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ba.broadcast.moderated Posting Guidelines


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Archive-name: ba/broadcast/moderated/guidelines
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URL: http://www.panix.com/~babm/usenet/babm/index.html

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Changes followed by "|".

Welcome to ba.broadcast.moderated!  This is a moderated Usenet 
newsgroup open to anyone who has an interest in broadcast media in            |
the San Francisco Bay Area, both radio and television.                        |

The posting guidelines for ba.broadcast.moderated are divided into 
the following sections:


1. Introduction and Invitation to Participate

2. Acceptable and Unacceptable Topics
   2.1 Geographical focus
   2.2 Programming discussions
   2.3 Pirate broadcasting
   2.4 Moderation policies

3. Netiquette
   3.1 Introduction to Usenet netiquette
   3.2 Civility
   3.3 Posting form
   3.4 Excessive quoting
   3.5 Pseudonyms                                                             |
   3.6 Signature files                                                        |
   3.7 Use of copyrighted material                                            |
   3.8 Pointers to outside sources                                            |

4. Technical and Administrative Issues
   4.1 Crossposting
   4.2 Valid "From" address

This is a living document and will be updated as needed to meet 
the needs of this group.

--------------------------------------------------------------

1. INTRODUCTION AND INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE

Welcome! The moderators of ba.broadcast.moderated invite the 
participation of broadcast professionals and non-professionals 
alike. Both the people who create radio/TV news and entertainment 
in the Bay Area, and the people who watch or listen to it, have 
valuable insights into the art and science of broadcasting. 


--------------------------------------------------------------

2. ACCEPTABLE AND UNACCEPTABLE TOPICS

2.1 Geographical focus

The focus of this group is broadcast radio and TV in the San 
Francisco Bay Area. Discussions of stations in markets adjacent to 
the Bay Area are also acceptable. TV and radio network, cable and 
satellite television, and satellite radio are also on topic when 
they relate to the Bay Area.

Examples:

On topic: "DirecTV has added KRCB to its Bay Area lineup."

Off topic: "DirecTV has added BBC America to its lineup."

On topic: "Fox says it's going to start charging affiliates (such 
as KTVU) for prime-time programming."

Off topic: "Fox has announced three new dramas for the fall 
season."

In the case of extraordinary events that affect broadcasters in 
other areas, references to those other areas will be permitted. 
Examples: the loss of broadcasting capabilities from the World 
Trade Center on 9/11, the KFI tower collapse, and the Mount Wilson 
fires. Such postings must still adhere to the other guidelines in 
this document.


2.2 Programming discussions

We welcome our industry participants and other interested parties 
to post brief notices about upcoming program guests, fill-in 
hosts, etc. Similarly, reviews of the performance of on-air 
personalities are fine. However, ba.broadcast.moderated is not the 
place to continue discussions of general-interest topics that have            |
been discussed on local radio or TV stations. The only exception              |
to this guideline might be a local radio or TV show that conducted            |
a discussion of topics directly related to Bay Area broadcasting.             |

Postings about broadcasters' off-air activities should be confined            |
to activities that are broadcasting-related, such as personal                 |
appearances on behalf of their station.                                       |


2.3 Pirate broadcasting

Postings about pirate radio/TV should be limited to notices of 
enforcement actions, discussions of conflicts between licensed and 
unlicensed stations, or strictly informational messages about 
pirate operations (such as, "A new pirate station has been heard              |
in Oakland on 104.9"). Postings that seek to draw personnel, money,           |
equipment, or listeners for pirate stations will not be approved.             |


2.4 Moderation policies

Questions or complaints about moderation decisions or policies 
will not be permitted in the newsgroup itself. Please direct any 
such feedback to the moderators by sending us a message at                    |
ba-broadcast-moderated-request@panix.com.                                     |

If you see an obviously inappropriate article in our newsgroup, 
please assume that it was a mistake or a direct forgery, and do 
not send followup postings. You may submit feedback to the 
administrative address regarding such articles, although it is 
likely that our monitoring software and procedures have already 
detected the problem and we are actively handling it. 


--------------------------------------------------------------

3. NETIQUETTE

3.1 Introduction to Usenet netiquette

Participants who are new to Usenet should familiarize themselves 
with the "netiquette" of Usenet as well as the particular posting 
guidelines for this group.  Several useful posts for "newbies" can 
be found on the newsgroup news.announce.newusers or on the World 
Wide Web at:

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

Particularly helpful articles are:
        Welcome to Usenet!
        Rules for posting to Usenet
        Hints on writing style for Usenet
        A Primer on How to Work With the Usenet Community
        Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on Netiquette
        Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Usenet


3.2 Civility

Participants in ba.broadcast.moderated are encouraged to state 
their own views and share their experiences enthusiastically. 
However, in doing so, you should maintain a civil tone in all 
postings and treat other people respectfully.

You are welcome to criticize someone else's actions, but such 
criticism must not degrade into a personal attack or name-calling. 
To be safe, refrain from making assumptions about the motivations 
of other people. For example, "That's a lie" implies an 
intentional prevarication, and "So-and-so is a liar" is name-
calling. Instead, say "That's not true, because...," or "I think 
that So-and-so is wrong because..." 

Making fun of someone's name or refusing to refer to them by their 
proper name is also a violation of this guideline. In cases where             |
someone uses a different on-air name, please use that name unless             |
they have specifically said that it's all right to refer to them              |
publicly by their real name.                                                  |

Note that this guideline covers everyone you talk about in your 
postings, whether they are participants in this group or not.

Example:

On topic: "KTVU is in the middle of a terrific five-part series on 
Bay Area transportation. You can catch the rest of it on their 
newscasts this week."

Off topic: "I think we need another bridge across the Bay. Don't              |
you?"                                                                         |



3.3 Posting form

Any article that falls into any of the following categories will 
be automatically rejected:                                                    |

A) Articles that contain original text of more than 75 characters             |
   per line (except for URLs; see sections 3.7 and 3.8)                       |
B) Articles that are crossposted to any newsgroup other than our              |
   sister unmoderated group, ba.broadcast (also see section 4.1)              |
C) Articles that contain more than 400 lines
D) Postings that contain attachments (except short .sig files; see 
   section 3.6)                                                               |
E) Postings that include encoded binary files (except PGP and other           |
   short digital signatures)                                                  |
F) Articles containing obscene language
G) Articles from individuals who have been suspended or banned
   from the newsgroup
H) Articles that consist mostly of direct quotation from                      |
   copyrighted sources (also see section 3.7)                                 |


3.4 Excessive quoting

Posters must show a reasonable effort to trim the post they are 
replying to. Replies should include just enough of the original 
material to establish a context for your own comments. 

Posts more than 20 lines long that have more than 50% quoted text 
will be carefully reviewed by a moderator to determine whether 
that degree of quoting is warranted. Posts with excessive quoted 
text may be rejected.

IMPORTANT: If you use a newsreader (such as Google Groups) that 
allows you to hide the posting to which you are replying, you must 
unhide the quoted text and trim it appropriately. Also be certain 
that your newsreader is not configured to automatically append the 
previous article to the bottom of your postings. All participants 
in ba.broadcast.moderated are responsible for using their 
newsreaders properly to comply with the group's posting 
guidelines.

"Me too!" posts are discouraged. If you do post such a message, 
you must edit the quoted material significantly.


3.5 Pseudonyms                                                                |

Contributors to ba.broadcast.moderated are encouraged to use their            |
real (given or on-air) names. This not only creates a greater sense           |
of community in the newsgroup, it also lends credibility to posters'          |
opinions. However, as a pragmatic concession to the realities of              |
the present-day Internet, and consistent with the practices of other          |
moderated newsgroups, pseudonyms and unroutable email address are             |
permitted with some restrictions.                                             |

We ask that the From: lines of submitted articles not misrepresent            |
your identity, not be changed often, and not match a user or domain           |
name other than your own (spoofing). Please also realize that if you          |
use an unroutable email address, you will not be able to receive              |
acknowledgment or rejection messages for your submitted articles.             |


3.6 Signature files                                                           |

Many people close each article they write with a few lines of                 |
common text. This may be a clever quote, contact information,                 |
or disclaimer required by their employer. Signature (.sig) files              |
attached to ba.broadcast.moderated postings must be no longer                 |
than four lines plus a standard delimiter (such as two dashes).               |

The content of a poster's signature need not be relevant to 
broadcasting, but it must not violate any of the other posting 
guidelines. (For example, name-calling that would not be 
acceptable in the body of a message is also unacceptable in a 
signature.) Posters may include Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) 
and business addresses in signature files, provided they comply 
with all the other guidelines regarding signatures.


3.7 Use of copyrighted material                                               |

Unless you own the copyright yourself or have the written 
permission of the copyright owner (either of which must be so 
stated), do not post copyrighted material such as newspaper 
articles to ba.broadcast.moderated. Instead, post a synopsis of 
the material with a link to the full article. If you are posting a 
link to a blog or other site where information changes frequently, 
please use a "permalink" to the exact article you're citing.

Quoting of public domain information, such as TV or radio station 
information from the FCC database, is fine.


3.8 Pointers to outside sources                                               |

Unsolicited announcements and pointers to web sites that are 
strictly advertisements or other public relations campaigns are 
not permitted. However, a pointer to a website or other external 
source of information is permitted and encouraged in cases where 
it is relevant to an existing thread, with appropriate context 
being given in the post.                                                      |

A URL with no information about what a user should expect to find             |
there will be rejected. If you are posting a link to a blog or                |
other site where information changes frequently, please use a                 |
"permalink" to the exact article you're citing. Also, we prefer               |
full URLs instead of (or in addition to) ones that have been                  |
modified by a link shortener so that readers of the posting will              |
know which website they are actually going to.                                |

A pointer to information that is off-charter for 
ba.broadcast.moderated will be rejected, as will a pointer which 
itself does not meet the ba.broadcast.moderated guidelines (such 
as a URL containing name-calling).

Moderators are not responsible for verifying the contents of any 
external information source.


--------------------------------------------------------------

4. TECHNICAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUES

4.1 Crossposting

In order to minimize duplication of articles and promote wider 
propagation of the new moderated newsgroup, simultaneous 
crossposting between ba.broadcast and ba.broadcast.moderated is 
encouraged. ba.broadcast is the only crossposted group allowed                |
for routine articles on ba.broadcast.moderated.                               |

"Frequently asked questions" (FAQ) lists and other informative                |
announcements posted to ba.broadcast may also be appropriate for              |
rec.radio.info, rec.answers, and/or news.answers. However, they               |
can only be crossposted to any of those groups with the prior                 |
approval of the moderator(s) of those groups. In all such cases,              |
a 'Followup-To' header pointed only to ba.broadcast.moderated will            |
be added by the moderators if one is not provided by the poster.              |

Crossposting is completely voluntary. People who initiate a thread 
in ba.broadcast or ba.broadcast.moderated will make the voluntary 
choice to add the other group to the Newsgroups line when posting. 
Those following up to crossposted threads will make a voluntary 
choice on whether to keep both groups on the Newsgroups line. 

Posters can also use the Followup-To line to set the default 
newsgroup(s) for subsequent replies. Note, however, that people 
posting replies can change the Newsgroups line. In short, 
participants in ba.broadcast and ba.broadcast.moderated always 
have full control over which group(s) they post to.


4.2 Valid "From" address

Participants in ba.broadcast.moderated may, if they wish, use an 
invalid or "munged" email address in their "From" header line. 
However, please be aware that if you do so, you will be unable to 
receive messages from the moderators, such as requests to revise 
submitted postings or explanations of why postings were rejected. 

Also, we want ba.broadcast.moderated to promote interaction among 
participants, and in some cases, information is more appropriately 
relayed off-list. If you do not provide a valid email address, 
other posters will not be able to send you information, ask 
questions, etc. Therefore, if you are considering using an invalid 
From address in order to avoid spam email, we recommend that you 
instead (1) find an ISP with robust spam-filtering for incoming 
email, and/or (2) obtain an email address just for your Usenet 
postings (e.g. from Yahoo or Gmail). 


--------------------------------------------------------------

If you have any questions or comments about these guidelines, 
please send a message to ba-broadcast-moderated-request@panix.com.

(Adapted, with permission, from the rec.radio.amateur.moderated 
posting guidelines.)

gs or explanations of why postings were rejected. 

Also, we want ba.broadcast.moderated to promote interaction among 
participants, and in some cases, information is more appropriately 
relayed off-list. If you do not provide a valid email address, 
other posters will not be able to send you information, ask 
questions, etc. Therefore, if you are considering using an invalid 
From address in order to avoid spam email, we recommend that you 
instead (1) find an ISP with robust spam-filtering for incoming 
email, and/or (2) obtain an email address just for your Usenet 
postings (e.g. from Yahoo or Gmail). 


4.3 Lost or rejected postings                                                 

We never reject anything in silence, and we make a point to answer            
all our mail. However, newsgroup postings can and do get lost every           
now and again.                                                                

If you send us a posting and you neither see it in                            
ba.broadcast.moderated nor hear from us directly within two or three          
days, you can be pretty sure that either your mail never reached us,          
or that our answer never reached you. (See section 4.2 for why the            
latter might happen.) In that case, please submit your article again.         
(We will filter out duplicates.) You're also welcome to send a note           
to ba-broadcast-moderated-request@panix.com if you have any concerns          
about your submissions not being received.                                    

--------------------------------------------------------------

If you have any questions or comments about these guidelines, 
please send a message to ba-broadcast-moderated-request@panix.com.

(Adapted, with permission, from the rec.radio.amateur.moderated 
posting guidelines.)

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Last Update March 27 2014 @ 02:11 PM