Description
This article is from the Chemistry
FAQ, by Bruce Hamilton B.Hamilton@irl.cri.nz with numerous
contributions by others.
5.2 What guidelines are available about posting to sci.chem?
Sci.chem is a discussion group, not an alternative to your nearest library.
We expect posters to have explored some of the chemical resources usually
available in libraries ( refer Section 9.5 ) and on the Internet ( refer
Sections 7.2 and 7.4 ) prior to posting questions to the group. Posting basic
questions, without performing any preliminary work, is likely to invoke posts
suggesting ( with varying degrees of politeness ) that you visit a library or
perform a WWW search.
Sci.chem is also not part of a global facility for teachers to point their
students towards as an alternative to a library. Teachers should not ask
students to post unsupervised questions to the group as part of assignments.
Teachers should recognise the positioning of the group as a resource to be
utilised only if more appropriate resources, such as libraries and Internet
WWW searches, have failed to identify suitable sources of information. The
teacher should also use DejaNews to ensure questions have not been answered
previously on Usenet. Teachers should ensure that students asking a question
in sci.chem also post, along with the question, a summary of what they have
discovered so far, and where they have already searched.
Teachers should also realise that sci.chem also reflects the diverse range of
humanity that can post to it, consequently some posts may not match the image
of chemistry that they wish to present to their students.
Most of the general guidelines about posting to Usenet that appear in
news.announce.newusers are also appropriate for sci.chem. It is important
that the grammar and spelling of posts to sci.chem are of sufficient quality
to ensure that readers can easily, and unambiguously, understand your
request or contribution. If a poorly-written post appears, some readers are
more likely to flame, ridicule, or ignore you, rather than carefully consider
your request or contribution. Minor typos and spelling errors only require
cancelling, or a follow-up post correcting the error, if the error is
likely to create confusion.
If you are posting, or viewing, drawings of chemical structures in ascii,
please use a fixed-pitch font, otherwise the structure will appear different
than intended, resulting in confusion. If you are posting via WWW access, or
posting WWW information, please ensure all HTML markers are removed from your
posts to the group. Do not post binaries to the group, even if they are
relevant to a thread. Post them to a binaries group, or make them available
on the WWW, and post a message to the group pointing to the location.
Please do not use sci.chem for test posts, or to discuss problems with your
Internet Services Provider, or any other totally irrelevant topics, as there
are bound to be more appropriate Usenet groups. There are plenty of *.test
groups which are monitored by programmes providing automated responses to
confirm that your test post has successfully propagated throughout the
Internet.
If you believe the "noise" content of sci.chem is too high, learn to use
the filtering features of your newsreading software. Most software has the
ability to create killfiles or only display posts that match certain criteria
- such as the number of groups in the Newsgroups line. Such features can make
posts from individuals, and much of the widely cross-posted junk, disappear.
If your software does not support those features, there may be alternative
software available from your provider.
Please do not post messages complaining about what you perceive as noise in
the group, as such posts usually just generate additional noise. If you wish,
you can email posters asking them to desist from posting the material that
offends you, but don't be surprised if you are also offended by their
responses.
Some news-reading software can not display, or post, long articles ( like
this FAQ ), and you may have to ask your system administrator or ISP for
alternative software. A consistent inability to display large posts is
usually a problem with your reading software, not a mistake by the posters.
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