Author:   Philippe Brieu <philippeumich.edu>,
         Walter I. Nissen Jr. CDP <dk058@cleveland.freenet.edu>,
         Steven Willner <swillner@cfa.harvard.edu>

 You may come to this newsgroup in search of information and productive
discussion.  Others may have different motives.  Their posts are often
pretty sophisticated in that they have been designed and tested to be
effective in pushing your hot buttons.  And please bear in mind that some
of these people will come into possession of new identities and will post
something that sure looks like it comes from a hapless newbie.

 DO *NOT* POST A FOLLOWUP UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!

 To reemphasize, you should NOT post anything in response to an
inappropriate post in *sci.astro*.  Other readers are probably as annoyed
as you are by that post, and the last thing they/you want is to waste
their/your time/disk space by adding more useless articles and fueling a
useless discussion.

 What should you do then?  Ignore people you consider crackpots (sometimes
a.k.a.  cranks) altogether: do not send them e-mail, do not refer to their
posts or even name in your messages.  Just pretend they do not exist and
they will go away!  Why?  Because attention and an opportunity to argue is
all they are looking for.  Ignoring them is the ONLY way to deal with them.

 One particularly easy way to ignore people is to use a KILL file.  KILL
files allow you to specify that you do not want to see any articles on a
certain topic or by a certain person.  If used, they can increase your
enjoyment of sci.astro considerably.  The creation and maintenance depends
upon the particular newsreader you use, but you may want to consult the
_KILL file FAQ_, <URL:http://www.faqs.org/faqs/killfile-faq/>, (also
available via _anonymous ftp_,
<URL:ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/news.answers/>,).

 What about *spams*?  Spams are the posting of a totally irrelevant (often
commercial) message to several (often many) groups by people who are just
trying to reach as many USENET readers as possible, indiscriminately.  They
do not target you personally, but rather all of USENET.  The ONLY
appropriate action is to send a message to their news administrator (
usenet or postmaster@their.site) complaining about it and asking for their
account to be closed (be sure to include the full spam message with all
headers).  You can send a copy of your message to the posters so that they
end up being "mailbombed" by readers (but do NOT mailbomb them by
yourself!).  There is no point in posting to the group because the spammers
do NOT read it anyway!

 If the post you read is inappropriate in another way, chances are it is
not intentional.  The poster was probably unaware of netiquette or rules
for this particular hierarchy/group.  Be understanding: do not flame them
on the group.  Instead, tell them politely what to do by private e-mail,
and refer them to this FAQ.  Of course, if it is a repeat offender, feel
free to flame, but only by e-mail.