Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!faqserv From: racmx@yahoo.com (Kate the Short) Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks,rec.arts.comics.info,rec.answers,news.answers Subject: racmx FAQ - Read Before Posting! Supersedes: Followup-To: poster Date: 23 Aug 1999 10:57:09 GMT Organization: Keepers of Frequently Asked Questions, racmx division Lines: 400 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: penguin-lust.mit.edu Summary: A netiquette and posting FAQ for rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks X-Last-Updated: 1999/06/29 Originator: faqserv@penguin-lust.MIT.EDU Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks:180601 rec.arts.comics.info:8530 rec.answers:51876 news.answers:165211 Archive-name: comics/xbooks/readpost Posting-frequency: weekly URL: http://www.enteract.com/~katew/faqs/ rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks -= READ BEFORE POSTING =- Copyright 1995-1999 by Katharine E. Hahn http://www.enteract.com/~katew/ Version 99.03 Last updated June 1999 SEND ADDITIONS / CHANGES / DEAD LINKS / MOVED LINKS / UPDATES TO: Kate the Short, racmx@yahoo.com (mailto:racmx@yahoo.com) ------------------------------ Subject: Table of Contents Introduction Stuff To Do BEFORE Posting Stuff That Will Keep You From Getting Flamed Where To Post Stuff Stuff About Subjects And Spoilers Touchy Stuff Common Posting Advice And Answers: Credits ------------------------------ Subject: Introduction The RACMX newsgroup exists as a culture and a community; it has rules and customs. These rules and customs evolve and are supported by the group as a whole. Breaking these customs may cost you in terms of your "popularity" or your credibility. Therefore, the purpose of this FAQ is to suggest to newer readers (and remind older ones) *why* and *how* the stuff below should or shouldn't be posted to rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks. ------------------------------ Subject: Stuff To Do BEFORE Posting Your First Post 1) Read news.announce.newusers and news.newusers.questions. THE FIRST THING YOU SHOULD DO is read the newsgroup news.announce.newusers. If you have further questions, read news.newusers.questions. Whether it is a technical question or a netiquette question, these people are the ones to help you out. See http://www.enteract.com/~katew/nnq/. 2) Read rec.arts.comics.info and the RACMX FAQ. THE SECOND THING YOU SHOULD DO is read rec.arts.comics.info until you see the General rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks FAQ, or RACMX FAQ. It's called a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions list) because it answers the questions that many new readers have. Even if you've read the books since day one, the RACMX FAQ may tell you things that you never knew. So check it out! If you have WWW access, Marty Blase keeps it at: URL: http://x-page.com/texts/xbooksFAQ/ 3) Read RACMX for a month or two. THE THIRD THING YOU SHOULD DO is read rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks itself. Preferably for more than a month, but if you're in a hurry, then try reading *every* *single* *post* for two full weeks. Doing so will help you learn who posts the most truthful answers, and which topics get on people's nerves. That helps to avoid flamewars. ------------------------------ Subject: Stuff That Will Keep You From Getting Flamed 4) Netiquette. Here's the Cliff's Notes version: DON'T flame! Don't be rude. Ever. DON'T post messages meant for one person on the group. If you aren't sure if it should be said, take it to private e-mail. Or, don't post a followup or email a reply at all. DO keep your .sig to approximately four lines, or it's wasting space. Remember to snip the .signature when you're following up to a post. DO use standard written English. DON'T SHOUT OR USE ALL CAPS PLEASE! Use blank lines between paragraphs to make your post easier to read. Use paragraphs shorter than 24 lines. Leave spaces after punctuation. Hit return after every 72 to 75 characters. DO make direct followups to the post you're reading/replying to. If you followup by posting a new thread under a different name, we won't know where you replied or what you're trying to follow up to. DO make sure you're posting to the appropriate groups and delete any groups that are inappropriate. Be aware that some people mispost on purpose! Make sure you set your followups to the right newsgroup(s), or to email, if you really change topics. If it belongs in .marketplace or .other-media, post it there instead. DO delete any text you don't directly comment on. If you only have a few words to say, *don't* copy the entire post. Instead, post a summary of what you're responding to, then respond. 5) Defining "off-topic" and "on-topic." RACMXers have a habit of going off-topic, and talking about things that really aren't related to the actual comic books. It can be hard for new posters to get the feel of this, since some "off-topic" things are tolerated, and other threads cause weeping and gnashing of teeth. If you want to go off-topic, THINK long and hard before you do so. If someone asks you to take it to e-mail, *please* consider doing so. If you feel that a thread has become annoying, then e-mail the posters and POLITELY ask if they would take it to e-mail or the proper newsgroup. If you have to invent FAQs for clubs, parody groups, or in-jokes, it's best to create an alt.* group, IRC #channel, or mailing list to hold those fun but tangental discussions. More than one group has made the switch to other discussion forms. Rule of thumb: if it's covered in another rec.arts.comics.* group, it is definitely off-topic. If there is no other forum for the discussion posters tend to be slightly more tolerant of off-topicness. ------------------------------ Subject: Where To Post Stuff 6) The X-Men Movie, cartoon, novels, games, toys, and trading cards. The rec.arts.comics.other-media newsgroup (abbreviated rac.o-m) is where you should post to talk about any aspect of the movie, from the plot to music and cast suggestions to the latest rumors. The newsgroup also handles discussion and comments about the prose novels, picturebooks, food, games, toys, games, trading-cards, t-shirts, statues, etc. Other appropriate newsgroups include rec.games.frp.super-heroes for roleplaying games, rec.toys.action-figures for toys and figures, and rec.collecting.cards.non-sports for trading cards. 7) Selling/buying/auctioning comics, toys, etcetera. *ALL* sale posts should be directed to rec.arts.comics.marketplace. Even if you want to buy an X-Men comic, or want to know how much a book is worth, ask over at .marketplace. They'll be more than happy to help! Do *not* crosspost your sales lists. Really. Please. 8) Stories and fan-fiction. If you want to post your stories you should try alt.comics.fan-fiction (for stories using copyrighted characters), or rec.arts.comics.creative (for stories based on original material besides copyrighted characters). While stories should not be posted to rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks, you can post "pointers" to your story-- just post a message on RACMX saying "I've posted part XYZ of my story Story Name Here on a.c.fan-fiction." 9) Why non-text stuff (like pictures) should NOT be posted here. Pictures posted to the newsgroups get converted into HUGE binary files. These take forever to download, and time equals money if you've got a slower connection or live overseas. A binary in a discussion group is much larger than a post (sometimes 100 times larger than most posts!). If you have a binary pic, post it to alt.binaries.pictures.cartoons or alt.binaries.pictures.misc with an appropriate subject, like "X-Men Storm Pic." If it's ASCII art, post it to alt.ascii or rec.arts.ascii. You can post a "pointer" telling us what you posted, where you posted, and what subject header you posted it under. Please do NOT crosspost. Please note that it is considered bad form to post in HTML. Please turn off HTML encoding. If you need help, ask in news.newusers.questions. ------------------------------ Subject: Stuff About Subjects And Spoilers 10) Talking about what happened in this week's issue. *Many* people don't want to know what happens before they've read it. Put the word SPOILERS in your subject header, along with the title. If you just read issue #412 and learned that Cyclops dies, don't put Cyclops dies! SPOILERS! Instead, try X-Men #412 Cyclops SPOILERS When you write the actual message, tell us the issue number and remind us that your post includes SPOILERS. Hit return about twenty-four times so that there's a whole bunch of white space between the beginning of the post and the actual spoilers, so a reader can see that there are spoilers ahead. SPOILERS and spoiler space should be kept for two weeks. That way people have time to get their comics, especially if they live far from a reliable shop, or overseas. If you followup to an article that still has spoilers, DON'T take out the spoiler-space! NOTE: REVIEW implies spoilers. Please leave spoiler space intact. 11) Talking about info from Previews/Wizard/Mania/cons/lettercols. Again, use SPOILERS. You can't assume that all readers will have seen this information, or that all readers *want* to see this information. If it didn't occur at least one month ago (story-time), then don't post it without using SPOILERS. Even if you hear about the plans for the big September crossover in April, keep using SPOILER space and SPOILER in the subject header until the events have happened in the book itself. 12) Changing subjects. If you start a drastic topic shift, say, from talking about Gambit to talking about Kitty and Peter, just remember to change the Subject header to reflect it. If it was: Re: Gambit is really unique Then change it to something like: Kitty and Peter (was Re: Gambit is really unique) That way, the people who like Kitty know that the discussion has gone on to talk about her, and the Gambit fans won't have to expect talk about Kitty in a thread labelled "Gambit is really unique." ------------------------------ Subject: Touchy Stuff 13) If these characters fought, who would win? The short answer: whichever character the writers WANT to win. The long answer: whichever character the writers need to win to fix whatever plot hole somebody asked them to fix in order to kick off the next twelve-part crossover. 14) Lies, damn lies, and statistics. Many people feel that the stats listed in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe are the only ones remotely useable, but even these are now outdated. The writers don't use role-playing game stats or the stats on the back of the trading cards to define the strengths or abilities of their characters. They'll let Storm win if they feel like having her win. 15) Flaming and why it sucks. Flaming occurs when two people resort to highly insulting namecalling. If it continues with more than two posters or two posts, it's probably become a flamewar. Flamewars are bad. Posters end up taking sides, and the whole thing gets really messy and the posts get really huge. Believe it or not, just because someone disagrees with you, it isn't an insult or a flame. If someone has a different opinion, you can discuss your perspectives and opinions without resorting to flaming. Avoid flamewars-- take it to e-mail, or just IGNORE the poster/thread. If someone is really being an annoying jerk, don't insult him. People are more willing to follow your example if you're nice. And remember, some people haven't read the FAQ or don't know which topics to avoid. E-mail a polite reply telling him where to look for the correct info. 16) $$$ MAKE MONEY FAST!!! $$$ Posts like MAKE MONEY FAST and "Get Cash Quick!" are just variations of the old pyramid scheme. If you get in at the bottom, you aren't going to make any money. And if you crosspost it to ten other newsgroups, then that's ten times the number of people who are going to flame you. Pyramid schemes are considered mail fraud when conducted through mail, and are illegal according to US Federal Law and other laws. Besides, schools and online providers *will* cancel your account if you post the schemes to newsgroups or send them to other people. So just don't do it. 17) Other stuff to avoid. Religion / religious beliefs. Morality / good vs. evil. Homosexuality. Race relations. Politics. AOL vs. ISPs. We have had large flamewars about all of the above topics. People have *very* strong opinions about some of these issues. If you want to discuss some of these "sensitive topics," do so calmly and politely. Discuss the characters, not the values of the posters themselves. ------------------------------ Subject: Common Posting Advice And Answers 18) If your posts aren't appearing at all. If your post hasn't appearred, do NOT post it to the newsgroup two or three more times. Usually, we will have seen your post the first time. If you want to test your postings, try posting to alt.test or misc.test; you will get about three to five replies from automatic reply servers. Please don't use .xbooks for your test postings-- use the *.test groups. Newsreaders are really funny things sometimes. Some won't show your articles until you exit the newsreader and restart it. Others might have a delay of a few minutes until your post appears. Still other newsreaders will *never* show you anything that you posted yourself. If you aren't sure how your newsreader works, send e-mail to your sysadmin. They will be happy to help you out. Or, ask in the group news.newusers.questions. 19) If your server doesn't get a group. Point your browser at Deja.Com: URL: http://www.deja.com/ . Deja.Com is a searchable collection of thousands of Usenet News groups, including the really hard-to-find alt.* groups and local / regional groups. Through this service, you can read as many posts as you wish from any newsgroup or author, and you can post a followup directly to the newsgroup or send email to the original poster. So, if you haven't been able to get any of the alt.comics.* groups on your local internet account, try Deja.Com. If you don't have WWW access, try emailing your postmaster or news admin. Most admins are happy to add any groups that a user requests. 20) If nobody is replying to your posts. Remember that time moves ... differently on the net. It takes much longer for posts to reach some sites than it does others. It may take six days to travel around the world, and then six to get a reply. So be patient. If you still aren't getting any replies to your posts, please don't post a message asking "Can you see my posts? Please respond." We'll respond if we feel like responding to it. Sometimes we won't respond because we think someone else who knows the character or issue will answer. If all else fails, pay a visit to alt.test or misc.test, and do tests. ------------------------------ Subject: Credits The Keeper of the Read Before Posting FAQ would like the thank the following people: * David R. Henry, for being such an awesome FAQ-Keeper role model; * Jane, for getting in too deep with all this stuff together; * Marty Blase, for handling the BIG faq and lending his assistance; * and love and kisses to Aardy, who showed me how to use .txt and ftp. -- Kate the Short * http://www.enteract.com/~katew/ | Kate the Short - Patron Saint - http://www.enteract.com/~katew/ | | Alpha Delta Pi: http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Dorm/6100/ | | rg.frp.dnd FAQ: http://www.enteract.com/~aardy/faq/rgfdfaq.html | | xbooks FAQ: http://www.enteract.com/~katew/faqs/ - ICQ# 8375030 |