[FAQ] Soc.Culture.Hawaii Posting Guidelines
Da Moderators
[The following guideline is a living document, which is updated and
amended as necessary.]
I. WHAT IS A MODERATED NEWSGROUP, AND HOW DOES IT AFFECT MY POSTS?
II. WHAT TYPES OF POSTS ARE APPROVED?
III. WHAT TYPES OF POSTS ARE NOT APPROVED?
IV. WHAT TYPES OF POSTS MIGHT NOT BE APPROVED?
V. WHAT DO I DO IF MY POST IS REJECTED?
VI. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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I. WHAT IS A MODERATED NEWSGROUP, AND HOW DOES IT AFFECT MY POSTS?
Soc.Culture.Hawaii (SCH) is a moderated newsgroup. All articles are
filtered by a team of moderators prior to appearing in this newsgroup.
Do not post additional copies of your article if it does not appear
immediately in SCH It will take at least several hours (maybe even up to
one day) before a moderator can review your article to determine its
appropriateness in SCH. This FAQ explains how to submit an article to
moderators and what you can expect from them.
In order to submit an article, post your article in the same manner as
you would to any non-moderated newsgroup. The NewsServer software will
detect that the newsgroup is moderated through its config file, and will
turn the entire newspost into an e-mail which is directed to an account
accessible to moderators. The team of moderators will retrieve articles
from this account several times a day and review the article for
appropriateness into SCH.
Articles submitted to Soc.Culture.Hawaii are usually posted everyday.
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II. WHAT TYPES OF POSTS ARE APPROVED?
THE FUNCTION OF THE MODERATORS IS TO KEEP ARTICLES ON TOPIC ACCORDING TO
THE CHARTER OF THE NEWSGROUP. MODERATORS DO NOT PASS JUDGEMENT ON THE
CONTENT OF A POST AS LONG AS IT IS WITHIN THE POSTING GUIDELINES SPELLED
HEREIN. RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE CONTENT OF A POST LIES SOLELY WITH THE
AUTHOR OF THE POST.
Moderators will be guided by the prevailing sentiments of the group in
their decisions to permit or refuse articles. The moderators as a team
will approve or reject submissions based on the posting guidelines.
There may occasionally be some unpredictably egregious situations, in
which case the moderators will do their best to come to a team decision
on the problem. For this reason, the moderation team reserves the right
to refuse any and all posts on the basis of the posting guidelines.
If an article is approved for inclusion by moderators, it will be
propagated to newsgroup servers throughout the Internet and appear in
SCH.
EDITORIAL CONTENT: Approved articles will not be edited by moderators.
b. From time to time moderators may insert brief factual remarks to
clarify or assist the discussion. All remarks inserted by moderators
will be identified by square brackets [], including the use of the
"[PA]" tag, discussed below under "ADVERTISING."
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III. WHAT TYPES OF POSTS ARE NOT APPROVED?
The following details posts that are not approved in soc.culture.hawaii.
1. CROSS-POSTED ARTICLES (articles posted to more than one newsgroup)
are approved at a moderator's discretion, however massively cross-posted
SPAM, as well as articles cross-posted to other moderated groups, etc.
will generally be refused. Note that if the post is not approved for
posting to soc.culture.hawaii, it will not show up in any of the other
cross-posted newsgroups. NOTE: The rule applies even to localized posts
that are cross-posted to numerous Hawaii-related newsgroups.
2. COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL: Articles containing clearly copyrighted
material from another person without the explicit approval of the
copyright holder will not be approved. Any copyright release notice must
be prominently visible in the article. You may, in general, quote text
posted to soc.culture.hawaii by other posters. You may not however,
quote text that was contained in private email to you, unless you obtain
permission from the individual to do so.
3. OFF-TOPIC ARTICLES: Only on-topic articles meeting the requirements
of the charter will be approved. NOTE: Threads that evolve or meander
will still be approved as long as they remain on-topic to the SCH
charter.
4. GROSS PROFANITY AND INDECENCY: Articles containing gross profanity
and/or indecency will not be approved. Note that the occasional use of
a profane word may be permitted if it falls within the context of an
otherwise acceptable submission, since the operative word is "gross,"
which the moderators define as "excessive," or "undiscriminating."
While soc.culture.hawaii does not focus on adult-only topics, there are
very few minor posters; on occasion some posts may include mature topics
or profanity. Reader discretion is advised.
5. BINARIES AND NON-ASCII TEXT: Articles containing binaries will not be
approved. This includes the posting of photographs, software code, and
encrypted or compressed data. In addition, text written in MIME, html
and other encoded formats are highly discouraged, and may result in
contact from a moderator. Usenet discussion newsgroups at their root are
meant to be read with the simplest of text standards, which in this case
is the standard ascii_7 character set. If you use a web browser or other
graphically oriented software to read Usenet, change your Preferences
settings to turn OFF html or MIME (or conversely, turn ON plain, DOS, or
ascii text).
4. FORGED HEADERS: Any article which is posted into SCH via a forged
approval will be immediately cancelled by moderators. Moderators will
send a complaint to the postmaster of the ISP where the forger resides.
5. ADVERTISING: The following WILL NOT be approved:
a. Spam of any sort, including but not limited to get-rich-quick
schemes, pyramid (or multi-level marketing) schemes.
b. Announcements by commercial promotions or advertisements of products
and services that are not related to the topics of Hawaiian and local
culture(i.e., Longs Drugs, Safeway, 7-11, McDonald's, Sam's Club, house
cleaning, Internet service, web design company).
The moderators will however, allow the discussion of such businesses by
other individuals (i.e. a special sale going on for some products in
some stores, a business closing its doors). Those representing such
businesses may also participate in such discussions, as long as the post
is not of an advertising nature.
c. Classified and personal ads of the type you would normally find in
the classifieds in a newspaper (i.e., "room for rent", "guitar for
sale", "penpal wanted," "vacation cottage available").
The following WILL be approved:
Brief, factual announcements of concerts, hula competitions, luaus and
other such events will be accepted as long as readers of the newsgroup
find these announcements useful.
Due to overwhelming demand by the readers, announcements of new music
releases by Hawaii artists are now included in the above category of
approved brief, factual announcements.
URL announcements that are related to the topics of Hawaiian and local
culture are generally approved, assuming the text supporting the URL
summarize the contents of the webpage and be clearly written as
on-topic, and that the Web page the URL points to is considered
on-topic. URL announcements to the same site (or related linked pages
to it) cannot be submitted more than twice a month.
To make it easier for the reader to identify such public announcements
(PAs), and to provide a means of screening for readers NOT wishing to
see any such PAs in the newsgroup, the moderators will henceforth
clearly mark all such posts with the tag "[PA]" at the start of the
subject heading, without prior notification to the poster.
HOW TO WRITE A PA:
The moderation team will treat your announcement like a Public Service
Announcement submitted to standard media (radio, TV, newspapers).
Your message should be no longer than 150 words (equivalent to a
60-second radio spot), and should be clear and concise. As an eyeball,
your announcement should be no longer than one screenful (75 characters
per line, 35 lines long) Your announcement should benefit the community
with the following information:
WHAT? Is this an event? What is it called?
WHEN? When will this be held? Date and time
WHERE? Where will it be held? Give address (including room number, if
applicable) as well as name of site.
WHO? Who is this being sponsored by? Who will it benefit? Who is the
intended audience?
If you are the primary contact, make sure to leave your name as well as
a valid email address and phone number to which people can reach you for
more information. If you have an official web site for the event,
include that as well.
Individuals should use their IRL (in real life) names and valid email
addresses. The moderators reserve the right to email you at this address
for confirmation on your announcement. PAs for the same event will not be
posted
more often than once every two weeks.
For more information on tips for writing Public Announcements, we suggest
you look at
the following sample URLs:
Media Outreach Guide from the National School-to-Work Learning Center:
http://www.stw.ed.gov/states/outreach.htm
Sample media materials and tips from the US Dept. of Education:
http://www.ed.gov/Family/agbts/tips.html
Get the Word Out, from Emerson College/Health Communication:
http://www.emerson.edu/acadepts/cs/healthcom/Resources/message.htm
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IV. WHAT TYPES OF POSTS MIGHT NOT BE APPROVED?
STANDARD NETIQUETTE: The Usenet community has developed its own set of
standards and protocol, referred to as "netiquette." The following will
not automatically cause moderators to reject your post; however, be
advised that posters are highly encouraged to follow netiquette, for the
enjoyment of all readers. In this give-and-take environment, you are
expected to learn your manners. Thanks go out to Kevin Martin, who has
kindly allowed us to borrow from his netiquette guidelines at
http://www.nic.com/~csy2kt/errs.htm.
* Personalities and Epithets - Address the post, not the poster.
* Quoting Headers - Unless you are reporting net-abuse to an ISP, there
is no reason to quote headers.
* Grossly Excessive Signatures - The global Usenet standard is four
lines. Citations of the Uniform Commercial Code, complete song lyrics,
site ads that are consistently longer than the posts they accompany,
ASCII "art" longer than a few lines, etc. are not welcome. Signatures
should be no longer than six lines at the most. Any signatures with more
than six lines will either automatically have their signatures shortened
to the Usenet standard of four lines, or have the post rejected.
* Grossly Excessive Quoting - Quoting a entire post of more than a full
standard screen, without any visible attempt to trim or insert comments.
Adding less than three new lines after quoting a screenful or more. "Me
Too" posts in general.
* Test Messages - If you have something to say, say it. You don't need
to blow into the microphone first. Refer posting problems to the
moderator. If you can't receive the group, you need to contact your own
service provider.
* SHOUTING AN ENTIRE POST - THE CAPS LOCK KEY IS ON THE LEFT SIDE OF
YOUR KEYBOARD SOMEWHERE. Turn it off!
* Subject Trickery - Using whitespace, leading punctuation, meaningless
decorations, or similar tricks to make your Subject stand out is rude to
everyone else who reads the group.
* [Mis]use of HTML - Usenet is not the Web. If your browser posts only
in HTML, it's broken. If it repeats every post in text and HTML both,
it's broken. Usenet is a plain text medium. You are welcome to post URLs
if they enhance the information you already provide in your post.
* Gross Rudeness - "Please respond by email because I don't read this
group" is a gratuitous insult. Note that this is not the same as asking
for a courtesy copy (CC:) nor is it the same as offering to summarize
replies for the benefit of the group.
* Non-Latin Characters - Do not use 8-bit ASCII (in headers) or
Quoted-Printable (in headers). Our charter states that we do not require
the use of English, but it should be possible to read your Subject line
in 7-bit Latin (Roman) characters.
* Naked URLs / Empty Posts - No, we don't want you to post your entire
Web page (see above -- posts written in HTML will be rejected). Posting
a URL is much better, but please tell us why you are doing it! Why
should we go there? Your Subject line may be chopped off in transit, so
don't assume that it tells the story. Saying "See subject line" will
leave many readers frustrated.
* Attributions and Nested Quotes - Please be sure that your newsreader
properly nests quotes so that it is clear who is quoting whom.
<<You should be aware that the "Russian" or "AOL-style" quoting used
around this paragraph is not standard. We allow it, but we don't like
it.>>
* No Context in a Followup - The flip side of "excessive quoting."
Newsgroup message propagation is not perfect, and causes readers to
sometimes see a response before an original post shows up in their
newsgroup. For this reason, you should include some amount of quoting to
the post that you are replying to. This gives other readers the proper
context of the discussion. NOTE: Restrict yourself to ONLY the relevant
portions of the post, as it is redundant to repost the whole thing. The
preferred format in this newsgroup is for you to put the quoted material
on top, with your reply below it. You can also inject your comments
between paragraphs of quoted material, so it looks like a back-and-forth
discussion. Do not forget to include the quote marks when you do this.
* Line Wrap - If your post is broken into alternating long and short
lines on a standard 80-column terminal, it is ANNOYING. Use a fixed
width font and keep your line lengths below 78 characters.
* Quoting Signatures - The only signature we should see is yours.*
QUOTING AND TRIMMING REMINDER
Please remember to trim your quoted material and insert your reply
comments between them at the appropriate locations. It's been noted that
a number of posters have gotten into the habit of quoting the entire
previous message and simply adding a short reply at the top of the
message. Mixing these 2 methods creates confusion when trying to follow
what is being repied to. Not trimming and replying on top is not only
considered bad nettiquette, but it also wastes resources for ISP servers
and time and money for those who are still paying for Usenet access by
the hour.
We ask the readers for their voluntary cooperation with this, and,
repeated non-compliance may result in returning your submittals,
unposted.
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V. WHAT DO I DO IF MY POST IS REJECTED?
KEEP A COPY OF YOUR SUBMISSION: It is the your responsibility to keep a
back-up of your submissions. If a moderator rejects the post, the
moderator, for purposes of clarity, may edit the post to point out the
offending language.
MODERATOR COMMENTS: In most cases, the moderator who rejected your
submission will explain the reason why it was not approved. In some
cases, the moderator might also provide you with additional information
on what to do with the submission such that it would become acceptable
for approval.
RESUBMITTING REVISED, ONCE-REJECTED POSTS: You may resubmit your revised
post to soc.culture.hawaii in the same way that you normally submit your
posts to the newsgroup; you need not submit it to the moderator who sent
the submission back to you. If the submission is acceptable in its
revised state, the post will be approved and will show up in the
newsgroup. NOTE: You will NOT receive an acknowledgement stating that
your revised post was accepted. Treat the publishing of the post in the
newsgroup as confirmation of approval.
APPEALS PROCESS: If you wish to have your submission re-evaluated in its
original, unrevised form, reply privately to the moderator who sent you
the rejection notice. Attach a copy of the original post. Somewhere near
the top of your email (either in the subject header or in the first
lines of your email), include the word "APPEAL" to provide a heads-up to
the moderator. The moderator will then forward your appeal (with the
contents of your submission) to the rest of the moderators. The
moderation team will read your post and render a decision. NOTE:
Depending on the reason your original submission was rejected, it is
possible that the team will go into a drawn-out discussion. If this
occurs, it may take a number of days to respond. It should however, not
take longer than one week. If you have not heard about your appeal
within a week, contact the moderator for a reminder. An appeal must be
approved by majority vote in the moderation team (currently three to
two).
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VI. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
1. MY POST DIDN'T SHOW UP.
[Geek-speak warning] Unlike most other newsgroups, SCH is moderated.
This means articles do not enter the Usenet pool for distribution
throughout the Internet immediately. When your newsreader posts an
article, it is sent to a special program running on a (usually)
dedicated machine at your Internet Service Provider. This special
program (named something like "INN" or "C-NEWS") is called the "News
Server", and it looks at the newsgroup definition and sees a special
flag telling it that this is a posting to a moderated group.
The News Server will then take one last look at your article, and
forward it almost instantly as a piece of email to the "Submission
Address," (soc-cultu...@moderators.isc.org) ,whereupon it is
forwarded to the real submission address which is... oh never mind.
Anyway, there your article waits until one of the five moderators checks
in. What happens next depends on what you have submitted.
Assuming that your article is deemed appropriate for the group, the
moderator will then send it to a special program which reformats it as a
valid post to a moderated newsgroup, and injects it into the Usenet
system, where it then propagates throughout the Internet (and the
world).
Where you are posting from will determine how long it takes for the
article to appear after a moderator has approved it. If you are in
Hawai'i, it should appear within 15-20 minutes of the moderator
approving it. If you are in Vancouver, BC (like I *was*), it could take
an additional 15 minutes, or -if your ISP's feed is really bad- up to 5
additional days. Unfortunately, that's life. Consider before you curse
this too much that, if you are posting to an unmoderated group, that it
will take almost the same amount of time before anyone would see your
post anyway, and the same amount of time for their reply to reach your
site, thus doubling the time to see any response.
There are remedies that will reduce the amount of time required for
articles to propagate through the system, and we are currently
experimenting with them, so please be patient, we're not finished yet!
2. I GOT A PIECE OF EMAIL FROM A MODERATOR.
That's probably self-explanatory telling you why your article isn't
going to be posted. Or, from time to time, we might respond personally
to articles that pass our way with helpful comments, especially if time
appears to be of the essence.
3. MY POSTS NEVER SHOW UP, NO EMAIL.
Hmmm. Well, there are a few possible reasons for that. If you have been
able to submit before, then that means that your ISP has probably got
the submission address correct, so we'll discount that. We'll also
assume that your article wasn't something which a moderator would take
one look at and file in the trash without even bothering to eMail you
back. So, what else could have gone wrong...?
>From time to time, the newsserver at your site (or the site where SCH
"lives") could break, and perhaps nobody notices it. If this happens,
you will notice that nothing else is showing up in the group either.
There are two other possible causes. One is called the "Quote.Cop", and
he *WAS* a special option compiled into the newsserver at our site which
counts up the number of lines in a post starting with >, and if they
made up more than 50% of the lines in the post, then the newsServer
software would NOT allow the article to be posted. For this reason, some
of the moderators will habitually edit the quoting characters of your
posts to remove any of the characters that attract ... "his" attention.
Notice the use of the PAST TENSE. This option *MAY* still be turned on
again in the future.
It would be best if you kept the quoted/total ratio down yourself,
'cause in the not-too-distant future, the "Quote-Cop" may return, and we
probably won't be so helpful.
Finally (and this one is a killer for 'O-lelo Hawai'i ), characters
with ascii values above 127 seem to have a really hard time on UseNet.
If a post contains any special characters, like those required to
correctly represent 'O-lelo Hawai'i , the post will most likely die.
>From time to time, "We conducting research..."
4. MY POSTS SHOW UP IMMEDIATELY, NOBODY REPLIES.
This is a potential symptom that your ISP has not set up their
newsServer correctly, and has not marked the newsGroup as moderated. So,
your post appears (locally) immediately. Then, your ISP attempts to
share it with another one of its "peers" (another newsServer running at
a pseudo-friendly ISP) that is correctly configured, and that server
"drops it on the floor", which is Internet parlance for... your article
disappears and is never seen or heard from again.
Complain. This is a symptom of a deeper problem (your ISP doesn't take
its newsFeed seriousely), and if they don't fix the problem, consider
changing ISP's.
5. MY POSTS SHOW UP MORE THAN ONCE.
Er, yes, well, uh... yeah. It seems that the piece of software that
actually does the injection into UseNet, from time to time, has a little
"burp" just before it finishes, and so it doesn't remove the article,
and 15 minutes later, the system attempts to post it again.
This appears to be fixed now...
Back in the days when this was a major problem, it was referred to as
the "Geist" (as in "Poldergeist"), and in-jokes sometimes still refer to
it. In honor of a certain personality who was instrumental in the
creation of the predecessor group (ACH), the "Geist" has been nicknamed
"Eric". (8-)