There are two important newsgroups for learning about how Usenet and
 newsreader software works:

 * News.announce.newusers contains periodic postings that everybody is
   asked to read before posting anything to Usenet. (In theory, all new
   users are subscribed to news.announce.newusers automatically. But in
   practice not all newsreader software does that, so that many people
   violate the guidelines given there simply because they don't know
   about them.)

 * News.newusers.questions is described as "Q & A for users new to the
   Usenet". But new and long-time users can ask or answer questions about
   Usenet and newsreader software there. There's an important article,
   "Welcome to news.newusers.questions! (Weekly posting)", that everyone
   is asked to read before posting to news.newusers.questions. (See below
   for ways to get a copy of that article.)

 The following postings in news.announce.newusers might be considered the
 "mandatory course" for new users:

 * Introduction to news.announce.newusers

 * What is Usenet

 * Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

 * Rules for posting to Usenet

 * A Primer on How to Work with the Usenet Community

 * Hints on writing style for Usenet

 * Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on Netiquette

 The articles mentioned above are downloadable via ftp from rtfm.mit.edu
 in the following files:

 Welcome to news.newusers.questions (Weekly posting):
 <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/news.answers/news-newusers-intro>

 Introduction to news.announce.newusers:
 <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/news.answers/news-announce/introduction/part1>

 What is Usenet:
 <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/news.answers/usenet/what-is/part1>
 <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/news.answers/usenet/what-is/part2>

 Answers to Frequently Asked Questions:
 <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/news.answers/usenet/faq/part1>

 Rules for posting to Usenet:
 <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/news.answers/usenet/posting-rules/part1>

 A Primer on How to Work with the Usenet Community:
 <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/news.answers/usenet/primer/part1>

 Hints on writing style for Usenet:
 <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/news.answers/usenet/writing-style/part1>

 Emily Postnews Answers Your Questions on Netiquette:
 <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/news.answers/usenet/emily-postnews/part1>

 For rtfm.mit.edu instructions, see <Q:01.13> [Where are FAQ lists
 archived?]

Some parts © 2009 Advameg, Inc.