FAQ Introduction to Alt.StarTrek.Creative
Stephen aka Old Man ASC
FAQ Alt.StarTrek.Creative, An Introduction
Last Updated: February 2, 2007
Version: 5.21
This FAQ is was designed to make it easier for everyone
to enjoy alt.startrek.creative. If you have any
suggestions, please email ste...@trekiverse.org.
These are only suggestions, but most of us would like
you to follow them.
This FAQ is located at :
http://trekiverse.crosswinds.net/FAQs/Introduction.txt
or any Trekiverse site
Table of Contents
=================
I Abbreviations in the FAQ
II The Newsgroup
A What ASC is For
B Other Star Trek Fan-Fiction Groups
C Other Star Trek Groups
D Stories Only ASC?
III Posting Format
A Style
B Subject lines
C The Story Header
D The Summary
IV More About the Archive
A What is the Archive?
B Who runs this Archive?
C What is this Index?
D Who do I contact about Archive Business?
E Are there any Archive Policies I should know?
F Anything else I should know about the Archive?
V For More Information
A Answers to Common Questions
B Other FAQs to Check
VI The Credits
--------------------------------
I Abbreviations in the FAQ
================================
ASC alt.startrek.creative
ASCE alt.startrek.creative.erotica
ASCEM alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated
AFQ alt.fan.q
FAQ Frequently Asked Questions
ASCA alt.startrek.creative.all-ages
---------------------
II The Newsgroup
=====================
A What ASC is for
-----------------------
Alt.StarTrek.Creative (ASC) is for the posting of creative
StarTrek Fan Fiction, poems, documentation, and other such works;
discussion of those works, Star Trek Fan works in general, and
issues affecting those works and the newsgroup in general.
It is not here for personal conversations, nor advertisements.
It is not here for Binaries (use the alt.binaries.startrek
hierarchy and remember, if it doesn't say binary then don't post
binaries)
It is not here for the general discussion of Star Trek, There are
other groups out there for that.
B Other Star Trek Fan Fiction Groups
------------------------------------------
alt.startrek.creative.erotica
Star Trek erotica fiction, not available in all areas
All stories posted to ASCE are allowed on ASC. Defunct.
alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated [Moderated]
Star Trek erotica discussion. Includes stories and
other topics concerning STAR TREK erotica. Moderated to
reduce spam. Moderated replacement due to spam of ASCE
alt.startrek.creative.all-ages [Moderated]
A family friendly version of ASC. Stories limited to
[PG-13]and no slash. All stories posted to ASCA are
allowed on ASC
alt.startrek.uss-amagosa
TNG-DS9 time frame stories on the USS Amagosa or
associated Universe.
alt.fan.q
for discussion and creative stories on Q from either
Trek or Bond.
C Other Star Trek Groups
------------------------------
rec.arts.startrek.current
For the posting of current Star Trek news and
infomation, within the last FOUR MONTHS
rec.arts.startrek.tech
For the discussion of the technical aspects of Star Trek
rec.arts.startrek.fandom
For the posting of fan related events. For Sale,
conventions, and the like
rec.arts.startrek.info (moderated)
Star Trek Information
rec.arts.startrek.reviews (moderated)
Star Trek Reviews
rec.arts.startrek.misc
Everything not covered elsewhere
alt.startrek.books
Discussion of Star Trek Books, as published by Pocket
Books.
There are also other alt.startrek.* and alt.star-trek.* groups
for specific series and races, but these will be on most servers,
unlike most alt groups.
D Stories Only Version of ASC
-----------------------------------
Due to the requests of many newsgroup subscribers, A stories
only version of ASC has been set up. This is set up through
Yahoo groups, and subscription is available by e-mailing:
Or by visiting the Yahoo Groups web page at:
----------------------
III Posting Format
======================
A Style
-------------
Lines should be less than 70 characters long, which will allow
people to read it easily on most newsreaders. It should be
single spaced. As upper case is considered shouting, don't
writing in all upper case. Reserve that for when your character is
shouting.
For more information regarding stories, see the Advice for
Authors FAQ.
B Subject Lines
---------------------
The Subject Line should consist of a Post name, a short title,
the Part Number, rating, the series, type and codes
The Post name is a three letter field consisting of one of the
following:
NEW For new stories
REP For Reposts
REV For Revised versions of stories
COR For corrected versions of stories
DRA For Drafts
The series is a three letter field. See the Posting Codes FAQ for
explanation.
The Title should be no longer than 20 characters. This does not
mean one has to keep the title short, but a shortened version
should be in the subject line. The full title can be listed in
story header (see below).
The part number should be in the part number/last part format.
If the last part is not known or you are not posting all of the
story in the next week, a ? mark should fill the last part field.
Roman numerals are reserved for stories in series that can stand
alone.
The next field is the rating. We enclose the rating in [] so
that parents can set a kill file for stories rated [R]. The
ratings are explained in the codes section.
Character Codes codes and types are generally enclosed in () so
that it may be easily pulled out. The first item in the ()
should be if it's a parody, x-over, or poem. Next should come
the character codes as listed in a later section.
Some examples:
NEW TNG All the King's 5/? [PG-13] (Marrissa Stories #3)
REV TNG Battle For Bajor 4/8 [PG] (Marrissa Stories #2)
REP TNG Captain & Doctor 1/1 [G] (P/C, Marrissa Stories)
COR TOS Galaxy's End 1/53 [R] (x-over, Star Wars)
DRA VOY Harry's Mad [NC-17] (parody)
C The Story Header
------------------------
The Story Header offers an opportunity to correct and expand on
what is given in the Standard USENET Header. This is very
important to our Archivists and Awards Staff. Stories missing, or
with incomplete data will be delayed during the archiving process
until such data is found.
An explanation on how to fill out the Story Header is in the Advice
for Authors FAQ.
D The Summary
-------------------
The Story Index for the archive requires a short summary. Our
Index Maintainer would like all authors to provide one for their
new stories. Stephen would like a 3-4 line non-spoiling summary
for each newly posted story. You can go longer, but please keep
it under a dozen lines.
Some people in order to prevent spoilage place this header in a
separate post labeled SYNOPSIS, SUMMARY or the like. Some include
it as part 0/? The Maintainers encourage such behavior. If you do
not post such a SYNOPSIS, please make sure all the information from
the story header is in the first part.
Please have all of this in the first 40(20 preferred) lines it
makes Ian, Katie, Cassie, and Stephen's jobs easier.
------------------------------
IV More About The Archive
==============================
A What is the Archive?
----------------------------
The archive is where all the stories posted on this group end up,
unless stated otherwise. Currently, it is in a state of transition.
When it is finished, it will be on 3 mirrors with 4 index sites.
At the present time, you can access the archive at:
[Defiant] http://www.trekiverse.us/
[Enterprise] http://www.trekiverse.org/
Please rotate your usage to spread the load around.
The Archive is arranged around several main directories. The
biggest of these are the story, parody, and adult directories.
Each of these are split by series (tos, tng, ds9, voy, ent, misc,
combined, and sometimes others) Any series of stories that has
more than 15 stories in it may get its own directory off one of
these directories at the discretion of the archivists. There are
also directories filled with poems, pic(tures), info, reviews, and
tech documents, plus other info.
B Who runs this Archive?
------------------------------
Constable Katie (redshoes ix.netcom.com)
--- Archivist
Katie handles the collection and format correction of
post as well as placing them in the proper place in the
archive
Ian Toldman (stidev gate.net)
--- Assistant Formatter
Ian handles those really tough tasks of formatting that
pop up. He is also a driving force behind the current
archive conversion.
Stephen Ratliff (stephen trekiverse.org)
--- Indexer
Stephen handles the Indexes in addition to his other jobs.
C What is this Index?
---------------------------
The index was started by Matt Steenberg and consists of an entry
on each story and then the links to the sites that have that
story. It is your interface to the archive. It is currently
divided by directory with each section being sorted by Author
and Title. A sorting by Character Pairing, and a search is now
available.
D Who do I contact about Archive Business?
------------------------------------------------
Due to the way the archive is run, who you contact is based on
what you want done.
To have a story added: post to alt.startrek.creative or e-mail
to:
currently down
To have a story removed: e-mail to Katie
To add or change a summary in the index, or correct a link:
e-mail:
currently down
E Are there any Archive Policies I should know?
-----------------------------------------------------
Yes:
1 Archiving.....
The Archive Team archives any story posted to ASC, ASCEM, and
ASCA unless one of the following line is included:
Archive: Not in ASC* Archive
or
Archive: Do not Archive
2 Linking to the Archive .....
After discussion on the group, the following guidelines have been
announced for linking to stories in the archive (linking to the
archive itself, and its sub-directories remains unrestricted)
a. If an author does not want to be *linked* anywhere but
official index pages without permission, they must say so in the
disclaimer portion.
b. If an author does say no, indexers must not link their story.
c. If an author requests to be removed, indexers should remove
their link promptly and without being snide.
d. it is polite to write authors when you are creating an index
that they are on, if for no better reason than that they'd
probably be interested in the subject matter of the index. (I
mean, if you're a G/B writer, and someone creates a G/B index and
puts you on it, odds are you'd like to look at that index because
you yourself may not know all those G/B stories that the indexer
found.) However, it is not required.
e. The Archive Staff shall have the right to ask websites to
remove links to individual stories should the Archive Staff
determine that the website in question is detrimental to the
operation of the archive.
F Anything else I should know about the Archive?
------------------------------------------------------
The Archive is a volunteer project. None of us are being paid.
So we ask that you be courteous to the Archive Staff. We all
got cases of Insufficient Reluctance and are now suffering the
consequences.
----------------------------
V For More Information
============================
A Questions Answered
--------------------------
1 I want to get a copy of a story
Try the following steps:
a Check the Archive through its web interfaces at:
[Defiant] http://www.trekiverse.us/
[Enterprise] http://www.trekiverse.org/
b If it's a relatively recent story, try Google groups
(located at http://groups.google.com). Google Groups
is a free service that compiles the postings to USENET.
If you use the "power search" you can create a filter to
search only alt.startrek.creative. (you can also use
various other limits such as author and date).
c If all else fails, contact the author. In fact, contact
them with your praise anyway.
2 I have a general question about ASC.
Contact:
- FAQ Maintainer Stephen (ste...@trekiverse.org)
3 What is the status of my story in the Archive Queue?
Contact:
- Archivist Katie
4 I want to report a problem with the Archive Index.
Contact:
- Index Maintainer Stephen (ste...@trekiverse.org)
5 I have a question about the ASC Awards.
Contact (in order):
- Awards Coordinator(outgoing) Stephen (ste...@trekiverse.org)
- Awards Coordinator(incoming) Seema (see...@yahoo.com)
- Awards Assistant Coord. Djinn
6 I have a correction for one of the Status of Stories FAQs.
Contact according to series:
TOS: Rocky
TNG: Keroth
DS9: Gabrielle
VOY: Seema see...@yahoo.com
ENT: Keroth
MIS: Keroth
Backup: Stephen ste...@trekiverse.org
B Other FAQs
------------------
For more information on ASC see the following FAQs and Mini-FAQs
(All FAQs are located at the archive sites)
Advice For Authors
More information on posting for those who write stories
Advice4Authors.txt
Msting on Alt.StarTrek.Creative
The guidelines for posting MSTings on ASC
MST.txt
The Mannerly Art of Critique
How to respond and take response to your works
Crit.txt
The Mannerly Art of Debate
How to safely debate without causing problems.
Debate.txt
Summary Writing: A Guide for Index Summary Writers
How to write summaries for the Index to the Archive
SummaryWriting.txt
Advice for Summary Writing
How to write summaries, Advice from Carol Thomas, former
Adult Story Summarizer
SummaryAdvice.txt
Who's Who
A Brief Guide to the Staff Members of ASC*
Written by the Staff Members themselves.
WhosWho.txt
------------------
VI The Credits
==================
The following people have assisted in some way in the creation of
this FAQ and it's predecessors.
Joseph Young, my processor in the job (and a former Archivist)
Susan M Stiefel, FAQ Maintainer alt.tv.x-files.creative
Ruth Gifford, FAQ Maintainer ASCEM (1995-9)
Alara Rogers, ASC Archivist (1995-8)
Macedon, Talking Stick Author
Melissa Koehn, Backup FAQ Maintainer ASC (1997)
Dina Lerret, ASC Archivist (1998-2000)
Constable Katie, Post Collecter/Formatter
J Winter, Backup FAQ Maintainer, ASC (1998-2000)
Kattz, Backup FAQ Maintainer, ASC (2000-2001)
and the late George Morgan, ASCA Moderator (1997-9)
-------------------------------------------------------------
Once again, these are only suggestions, but most of us would
like you to follow them.
Stephen Ratliff
another insufficiently reluctant staff
member of ASC.
=============================================================
--
Stephen Ratliff ASC FAQ Maintainer
http://www.trekiverse.org/FAQs
--
Stephen Ratliff stephen trekiverse org
ASC FAQs: http://www.trekiverse.org/FAQ