Discussion of "FAQ For Posting on alt.food.coffee"
Howard Knight
Hello Everybody,
I am going to take it upon myself to come up with a FAQ for posting
in this newsgroup. Before I write one up though, I would like to
discuss the what the FAQ should include. After the discussion, I
will write up a draft copy. This draft copy will then be posted for
everybody's review. After the review process, I will update the FAQ
and post it for review again. This process will continue until we
have an FAQ that everybody agrees on. Then we will have an official
FAQ for posting this newsgroup! This FAQ will be limited to the
types of articles that can be posted in this newsgroup (at least for
now).
Please take part. This FAQ could determine the future of this
newsgroup and the types of articles that are posted in it.
Below is a list of topics that I would like to discuss for this
newsgroup's FAQ. I have added my own comments after each topic:
1) Why are there three coffee newsgroups (alt.coffee,
alt.food.coffee, and rec.food.drink.coffee) and what is the
difference between them?
My comments: The types of posts in all three of these
newsgroups appear to be about the same.
I personally feel that two of them should
go away.
2) What topics are on, and what topics are off?
My comments: On topics are discussion about coffee beans,
coffee drinks, coffee paraphernalia, coffee
retailers, stores, shops, and houses. Anything
else is off topic.
3) Should advertising be allowed.
My comments: There are many opinions on this and I think that
a vote might be needed.
I personally do not want any advertising in this
newsgroup. Plugging a product or retailer is OK,
as long as you are not affiliated with any company
who markets the product. Also, a plug should be
in response to someone else's query.
Also, I would like to see an special newsgroup
for coffee ads created. It probably should be
a moderated group, but I don't have the time to
moderate a newsgroup. Any volunteers?
Please participate! If there is anything that you think the FAQ
should include or omit. Speak up!
Howard
Howard Knight
Hello Everybody,
REGARDING ADS IN THIS NEWSGROUP
I found something in the "Advertising on Usenet: How To Do It, How Not
To Do It" FAQ and I thought it might be a good guideline/compromise
for posting ads in this newsgroup. Actually, these are some of the
general guidelines for posting ads in newsgroups. The types of posts
that are deemed generally acceptable, would be acceptable to me.
Here is the excerpt from this FAQ:
1. The on-topic notice
If you have a product or a message that is specifically related to a
particular Usenet newsgroup, and you want to let people know about
it, it's *usually* all right to post *one* notice about it.
Note the word "notice." A notice is a brief mention of the product
with information about how interested persons can find out more. It's
not a sales pitch. It's not an advertisement. It's not a "BUY BUY
BUY" sort of message. It's a notice.
You are encouraged to make such postings one-time-only. When your
polite informational notice starts getting posted every week, people
are going to start getting irked at you.
You are also *strongly* encouraged to keep such postings hype-free.
What often works very well is to post information about your services
or product and include a contact address, World Wide Web site, or
phone number for people to use to get more information.
For example, if you want to post a notice about your immigration law
services, you could post a message to alt.visa.us or the various
misc.immigration.* newsgroups, where you'd find a large population of
people interested in that or related subjects. Posting the same ad to
rec.sport.football.college would *not* be appropriate because
rec.sport.football.college has nothing to do with immigration law,
visas, or becoming a citizen of another country.
One way to tell if a post is appropriate is to look at a newsgroup's
charter. The charter is the formal declaration of what is on topic
and what is not, and was generated at the time the group was created
if the group was created in the so-called Big 7 hierarchies of
comp.*, soc.*, rec.*, talk.*, misc.*, news.*, sci.*, and
humanities.*. Some other groups have charters as well, but not all
-- and if they do, they're often one or two lines in length. Where
can you find a charter? Well, in some cases the charter is regularly
posted to the newsgroup or is contained in the newsgroup's Frequently
Asked Questions files. In other cases, the charter has been all but
forgotten. Charters can occasionally be difficult to locate, so you
may have to use your best judgment and/or ask someone who's been
reading the group for a while if a particular message would be
appropriate.
This is not to say that on-topic notices will always be welcome; the
proliferation of inappropriate advertisements (ads posted in the wrong
way to the wrong place) has resulted in *all* ads, even informational
notices posted to appropriate newsgroups, tending to get a cold
shoulder. You can help by limiting your ads to *informational*
postings posted *only* *where* *appropriate*, and abiding by any
local restrictions a given newsgroup's readers have placed on
advertising.
I would go as far as to say that I wouldn't mind a periodic ad as
long as it was only once a month or so. If someone starts spamming
though, then complaint time (for me, anyway).
I would also add, that "off-topic" ads, like "Make Money Fast", and
"Get Your Own Domain Name", etc. are fair game for complaints to
sys-admins/postmasters. ESPECIALLY, if they are cross-posted to
gillions of newsgroups.
Lastly and for what it's worth, I want to say to everybody out there,
that I DONT WANT TO SEE RULES IMPOSED ON THIS NEWSGROUP. I'm not a
net-cop. I only want to come up with guidelines on what is a proper
post in this newsgroup. If we actually do come up with some
guidelines/FAQ, I will post it periodically. Maybe once a month, or
once every other month. This will at least let people know what the
"charter" of the newsgroup is. If you or I want to complain about a
post in here, that's our business.
Howard
PS: To get the "Advertising on Usenet: How To Do It, How Not To Do It"
FAQ go to http://www.danger.com/advo.html.
bsiemers
perspective...If it is acceptable to post "informational" items that
point, or are linked, to a commercial site, the news group will be
overrun with this kind of post. I think most commercial coffee site
operators are reluctant to do marketing, informational or otherwise, on
the news groups. If it becomes "acceptable" to do so, and more companies
make this type of post, many more will join them. I think this will have
a negative effect on the personality/ambiance of the site. New users, in
particular, (and I count myself among them), will have to wade through
scores of advertising before they get to a discussion.
Keep the news groups commercial free. It's a refreshing alternative to
the WWW.
Bill Siemers