Description
This article is from the uk.media.tv.sf.x-files FAQ, by Paul Tang
paul@asfafa.demon.co.uk with numerous contributions by others.
05 General netiquette (uk.media.tv.sf.x-files)
Here are some general guidelines on what is and is not generally
considered acceptable practice in uk.media.tv.sf.x-files. Their intended
purpose is not to hinder discussion but to enhance it.
* Do not post binaries.
Users of most dial-up connections have to pay for the time they are
on-line receiving news, so will not appreciate a large GIF deposited in
their news base via their phone line.If you do have an image which you
feel will enhance the lives of others, put it on an ftp site, so only
those who want it need download it.
In addition to this, the news administrators at certain sites do not
carry binary groups due to disk space requirements, so lots of people
posting binaries is likely to get the group removed from some news
sites, reducing propagation.
* Make sure your postings are word wrapped to around 72 columns at
most.
Many users read news on 80 column screens (or 80 column fixed font
windows in graphical interfaces) and so postings which exceed this and
overflow each line are very unreadable and might not be read.
Setting the width to 72 allows your article to be quoted and re-quoted
without exceeding 80 columns.
* Keep your signature to reasonable proportions.
The accepted Usenet limits are a maximum of 4 lines long, less than 80
characters wide. This is for reasons of both bandwidth (cost to dial-up
users) and courtesy to others (a 20 line ASCII art representation of the
view from your living room may be impressive once, but needless to say 3
or 4 viewings later it can become very tedious indeed).
* Do not quote entire articles when following up.
Please only quote enough of the article to give context to your reply.
It is considered very bad practice to quote headers and/or signatures as
there is no need for it - headers in particular are very boring things
indeed.
* Read your article before posting it.
Make sure you take the time to re-read your words of wisdom before
posting them, to check that it all makes sense and you aren't about to
start a flame war...
* Please keep postings on-topic to The X-Files.
Please refrain from discussing your next door neighbour's cat or what
your favourite flavour of ice cream is. There are places for such
discussions but uk.media.tv.sf.x-files is not one of them.
* Do not post private email without the author's permission
This is equivalent to broadcasting the contents of a private letter or
phone call on national TV without authorization from the sender.
* Do not post advertisements.
Only on-topic adverts *may* be considered acceptable, e.g.conventions
with a X-Files element. Think very carefully before submitting any
sort of advert.
* Do not post test messages.
There are several groups specifically for test messages. Most will also
generate email responses automatically from across the world to confirm
article propagation. Three I know of are: demon.test, uk.test, and
misc.test.
If you require further guidance on netiquette, you should take the
newsgroup news.announce.newusers which is low traffic and moderated.
Continue to:
Share and Enjoy
Bookmark this story so others can enjoy it:
Tags
tv, movies, X-Files, UK, episode, show, series, television
