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Message-ID: <astrology/posting_1148185310@rtfm.mit.edu>
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From: Sherilyn <sherilyn@bluebottle.com>
Newsgroups: alt.astrology,alt.answers,news.answers
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Subject: [alt.astrology] Posting FAQ - read this before posting!
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Date: 21 May 2006 04:23:24 GMT
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CONTENTS

0. Introduction
1. What is the status of this FAQ?  What about other FAQs?
2. What is Netiquette?
3. What is Net abuse?
4. What is alt.astrology for?
5. What can be done about people posting things I find objectionable?
6. What about Flames?

0. Introduction.

Welcome to alt.astrology, a public alt.* newsgroup for discussion of
all things astrological. The purpose of this FAQ is to enable you to
find your feet quickly and to make effective posts.  It isn't about
astrology.

1. What is the status of this FAQ?

The purpose of a FAQ (so called because many FAQs contain answers
to Frequently Asked Questions) is to provide a central source of
useful information.  It is not intended to be authoritative,
because no FAQ is ever authoritative.  In common with most
unmoderated alt.* newsgroups, alt.astrology has no charter, except
for a brief one-line description of the purpose: "discussion on
serious astrology, tarot, etc".  There exists no voting mechanism
to govern administration of an alt.* newsgroup. This isn't the only
FAQ, and it certainly isn't the only FAQ you should read if you have
particular questions to post that may have been asked before. In particular,
I recommend you pay a visit to the old group FAQ which used to be
maintained by L. M. P. McPherson.  A copy of that FAQ is at:

  http://mandrake.polarhome.com/~astrofaq/astrology/

The Debating FAQ, useful tips for debating astrology:

  http://mandrake.polarhome.com/~astrofaq/debating/

2. What is Netiquette?

Since the purpose of USENET is communication, some people who
have used USENET effectively for a long time have produced
guidelines for posters, collectively known as _netiquette_.
In order to learn some basic netiquette, I recommend the new
USENET user subscribe to the newsgroup news.announce.newusers,
and read any information supplied on their own ISP's website.
The following document, which is posted directly to the above
newsgroup, is recommended reading before you post to USENET.

         http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/primer/part1/

The following URL can be used to scan _all_ regular FAQs posted
to news.announce.newusers.

   http://www.faqs.org/faqs/by-newsgroup/news/news.announce.newusers.html

In particular, find out if it is possible for your posting software
to quote postings you are responding to.  Quoting the part of a
posting that you are responding to gives people who read it a better
chance of understanding what you are saying (if you don't care about
whether readers other than the person you are responding to
understand the context of your response, your response should probably
be made in email.)

Beware of quoting more than necessary.  It is seldom necessary to
quote a whole message.  Some posting software automatically quotes
the whole message when you choose to respond, but you should delete
the portions of the message that are not relevant to your response.

3. What is Net abuse?

Net abuse is defined as abuse _of_ the net, not abuse _on_ the net.
The most common form of net abuse is known as SPAM. This is defined
in the SPAM FAQ:
    http://www.killfile.org/~tskirvin/faqs/spam.html

Read your ISP's Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), if they have one.
The purpose of an AUP is to delineate the conditions under which,
in the better interests of the USENET community, your ISP may take
action to limit or curtail your ability to post to USENET.  Typical
bans are on commercial postings in non-commercial newsgroups (such
as alt.astrology) and binary (non-text) postings in non-binary
newsgroups (such as alt.astrology). As ad hoc guidelines:

        Do not repeatedly make posts of no significant or of the same
        byte-for-byte content (spam)
        Do not make commercial posts to alt.astrology
        Do not make binary posts to alt.astrology

If you want to learn more about net abuse on USENET and how to fight
it effectively, or if you have ideas to contribute, subscribe to
news.admin.net-abuse.usenet.  Here is an excellent primer on
anti-spam countermeasures which you may find useful.
    http://www.mall-net.com/spamfaq.html

4. What is alt.astrology for?

This newsgroup is for the discussion of all things pertaining to
serious astrology; discussion on related subjects such as tarot is
also on topic.  The charter (actually just a list of all control
messages concerning this group, including the original "newgroup"
posting that first created the group in 1991) is in a compressed
unix text file at:
        ftp://ftp.isc.org/pub/usenet/control/alt/

and any control messages concerning alt.astrology are automatically
collected and added to it. A decompressed copy of that file as it
was in April 2001 is at
        http://mandrake.polarhome.com/~astrofaq/control/alt_astrology.txt

5. What can be done about people posting things I find objectionable?

You will almost certainly see opinions you don't agree with on
alt.astrology, and sometimes you will even see posts that are just
downright nasty.  The correct way to deal with such posts is described
in the USENET Primer (see section 2 of this FAQ):

        'If you find an article offensive, consider taking it up with
        the person directly, or ignoring it.  Learn about "kill files"
        in your newsreader, and other techniques for ignoring people
        whose postings you find offensive.'

6. What about Flames?

A "flame" is an angry post.  Sometimes you will find angry posts in
follow-up to your own.  The temptation may then be to make an angry
post  in response.  Think first.

Remember, just because somebody calls you a bad name, doesn't
mean you have to respond in kind.  Rise above it--people really
will respect you for it.  When people respond to flames with more
flames, this leads to a "flame war" which is liable to render
the news thread  uninteresting--people who are genuinely interested
in discussing astrology will tend to avoid it, so the participants
simply spend more and more time shouting at one another and the
only result is that they all get a deservedly poor reputation.

You will find that keeping your sense of humor will help
you to get the most out of any newsgroup.
-- 
Sherilyn <sherilyn@bluebottle.com>