NEW HERE? Read this first - UMTSS FAQ!

[Av]

__/\__ __________________________________________________________
/ / \ \
|_| |_| uk.media.tv.sf.startrek Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
| | __ | | Revision: 3.4
\|/__\|/
_________________________________________________________

By Paul Roe
(Updated by Avleen Vig)
UMTSS website http://www.umtss.org.uk
E-mail f...@umtss.co.uk

_____________________________________________________________________

CONTENTS
_____________________________________________________________________

i. Welcome
ii.Scheduling News
1. A Note on Spoiler Policy
2. Off topic posts
3. Standard Do's and Don'ts
4. Commercial Postings and Adverts
5. Where we live on the WWW
* 6. #umtss - The IRC Channel
7. U.M.T.S.S. Members Trek Web Sites
8. Some Frequently Asked Questions

(* denotes change since last revision)

_____________________________________________________________________

i. Welcome
_____________________________________________________________________

Welcome to the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) document for
uk.media.tv.sf.startrek. If you intend to read or post to this
newsgroup then it is advisable for you to read this carefully.

Take special notice of the policy of the group, particularly regarding
binary (ie: file attachment) postings and advertising.

The newsgroup is for discussing all aspects of the TV series Star
Trek and all of it's spinoffs and movies, from a UK perspective.

_____________________________________________________________________

**********SCHEDULING NEWS**********
_____________________________________________________________________

This new section will be updated with news about where and when Trek
series/seasons will appear. We will endeavour to keep this section as up
to date as possible, but (as mentioned below) we don't tend to know much
more about scheduling than you do, so please bear with us.

ST: The Original Series
- no new scheduling information

ST: The Next Generation
- no new scheduling information

ST: Deep Space Nine
- no new scheduling information

ST: Voyager
- no new scheduling information

Enterprise
- no new scheduling information
_____________________________________________________________________

1. A Note on Spoiler Policy
_____________________________________________________________________

All articles about episodes not yet broadcast on analogue
terrestrial television stations in the United Kingdom should have an
appropriate subject, warning the reader, and a page (or 25 lines) of
space inserted.*

EXAMPLE -

Subject: (SPOILER) Series : Season Episode Title Medium

Series could be TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY or ENT
The Medium could be BBC, SKY, VID or whatever...

This rule also includes information about forthcoming films, rumours
etc.

Although the official position on spoiler space is for it only to be
placed into "articles about episodes not yet broadcast on analogue
terrestrial television stations in the United Kingdom", some members of
the group will include spoiler space on such articles as a courtesy to
those who may have recorded the show for watching later. There is no
official line on the inclusion of spoiler space for episodes shown on
terrestrial television, except that if an article has been posted with
spoiler space, that space must not be removed.

Some people have questioned why we don't use the Form Feed character
(^L) and the answer to this is because it works differently depending on
the news reader and platform.

Similarly, "Why not use ROT13?" - The problem with ROT13 is that
although the great majority of news readers support it, not all do, and
in some cases it is particularly difficult to quote the 'ROTted' text
back.

* 25 lines is the accepted rule of thumb for spoiler space - however
as technology continues it's rampage unabated, we find ourselves looking
at larger monitors with higher resolutions. Bearing this in mind, 25
lines may not now be enough. As an example, I quote an exchange between
myself and Alex Peckover on the group.

AP: The problem is that the rules were written years ago. At work my
machine runs at 1600x1200, so I can clearly see past spoiler space.
GO: I'll ammend the FAQ. Approx. how many lines do you need to clear.
AP: Erm.... loads!

Also, please be good enough to reference your spoilers to their relevant
thread; i.e. no spoilers for, say, Buffy TVS dropped into a Trek thread.
_____________________________________________________________________

2. Off Topic Posts
_____________________________________________________________________

The group has no specific policy on this, but the majority feel that
it is acceptable to post articles not directly related to Star Trek in
any way.

It is the general feeling that this helps to make the group what it
is, a more three-dimensional social place to be, instead of being
completely full of dry technical discussion.

This group has a definite *family* of regulars who are all the best
of friends, therefore you tend to see most threads drifting off into
off-topic banter, which is just the way we like it. :)

Threads that start as off-topic should be titled as such so that
people not wanting to get involved can ignore them. This is an activity
we try to encourage for threads that drift off-topic too, but more often
than not it gets forgotten, so beware. Or maybe you'd like to get
involved...come on in, the water's lovely.

The most common tags we use for off-topic traffic are: [OT] or, if
it looks like the thread is going way off-topic, [VOT]/[WOT].
_____________________________________________________________________

3. Standard Do's and Don'ts
_____________________________________________________________________

Firstly, there are several good general guidelines to posting style,
(though not content :) if you are new to the newsgroup or indeed the
net, then please read them...

HTML Posts: Do _NOT_ post using HTML. This is a text based medium
only. Some peoples news readers are unable to read
HTML posts so make sure that your news reader has it's
formatting option set to "Plain Text".

Line Lengths: Please keep them to about 70-80 characters

Quoting: Please try to trim any unimportant lines from a post
that you are following up.

Binary Posts: These are _NOT_ appropriate for this newsgroup. It is
a DISCUSSION group only. Please use the newsgroup
alt.binaries.startrek for this purpose.

Me-Too Posts: Posts consisting entirely of agreement with a previous
post without adding further information or argument
are discouraged.

Signature Files: Please keep signature files to no more than 5 lines.

Capitals: Posts consisting mostly or entirely of capitals
generally make you look silly, and are frowned upon,
and besides, there's no need to SHOUT.

Top Posting: Please reply to posts by added your content _under_
the quoted text. This makes the post much easier to
follow and, most importantly, it stops spoilers from
being visible above spoiler space.

If someone asks a question a reader is in a position to answer, we check
that someone else hasn't answered it already, unless there is further
information specifically to be added.

For more information on general Usenet standards, it is suggested that
you try this online resource which contains just about everything need
to know if you plan to read and post to newsgroups.
http://www.usenet.org.uk/usenet-information.html
_____________________________________________________________________

4. Commercial Postings and Adverts
_____________________________________________________________________

The group advertising policy is...

* Commercial adverts of any kind from businesses are not acceptable.
* Personal adverts, from either group regulars or people passing
through, selling or offering services direct, that may be of
interest to the group, are acceptable. Please prefix these with [FS].
* Personal adverts, from either group regulars or people passing
through, drawing attention to sales, etc. through forums such as
eBay, Yahoo!Auctions, etc. (that have legal back-up should
something go wrong) are acceptable. Please prefix these with [FA].
* Advertising of conventions (by regs or passers by) that may be of
interest to the group is acceptable. Please prefix these with [AD].
* Advertising of RPG groups (by regs or passers by) is acceptable.
Please prefix these with [AD].

We ask that any adverts posted be prefixed as suggested to allow readers
to filter them out if they wish.

Also, while personal ad's and suchlike are acceptable, what is
condidered bad form is the posting of an advert that just contains a
link to whatever is being sold. Being the very social group we are,
adverts of this kind are seen as rude and discourteous, so please, if
you want to pop an ad on the group, flesh it out a bit. Tell us about
what you're selling and maybe a little about yourself too...we love
interaction and you'll find us more than happy to welcome you to the
family. :)
_____________________________________________________________________

5. Where we live on The WWW
_____________________________________________________________________

- The Official UMTSS Homepage
http://www.umtss.org.uk
This site is run by one of our regulars, James Davies. It contains
everything you ever wanted to know about us and is the home of
this very FAQ that you are reading.

- The UMTSS Games
http://www.umtss.org.uk/caption_comp/
Run by Ameet, this is the home of the weekly caption competition,
on/off topic polls and the UMTSS Top Trumps.

Being the nice happy family group we are, we also like to get together
quite often. This usually involves beer, shirt swapping, beer, newbie
killing, the holding up of signs, beer, checking people are real,
dancing to YMCA and beer. To see just what fun we have, here's a
selection of piccys. :)

- The Battle Bars
held at the now ex-Pages Bar in London

http://www.rock-god.freeserve.co.uk/pages51/bb51index.html
http://www.rock-god.freeserve.co.uk/pages6/bb06index.html
_____________________________________________________________________

6. #umtss - The IRC Channel & MSN
_____________________________________________________________________

#umtss is an IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channel on IRCnet, which
sometimes has people on it in the evenings (we tend to use it in an
on/off fashion).

#umtss is NOT a Star Trek channel, but a general chat channel for
the members of the newsgroup and anyone else who happens along that we
find particularly inoffensive. ;)

For more information on how to get on to IRC, please see the IRC
Frequently Asked Questions document, at
http://www.mirc.co.uk/ircintro.html

We recommend using the PC IRC client, mIRC, and you must set it up
to connect to a UK IRCnet server.
Mirc can be found at http://www.mirc.co.uk.

Group regulars also tend to use MSN's Instant Messenger service too.
You can dowload this from http://messenger.msn.co.uk/
_____________________________________________________________________

7. U.M.T.S.S. Denizens Trek Web Sites
_____________________________________________________________________

Some of the regulars of u.m.t.s.s. maintain their own Star Trek
related sites on the WWW, here are the ones I know of...

- Alex Peckover
Sci-Fi World
*WARNING* Contains spoilers for just about everything.
http://www.scifiworld.co.uk/
_____________________________________________________________________

8. Some Frequently Asked Questions
_____________________________________________________________________

Q1. What are all those abbreviations and acronyms?
==================================================

TOS - The Original Series
TNG - The Next Generation
DS9 - Deep Space Nine
VOY - Voyager
ENT - Enterprise
BiFfer - A fan of Babylon 5, but we don't talk about that :)
DeSigNer - A fan of Deep Space Nine
DoSser - A fan of Deep Space Nine
FC - First Contact
ST:G - Star Trek Generations
ST:I - Star Trek Insurrection
ST:N - Star Trek Nemesis
TFF - The Final Frontier
TMP - The Motion Picture (the first Star Trek film)
ToNGuer - A fan of The Next Generation
TOSser - A fan of The Original Series of Star Trek
TSFS - The Search for Spock
TUC - The Undiscovered Country
TVH - The Voyage Home
TWOK - The Wrath of Khan
VOYeur - A fan of Voyager

and some others...

BTW - By The Way
OT - Off Topic
V/WOT - Very/Way Off Topic
ATM - At The Moment
HTH - Hope That Helps
HAND - Have A Nice Day
FWIW - For What It's Worth
IMHO - In My Humble Opinion
IMO - In My Opinion
ISTR - I seem to remember/recall
ISWYM - I See What You Mean
IYSWIM - If You See What I Mean
LOL - Laughs Out Loud!
ROFL - Rolls on Floor Laughing
ROTFLMAO - Rolling On The Floor Laughing My Arse Off
TBH - To Be Honest
TPTB - The Powers That Be

Q2. When will series [x] be shown on channel [x]?
=================================================

The big question. And the question that illicts more sarcasm from the
regulars than any other. We get asked this question by hundreds of
people every time a new season/series is due to start.

The simple answer is to check your listings for whatever channel your
show is going to be on. That's what we all do, so if _you_ don't know
when it's going to be showing, there's a good chance _we_ don't either.

Q3. When will episode [x] be released on Video/DVD ...?
=======================================================

It is always difficult to predict this, but you will sometimes find that
the larger stores have release dates available or on display. However,
it is not often that Paramount Home Entertainment (the video company)
keep to their schedules.

Q4. What's with Trek and the BBC?
=================================

Possibly one of the most asked questions on the group. It seems that
whenever the Beeb needs to reschedule a programme to make way for some
important event like snooker or darts or (as someone suggested once) the
world tiddly-winks championship, Star Trek is the first to be hit.
Consequently, one never knows if this weeks Voyager or DS9, etc. will
actually appear on our screens.

In an attempt to answer the question, the BBC was contacted and asked
supply an *official* line on why Trek was always being resheduled with
seemingly no regard for the legions of fans that tune in faithfully
every week.

The answer is still being awaited. It will appear at this very point as
soon as it arrives.

God Bless The BBC. ;)

Q5. Why is there *so* much off topic traffic on the group?
==========================================================

For this, I shall quote James...

UMTSS has been described as "the combined diary of twenty to thirty
people" and this is how we like it. Despite our group's mandate being
the discussion of Star Trek the large number of Off Topic posts (marked
either as [OT] or OT:) makes our group fairly unique in having a closer
family spirit than usenet does in general.

Whilst 100-300 posts a day may seem daunting at first, after a quick
lurk and an introduction we'll welcome you easily. Despite the fact it
may not be obvious, we do still have a large knowledge of Trek [as well
as other things] so if you have a question on pretty much anything - ask
away and we'll respond.

Q2. So just what is the best Trek episode, ever?
================================================

A question that piqued our own curiosity, this was, so in time honoured
tradition, a poll was run.

The final 32 episodes spread across the 5 series were picked and the
voting was ably managed by our own Dr Zoidberg (thanks, Alex). The
results were as follows. In descending order...

"The Trouble with Tribbles" And "Chain of Command" And "The Defector"
"The Doomsday Machine" And "Cause and Effect"
"The Measure of a Man"
"Duet"
"Balance Of Terror" And "Family" And "Message In a Bottle"
"Blink of an Eye" And "Mirror Mirror"
"Parallels" And "Rocks and Shoals" And "Hard Time"
"In Purgatory's Shadow"
"The Changing Face of Evil" and "Q Who"
"Amok Time" and "The Visitor"
"The Siege of AR558" and "Scorpion"
"Darmok"
"Sacrifice of Angels"
"The Pegasus"
"The Inner Light"
"City on the Edge of Forever"
"Best of Both Worlds"
"Far Beyond the Stars"

The top three were:-

3) [DS9] "A Call to Arms"
2) [TNG] "Yesterdays Enterprise"

And the winner was:- <applause>

[DS9] "In the Pale Moonlight"

A worthy winner in this FAQ maintainers opinion. :-)

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Note : It is recommended that you view this FAQ in a fixed-pitch font

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The ASCII UMTSS FAQ is Copyright 2002, Paul Roe
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-END