soc.support.fat-acceptance Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Stef Jones
Archive-name: fat-acceptance-faq/general
Posting-Frequency: monthly to *.answers, bi-weekly to
soc.support.fat-acceptance
FAQ for soc.support.fat-acceptance
This document contains information relevant to the newsgroup
soc.support.fat-acceptance. If you don't find what you're looking for
here, try one of the related FAQs (see question B1
for a complete list).
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Updated August 99
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Contents
SECTION A: FAQ about soc.support.fat-acceptance
A1) What is s.s.f-a's charter?
A2) How to respond to trolls on s.s.f-a
A3) How did s.s.f-a start?
A4) What are the acronyms?
A5) What are some related newsgroups?
SECTION B: Information about this FAQ
B1) Are there other related FAQs?
B2) Posting information
B3) Contributors
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SECTION A: FAQ about soc.support.fat-acceptance
A1) What is s.s.f-a's charter?
The newsgroups line for s.s.f-a is:
soc.support.fat-acceptance
Self-acceptance for fat people. No diet talk.
The charter is:
soc.support.fat-acceptance provides a supportive forum for the
discussion of the personal and political goals of fat-acceptance
and other topics relevant to being fat.
Topics appropriate for soc.support.fat-acceptance include:
- Political activism
- Events relating to fat-acceptance
- Resources for fat people (including clothes, mail order catalogs,
etc.)
- Personal anecdotes about being fat
- Sharing complaints and peeves or triumphs and achievements
Topics considered inappropriate for soc.support.fat-acceptance include:
- Promotion or advocacy of weight loss methods. These may be
discussed in alt.support.diet.
- Personal ads. These may be posted to alt.personals.big-folks
or alt.personals.fat.
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A2) How to respond to trolls on s.s.f-a
A troll is a post intended to generate hostility and a never-ending
thread of flaming responses. A troller is a person who makes a series of
such posts.
A spam is an off-topic post (often an advertisement) to a variety of
newsgroups.
Because fatness is seen as an easy target to ridicule and fat people are
seen as easy targets for "weight loss remedies," s.s.f-a gets a lot of
such traffic.
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Please do not post responses to trolls, trollers, or spams.
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It's tempting to flame a troll, but if several people do so, the
newsgroup becomes filled with flames and people who want a positive
newsgroup may get discouraged and leave.
The best way to counter the effects of trolls is to ignore them and fill
the group with on-topic, positive posts.
If you must respond to a troll, please do so by private email. If a
troll or spam is repeated and/or is particularly offensive, you can
complain to the system administrator of the original poster. For more
information on trolls and spams, please see the news.admin.net-abuse
newsgroups.
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A3) How did s.s.f-a start?
This group developed from alt.support.big-folks. There was a brief
suggestion, in early '94, that all the alt.support groups might move
over to misc.support. (Then we'd be in the big seven, and have wider
distribution and so forth.) At that time, the consensus on a.s.b-f was
to change the group's name to misc.support.fat-acceptance. It was felt
that this name would be less confusing and more descriptive. For
reasons unknown, the move to misc fizzled. So we're still here.
In September '94, Wendy Betts (w...@armory.com) began work on an RFD for
soc.support.fat-acceptance. (The soc.support hierarchy was established
since the last round of discussions.) A Call For Votes was issued on
November 14, 1994, and the group passed 163:49. The group was
newgrouped on December 22, 1994.
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A4) What do the acronyms mean?
BBW Big Beautiful Woman
BBM Big Beautiful Man
bear a man who is cuddly, furry, stocky, and/or bearded;
most often used by and about gay men
FA Fat Admirer, person who prefers a fat sexual/romantic
partner
NAAFA National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance
mid-size refers to people who are in the mid-range.
For women, this means they wear U.S. dress size
16W-26W.
super-size refers to people who are very large.
For women, this means they wear U.S. dress size 28W
and up. This division between mid-size and super-size
for women seems to arise from the face that most
retail clothing sizes for women stop at U.S. 26W.
[proposed]
FS Fat sympathizer, person who through personal growth
relates to issues of Fat Acceptance and strives to
correct abuses and discriminatory acts in day-to-day
events
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A5) What are some related newsgroups?
alt.food.fat-free and alt.food.low-fat are groups for people who want to
discuss eating low-fat or no-fat. These are good places to take
discussion on low fat eating (as a means of weight loss or otherwise).
alt.recovery.compulsive-eat is a group for people who want to discuss
ending their compulsive eating. I think they subscribe to an OA
viewpoint.
alt.sex.fat is a group for people who want to discuss issues involved in
sex with fat people. It was formed in early '94 so that a.s.b-f could
stay more or less G (or PG) rated.
alt.sex.fetish.fa is a group for fat admirers. This group mostly
carries encoded pictures of fat erotica, and discussions about them.
(Note that the word "fetish" in the title rubs many FAs the wrong way,
does nothing to promote a positive image of FAs, and implies a
separation between sex and romance that doesn't exist for many FAs.)
alt.sex.super-size is a group for people who want to discuss the issues
involved in sex with very large people. It was formed in June '95 by
Teighlor (plum...@aol.com) because she felt that super-size folks
needs weren't being adequately addressed in alt.sex.fat.
alt.sex.weight-gain is a group for people who want to discuss the
erotic aspects of feeding, being fed, or weight gain.
alt.support.big-folks is another group for discussing size-acceptance
and issues affecting large people.
alt.support.diet is a group for people who want support and discussion
of dieting and other weight loss methods. Regular posters tend not to
be very fat. This is a good place to take weight loss questions and
discussions.
alt.support.eating-disord is a group for people who want support and
discussion in dealing with eating disorders (their own and others).
alt.personals.big-folks and alt.personals.fat are groups for personal
ads by big folks or looking for big folks. These groups were formed
in July '94 to get personal ads out of a.s.b-f, to provide an easy way
for fat people and fat admirers to get in touch with one another, and
so that fat people would not have to wade through personal ads that
specify that only slender people should respond.
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SECTION B: Information about this FAQ
B1) Are there other related FAQs?
There is some overlap in the topics covered by the FAQs. If you don't
find what you're looking for here, try the other FAQs.
The latest version of the following FAQs can be found at:
http://www.cat-and-dragon.com/~stef/Fatfaqs/
alt.support.big-folks newsgroup FAQ
soc.support.fat-acceptance newsgroup FAQ
soc.support.fat-acceptance.moderated newsgroup FAQ
Clothing for Big Folks in Canada
Clothing for Big Folks in the U.S. (parts 1 and 2)
Organizations for Big Folks
Online Resources for Big Folks
Other Resources for Big Folks
Publications for Big Folks
Resources for Dealing With the Physical Aspects of Being Fat
Size-acceptance
The following FAQs can be found at:
http://www.sover.net/~astarte/fa/faqs.html
Big Folks and Fitness
Big Folks and Health
Big Folks and Sports
Research on Big Folks
The latest versions of following FAQs can be found at the following
locations:
Clothing for Big Folks in the U.K. at
http://www.thegrapevine.co.uk/Avalanche/FAQ-UK.htm
Clothing for Big Folks in Europe at
http://www.thegrapevine.co.uk/Avalanche/FAQ-Europe.htm
Plus-Size Pregnancy Website at
http://www.teleport.com/~rvireday/plus/
You can also find (sometimes slightly older versions of) the above FAQs
(except the plus-size pregnancy FAQs) at the following locations:
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/fat-acceptance-faq/
(Note: The big-folks FAQ is listed separately at these locations.)
You can also get FAQs from rtfm.mit.edu via anonymous FTP or via the mail
archive server. For information about the mail server, send email to
mail-...@rtfm.mit.edu
with the word "help" (without the quotes) in the body of the message.
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B2) Posting information
This document is posted bi-weekly to soc.support.fat-acceptance.
Stef Maruch (st...@cat-and-dragon.com) maintains this FAQ.
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B3) Contributors
These are the people who contributed significant chunks to the FAQ:
Sasha Wood (Sasha...@cs.cmu.edu)
Wendy Betts (w...@armory.com)
Suggestions for additions/improvements are always welcome.
Send suggestions to Stef Maruch
(st...@cat-and-dragon.com)
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Copyright 1995, 1996 by Stef Maruch (st...@cat-and-dragon.com)
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