READ THIS BEFORE POSTING: UK.D-I-Y FAQ PART 1: INTRODUCTION
Matthew Marks
Last Updated (apart from update times of other parts): 13th October 1999
Clive is now FAQ maintainer.
Typo corrected.
Purpose of this Document
========================
This Introduction is written with the help of, and approved by, the
regular contributors to the uk.d-i-y newsgoup. It explains what the group
is for, and its companion parts give some answers to questions that pop up
frequently. Links to other DIY FAQs and useful web resources are also
provided. Importantly, it gives some guidlelines about what is and what
isn't considered acceptable in this newsgroup, so please read this document
before posting, and have a look at the companion parts to see if your
topic of interest is covered. If the answer isn't there, there is likely
to be someone with extensive knowledge who will respond to a question
posted in the uk.d-i-y newsgroup.
What is uk.d-i-y?
=================
DIY stands for "Do It Yourself" - from putting up shelves to building a
house. Doing the job yourself saves the expense of employing somebody else
to do it, often gives better results (you have to live with them after
all!), and can be both enjoyable to do and provide a great deal of
satisfaction.
UK stands for United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland), and is very relevant because so many aspects of DIY, such as
practices, regulations, and where to get particular products, are
country-specific. Questions are welcomed from elsewhere around the globe,
of course, but the advice given may not be applicable to these areas.
Questions about motor vehicles are not in the scope of this group, as they
have their own forum: news:uk.rec.cars.maintenance or
news:uk.rec.cars.4x4.
Who "owns" the newsgroup?
=========================
This newsgroup is unmoderated, and nobody "owns" it - anyone is free to
post here. The FAQ maintainer has no privileges compared with anyone
else. That is why it is everyone's responsibility to try to preserve
order by attempting to follow basic netiquette (see Emily Postnews
articles in news:news.announce.newusers), and to adhere to the wishes
expressed in this posting.
This democratic forum allows anyone who disagrees with the status quo to
air their grievances, and if it seems that a majority of regulars agree,
then changes can be implemented. The Deja News Website archives all
postings to all newsgroups, unless their authors have specifically marked
them otherwise. The archive can be searched by group, author and/or
subject (use the "power search" link:
http://www.deja.com/home_ps.shtml). It can thus reveal both the
record of a contributor (i.e. whether or not they are a regular and
whether or not they abide by the rules of the group), and allow previous
discussions to be referenced. This gives the information in this document
authority without it having to be ratified by a formal vote. There is no
formal charter for this group, so this document is used in lieu of one.
Can I advertise on uk.d-i-y?
============================
COMMERCIAL ADVERTISING IN ANY FORM IS FORBIDDEN ON UK.D-I-Y. This is an
interactive forum, and the good "signal to noise ratio" of this group will
be spoilt by those who selfishly exploit it. If you want to advertise,
start an appropriate newsgroup (see http://www.usenet.org.uk), or go to
news:uk.adverts.other (etc.).
UK.D-I-Y IS NOT A WAY TO MAKE MONEY. If you do abuse the group in this
way, you may find that the response from its generally loyal and
close-knit readership could be quite conterproductive to you. For
instance, readers may actively avoid your products, or cease to recommend
them where they were recommended before. Readers of this group include
people who are experts at getting spammers disconnected from the net.
Please bear this in mind!
Company representatives (who are often valued experts) are welcome to
suggest their products where a genuine question has been asked on the
subject, but only if they answer the questions put, and should note that
planted questions will be obvious. The References part of the FAQ
contains listings of companies useful to the DIYer, but these are only
included on recommendations from regulars with no vested interest.
Private individuals wishing to sell (or give away!) relevant items can use
this group to advertise them, within reason, so long as they post a
followup when what is for sale is no longer available.
Please complain to Internet Service Providers about any advertising in
this newsgroup: a small amount of effort on your part will help to keep
the group usable: see http://digital.net/~gandalf/spamfaq.html. The more
complaints they receive, the more likely they are to act.
Any other guidelines about posting?
===================================
Sometimes people ask for responses to be sent by email. It would greatly
benefit the rest of the group if they could offer to post a summary of
responses, because there is almost always someone else reading who would
be interested in the information. Some people will only respond publicly
in any case. And by preferring email responses, the poster is missing out
on all the rest that is on offer!
A note on ASCII art: a picture is worth a thousand words, and many people
produce masterpieces from characters in order to illustrate their
postings. However, do make sure you use spaces rather than tab characters,
because the latter can be expanded to differing numbers of spaces, and so
ruin the diagram. Oh, and if you can never make sense of ASCII art, it is
because your newsreader is using a proportionately-spaced, rather than a
fixed spacing, font (like Courier).
Do not post "binaries" (encoded files) to this group. It is forbidden
across the whole uk.* heirarchy. Post plain text only: if your newsreader
can post in HTML, switch this option off.
Please do not post "test" messages to uk.d-i-y. There are newsgroups
such as news:uk.test which are specifically for testing purposes.
Please try to give enough background information to allow people to answer
your questions correctly and without wasting their time speculating about
information you have not given.
If you're looking for goods or services, please indicate where you are.
It seems obvious, but people often don't.
Finally, this point is mentioned in Emily Postnews, but it still happens,
so just a reminder please only to quote the minimum amount of material
in your followups to give context, and to delete the rest.
Where are the answers?
======================
The FAQ is arranged in several parts, as follows:
Introduction (this page) Last updated: 29th July 1999
Heating and Plumbing Last Updated: 18th May 1999
Decorating Created 29th July 1999, from
parts of old Miscellaneous section
Electrical Last Updated: 30th September 1998
Home Security Last Updated: 14th April 1998
Miscellaneous Last Updated: 29th July 1999: parts
removed and put in Decorating section
DIY References Last Updated: 23rd December 1998
Selecting one of these will take you to the Contents page where you will
see the headings found at the beginning of each part. The FAQ is
maintained by Clive (Cl...@bigfoot.com), and posted automatically on 1st,
11th and 21st of each month. The other parts are written only in HTML (ie
web format) and all parts are available at:
http://pages.eidosnet.co.uk/~ukdiy/index.html
John Schmitt's mirror website also carries copies: URL to be announced later.
Please copy all suggestions for modifications to me via email, to ensure
that I don't miss them.
In addition, John Stumbles keeps an archive of selected postings to the
group at:
http://www.reading.ac.uk/~visstmbl/DIY/
Copyright Information
=====================
All parts of this FAQ are Copyright 1999 by Matthew Marks
(mat...@rd.bbc.co.uk), and are made available as a service to the
Internet community. They may not be sold in any medium, including
electronic, CD-ROM, or database, packaged with any commercial product, or
published in print, without the explicit, written, permission of Matthew
Marks. The copyright of included material belongs to the original author
and is reproduced with the author's permission.
Disclaimer
==========
As someone who has been rather thrown into this subject by buying an
ageing hulk of a house requiring extensive updating, I am constantly
impressed by the knowledge of the regular contributors to this newsgroup.
However, DIY can go wrong, with expensive or even dangerous consequences,
and it therefore must be stressed that nothing should be attempted without
applying common sense, and only if you are confident in your ability to
carry out the job with safety (both your own and others') and
successfully. You cannot expect answers to your questions to include a
complete list of possible pitfalls, although people will very frequently
remind you of some of them. Remember that the advice has been given to
you in good faith for free, and neither its accuracy nor legality can be
relied upon. Nobody can be held responsible for any consequences
whatsoever of the advice that is given individually or in the FAQs. If
you are unsure about anything then do please ask - it is much less
embarrassing than blowing yourself up or having your house collapsing
around your ears.
Finally, postings from company addresses (including this one!) are
personal to the poster, and in no way represent the views of the company
supplying the Internet connection. Happy DIYing!
Matthew Marks
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
Matthew @rd.bbc.co.uk My opinions, not Auntie's
For the uk.d-i-y FAQ, goto http://pages.eidosnet.co.uk/~ukdiy/index.html
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