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From: eugene@empress.cse.ucsc.edu (Eugene Miya)
Newsgroups: rec.backcountry,rec.climbing
Subject: [l/m 8/12/96] Netiquette:		Distilled Wisdom (12/28) XYZ
Followup-To: poster
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2009 12:20:01 +0000 (UTC)
Organization: Usenet Self-Moderation Project
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Message-ID: <hav6th$qq6$1@empress.cse.ucsc.edu>
Reply-To: eugene@engate.com (Eugene N. Miya)
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X-Trace: darkstar 1255350046 128.114.49.20 (12 Oct 2009 05:20:46 -0800)
Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!171.64.64.130.MISMATCH!usenet.stanford.edu!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!ucberkeley!darkstar!empress.cse.ucsc.edu!not-for-mail
Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu rec.backcountry:475740 rec.climbing:374537

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TABLE OF CONTENTS of this chain:

12/ Netiquette 					<* THIS PANEL *>
13/ Questions on conditions and travel
14/ Dedication to Aldo Leopold
15/ Leopold's lot.
16/ Morbid backcountry/memorial
17/ Information about bears
18/ Poison ivy, frequently ask, under question
19/ Lyme disease, frequently ask, under question
20/ "Telling questions" backcountry Turing test (under construction)
21/ AMS
22/ Babies and Kids
23/ A bit of song (like camp songs)
24/ What is natural?
25/ A romantic notion of high-tech employment
26/ Other news groups of related interest, networking
27/ Films/cinema references
28/ References (written)
1/ DISCLAIMER
2/ Ethics
3/ Learning I
4/ learning II (lists, "Ten Essentials," Chouinard comments)
5/ Summary of past topics
6/ Non-wisdom: fire-arms topic circular discussion
7/ Phone / address lists
8/ Fletcher's Law of Inverse Appreciation / Rachel Carson / Foreman and Hayduke
9/ Water Filter wisdom
10/ Volunteer work
11/ Snake bite


NETIQUETTE:

Netiquette isn't etiquette.
It is the suggested set of behaviors for conduct specific to computer
networks.  It differs several ways from ettiquette because of the nature of
computer communication (stored messages; unreliable, asynchonous delivery,
etc.), you will see examples below.  Conventional ettiquette can actually
accentuate flame wars.  It's very similar to a new inexperienced driver
coming to an intersection and yielding EVERY time (streets have precedence)
thinking they are being polite.  Notable examples and exception abound.
No one ever said that life was simple.  Ask me (see point 2 below).


READ news.announce.newusers.  When in doubt, ask an experienced user
using email.  Broadcast posts are "expensive."  Read all 28 panels
of the Distilled Wisdom FAQ chain.

Send mail in preference to posting a followup.

Read all available postings on a subject before posting.  Or send email.

When you attribute (>) news articles: minimize (cut down the attribution,
remove the previous poster's signature line. DON'T ATTRIBUTE 100 LINES OF TEXT,
THEN POST A TWO LINE COMMENT.  That is a true stupid waste of bandwidth
and disk space.  If you are serious about email replies, include a
signature.  Mail can be flakey.  Do not assume that your mail system
is the only one in the world.  The world does not work that way.
This is called a "Me, too" post even if those aren't the exact words.

EDIT your SUBJECT: lines.  Ask an experienced poster by mail about
a subject.  Mail is far nicer than news: more care, less flamage, more
friends.  But, don't take the news too seriously, but remember in the
real backcountry, you are playing with lives.  This wisdom is the product
of such loss.  There are cyclic topics (see 5/28) on this group centering
on equipment (dull, but sometimes necessary; use a book instead), ethics
(more interesting, but you can never resolve them), and the odd interesting
topic.  You can write, but can you read?  Your post will show.

Either way, cyclic topics bore people, everyone after the 3rd round.

On your content:  Remember the 5Ws: who, what, where, when, why, how.
	where:  Do you have any idea how many Twin Lakes, Peaks, etc.
		there are?  We can enumerate many common names, but you
		have to be specific.  Which Needles?  This irks readers.
	when: If you have time dated material consider using the Expires:
		field. Expires: day month year, day in digits, Month in
		3 letters, four digit year.
	The other Ws are left for you.

Suppose you post the file of the same article two or more times.
You should know how to use your news interface and cancel the additional
copies of your post.  Don't apologize, that doesn't solve the problem.
You only add fuel to the fire.  You should be testing in the test groups,
not the regular discussion groups.  Learn and use the full capabilities
of your news reader.  It can't cancel?  Ask your service provider for one
which will.  Be an intelligent customer, not just another net newbie.

GIFs: Graphics Interchange Format: A popular thing for people with
bit-mapped graphics X-terms or workstations is to use outdoor oriented
backgrounds.  Ignore this if you have a vt100 clone, an IBM 3270, etc.
These bit-maps are typically encoded in a variety of formats: under the
terms like GIFs, uuencoded, etc.  DO NOT POST GIFS to this (rec) newsgroup.
Specialized groups exist (alt.binaries.pictures.*) for posting pictures.
Ignoring copyright problems, GIF files tend to be rather large.  If you post a
large GIF, certain sites like hosts at some one's home, fill their
disks up fast, faster than flamage, pictures are large.  Many people
do not appreciate this, and they will send nasty-grams to your news system
administrator.  Second, depending on the size of the files (e.g., UUCP has
a default 100KB limit which most people don't change, or lower [like 30KB]),
you can create a situation which causes two computers on the network to
thrash: thus preventing other news and mail from between between those
machines.  This is even more annoying.  This happens on sites connected
via phone where incomplete transfers take place: the stupid computer just
tries again, and again, and again.  [Definition of recursion: See recursion.]
GIF posters typically mean well but unintentionally cause problems like
the little old lady on the freeway.  So don't post GIFs [IN THIS GROUP].
Pointers, okay, no images.  Alt.pictures groups.  If you don't have them,
that's your site's choice.  Follow it.  Then, get them to change it

A new group:
	rec.outdoors.marketplace
now exists for ads.
DO NOT ADVERTISE products or commercial services.
Some sites are in domains which do not allow personal use of computer networks
(send or receive).  Simple personal sales are not generally frown upon
(e.g., "I have a pack for sale"), but they belong in *.wanted.* or
*.market.* style groups.  (A cross-post AND appropriate Followup line
are perfectly acceptable in this case.)
The biz. hierarchy is for businesses.  Ads for products violate certain
laws governing Internet usage.  The rec.* groups are clearly optional
for some sites.  Use the new group.  If your site has problems with this group,
drop it.

SPECIFICALLY: pyramid schemes are reported to civil authorities;
these are clearly illegal.  Doing them electronically does not change
their legality.  These posts involve names like Dave Rhodes.
Do not post requests for cards for Craig Shergold.  He got well.
An FAQ is available to describe his cancer's remission.
Yes, we know about Canter and Siegel.  Do not spam spam spam.  Attempts to
mail bomb a mail box merely get reflected with an alias.  Instead submit
one (read ONE) letter of complaint to a site's postmaster.  I am one of the
postmasters at this site.  For instance, mail me.

SPECIAL NOTE: DO NOT ASK OR ACCEPT MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE from the net.
Do not ask in r.b, consider sci.med or misc.legal.  These are licensed
professions.  First aid is okay (good samitarian laws), but you should Cc
to sci.med.
In article <1991Aug5.171418.17996@riacs.edu>,
watson@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov (John S. Watson - FSC) writes:

|> Mark Twain once said:
|>   "Be careful of reading health books, you might die of a misprint."
|>   Today we could replace "health books" with "usenet medical advice".

Remember: Ask your news adminstrator.

		  17 United States Code

	SECT107. Limitations on exclusive rights: fair use


	Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the
	fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in
	copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that
	section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting,
	teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship,
	or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining
	whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use
	the factors to be considered shall include-- (1) the purpose and
	character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial
	nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the
	copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion
	used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the
	effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the
	copyrighted work.

http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/Copyright-FAQ/top.html

http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright

1A.  What about "I've got a school assignment...."
 
USENET policy about posting news articles requsting info for
a school assignment.
 
--------begin included text--------
        From Michael Chui mchui@cs.indiana.edu
 
Excerpt from the Usenet Primer publised in the new.* groups
 
      Please do not use Usenet as a resource for homework assignments
 
 Usenet is not a resource for homework or class assignments. A common
 new user reaction to learning of all these people out there holding
 discussions is to view them as a great resource for gathering
 information for reports and papers.  Trouble is, after seeing a few
 hundred such requests, most people get tired of them, and won't reply
 anyway. Certainly not in the expected or hoped-for numbers. Posting
 student questionnaires automatically brands you a "newbie" and does not
 usually garner much more than a tiny number of replies.  Further,
 some of those replies are likely to be incorrect.
 
 Instead, read the group of interest for a while, and find out what the
 main "threads" are - what are people discussing? Are there any themes
 you can discover?  Are there different schools of thought?
 
 Only post something after you've followed the group for a few weeks,
 after you have read the Frequently Asked Questions posting if the group
 has one, and if you still have a question or opinion that others will
 probably find interesting.  If you have something interesting to
 contribute, you'll find that you gain almost instant acceptance, and
 your posting will generate a large number of follow-up postings. Use
 these in your research; it is a far more efficient (and accepted) way
 to learn about the group than to follow that first instinct and post a
 simple questionnaire.

Actually, I'm not completely opposed to using the Net as a
resource for academic research.  Being still in academia, I *am*
irritated by people who want the Net to do their research for them
(and not just because the results are often inaccurate).  Basically,
I'd reject queries of the form: "Does anyone have any references for
X or know anything about Y?  I have an assignment to do."  (Note that
sometimes the student will omit the part about this information being
for an assignment, but with practice, such queries become rather
easy to recognize.)
 
        On the other hand, I'd accept queries like, "I'm researching
airship mine technology, and in General Napoleon SchwartzRommel's book
_Boom, Der It Is!_, he makes reference to the GedankenSweeper.  I've
searched my University of Podunk library, but can't find any references
to the GedankenSweeper.  Could someone give some pointers to references
about the propulsion system in the GedankenSweeper?"  I'd like the
student to show that they've done some work themselves (like go to
a library) before they send a message to thousands of people.
        It all basically comes down to the oft-repeated Net-reminder
that "the person on the other side of the message is human."  Think of
the Net as being an expert on, in sci.military.moderated's case, military
technology.  Would you walk into a military technology expert's
office and ask him/her, "Gee, I have this homework assignment to do
on X.  Can you tell me everything you know about this topic?"  Worse
yet, would you do this to thousands of people?

----- tag line -----

-- 

Looking for an H-912 (container).