All,

Are there any rules, conventions or etiquette for posting in a newsgroup?
Where might I find such? I am new at this and have been reading you for the
past six months. For example, I am curious about posting at the top or
bottom of a reply. I do not really see any pattern. I do not anticipate
posting much but do not want to offend.

--- Karl Warner

If you don't want to offend anybody, you should never ever post anything and
juts lurk in the shadows like most of the cowards do.

The very subject of the merits of top posting verses bottom posting will end
up in a heated debate.

Your ISP should have provided you with a copy of netiquette to read or at
least a link to it.


"Karl Warner" wrote in message
...
All,

Are there any rules, conventions or etiquette for posting in a newsgroup?
Where might I find such? I am new at this and have been reading you for
the
past six months. For example, I am curious about posting at the top or
bottom of a reply. I do not really see any pattern. I do not anticipate
posting much but do not want to offend.

--- Karl Warner

"Karl Warner" wrote in message

All,

Are there any rules, conventions or etiquette for posting in a
newsgroup? Where might I find such? I am new at this and have
been
reading you for the past six months. For example, I am curious
about posting at the top or bottom of a reply. I do not really
see
any pattern. I do not anticipate posting much but do not want
to
offend.
--- Karl Warner

I prefer bottom posting, others top. Do not post pictures to a
group unless "binaries" is in the name
(alt.binaries.pictures.gardens) of the group and then keep the
size in the 100 to 200KB range so people on dial-up can
appreciate your picture. Stay on topic and do not spam the
group. I am sure others will offer their opinions.

--

Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8
Sunset Zone 5

Karl Warner wrote:
All,

Are there any rules, conventions or etiquette for posting in a newsgroup?
Where might I find such? I am new at this and have been reading you for the
past six months. For example, I am curious about posting at the top or
bottom of a reply. I do not really see any pattern. I do not anticipate
posting much but do not want to offend.

--- Karl Warner

Some newsgroups have FAQs, I don't know if this one has. A few rules:

--- Single most important rule: Be Paranoid About Security! ---

-- Use a good virus scanner, and set it to scan all your messages,
incoming and outgoing. (This is even more important for e-mail);
-- use a spyware sniffer;
-- use a firewall;
-- scan and clean your machine regularly.

Otherwise, here are a few etiquette guidelines:

a) make your subject line as descriptive as possible, especially when
asking for help or information.

b) snip (delete) parts of the post that aren't relevant to your reply.

c) "bottom posting" is preferred, ie below the post you reply to. Some
people get foamy at the mouth when they see a top post, I just get
mildly irritated.

d) be polite, which means mostly "Give the other poster the benefit of
the doubt." OTOH, if someone gets abusive, it's your decision whether to
give as good as you got. But I ignore flame-wars, and usually filter out
senders of abuse, regardless of who started it.

e) use emoticons: nobody can hear your tone of voice. :-)

f) try to be brief.

g) post pictures to "binaries" newsgroups, not to text-only ones (like
this one.) Many ISPs actually remove binaries from posts, or block such
posts entirely.

h) set your browser/newsreader to send text only -- not HTML. Some
newsreaders treat HTML as attachments, some people have set their
newsreaders to reject HTML as possible virus carriers, etc.

That's about it.

HTH

Karl Warner wrote:
All,

Are there any rules, conventions or etiquette for posting in a newsgroup?
Where might I find such? I am new at this and have been reading you for the
past six months. For example, I am curious about posting at the top or
bottom of a reply. I do not really see any pattern. I do not anticipate
posting much but do not want to offend.

--- Karl Warner




PS: It helps to use a spell checker. :-)

Karl Warner said:

All,

Are there any rules, conventions or etiquette for posting in a newsgroup?
Where might I find such? I am new at this and have been reading you for
the past six months. For example, I am curious about posting at the top or
bottom of a reply. I do not really see any pattern. I do not anticipate
posting much but do not want to offend.

Yes, there are some conventions for newsgroup posting. The conventional
term for 'proper' behavior on-line is 'nettiquette.'

Nettiquette sites:

Newsgroup specific: http://linux.sgms-centre.com/misc/netiquette.php


The exhaustive version: http://www.albion.com/netiquette/


--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)

"Karl Warner" wrote in message
...

Are there any rules, conventions or etiquette for posting in a newsgroup?

Certainly.

Where might I find such?

Here are some links on the web:
http://www.newsreaders.com/guide/netiquette.html
http://www.fau.edu/netiquette/net/elec.html
http://www.use-net.ch/netiquette_engl.html

Further, you may be interested in this page:
http://www.cs.indiana.edu/docproject/zen/zen-1.0_6.html

For example, I am curious about posting at the top or
bottom of a reply.

One neither top-posts nor bottom-posts. Instead, the correct way to reply is
to trim the previous post to just the points you wish to address, and to
intersperse comments appropriately.

--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at:
http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

On Mon, 19 Dec 2005 16:55:55 -0500, Wolf Kirchmeir
wrote:

Karl Warner wrote:
All,

Are there any rules, conventions or etiquette for posting in a newsgroup?
Where might I find such? I am new at this and have been reading you for the
past six months. For example, I am curious about posting at the top or
bottom of a reply. I do not really see any pattern. I do not anticipate
posting much but do not want to offend.

--- Karl Warner

Some newsgroups have FAQs, I don't know if this one has. A few rules:

--- Single most important rule: Be Paranoid About Security! ---

-- Use a good virus scanner, and set it to scan all your messages,
incoming and outgoing. (This is even more important for e-mail);
-- use a spyware sniffer;
-- use a firewall;
-- scan and clean your machine regularly.

Otherwise, here are a few etiquette guidelines:

a) make your subject line as descriptive as possible, especially when
asking for help or information.

b) snip (delete) parts of the post that aren't relevant to your reply.

c) "bottom posting" is preferred, ie below the post you reply to. Some
people get foamy at the mouth when they see a top post, I just get
mildly irritated.

Sorry guys about top posting i have been doing that. Thanks for the
information and links . :=) sheepish grin


d) be polite, which means mostly "Give the other poster the benefit of
the doubt." OTOH, if someone gets abusive, it's your decision whether to
give as good as you got. But I ignore flame-wars, and usually filter out
senders of abuse, regardless of who started it.

e) use emoticons: nobody can hear your tone of voice. :-)

f) try to be brief.

g) post pictures to "binaries" newsgroups, not to text-only ones (like
this one.) Many ISPs actually remove binaries from posts, or block such
posts entirely.

h) set your browser/newsreader to send text only -- not HTML. Some
newsreaders treat HTML as attachments, some people have set their
newsreaders to reject HTML as possible virus carriers, etc.

That's about it.

HTH

"Michelle" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 19 Dec 2005 16:55:55 -0500, Wolf Kirchmeir
wrote:

c) "bottom posting" is preferred, ie below the post you reply to. Some
people get foamy at the mouth when they see a top post, I just get
mildly irritated.

Sorry guys about top posting i have been doing that. Thanks for the
information and links . :=) sheepish grin


Michelle, even more important is to trim. I can stand a top-poster if that
person manages to trim out everything but the essential part of the previous
posts. You requoted an entire post to insert a couple of lines in the
middle. That's worse than top-posting, IMO.

--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at:
http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

"Claire Petersky" wrote

One neither top-posts nor bottom-posts. Instead, the correct way to reply
is to trim the previous post to just the points you wish to address, and
to intersperse comments appropriately.

AhHa! Thank you, Claire. (Now if I can just get the hang of operating this
irritating machine.) And thanks to all who replied. Those links are keeping
me occupied through an otherwise gloomy winter.

-- Karl

Karl Warner wrote:
"Claire Petersky" wrote

One neither top-posts nor bottom-posts. Instead, the correct way to reply
is to trim the previous post to just the points you wish to address, and
to intersperse comments appropriately.

AhHa! Thank you, Claire. (Now if I can just get the hang of operating this
irritating machine.) And thanks to all who replied. Those links are keeping
me occupied through an otherwise gloomy winter.

-- Karl

Well, winter just started, so you may have time too read this one too:
http://www.cybernothing.org/cno/docs/rfc1855.html

Welcome, and if I may venture a suggestion your rule number 1 should be
not to pay too much attention to people who criticize too much :)