Comp.Newprod submission guidelines [last modified: 1997-08-15 17:41:53]

[Scott Hazen Mueller]

The following guidelines should give you a good idea of what we look
for when reviewing submissions. The rationale for these guidelines
was discussed in the companion posting, "Comp.Newprod Introduction".

1. The submission must be an announcement of a new product or
service. The product must be computer-related, and it must be of
potential interest to a large number of Usenet readers. The
message must be of lasting value, thus we do not accept trade show
announcements, special pricing offers, etc. Commercial messages
other than new product announcements are not appropriate for this
newsgroup.

2. Announcements should *briefly* describe the product, requirements
(e.g. supported platforms), availability, and pricing. It should
only take a couple of screenfuls to convey this information. If
your description is longer than that, then you've either got too
much detail or too much fluff. All you should do here is summarize.
Anybody who is interested will contact you for the additional
information. Similarly, do not include lengthy product matrices
or order forms; ask interested people to write to you for a copy.
The ideal length is on the order of 60 lines (excluding headers).
If your message is much longer, it needs tighter editing. (Please
note, excessive length is the most common reason for rejecting
submissions.)

3. The announcement must be informative. It must contain a brief
technical description of the product or service, subject to the
length constraints just mentioned. This newsgroup is NOT a place
for advertisements! It is a place for factual product info.

4. The product must be available to all Usenet users throughout
North America, if not the world. Products with regional availability
should be announced in regional newsgroups, not comp.newprod.

5. All announcements must contain the manufacturer's name and a
contact for additional information. This should include a name,
telephone number, postal address, and email address. Americans,
please remember that your 1-800 telephone number might not work
for people outside the U.S.

6. The announcement must be from a representative either employed
by or designated by the product's manufacturer. We do not accept
announcements from distributors or resellers for products in mass
distribution.

7. Leave out the quotations from your company executives and ecstatic
customers. If there is useful info in that quote, it may be
provided more concisely and compellingly as a statement of fact.
Moreover, we don't need to know about your corporate history,
customer list, or distribution methods. Please avoid the superlatives
and superfluous hype. Just the (technical) facts, please. These
violations are the second most common reason (after message length)
for returning submissions.

8. Note that a typical press release does NOT meet the above
guidelines. They tend to be either too long or too heavy on the
hype. We aren't the press. We don't want to edit (or spindle or
fold or mutilate) your announcements as the press might. We simply
want to publish them. You need to do the editing.

9. Your article must have a suitable Subject, not something like
`submission for comp.newprod'. Do not use all UPPER CASE or
superfluous !!!punctuation marks!!! in your subject (or messages).
Putting phrases like `new product announcement' in your subject
is dumb. If it wasn't it wouldn't be in this newsgroup! Select
your subject with care; a person is going to decide whether or
not to read your announcement based upon those six short words.

10. We almost never accept articles that are cross-posted to multiple
newsgroups or have been posted to other newsgroups. By definition,
if a message is appropriate for comp.newprod then it is NOT
appropriate for most other Usenet groups. One exception: some
`announce' groups accept product announcements, and we will cross-post
there if its moderator says OK.

11. We do not accept articles with a limited `Distribution'. If you
have availability restrictions then do mention them in the
announcement, but the announcement must be submitted for distribution
throughout all of Usenet.

12. If the contact person for additional information is not the person
who submitted the message, then put a `Reply-To' header in the
message. Do NOT try to redirect email to somebody else by saying
`send email to ...' in your announcement. People won't. They
will just hit the `r' key and the message will go back to you.
If you do not know how to set a `Reply-To', ask for help.

13. We use a standard keywording system for all comp.newprod messages.
We require a `Keywords' header on your message. The format is
`Keywords: company name; product name; keyword, keyword, keyword ...'.
We welcome (plead for!) your suggestions on keywords. If the
product is esoteric or outside our areas of expertise, we might end
up picking crummy keywords.

14. Your message must be properly formatted, avoiding long lines
that wrap around a typical terminal screen and strange line breaks.
We suggest that you break your lines at 78 columns or less.
Whitespace is your friend (within reason). Carefully spell check
and proofread your submissions; nothing screams `unprofessional'
louder than poorly crafted prose. Please go easy on the Cap-Shift
key. Do NOT right-justify your text; leave `ragged right margins.'
We are not impressed that you can construct your company logo out
of Xs and /s. `ASCII art' and gratuitous typesetting effects are
discouraged. A double pox on people who use overly long signatures.

15. If you fear the headers of your message might get mangled in
transit, feel free to note correct header information at the very
top of your message. Clarifying comments addressed to the moderator
also may be placed at the top of your message. If, while you are
at it, you'd like to suggest some keywords for your message, that
would be great. We will cleanup the headers and remove these
comments prior to posting.