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[FAQ] Posting and Advertising Guidelines for rec.crafts.jewelry
For those new to this group, or wishing to advertise, herein is the info you
need to understand what's going on with this moderated newsgroup, and what's allowed as to advertising. Although I've titled this post "FAQ", I've not actually written it in the traditional FAQ format. I do hope no one's too confused by that... Intro and moderator... Rec.crafts.jewelry is a moderated newsgroup, effective March, 1997. The moderator (me) is Peter W. Rowe. I'm a professional jeweler and metalsmith and graduate gemologist, and have been working with jewelry since 1968 as a high school junior, and earned an MFA degree in it in 1989. I currently live and work in Seattle Washington. I've been the moderator of the group since it became moderated, when other readers of the group asked me if I would agree to do so, and I, not fully understanding what I was volunteering to do, agreed... It's still a volunteer task, so please bear with me if I make mistakes in my duties here... Moderated newsgroups... A moderated newsgroup, for those unfamiliar with the term, means that unlike a normal usenet newsgroup, your postings get diverted to email, and end up in my email box at which is the article submission address for this newsgroup. If I find that a posting meets the requirements for inclusion in the newsgroup, as defined by the groups agreed upon charter, (voted into existence when it was converted to a moderated newsgroup), then I edit the message to add an "approval" header to the message headers, and repost the message to the news servers. From this address, with that header, posts are then accepted worldwide into rec.crafts.jewelry. While some moderated newsgroups are managed with "robot" software, this one is moderated entirely manually, at the moment, using "Agent" newsreader software running under Windows. Occasionally, I may accidentally pass a message I should have refused, or miss a message I should have posted. If your message doesn't appear in the group in a reasonable amount of time, please repost it, or contact me. You can contact me personally as well at the above address (be sure to make it clear it's a personal communication, and not a posting to the group). The news system also isn't perfect, and occasionally servers will allow an unapproved message to slip by, or will loose the occasional message without warning. So if some weird posting is in the group, and doesn't have that "approved" header in it, or has one that's different from the one I put in, then it's not my doing, nor anything I can do much about. Usually, it's due to a spammer who's figured out how to circumvent the approval process, and forges his own. Fortunately, most of then know that ISP's news and mail administrators take a VERY dim view of folks who forge approval headers, and most don't bother with it. Still, the occasional forged post will appear. If you see one, please feel free to call it to my attention, and I can try to cancel it, which will remove it from some, but not all, news servers. Posting topics, and Advertising guidelines... The following, from the groups charter, as written in the CFV and later adopted by reader vote, is a starting point. I've inserted a few comments as well, and following it, are some additional comments.... CHARTER: rec.crafts.jewelry [excerpt] The newsgroup provides a place for discussion of questions and answers regarding the crafts of jewelry making and gem cutting. Tips, tricks and informational posting are welcomed as well. Mutual assistance and support are greatly encouraged. This is a moderated newsgroup, with no official ties or connection to any commercial vendor. 'Spamming' of commercial or other messages not related to the topic of the newsgroup rec.crafts.jewelry, and other violations of standard Usenet newsgroup netiquette, as expressed in the Usenet FAQs on the subject, are not permitted. Articles cross-posted to four or more newsgroups will not be permitted. **[[[moderator's note, cross-posts in general can be problematic, and are not encouraged. Please post to other groups separately from your posts to r.c.j. Among other things, your posts to other groups won't appear there unless and until I approve the posting and re-send it, even if the other groups are not moderated. If you feel you MUST cross post to other group, please be sure that rec.crafts.jewelry is the FIRST newsgroup in the cross post list. My software gets confused otherwise...]]]*** Binary posts are not permitted in rec.crafts.jewelry under any circumstances. ***[[[This includes attached files, included JPEG or other graphic images, and HTML formatted text, which may not be actual binary, but is nevertheless almost unreadable in some newsreaders, notably AGENT, used to moderate the group (sorry, I've little choice here. Other newsreaders don't allow me to add the needed approval header). The bottom line here is post messages only in plain old ASCII text]]]*** It is the moderator's responsibility to ensure that postings are free from verbal abuse and personal attacks. Article content will be the sole criterion of judgement. Authorship will not be a criterion for any decisions. The newsgroup is for information and discussion of the crafts involved in the production of jewelry. It is not a marketplace, and posting of ads by any individual or vendor, primary or third party, is not permitted except under the conditions described below. Occasional advertisements for used books, tools, and equipment, for one-time liquidations of shops or collections, or for rare, difficult to obtain materials and services, may be permitted. Such postings will be scrutinized carefully and screened to eliminate "spam" or un targeted "scatter" advertisement. If an advertisement is permitted, only one advert per individual, vendor or organization may be posted to the group per month. The subject line must begin with '[ADVERT]' (excluding the quote marks). More information on advertising will be provided in a newsgroup FAQ document once the moderation of the group has been initiated. ***[[This posting is it...]]*** END CHARTER. Some comments General: As the charter indicates, the general purpose of the group is NOT commercial advertising. Nor is it a place to market your used Rolex or unwanted engagement ring. Questions, however, are almost universally acceptable, so long as they are on topic to the newsgroup. So are answers to those questions, even if they suggest or seem to promote a given vendor. (Such as someone asking, "where can I buy "xyz", which is an acceptable post, and a vendor of such responding with a posting saying "I have "xyz" to sell", which would otherwise be an advertisement. In this case, such a response would be acceptable for this group.) However, be honest with your posts. Pretending to be a happy customer of some vendor, and posting a message of that sort, when you are in fact the vendor in question, will result in your post being rejected if I suspect the above situation to exist. Advertising: Any on-topic postings of an informational nature, discussion, or inquiry, are welcomed. Such posts are the "meat" of what this group should be about. Some reasonable limited advertising, does of course, also make sense. Such posts are the "used tools", or other unusual items not normally seen that readers will generally be interested in seeing. Normal retail items that you've simply marked down and now feel to be at exceptionally low sale prices still don't usually qualify, no matter how good or unusual your sale. It's simple enough. If you've really got something this community is going to want to know about, a service or product pertinent to jewelry hobbyists or professionals or items properly for sale to craftspeople in this field, then it's likely welcomed here. If your items are aimed more at the general population and buying public, or your ad is more intended to benefit only you, instead of the readers of the group, then this is the wrong place to be selling them. Remember that the group is likely followed by your competitors as well, and they are generally refraining from attempting to advertise improperly here. The best way, by far, to advertise for those of you whose advertisements fit the spirit of this group is with short notices more along the lines of a business card. Few readers here want to wade through lists of actual items. But if you'd like your fellow craftspeople to take a look at your work or your items, a short note pointing us all to take a look at your web page, is completely appropriate. Put your URL up for us to browse, or your email address for those who want more info. Please note the requirement for the word [ADVERT] at the start of the subject header in such postings, as well as the limit on one post per firm or person per month of this sort. Naturally, for actual discussion or questions or non advertising postings, there is no such limit. Please refrain, under most circumstances, from responding to an ad with a newsgroup post asking for follow up information from an advertiser. This is usually something that should be done in private email, not in the newsgroup. Among other things, you have no assurance that an advertiser will actually be reading the newsgroup to see follow ups, while its reasonable to hope they'd be checking their email... Ads that contain web page URLs, of course, will still allow you to click the URL to go to the posters page, (if your newsreader supports this) in the same manner as happens with separate postings to the group. Advertisers should be sure that the body of their ad does indeed contain the required contact information, either email, web page, phone, or address, as not all posting headers will be retained in the digest form. GENERAL POSTING GUIDLINES FOR rec.crafts.jewelry Much of this is simple common sense and netiquette, but it bears repeating, especially for those of you who may be newer to the internet newsgroups. While it is not generally the moderators duty to edit or correct much of the following suggestions, following them will improve the utility and enjoyment of the group for all. Trivial postings: Please pay attention to what you're posting. If someone says something you agree with, please resist the temptation to quote the entire long posting just to add your "I agree" to the end of the quote with nothing else. That may be nice sentiment, but the rest of us are not actually learning anything from your reply. On the other hand, if you've actually got comments or additions or criticisms, then that is much more useful and interesting to read. Quoting: When quoting a posting in order to reply, many newsreaders simply quote the entire previous post. Please take the time to delete the parts of that quote that are not really needed to let us know what you are replying to. Try to keep the bulk of your reply as the part you are writing, rather than long spans of quoted text that was already posted. It's not difficult to edit an outgoing message to extract only enough of the quoted article to make it clear what is being replied to. And it makes your posting much more enjoyable and clear to read. And on the same note, please be sure that you actually do quote enough of a prior article that we will know what you're actually talking about, without having to go dig up the previous article. Some of the readers may well have deleted previous parts of a thread, and a completely un-referenced follow up article may make almost no sense if there is no quoted reference to remind us what the subject of discussion is all about. Often, the subject header of the post is not quite enough. Newsgroup reply post vs. Email reply When replying to a posting in the group, ask yourself if your reply is of interest to the whole group, or at least some of it, or whether it is only a personal reply to the original poster. If someone asks for information that has been extensively discussed already in recent times in the group, it may be that your helpful reply is only of interest to the poster who evidently missed it the first time. Same thing if someone asks for specific info such as "where can I buy such and such" and it turns out that you are a vendor who can help. Same thing if someone offers something for sale (and the ad is approved) or offers to send a catalog to respondents. In all these cases, replying to the poster by Email may well make more sense than replying to the group as whole. Among other things, remember that email is faster, won't have to wait for approval from the moderator, and is much more likely to be actually read by the desired recipient. Also, with regard to all newsgroup posts, not just ads, Learn to use the "reply by Email" function when appropriate. or if a reply is of interest to both the original poster and the whole group, you can copy their email address (if a valid one was given in the posting) to the cc: header of your reply. And develop good "crap detectors",in choosing which posts to reply to or what information to believe. If it seems too good to be true, it likely is. Don't believe everything you read here, even in a moderated group. Remember, it's not actually the moderators duty to determine the truth or value of a post, or to edit it if it seems wrong to the moderator. The moderator is a filter to keep things "on topic", not an editor, censor, or guarantee of a posts value. or accuracy. People who read and post to newsgroups can range from authoritative and accurate experts, to rank beginners with all sorts of wrong notions they're willing to share with all who'l listen Peter Rowe moderator rec.crafts.jewelry |
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[FAQ] Posting and Advertising Guidelines for rec.crafts.jewelry
In rec.crafts.jewelry on Sun, 07 Sep 2008 10:54:19 -0700 we were all
dun see'd a message from which dun sed: For those new to this group...snip And don't forget flaming by poasters with too many email addresses & nics... |
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[FAQ] Posting and Advertising Guidelines for rec.crafts.jewelry
On Tue, 09 Sep 2008 22:19:46 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry o hai
wrote: In rec.crafts.jewelry on Sun, 07 Sep 2008 10:54:19 -0700 we were all dun see'd a message from which dun sed: For those new to this group...snip And don't forget flaming by poasters with too many email addresses & nics... Flaming is indeed prohibited by the group charter rules. Multiple emails, or nicknames, or identities, or just plain anonymous posters, is not mentioned or regulated. For one thing, I can't spend the time trying to track down every poster to the group's real identity. Sometimes it cannot be done without cooperation from the posters ISP, and newsgroup moderators like myself are just private citizens, not privy to such info. So enjoy all the identities you wish. However, a number of the long time participants in this group, including some who've been traditionally most helpful to those with questions, are annoyed by posts that give no clue as to whom the poster is, or give no valid way to reach a poster in email. So if you ask a question or make a comment, and expect some response, you'll have better results if your post includes some means by which a respondant can reach you via direct email if they wish. Many newsgroup posters avoid using their actual email address in public messages like this, in order to avoid having their email address harvested by spammers. But the spammers doing this use simple means, and they're easy to avoid. Email addresses can be shown with changes that are obvious and easy to correct by a human reader, but which foil the spam bot programs. Just adding the word "REMOVE" to the end of either one's name or in the middle of the domain of your email address makes it not work, but any human will know to edit it. Or use a fake email in the headers, but spell it out in words or spaced out syntax, or something like that, in the body of the message, again so that someone who wishes to, can reach you in email. Or just get a free throwaway email address with GMail or Yahoo mail, or another such, and when it starts to get too much spam, cancel it and get another. Remember that not all replies may be really appropriate or suited for a public post to the whole newsgroup, so email replies are sometimes of considerable use. cheers Peter Rowe moderator rec.crafts.jewelry |
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