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Archive-name: tv/x-files/analysis-faq
Posting-Frequency: monthly Last-modified: 1998/10/24 Version: 1.33 URL: http://traveller.simplenet.com/atxfa/faq.htm Authors: Laura Burchard & Loligo Opalescens Maintainer: Laura Burchard <atxfa-contact@burchard.org> See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge New items are bracketed with *'s and (on the web version) highlighted in red. The most recent version of this FAQ can always be found at http://traveller.simplenet.com/atxfa/faq.htm. Comments or suggestions for this FAQ should be directed to atxfa-contact@burchard.org. This FAQ is now available in German at http://home.t-online.de/home/Christian.Lischer/faq.htm, courtesy of our most kind translator Christian Lischer. Charter: To provide a more focused subgroup that will allow low-noise analytical discussion of the writing, filming, acting, social and academic impact of The X-Files. Not for discussion of the actors or more general posts. This is a moderated group; binaries, html, ads and sufficiently off-topic postings will be rejected or canceled. 1. Topics 1.1 What topics are okay for this newsgroup? 1.2 Geez, that sounds kind of intimidating... can I post without a degree? 1.3 What about spoilers? 1.4 Can I post in other languages than English? 1.5 Should I post a greeting to the group? 1.6 Can I post about the X-Files computer game? 1.7 Can I post transcripts of interviews or articles to the group? 2. Troubles 2.1 Hey! There's no alt.tv.x-files.analysis group on my ISP! How do I get it? 2.2 I have the group, but no posts are appearing. How do I get them? 2.3 My post never appeared! Should I repost? 2.4 I munge my address for spam-protection -- can I still post? 2.5 My posts were appearing fine -- now the newsgroup isn't marked moderated and they are vanishing. What happened? 3. Moderation 3.1 How is this group moderated? 3.2 I found a post that looks like a flame/offtopic/forged. What do I do about it? 3.3 I messed up and got put on hand moderation or the blacklist. How do I get off? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1.1 What topics are okay for this newsgroup? This newsgroup is meant to focus on reviews, criticism, commentary and analysis of the show -- in other words, we're here to talk about the writing, acting, directing, and production of the show, and its artistic or social impact. There are many X-Files related topics that don't fit the specialized mission of this group. Here are some examples of posts that would be OFF-TOPIC: * DD Scheduled to Appear on "Letterman" * GA's dress at the Golden Globes * Tampa Area X-Philes Get-together * XF Mags to Trade All of these are appropriate for alt.tv.x-files, but NOT here at ATXFA. In contrast, here are some posts that would be ON-TOPIC here: * 10 arguments for why Marita should take a long walk off a short pier * how Scully's ever-changing hairstyles reflect the mood of the show * analysis of the strengths & weaknesses of Duchovny's acting * Jane Doe's review of "Folie a Deux" Posts should also be more than just statements -- a post that simply says after Travelers "He was wearing a wedding ring" is a poor choice of posts, but one discussing whether it would make sense in context of Mulder's character for him to be married would be appropriate. Binaries, html, and ads are not allowed. Binaries are auto-rejected, and if one slips through it will be canceled. HTML is currently not automatically rejected but probably will be in the future. Configure your news posting program correctly! Please also take some care in editing follow-ups; don't forget to delete the parts of the message you aren't referencing. If you have a brief reply to the whole of a long post, it's best clip the body of the post and replace it with a short summation; there are few things more annoying than repeating a fifty-line post with a one line comment appended! Posts that consist of a pointer to a review on the web are marginal. Currently I'm accepting them if the page they point to is non-commercial, but I would prefer that the full review be posted on ATXFA instead, and a pointer to the page be added in the .sig or as a line at the end. There are a handful of cases where I can imagine a commercial posting being appropriate; for example, if you were publishing an academic book on the X-Files and wanted to notify people of its existence. If you have a post that you are afraid will be regarded as an ad, but that you think is legitimate, mail me at atxfa-contact@burchard.org and we can discuss posting it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1.2 Geez, that sounds kind of intimidating... can I post without a degree? Indeed! You don't have to write papers or add footnotes to post, short (and snarky) is perfectly okay. Some of the best insights come in short and to the point messages. Nor do you have to check your sense of humor at the door. On the other hand, those who do want to write long posts with footnotes are as eagerly welcomed; ATXFA is a democracy of ideas. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1.3 What about spoilers? There's never anything wrong with posting a spoiler header, but you should be specific -- "Spoilers through S3" "Movie spoiler". However, because the world can be on as many as three different seasons, the only TV spoilers that are required will be if you see a show and post before the first North American broadcast. For the movie, it is best to have a spoiler header until the series NA premiere in fall. And never spoil in a header! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1.4 Can I post in other languages than English? Yes, you may. The only limit is that this is an ascii group, so no big5 or cyrillic, please. And people posting in languages other than French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and German (I can read a small amount of Spanish and French and babelfish.altavista.digital.com is my friend) will either have to establish themselves by posting in English or one of those languages long enough to get on automatic posting, or their posts will be delayed while I locate a translator. Bilingual folks who want to volunteer to translate the FAQ will be happily welcomed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1.5 Should I post a greeting to the group? There's a lot of us here; the best way to introduce yourself is to post on topic. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1.6 Can I post about the X-Files computer game? Depends. If you want hints or other help with game play, no. You should instead visit http://inimation.com/xfilesgame/ or the newsgroups comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.adventure or comp.sys.mac.games.adventure. But if you want to analyze the characters or discuss the storyline, ATXFA is an appropriate place. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1.7 Can I post transcripts of interviews or articles to the group? Interviews/articles are a little tricky. Anything you did yourself is okay, of course. Ones posted on the Web should probably be done by posting a pointer instead of the whole article, or selected quotes if you want to discuss elements of it here. Offline stuff or Web stuff that's disappeared... well, you are going to have to work out your own interpretation of fair use. From my personal point of view, I wouldn't post the text of anything that's still on sale. You should probably go check out some of the copyright faqs to see what the law thinks -- http://www.cetus.org/fairindex.html is one. You should, however, stick to articles and interviews that contain a fair percentage of talk about the show as opposed to personal life; DD's views on his character are great, his views on Tea Leoni are irrelevent. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2.1 Hey! There's no alt.tv.x-files.analysis group on my ISP! How do I get it? The newgroup message for ATXFA was issued June 8th, 1998, and booster newgroups are periodically issued. It's possible that it will turn up on your system automatically, but more than likely you'll have to request its creation. Mail support at your ISP and tell them that you'd like alt.tv.x-files.analysis, and it should appear soon after. A copy of the original control message can be found at http://traveller.simplenet.com/atxfa/atxfacontrol.txt if they need to see it. You should also keep a copy of any postings you make until you confirm that your postings are actually making it to me, as some systems may be initially misconfigured; moderated groups are a little trickier than unmoderated. Postings can also be sent directly to atxfa@burchard.org. I have the software on silent status during the shakedown period, because I don't want it mailbombing people if misconfigured news software screws stuff up. You won't get the charter/acknowledgement mail back, therefore. Please mail me (atxfa-contact@burchard.org preferred; use lhb@radix.net if you can't get through on the former) if you are having any problems with rejections or bounces; include the rejection or bounce so that I can see what went wrong. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2.2 I have the group, but no posts are appearing. How can I get them? First check in DejaNews to make sure that there really were posts that should have appeared, and that it's not just a very slow period or a problem on the moderator's side. If there are, the posts are probably getting dropped on a newshub before they get to you. First mail support at your ISP, and if they can't help you, mail me a copy with complete headers of one of my posts (from lhb@radix.net, any newsgroup will do) as they appear from your machine. I'll do a header analysis and see if I can locate the problem. Meanwhile, try reading the group at My DejaNews or Supernews. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2.3 My post never appeared! Should I repost? First check in DejaNews to see if it appeared there; it may just not have made it to your ISP. If it isn't in DejaNews either, and you don't have any reason to think it was rejected, go ahead and repost. You can mail it directly to atxfa@burchard.org if you want to be certain it gets to the moderation program. If you still are having troubles, or you didn't keep a copy of the post, mail me at atxfa-contact@burchard.org with details, and I'll look into what happened and see if I can find the post. If you do think it might have been rejected, hang on for a bit -- sometimes I toss questionable posts out my consultant board, and it might take a couple of days for it to get back. If you still don't see it by then, and you didn't get a rejection notice, go ahead However, the most likely cause of a missing post is not rejection, but being stuck in the editing queue if there were too many quoted lines included. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2.4 I munge my address for spam-protection -- can I still post? Yes, you can. But before you munge, you should read ftp://members.aol.com/emailfaq/mungfaq.txt. And while it is not required that you put a human-readable version of your email address in your footer, it is very much preferred by the moderator; otherwise I have no way of getting into contact with you if a post is problematic. However you choose to munge, it's best if you have it both unique to you and the same from post to post; that way I can still preapprove you. Some people use a trick of a From of postmaster@[127.0.0.1], in the hopes of bouncing spam back to the originating system's postmaster. Please don't do this; in the process of being forwarded to the moderation system, it gets translated to postmaster of the forwarding system, who will probably not appreciate getting email meant for you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2.5 My posts were appearing fine -- now the newsgroup isn't marked moderated and they are vanishing. What happened? Usenet newsgroups have been under a series of attacks recently. Among many other things, vandals have been flooding the control.newgroup group with bogus newgroup messages setting moderated groups unmoderated. If the group has been marked moderated and it doesn't show as moderated any more, or if you had been getting a 'this message has been mailed to the moderator' message and you don't anymore, this is probably what happened. Contact me at atxfa-contact@burchard.org. Also, contact support at your ISP and suggest that they turn off auto-newgrouping -- that all newgroups should be either checked against their PGP key and a trusted newgrouper list, or sent to the news-admin for action. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3.1 How is this group moderated? The group is robo-moderated, which means that if your first posts are approved, you will be put on a 'whitelist', and from then on the moderating software will automatically approve your postings and forward them to the newgroup. When the newgroup is fully established, your first post will result in a copy of the FAQ and charter being sent to you; that is in abeyance at the moment. Posters who repeatedly violate the charter will be placed on hand-moderation status, while extremely abusive posters will be placed on auto-block -- a 'blacklist'. Vigorous discussion is welcomed and encouraged, but threads that degenerate into flame wars will be cut off. A certain amount of discussion about the newsgroup itself is acceptable, as it will help the moderator determine more precisely how to moderate, but the moderator reserves the right to cut off threads if it becomes too much noise for the group. It is preferred that such metadiscussion have headers prefixed with META:, to allow those who wish to avoid it to killfile. Crossposting is allowed, but articles crossposted to more than 5 groups will be automatically rejected, and except in rare cases, articles posted to more than two groups should have the followup pointed to a single group. Please remember to edit newsgroups if the thread begins to move off topic. Crossposting between two moderated groups is not allowed; this is usenet standard, because the Approved header does not distinguish between groups, and therefore approving a crosspost to another moderated group would be the equivalent of a forged approval in the latter group. The idea is to keep the newgroup focused, not make people paranoid about posting. One flip reply is not going to be a charter violation. I'm hoping that nearly everyone will be on autopost/whitelist status, and therefore that the hand moderation load will be low enough for me to handle alone. However, I've put the shell of a multi-moderator system in place so that more moderators can be added easily. If needed, I will ask for volunteer moderators. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3.2 I found a post that looks like a flame/offtopic/forged. What do I do about it? First -- please don't flame back on the newsgroup! I'll just end up having to slap your wrist too -- or just yours, if the post turns out to be on topic. If you find something that you think slipped past, just forward it to me at atxfa-contact@burchard.org with your comment. Even if I don't agree, it's useful to me to know what people feel is off charter; it helps me adjust my moderating strategy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 3.3 I messed up and got put on hand moderation or the black list. How do I get off? This may sound horribly legalistic -- it's not meant to be, it's so that people don't get surprised. My current plan for who goes on the blacklist (auto-rejection) is A) people forging approvals B) people posting ads (for ex, 'blizzrd' and his shills to try to get click throughs for Cybernetic Outpost) and C) being an extremely, extremely abusive poster: newsgroup bombing, death threats, et cetera. The only circumstance in which I can imagine 'real' posters getting black listed is D) being on hand moderated status and mailbombing the moderators with multiple submission of one article (or say, fifty separate ones in a day). People in classes A and B will be blacklisted until they explain themselves to atxfa-contact@burchard.org; second offenses will result in permanent lockout in most cases. Class C I reserve the right for permanent lockout on first offense. Class D will get an escalating series of blocks: one month, two months, four months, not to exceed six months without review. Since I expect that most people in hand moderation will be there not because of malice but because they forget to edit crossposts when going off topic, it's going to be pretty easy to get off the hand moderated list; there will be an escalating series of time periods on hand moderation: one week without charter violations and you are off hand moderation, two weeks for the next series of incidents, then one month, two months, four months, the period never to exceed six months without review. If you feel it is a mistake that you are on hand moderation, write atxfa-contact@burchard.org. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ User Contributions:
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