Looking for alt.personals.* Faqs
John
ISO any alt.personals FAQ
I recently just put up a website which contains links to various adult
natured FAQs. I was wondering if I can get your help in tracking down
the rest of the FAQs which are missing from my site. The site is
non-commericial and I'm keeping it as a free public domain reference
site. My URL is http://www.adultfaq.com
Have a great weekend. -Jman
I recently just finished up a non-commericial website called the
Adult FAQ website. What I need to do is trackdown all alt.personals faqs
that are missing from the site. I also would like your suggestions on
what else I can do with the site. So if you know of a FAQ that I don't
have, please forward me the URL where I can find it. Please feel free in
adding or suggesting my site as a link to other websites. Here is my URL
Have a good weekend! -Jman
Wulf
In article <32E923...@adultfaq.com>, in...@adultfaq.com says...
here you go John...
Wulf
Subject: Last Known FAQ? (Was: Pointer to FAQ for this group?)
From: j...@netcom.com (Jay Doubleyou)
Date: 1996/05/31
Message-Id: <juuDsA...@netcom.com>
Sender: j...@netcom5.netcom.com
References: <DruBE...@rci.ripco.com>
Organization: Miladi N's beck and call
Newsgroups: alt.personals.bondage
David Tate (da...@ripco.com) wrote (in part):
[snip]
: I'm not even sure the FAQ exists -- I can't find a copy. Can anybody
: point me to one? It sure doesn't seem to be posted here on any regular
: basis, as is the usual with FAQs.
[snip]
The last FAQ that I saw posted to this newsgroup was posted back in
November, 1993. I saved it to use some elements of it for the
alt.sex.femdom FAQ which I maintain.
I beleive that the a.p.* FAQ may have been abandoned. My efforts to
contact the author (a couple of years ago) were fruitless.
For what it's worth, here it is...
-JW
***BEGIN TEXT FILE***
>From alt.personals.bondage
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alt.personals.bondage:1205
alt.personals.misc:1020 alt.personals.poly:373
Path:
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From: do...@lpf.umd.edu (-< system daemon >-)
Newsgroups:alt.personals,alt.personals.ads,alt.personals.bondage,alt.personals.
misc,
alt.personals.poly
Subject: -=-=-=-< alt.personals.* FAQ >-=-=-=-
Followup-To:alt.personals.misc
Date: 12 Nov 1993 01:12:18 GMT
Organization: Hah! we don't need no steenkin' organization!
Lines: 548
Message-ID:<2bunti$j...@hecate.umd.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: lpf.umd.edu
Summary: the FAQ, folks, just the FAQ.....
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-< rev. 930829 >-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
# what is a FAQ?
there are a number of questions that a new reader to alt.personals.*
might have about the newsgroup(s) and how they are run. even 'old-time'
users of the alt.personals group might run across some confusion every
now and again. there then arise a number of frequently asked questions
on the net about these things. that's what this document is - answers to
those Frequently Asked Questions. please - if you have a question, look
for the answer in here first before posting to the net as a whole.
# the list:
# Frequently Asked Question introduction.
# the contents of this list:
# what is alt.personals.*?
# what is a personals/personals ad?
# who can post to the alt.personals.* group, and how?
# '.sig' and sig-files
# what is acs (anonymous contact service)/and anonymity in general?
# what do all those abbreviations mean?
# other popular abbreviations.
# what are the guidelines for alt.personals.*?
# where to take discussions instead of alt.personals/alt.personals.ads:
# why don't i get all those groups/how come i can't get *.* group?
# posting style.
# other questions.
# what is alt.personals.*?
alt.personals.* is a hierarchy of groups, at this time, consisting
of 5 groups, (alt.personals and alt.personals.ads, alt.personals.bondage
alt.personals.misc, and alt.personals.poly) where people can meet people,
electronically.
in the beginning......
1st there was alt.personals. its original purpose was to provide a
place on the net where anybody could place a personal ad. its gone a bit
beyond that in its current incarnation, and there is a lot of discussion(s)
about single people and about people who place personal ads, and general
observations, criticisms, humor, poetry, and a general forum for people to
interface, as well as to place personal ads. since it is an 'alt' group, it
has
no official charter, only some guidelines. some of those guidelines appear
below. IT IS NOT MODERATED, meaning, there is no one in control of the
posting
other than the 'net.gods' who own the machines, and your local systems
administrators, (sysadmins/sysops), who are responsible for their newsgroups.
at some point in mid 1992, traffic on the alt.personals group had
become so great that the 'noise' to ad ratio caused enough discussion that
someone created an alternative 'alt.personals' group, dedicated strictly to
ads.
while the idea was motivated by the highest idealism, the new group,
alt.personals.ads, rather quickly turned into a duplicate or redundant
alt.personals. all that applies to alt.personals also applies to
alt.personals.ads, alt.personals.bondage and alt.personals.misc.
there is a specific group, called alt.personals.bondage. this is
still an alt.personals.* group, and this FAQ applies (generally) to it, as
well, however, this group is specifically aimed at the needs of a specific
group of people, and has a few minor but significant varaitions. in
addition, they have their own, more specific faq, that deals with their
specific differences, so i suggest you read that, as well, before posting
there.
in addition, there is alt.personals.misc, a group specifically for
the continuation of discussions that may appear on the other alt.personals.*
groups, yet not be appropriate for continuance there.
finally, there is alt.persoanls.poly, which caters to multiple
and/or polygamous types of realtionships.... they have recently begun their
own
version of a faq, dealing with some of their specific concerns.
Summary:
alt.personals: supposed to be for personals ads, however, has
degraded to include discussions, comments, and
far
too many arguements and flames.
alt.personals.ads: supposed to be for personals type ads, with no
discussions, flames, poetry, etc. (while it
is acceptable to cross-post to a.p from here,
it
isn *not* necessarily acceptable to do the
reverse.... please do not do this.
alt.personals.misc: the proper place for discussions, follow-ups,
flames (if you *must* indulge in this form of
"comunication") and general activities not
covered
by a.p or a.p.a
alt.personals.bondage: supposed to be strictly for personals type of
ads aimed specifically at the lifestyles and
interestes of that genre.
alt.personals.poly: supposed to be strictly for personals type of
ads aimed specifically at the lifestyles and
interestes of that genre.
# what is a personals/personals ad?
from webster's ninth new collegiate dictionary and collegiate
thesaurus (1st digital edition):
2a: done in person without the intervention of another; also: proceeding
from a single person
b: carried on between individuals directly <a personal interview>
personal n
1: a short newspaper paragraph relating to the activities of a person or
a group or to personal matters
2: a short personal or private communication in a special column of the
classified ads section of a newspaper or periodical
the generally accepted notion of a 'personals/personals ad' is most
appropriately, for our purposes, the noun, definitions 1 & 2. (for all
intents and purposes, we are a 'periodical')
while many times it is impossible to control the urges, given many
strong provocations, try to keep in mind the general purpose of the group.
# who can post to alt.personals.*, and how?
anyone with the proper access to internet/usenet, via a machine
that carries the specific newsgroup to which you wish to post, (and,
assuming you have posting privelege on your machine), can post. such
priveleges are just that, priveleges; *NOT* a right. abusing the
privelege(s) can result in loss of access, loss of account(s), and
various legal civil and criminal proceedings. most unfortunate, should
you end up there. it generally depends on the offense, the intent, the
systems administrator(s) whom you may annoy or anger, and or any superiors
(such as your boss) who may not appreciate your 'representation'.
generally, internet or usenet sites are of three origins: public
access systems (pay to play), universities and educational institutions
(by far, the largest group) , and large and small private corporations.
there is a fourth, the federal government, however, it is severely
restricted, in some cases, and sort of falls outside the general rules,
(as is the case of most things concerning the federal government....)
it costs someone, somewhere, *REAL* money to carry and maintain a site,
and it isn't wise to upset these people. generally, they don't care what
petty squabbles occur on the net, but should a problem come to their
attention, they may well question their support, and this usually means
a set of very unfortunate circumstances. this is a thing generally to be
avoided.
usually, a large system with newsgroups is running something like
'readnews', and when you first start reading news, you get a one time
synopsis of 'how to use' readnews. while new to a system or program,
often, such details sail right by, and after a while, you might forget.
on UNIX systems, there is a command called [man]. it is a manual entry
call command, and when followed by a command, (ie., readnews) it will
look up the information on that command in the 'on line manuals.' in
ULTRIX, a similar function exists also called [man]. VMS uses the [help]
command, which give you the help tree.
things you may wish to learn about is the posting procedure for you,
on your machine. each system is a little bit different, although there
are many similar and/or identical features. you may wish to familiarize
yourself with the editor, as well as the posting procedure. this saves
major headaches later.
basic posting procedure on UNIX and ULTRIX systems is going to start
with the command [Pnews]. you will then be prompted on a number of things
called 'fields': which group(s), the subject, the distribution,
article(s) you wish to include, etc..
> learn to use your editor.
> cut down on un-necessary verbiage. (ie. trim your article as much
as possible.)
> don't use all caps. (this is generally taken as SHOUTING! and is
very annoying to read. it is usually the sign of a "newbie")
> try to taylor your line length to the standard screen width,
(usually 80 characters) so that sentences don't wrap in the
middle of words.
> *USE A SPELL CHECKER OR EDIT YOUR WORK* before you send it out!
there are few things more irritating (or amusing) than a horribly
mangled post. it can lend some rather amusing factors to an
otherwise irritating post, but generally, it is a sign of poor
technical and language skills.
after you have edited your fields, the body of your text, and (if
you are advanced enough) your 'sig' (that clever little 40 line thing that
follows some posts), then you are ready to send it out. once it is sent,
there are ways to retrieve or stop it, but it still gets out a little way
before you can stop it, so, be sure you mean to say what you say, *before*
you hit that 'send' command.
# '.sig' and sig-files:
speaking of those 'clever little 40 line things...' they are called
'sigs', or signatures. for most systems, you create a file (using an editor)
that you call '.sig' (the '.' is important), in your 'root' directory. in
that
file you put a clever saying or some clever ascii art, or a combination of
the
two... whatever you like. you then save it. depending on your system, you
may
have to logout, then login again for it to become active, but in any event,
whenever you post or email something, it gets appended.
however, when posting to the net (as in a newsgroup) it is generally
not polite to get too carried away with these .sigs. try not to let them
get too far out of hand or too long, possibly limiting them to maybe 4 - 6
lines. there is no rule, but it is the 'nettiquette'.
also, be careful how you delineate it, as some posting software will
clip it right out, especially the acs software, which is notorious for
this. additionally, you may not want it to go out when you post
anonymously, as there may be those who know you by it, or can trace you
through it.
what *i* like to do is to have a few files with different 'sigs' in
them, and in my editing mode, i use a pipe [ | ] or tilde [ ~ ] sequence
to append them where i wish. this avoids sending them out automatically
when i don't mean to, or accidental duplications and only costs a few
keystrokes. your mileage may vary.....
# what is acs (anonymous contact service)/and anonymity in general?
is there a way to post anonymously?
no. a person with enough knowledge of systems, and having some
skills with hardware can get into anything/anywhere. this requires
*some* special knowledge and access, but not all that difficult a thing
to accomplish. (for more on security matters see alt.security, and a
couple of other groups, and you will be appalled at just how easy it is!)
a reasonable 'rule of thumb' is don't send out anything you don't want
everyone to know!"
acs:
there are a lot of myths and misconceptions regarding the newsgroup
alt.personals.* and the acs, and their relationship.
acs is *NOT* a part of internet or the alt.personals.*, except in
that it posts to the net.group, just as an individual would. it is subject
to
the same rules and regulations as an individual poster.
what is acs?
acs means 'anonymous contact service' and it is a 'service', provided
by
a person or persons who donate their time and machinery/system to the
general or specific portions of the public. it is a method by which the
poster *MAILS* his/her post to a specific address, of the acs server, and
certain software running on that machine modifies the headers, and keeps
track
of where it came from, assigns an anonymous number or name, and then sends
the
post to alt.personals.* as a post.
there are at least 5 different anonymous services in use, that i
know of, and 2 are on alt.personals/alt.personals.ads, one is on
alt.personals.bondage, one is on alt.sex.bondage, and i have another.
4 of these services are open to the (general - within the bounds of the
owners' rules) public. one, (for now, - mine) is not.
*NOTE* you are completely at the mercy of the person or persons
running the service (regardless of what they say) and you have no real
way of knowing who else has access to that system and the information
you have so trustingly sent there. if they may discriminate or not
anyway they wish. they *also* must take the legal and administrative
headaches that can go with running such a service, and that alone has
been the major downfall of many acs services, in the past. they also have
access to that complete data bank of names and addresses. you are putting
your trust in the person running the service. however, things can happen.
systems go haywire, and have, and strange things occur. even recently.
'caveat emptor' or let the buyer beware! you get what you pay for, and if
it seems too good to be true, it usually is.....
i do not post anonymously. it is a personal choice. to me, it is
less honest. there are, however, those out there who have legitimate
work concerns, or certain sexual practices they would rather not have the
general populace examine too closely. however, there is a major potential
for abuse by users. we have seen it often in the alt.personals.* groups.
there are no 'net.police', and we have to 'police' ourselves. harassment,
practical jokes, blackmail, and other abuses can and have too easily occured.
be careful about what you say, and to whom. once out there in the public
domain, it becomes public property, for better or worse, and there are those
who
are all to ready to shut down an open system like this. don't let it happen
because of you.
anyone who has a machine, and the software, can run an acs. it is
NOT a part of the alt.personals.*. this is a common mistake. it is
overlaid on the system, and you need not use one, if you do not wish to.
simply post directly to the alt.* with the Pnews command.
in order to use an acs, you must mail to the address provided by
the acs service, (generally in their acs FAQ or how to post to ACS, which,
like this FAQ, comes out periodically). read the instructions provided by
the service you chose, and then carefully follow them. do not post to the
group asking how to do this. look at the bottom of a post from that
service.
if you should wish to start your own acs, write to me, and i will
provide you with the address of the authors of three versions of the acs
software that *i* know of. most likely, they would be more than happy to
send it to you, as they did for me.
# what do all those abbreviations mean?
ap/apa/apb/apm/app - alt.personals/.ads/.bondage/.misc/.poly
"*" is generally a wildcard and is used to mean "anything" as in;
alt.personals.*, where "*" could mean "ads" or "bondage" or "d"
"d" at the end of a group (ie. alt.personals.d) will generally refer to
"discussion" or a place where discussion is appropriate
usually, the abbreviations for people are in groups of 3.
the 1st is (usually) status, the 2nd, (usually) race and the 3rd,
(usually) sex/gender.
some common status examples:
S - single, M - married, D - divorced, G - Gay, Bi - bisexual,
some common race abbreviations:
W - white, B - black, A - asian, I - indian, H - hispanic, O - oriental
while not exactly race, sometimes:
J - jewish, C - christian, M - moslem
some common sex abbreviations:
M - male, F - female, L-lesbian, C - couple,
X - tran(sexual)/cross(dresser) TS - transexual, XD - cross-dresser
(I - idiot (non-specific gender))
often, people posting use the wildcard '*' in place of any of the
above. this means that the person does not care about that preference.
Some examples:
SWF - single white female
BiWM - bisexual white male
GBM - gay black male
S*F - single "any race" female
BiWC - bisexual white couple
etc.
# other popular abbreviations:
ISO- in search of
SO - significant other (lover, spouse, etc)
MOTSS - member of the same sex
MOTAS - member of the appropriate sex
MOTOS - member of the opposite sex
TV/TS - transvestite/trans-sexual
X - cross or trans, as in X-dresser or X-sexual
S&M/B&D - sadism & masochism/bondage & discipline
BTW - by the way
IM(NS)(H)O - in my (not so) (humble) opinion
FYI(A) for your information(amusement)
SF - san francisco
PMS/pms - either patricia martin stewart (a gadfly) or a condition
RTFM - read the f***ing manual
ESADMF - if you don't know what it means, don't worry about it!
# what are the guidelines for alt.personals.*?
since the purpose for creating the group was for placing personal
ads, it is greatly preferred by many of the readers of alt.personals.*
that you only place personal ads there, and keep the discussion portion
out of alt.personals.* and put it in its appropriate group. a vast
number of people ignore this, but since alt.personals.* is neither
chartered nor moderated, you can post just about anything you want. the
usual USENET guidelines and regulations exist, of course, the main one
here being do not post any advertisements for products or services, only
personal ads. postings seeking illegal substances or activities is also
frowned upon. posting obvious slander or harassing messages is frowned
upon as well, and can lead to some very nasty legal consequences, in certain
situations, while posting someone's private e-mail without their permission
is
merely a breach of "nettiquette", and considered very bad manners.
some specific guidelines for alt.personals.* exist as well.
probably the most important one, especially in groups like these, is to not
post
anything derogatory concerning a person's sexual preference or habits. these
groups have men seeking women, women seeking men, men seeking men, women
seeking
women and bi's seeking either, as well as married individuals seeking
additional
partners or groups, and couples seeking the same. one group (apb) supports
leather fetishes, bondage, s&m, and other, alternate lifestyles. if this
bothers you, the general recommendation is that you don't subscribe to this
group. if you do subscribe, please don't harass other posters on the basis
of
their sexual preference, orientation or morality.
other guidelines include not posting EPS, TIF, GIF or JEPG (picture)
files. stories and/or erotica or poetry (except in the context of a
personals post,) don't really belong here, either. postings containing
foul or abusive language are not good, and "flames" are asked to be
directed to alt.flames. discussions are going to occur, but if you are
looking for a specific group for discussions, please look at the list
below. it isn't a complete list of groups, (i have over 3,500 available
on my machines, and some have more) just some groups that might be of
interest to alt.personals.* readers. you should (but not always) find a
more open audience to discussions about particular topics in those groups
than in alt.personals.*.
# where to take discussions instead of alt.personals.*:
discussion over alt.personals posts issues: alt.personals.misc
talking about singles and singles issues: soc.singles
" " couples' " couples " : soc.couples
" " men " male " : soc.men
" " women " women " : soc.women
" " gays " gay " : soc.motss
looking for pen-pals: soc.pen-pals
looking for sex alt.sex.wanted (personals often appear here)
s&m or b&d: alt.sex.bondage
flames: alt.flame
(or you can mail directly to:
test posts: misc.test
erotica: rec.arts.erotica (moderated)
sex stories: alt.sex.stories
humor: alt.humor, alt.humor.funny
sick humor: alt.humor.tasteless
gifs: alt.binaries.* (where "*" is the specific type)
or alt.gifs
bigoted, morality bashing, preaching of any kind, unpleasant and
otherwise inappropriate stuff : dev/null
# posting style:
everybody has their own unique personality, and it is generally
recommended that you try and bring forth this personality when you post
a personal ad, if you are looking for best results. important factors
to consider for your ad -
- your sexual preference(s) or orientation, (if any)
- your age and the age range of people you are seeking.
- your physical location and geographic region from which you are
seeking contact.
- your interests and what you find interesting in people
- your intent - pen-pals, friends, possible relationships, just talk,
or whatever.
- while creativity is good, inordinately lengthy and verbose will generally
bore some or lose the readers' interest. try to limit the length to
200 words (or so).
posting ads blatantly looking for sex are generally ignored, (or
commented upon by critical or bored individuals who can't resist), but not
always and a good number of them are hoaxes, so use caution or common sense
when
either posting or responding to an ad looking for sex. there is an old
saying,
"if it looks too good to be true, it probably is..." or "caveat emptor!"
if you are a woman posting either a personal ad or a general post, be
prepared, as female posters generally receive a pretty good response. don't
be
surprised if you receive over 100 pieces of mail in response to a personal
ad.
be prepared for that. also be prepared for some of them to be less than
literary.
If you are a man posting ISO a woman, don't be surprised if you get
very little, if any response. the key is to be persistent and original.
(being persistant *does not* mean posting the same ad 20 times in a week!)
read the group a while to get the feel of ads - you'll notice that a lot
of them start sounding the same rather quickly. its been 'proven' that
original and lively posts get the best responses. a sense of humor is
a requirement.
it is generally a buyer's market, and it seems that the women are
in the buyer's position. while it may seem that there are not many out
there, posting, that can be rather deceiving. there are *MANY* more men
and women out there who are watching or 'lurking', than who actually post.
often, a clever post will draw a response. more often than not, the
reason that you may not get an immediate response is because of your post,
not because there is no one out there.
in brief, originality will go a very long way for you.
if you think that you will go out and find your 'wet-dream' situation,
through posting on the net, then serious re-alignment may be in order.
while it might happen, the reality is that if you are having personality
problems connecting with people in person, the net *IS NOT* going to solve
them. you will still have to deal with other persons, and eventually, you
will have to face and deal with your problem.
don't whine and snivel how there are no good women or men out there
in '.net-land'. 1.) it isn't true, 2.) nobody wants to listen to you
whine. try looking at yourself realistically, and changing yourself/post
first. this is not to say that there are no rude or cruel people out
there. there are. get over it.....
harassment happens. generally by males who haven't learned the trick
of living in a mixed gender group yet (an unfortunate fact the rest of us
have to deal with), but there are also female harrasers, just as obnoxious,
(or
worse, usually because it isn't not a expected from a female). be wary of
what
you say/write and to whom (regardless of your or their gender) as all the
people
have to judge you on is your post/response.
there are ways, quite legal, to deal quite effectively with harassment
situations. examine your post or replies. if you are satisfied that you
are reasonably blameless, collect your notes and posts, and any mail from
the harasser, and save them in a file. ask your systems administrator what
you
can do, or the best way to procede. another thing is to send a note to
his/her
sysadmin, (usually the staff or postm...@the.home.machine of the harasser),
along with a copy of the posts. this usually will have the desired effect.
if,
unfortunately, you have to take it further, talk with your sysadmin, as to
what
s/he suggests is the best form of legal action to persue. always start with
a
polite, yet firm request that s/he discontinue all further communications.
make
it crystal clear, but do not make any threats. always keep a record or
documentation of all incidents.
in the case of harassment through an acs system, if you have no way
to determine the harasser, address your concerns to the particular acs
administrator(s). they are generally quite anxious to avoid legal troubles,
and
will generally (after appropriate review) put a quick end to their anonymous
protection, and give proper authorities all the necessary cooperation.
however,
this is not always the case. it depends on the system, the administrator, and
the relationship between the admin and the people involved.
# other questions:
why isn't there a soc.personals?
every so often, there is a proposal and then a vote on splitting the
alt.personals groups into categories, but the votes have, so far, failed.
there is currently no proposal on the discussion table for creation of a
soc.personals, so you all just have to get along.
where can I go to find help about USENET?
try news.announce.newusers for helpful posts about the USENET system.
you
can try the [man] pages or supplimentary help files, online.
if you feel that something is missing from the FAQ, or you wish to
address *constructive* criticism to me, you are most welcome. i don't
have to like you to agree with you, nor do i necessarily have to agree
with you just because i like you. you are free to dissent without
prejudice.
History of Alt.personals FAQ:
original: 25-May.92(rON. blow...@carina.unm.edu)
update : 02-Jun.92(rON. blow...@carina.unm.edu)
admin passed on 02-Jun.92 to (doug. do...@eng.umd.edu)
revised 92-11-11 (doug. do...@eng.umd.edu)
update: 92-12-26(doug. do...@lpf.umd.edu)
update: 93-02-21(doug. do...@lpf.umd.edu)
update: 93-03-19(doug. do...@lpf.umd.edu)
update: 93-08-30(doug. do...@lpf.umd.edu)
this has been a public service message.....
and, as always, i am/at:
doug: < do...@eng.umd.edu > : < do...@lpf.umd.edu >
-=-=-=-=-=-=-< a ghost in the machine >--=-=-=-=-=-=-
"Omne animal post coitum triste."
- Aristoteles, (or somebody)
"it is better to rule in hell then to serve in heaven"
- lucifer paradise lost
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