsgroup.
E-mail all submissions to boat-...@bayview.com. If you try to post
it using your news software, it will probably be automatically
forwarded to that address; however this is not recommended, as there
are sometimes problems when this is done.
If you wish to communicate with the moderator you should send your
message to boat-mark...@bayview.com. Send any questions,
suggestions, or criticisms to that address. If you have any
disagreements that cannot be resolved in private e-mail with the
moderator, you may wish to post about it on the newsgroups
news.admin.net-abuse.misc and/or rec.boats.
1.2. Are there archives of the newsgroup?
All messages posted to the newsgroup are archived by the moderator.
These archives are now available for searching via the web. Point
your browser to the rec.boats.marketplace home page, at
<http://www.bayview.com/boat-market/> and click on the ``Archives''
option.
1.3. Where can I get an up-to-date copy of this FAQ?
This document is posted approximately every 30 days to the newsgroups
rec.boats.marketplace, news.answers, and rec.answers. It is also
available online via FTP and the World-Wide Web at the following
addresses:
o FTP: <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/boat-market/faq>
o WWW: <http://www.bayview.com/boat-market/faq.html>
If you find other locations where these files are available, please
tell me about them so that I can include them here. Thanks.
1.4. What other documents do you recommend?
Additional information about buying and selling stuff on USENET can be
found in Dan King's The USENET Marketplace FAQ I suggest that you read
it before making a deal on the net. It contains a lot of useful
information which can help protect both buyer and seller while dealing
over the net. It is posted to news.answers and misc.answers
regularly. You can also find it at:
o FTP: <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/misc.forsale.non-computer>
o WWW: <http://www.phoenix.net/~lildan/FAQ>
2. Composing Your Ad
2.1. What types of advertisements are allowed?
This newsgroup is for the posting of advertisements for buying and
selling boats and boating-related goods and services. All other
submissions will be rejected. Certain announcements, such as boating-
related web pages, will also be accepted.
The newsgroup is the electronic equivalent of a newspaper's classified
ad section for boats. I try to follow that metaphor when I encounter
a borderline case. The other criteria is whether the opposite (i.e.
if considering a FS, would the comparable WTB) be permitted. If you
disagree with the moderator's assessment, send mail to boat-market-
req...@bayview.com and explain why it should be included.
Since the moderator's background is in sailing, not powerboating,
sometimes powerboat ads do not seem relevant until the submitter
explains their relevance to the moderator. An example of this would
be an ad for F-16 fighter jet cockpit canopies. I rejected this, but
the submitter explained that they are in high demand for high
performance speedboats; after hearing that explanation I accepted the
ad. Remember I am only human and I'm not getting paid, so please have
patience and give me the benefit of a doubt.
2.2. Can I post commercial advertisements?
For many years, USENET newsgroups were strictly non-commercial. In
this modern age that has mostly fallen by the wayside, but there still
exists a strong anti-commercial sentiment. Please refrain from
posting highly commercial messages to the newsgroup. The motto here is
``Information, not promotion.'' Product announcements may not contain
hype or denigrating comparisons with competing products.
Announcements of products should contain only a straightforward
description of features, pricing, and so forth. You may wish to
include the URL of a web page which covers your product in greater
detail.
2.3. Can I attach a JPEG or GIF picture of my boat?
All messages which include binary attachments (such as a GIF or JPEG
image of your boat) will be rejected. Binaries take up too much
bandwidth and disk space; remember a lot of people have to download
all the messages before viewing them, and it is not fair to make them
sit through a download of your GIF if your boat is not what they are
interested in.
If you wish to show a picture of your boat, post it to one of the
alt.binaries.pictures.* newsgroups, and mention that in your ad to
rec.boats.marketplace, or post it on a web page and mention the URL in
your ad.
2.4. Can I send an HTML document as my ad?
USENET is not the Web, and the majority of the people reading USENET
still use text-only software. For this reason most moderated
newsgroups, including this one, reject ads that are posted in HTML
format. You may include the URL of a web page in your ad, of course,
but the ad itself should be in plain text format. If your news/mail
software generates an HTML version of each message you send as an
attachment, you need to disable that feature or your message will be
rejected.
2.5. Can I send any other kind of MIME attachment?
No, many newsreaders still can't handle MIME attachments very well. I
suggest putting the additional information in plain text format, or
post the URL of a web page (or both). This includes ``vcard'' and
HTML documents.
2.6. Can I send an attachment using UUENCODE?
No, please post only plain text. Messages containing files encoded
using UUENCODE or any other encoding scheme will be rejected.
2.7. What should be the format of the Subject: line?
All messages approved for rec.boats.marketplace will have a Subject:
line in a special format that is designed to make it easy for readers
to find what they are looking for quickly. Before being approved, the
Subject: line will be modified if necessary to match that format. I
ask that you please try to follow this format when posting your ads,
however, to simplify this process for the moderator. The structure of
the subject line is as follows:
Subject: TYPE: [CATEGORY] DESCRIPTION, PRICE; LOCATION
The various terms are explained below:
TYPE
An abbreviated, all-caps code which denotes the type of ad.
This comes first, so that newsreaders which sort by subject line
will group them together by type and category. Valid choices
are:
o ADMIN - Administrative announcements by moderator
o CA - Crew Available
o CW - Crew Wanted
o DW - Donation Wanted
o FC - For Charter
o FREE - Free stuff available
o FS - For Sale
o FYI - For Your Information (announccements)
o RFI - Request For Information (looking for web site, etc)
o SOLD - Item previously advertised has been sold
o WTB - Wanted To Buy
o WTC - Wanted To Charter
o WTT - Wanted To Trade
CATEGORY
The Category lists what kind of item you are buying, selling, or
announcing. This should be a single word, have the first letter
capitalized, and be enclosed in [square brackets]. Valid
choices are:
o ??? - Moderator can't figure out what it is (usually Power or
Sail)
o Book - Book for sale or wanted
o Business - Business for sale or wanted
o Charts - Charts for sale or wanted
o Crew - Crew available or wanted
o Dinghy - Dinghy (yacht tender, may also apply for Paddle or
Sail) for sale or wanted
o Electronics - Electronics for sale or wanted
o Engine - Engine or engine parts for sale or wanted
o Event - Boating-related events
o Houseboat - Houseboat for sale or wanted
o Inflatable - Inflatable boat for sale or wanted
o Liferaft - Liferaft for sale or wanted
o Misc - Miscellaneous
o Model - Model boats (e.g. remote control) for sale or wanted
o Moorage - Moorage (slip, mooring, dock, etc.) for sale or wanted
o Outboard - Outboard motor for sale or wanted
o PWC - Personal Watercraft (e.g. JetSki, Sea-Doo) for sale or
wanted
o Paddle - Human powered boats (kayak, canoe, rowboat, etc.) for
sale or wanted
o Plans - Plans for building a boat
o Power - Powerboat (includes trawlers and fishing boats) for sale
or wanted
o Review - Product reviews (should use FYI type for this)
o Sail - Sailboat for sale or wanted
o Service - Services (e.g. charter captain, boat transport) for
sale or wanted
o Software - Software for sale or wanted (must be boating-related,
such as tide or navigation software)
o Trailer - Trailer for sale or wanted
o WWW - Web site announcements (must use RFI or FYI types)
DESCRIPTION
This should be a description of what you have to offer, not
something like ``Great Deal!'' or ``*** Fabulous Price***''.
Descriptions like that will be edited based on what is in the
body of your posting, if they are approved at all. A good
description might be ``1970 Cal 27'' or ``30-50 Foot Trawler
Wanted''. Please do not use all caps in your description, just
capitalize the first letter or the first letter of each word.
Also do not use ``***'' or similar characters to try to make
your ad come first in the listing; they will be edited out.
PRICE
If you are selling an item PLEASE specify the asking price. If
you want to buy something, it would be helpful to specify a
price range. Be sure to include the currency units, since this
is an international newsgroup; for US dollars, add ``US$'' to
the front of the price; for Canadian dollars, add ``CDN$''; for
British pounds sterling, use ``UKP''; or whatever currency you
want, abbreviated similarly. All-caps is preferred here.
PLEASE put a comma (,) between the description and price.
Insert a comma every third digit from the right, and do not
include a trailing ``.00'' for even amounts.
LOCATION
If you are in the United States, specify the 2-letter state code
and ``USA'' (e.g., ``CA USA'' for California); in Canada, do the
same with the province and ``CAN'' (e.g., ``BC CAN'' for British
Columbia). The moderator will attempt to discern where the item
is based on the text of your message and add a location if you
do not supply one. Please do not include the city or what part
of the state/province here; do so inside the message. This is
intended to make the search mechanism useful for searching by
state/province. For other countries, use whatever standards are
appropriate for the country. For smaller countries, just
mention the name of the country; for larger ones, include the
state or province. Capitalize the abbreviations, but spelled-
out words should be in mixed case. (More specific information
such as city, lake, river, bay, county, etc. can be included in
the text of your message.) PLEASE put a semicolon (;) between
the price and location.
2.8. What should be in the Body of my message?
The format of the body of your post is not important, so long as it is
clear, well-organized, and provides all the necessary information.
Please be sure to include at a minimum the following information: the
description of what you are selling, the name of your company if any,
the location (this is important, as the newsgroup is world-wide),
price or price range, and whom to contact and how to do so.
Do not right-justify your post; leave a ragged right margin. Do not
double-space your lines. Keep your line length under 70 characters
wide or less. Avoid fancy ASCII graphics, as they do not show up well
on everybody's screens. Remember that some people use fixed-width
fonts and others use variable-width fonts to read news. Also remember
that HTML and images are not permitted here; use plain text formatting
instead. If you wish to publicize your boat using HTML and images, do
it on a web page and mention the URL in your ad; many web-capable
newsreaders will allow you to click on the URL and call up the page.
Try to keep your advertisement short. If it is too long, people will
not read the whole thing. If you need to provide further information,
make it available through e-mail or on a web site.
2.9. What language may my advertisement be in?
The moderator has to be able to read your ad in order to approve it.
Thus you need to send an English language translation, or post your
entire ad in English. Posting multiple versions of the same ad in
different languages is OK, but they must all be in one message, and do
not use MIME attachments: just list the sections one after another.
If it is pretty obvious that your message is on topic and it is not in
English the moderator may at his discretion approve it. However to
guarantee acceptance English is recommended strongly.
3. Posting Your Ad
3.1. Who should submit advertisements?
To make an advertisement, you should be directly associated with the
item or service in the advertisement. It is best if you are the
person selling or looking for the item or service. If you offer to
post for a friend, be aware that even if you say to respond only by
telephone to your friend's number, you will probably still get several
e-mail responses. If your friend has e-mail, it would be better to
have him or her submit the ad that way.
3.2. How do I submit an advertisement?
There are several ways:
E-MAIL
Once you have your advertisement written, you should submit it
to the moderator via e-mail to boat-...@bayview.com.
Submissions are typically reviewed approximately once a day,
especially on weekdays.
NEWSGROUP
You can simply post your ad to rec.boats.marketplace, and your
news server will probably forward the message to the moderator
automatically in e-mail. However, the return address may be
incorrect if you do this, which may make it difficult for people
to reply to you. Therefore, direct e-mail is recommended
instead.
WWW
Use the web-based form available on the rec.boats.marketplace
web site <http://www.bayview.com/boat-market/>. Messages posted
this way will have a higher priority through the approval queue
when the queue backs up. See <http://www.bayview.com/cgi-
bin/boat-market/boat-ad.cgi> to post an ad this way.
If your ad is rejected, you should receive a message indicating why it
was rejected, unless the moderator could not contact you or had
already notified you for a similar previous message. Messages which
are massively crossposted, chain letters, or spam, will be deleted
without acknowledgement, and (if illegal) may be forwarded to the
authorities for prosecution.
If your advertisement is approved, it should appear within 48 hours.
You will receive an e-mail notification if your message is approved;
if you don't get the e-mail confirming approval and you think it
should have been appproved, wait a couple of days, and if it is still
not there then notify the moderator.
Note that there is often a delay in the propagation of a message
across Usenet. Messages posted by the moderator are not posted at
your own ISP as quickly as messages you post yourself. Please wait a
day or two before worrying too much. Also, note that expiration times
at each news server are determined by that servers' news
administrator(s), not by the moderator. This means that your article
may expire on one server (such as your ISP's) but still be visible on
others, or vice-versa.
3.3. Can I cross-post to other newsgroups?
Cross-posting isn't permitted. It is not necessary to cross-post or
re-post your advertisement to other rec.boats newsgroups, since
rec.boats.marketplace has low traffic and high readership. The reason
this newsgroup was created was to cut down on the traffic in rec.boats
and the other rec.boats.* newsgroups. Please help in this effort.
If you wish to post a question and want the advice of rec.boats
readers, post there instead of to rec.boats.marketplace. Messages
that ask for help without offering anything for sale, looking for
something to buy, or making a boating-related announcement will be
rejected.
3.4. How often may I post my ad?
According to the charter under which this newgroup was created,
advertisements that are the same and submitted within 30 days of each
other are supposed to be rejected. It is time consuming to check this
on every submission, however. The previous moderator allowed people
to submit ads as often as they want, but I will often reject duplicate
ads posted within a week or so if I notice it. If it gets to be a
problem in the future, this rule may be enforced. Please try to
follow this rule and wait 30 days before re-submitting an ad. If
there are complaints about particular advertisers, I will enforce the
30-day rule: if you feel that certain ads are being posted too often,
please notify the moderator and/or the poster of the ads.
3.5. I posted my message to the newsgroup but I can't find it. Where
is it?
Properly configured news servers will forward your message to the
moderator via e-mail. Some news servers are not configured properly
and so the message may not ever reach the moderator. For best
results, send your message via e-mail to boat-...@bayview.com.
Even once it has been approved, however, it may take some time to
propagate to your ISP's news server. If you do not see it in a few
days then please let the moderator know by sending e-mail to boat-
market-...@bayview.com.
Usenet is a distributed system of news servers which exchange
articles. When you post to an unmoderated group, your message appears
instantly since you are sending it to the same server that you read
from. However when you post to a moderated group, the message is sent
first to the moderator's news server, and must then propagate through
the Net until it reaches yours.
This propagation can take some time, and it is imperfect and some
articles get dropped along the way. If your article did not appear
right away, it may have not arrived at your system yet.
Complicating this further is the issue of expiration. Each news
server's administrator sets an expiration time for each group. These
range from a few days to a month or more, depending on the volume of
traffic in the group and the level of interest of that server's users
in the group. It is possible for your message to have been expired
before you saw it, and even possible for the expiration to have
prevented it from ever reaching your news server.
Just because you don't see your article, however, doesn't mean it
wasn't posted. If you wish, you may submit a second copy of your
message after a week or so. You might also wish to discuss this
matter with your news server's administrator.
3.6. My message was posted with wrong information. How can I fix it?
Once your message has been approved the moderator cannot edit it. He
can, however, edit the copy in the archives, so that people can search
for it. Please notify the moderator at boat-market-
req...@bayview.com if you wish this to be done.
To change the message in the newsgroup, you must cancel it using your
newsreader software and repost. Note that your cancellation must be
approved by the moderator and thus may not take effect immediately.
Once you cancel it, submit a replacement ad with the correct
information.
3.7. I sold my boat. How can I remove my ad?
You can cancel it using your newsreader software. Note that your
cancellation must be approved by the moderator and thus may not take
effect immediately. Also note that cancellation is not honored by
many news servers.
You can post a followup ad with type ``SOLD:'' and the same
description as the earlier ad. This might prevent readers who saw
your earlier ad from replying to it.
If you wish your ad to be removed from the archives, contact the
moderator at boat-mark...@bayview.com.
3.8. May I post a followup to an ad?
No. Your message must stand on its own as an ad in order to be
accepted. Send replies to the original poster, not to the newsgroup;
they will be rejected if you post them.
4. Disclaimer
Note: Due to the litigous nature of modern (especially Amer-
ican) society, and to the high prices of many boats and
boating-related items, I feel it is necessary to disclaim
any liability for the items sold through this newsgroup.
Approval of advertisements for the rec.boats.marketplace newsgroup
implies no warranty as to the serviceability or merchantability of
goods or services offered for sale therein. Please direct all
inquiries about items advertised here via e-mail or telephone to the
person advertising them, not by posting on the newsgroup or mailing to
the moderator.
By submitting advertisements to the moderator either directly or
indirectly, the submitter implicitly agrees that the material may be
posted on the USENET newsgroup rec.boats.marketplace. Submitting an
advertisement automatically releases the information contained within
the advertisement into the public domain, so that it may be archived,
posted on the World Wide Web, re-published, put in a collection, sent
to readers via electronic mail, or otherwise used in any manner
whatsoever, for any purposes, by any person.
Typing, transmission, or other errors and inaccuracies of commission
or omission may occur, and the moderator assumes no liability for
these errors.
Advertisements submitted are the responsibility of the submitter. The
moderator will not be held liable for the legality or accuracy of the
content of such material. In addition, the moderator will not be held
liable by either submitters or users of such material for any errors
of commission or omission the moderator may make. If there is a
dispute between the submitter and any other party, the submitter
agrees to indemnify and hold the moderator harmless, and to assume all
liability for the content of the advertisement and any disputses
arising from it.
If you disagree with these conditions, do not submit advertisements to
the moderator for posting to rec.boats.marketplace and do not use the
information the moderator posts to rec.boats.marketplace.
--
SUBMIT ADS: boat-...@bayview.com; COMMENTS: boat-mark...@bayview.com
FAQ for rec.boats.marketplace at http://www.bayview.com/boat-market/faq.html
Approval of this message for posting implies no endorsement or warranty by the
moderator; see FAQ for complete disclaimer. All inquiries should be sent to
the advertiser directly, not by posting or sending mail to the moderator.