FAQ - biz.general -
Chris Gunn
(Moderated)
Frequently Asked Questions
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Charter: biz.general provides a forum for general discussions related to
business operations, offerings, and other related topics which
effect conducting business throughout the World. Commercial
advertising is prohibited. It is the moderator's sole
unquestioned
responsibility and authority to ensure articles adhere to the
Charter.
Q. Is advertising for products and services allowed on biz.general?
A. Advertising is not allowed in biz.general. Ads should be posted in the
biz.marketplace.* groups that are not designated for discussion or in
other hierarchies. Although general business discussions are encouraged
biz.general primarily carries FAQ's and articles on how to use the biz.*
newsgroups profitably.
Anything that sounds remotely like it may be a Chain Letter, Ponzi, or
other unethical business practice will be rejected and may be
selectively
forwarded to NFIC for investigation.
Although some groups may be for advertising, the best way to get a
reader's attention is through a good discussion thread. Very few will
buy a magazine just to read advertising. It's the interesting articles
that get pages turned and TV channels tuned.
Q. What happens if I ignore the rules and try to post advertising to
biz.general?
A. The biz.general newsgroup is moderated, the moderators being Jeff Norton
and Christopher G. Gunn. The USENET News mechanism at both the user
interface and transport level does not permit posting or propagation
of an article without the moderators approval. Instead, it E-Mails them
to the moderator's address for approval and posting.
Q. How do I submit a post to the biz.general?
A. E-Mail your intended (on-charter) posting to the moderators at:
gen...@bizynet.com
- or -
Simply post it to the newsgroup. If your news software is properly
configured, your posting will be automatically E-Mailed to the
moderators. If not, it will of course eventually land in the USENET
black hole and disappear. If you're not sure your news software is
properly configured, contact your local administrator and ask him to
request a copy of the current biz hierarchy checkgroups cmsg from the
biz
hierarchy authority and administrator <ed...@xenitec.on.ca>.
Information on posting to moderated newsgroups is periodically posted to
news.lists, news.groups, news.answers, entitled: "List of Moderators
for
Usenet". The rtfm.mit archive name is: "moderator-list/part1".
Q. Is there any specific format which messages should follow?
A. Articles should reflect a professional and business like attitude and be
limited to plain text and the upper 128 IBM ASCII characters. Messages
that contain HTML or MIME encoding will be rejected. Set your margins
for a maximum of 80 characters per line so everyone can easily read your
posting.
Q. Do all messages have to be in English?
A. Although most of the messages you see on the biz groups are in English,
it's not a requirement. Messages in other languages are welcome as well
as using the entire IBM ASCII character set so you can spell your name
properly. Posting in your language, with a translation in English, will
give you the widest audience.
Q. What's the best way to present my business on the newsgroups?
A. Folks with whom you'd like to be doing business with will make their
decisions based on their impression of your messages. During a
discussion, you may read messages from someone who has an opinion
totally
different from yours. Feel free to discuss the difference of opinion
but
try to avoid getting hurt feelings involved. You will be asked to use
E-Mail if messages are personal attacks or the language belongs
elsewhere.
Q. Why do my messages sometimes not appear in the newsgroups?
A. If you cross-post to a "(Moderated)" newsgroup such as biz.general, the
message is sent to the Moderator as E-Mail instead of being posted to
the newsgroups. The Moderator then decides what will appear in the
newsgroup itself. If accepted, you may not see your message until the
next day or so. Please do not cross-post to Moderated newsgroups and
post to them only as individual messages.
Q. What if I want to avoid the E-Mail spammers?
A. Messages are expected to come from legitimate addresses. Attempts to
avoid E-Mail responses and anonymous messages will be rejected. We
realize it's nice to avoid getting on E-Mail lists but it also makes the
moderator's job harder. More important, it's like trying to do business
with an unlisted phone number. We also encourage the use of real names
in From: lines rather than funny handles or trying use it as
advertising.
Q. Is it okay to discuses MLM opportunities?
A. You may discuss Multi-Level Marketing from a seeking business advice
perspective. If it sounds like recruiting, promotion or appears to be
advertising, blatant or disguised, it will be rejected.
Q. Since this group is moderated, can I trust what I see here?
A. The moderators simply approve appropriate articles sent to them for
posting, and cannot verify the integrity of any particular posting or
poster. Caveat Emptor (Buyer Beware).
Q. If my messages are rejected, how will I know why?
A. Whenever possible, the moderators will respond to rejected messages
explaining the problem. If message posters demonstrate they won't
voluntarily cooperate, they will be placed on the blocking list for
automatic rejection. That results in your messages being blocked to all
@bizynet.com addresses, which includes moderated newsgroups and E-Mail.
To have your access restored, you may have a friend send a message to
the
moderator explaining the problem.
Q. How can I advertise without getting into trouble?
A. Some newsgroups do accept advertising. Don't go by the messages you see
there. Check the charters to ensure they do and what you wish to
promote
fits within the topic area before posting. For the "biz" hierarchy in
general, please refer to the biz meta-FAQ posted on biz.config
periodically by Ed Hew, the biz Newsgroup Authority.
Please feel free to ask for additional details. The BIZynet network
<http://www.bizynet.com> offers a variety of services for advertising
and conducting business via the E-Ways (Electronic Highways).
Drop by http://www.bizynet.com/faq-news.htm to access all of the biz
newsgroups FAQ's. Click the [Return to Index] button to find even
more information on how to get the most from the newsgroups. Our
@bizynet.com domain is a respected E-Mail address for business folks
for many reasons.
We hope you'll find biz.general both enjoyable and profitable,
Chris Gunn
<cg...@bizynet.com>