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Usenet and newsgroups have been around for quite a while and
so conventions have developed about how to post. These are generally
regarded as guidelines and good manners.
a) Usenet developed as a plain text medium.
HTML is great on web pages. Unfortunately, it isn't great
on newsgroups. If you want to check how your posts look, post
to uk.test. Find out how to post in plain text rather than HTML.
And set your line length for about 68 characters. This stops
your posts having lines longer than some newsreaders can read,
or having a long line, a line with one word, a long line etc.
It also allows for other people quoting you.
b) Don't shout.
Writing in all capitals is regarded as shouting, and seen
as fairly rude (well, it's hard to hold a decent conversation
that way). On top of which, it is actually harder to read text
that is all upper case.
c) Trim your posts.
It is perfectly acceptable, indeed desirable, to trim the
post to which you are responding, leaving just the parts to which
you wish to respond. It is equally acceptable to summarise the
post in a few lines, rather than quoting it. Inserting a clear
line between the end of the quote and your response so they don't
appear to run together as one is also useful.
It is a good idea to quote at least part of the previous post,
or summarise it, because of the way news is propagated. Just
because a message has arrived on your server, doesn't mean it's
arrived on everyone else's. It is quite normal to find that responses
to a post arrive on your server long before you see the original
post that the responses refer to.
Also, not all software threads messages the same way. Some
thread by time, some alphabetically, some in ways mysterious
to man (and woman). Without giving some context, other readers
can get lost.
Trimming can be awkward. Leave in the attributions - the bits
at the beginning of the post that state who you are following
up. But do remember to trim the sig of the person whose post
you are quoting. That person's name should already be at the
top. While their sig may be very witty, it isn't necessary in
a follow-up.
Also, many of us are paying to download newsgroups, and so
it becomes a little expensive to download messages which consist
of 200+ lines of quoted text, with one line added by the quoting
poster. Some software won't let you post unless the new text
is greater than the quoted text. This is one reason why.
d) Post at the bottom, not the top of the message.
It has become standard over the years to interleave one's
responses to part of a post with the parts one is responding
to. This is how most of us read news, and it helps refresh the
memory and understand the response (remember, we don't see posts
at the same time), and also helps the conversation to hang together.
When you decide to respond to a post your software probably puts
the cursor right at the top of the message. This doesn't mean
you have to type your text there. You are allowed to move the
cursor to wherever is more appropriate. This will also act as
an aid to trimming.
e) Sigs.
Sigs can be used to give a witty quote, your real email address,
your web-site. A sig should commence with a sig separator. A
sig separator is two dashes followed by a space: -- .
Some newsreading software can automatically strip sigs from
posts when following up so trying to set up your sig correctly
can be a big help. Sigs should be no longer than 4 lines (the
separator does not count) and may contain just about anything
you want to put in.
f) And finally...
Remember that newsgroups are both international and local.
Don't assume that everyone reading your post is from the same
cultural background as you; and don't assume that no-one knows
who you are.
Only say things about yourself (or people you know) that you
don't mind the whole world knowing and that won't embarrass you
if they turn up in an unexpected context. Posts are archived
on the Web and anyone can read them, including your parents,
your children, your partner and your employer.
If you want to know more about newsgroup posting etiquette
here are some other places to try: news.announce.newusers is
a newsgroup purely for people new to Usenet and newsgroups, and
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) and helpful hints are posted
there regularly.
<http://www.stanton.dtcc.edu/stanton/cs/rfc1855.html>
Gives some more hints and reasons for why we should post the
way we do.
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