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[FAQ] Posting and Advertising Guidelines for rec.crafts.jewelry



 
 
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  #1  
Old September 7th 08, 06:54 PM posted to rec.crafts.jewelry
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Default [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





Ads
  #2  
Old September 10th 08, 06:19 AM posted to rec.crafts.jewelry
o hai
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 4
Default [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...

  #3  
Old September 10th 08, 06:29 AM posted to rec.crafts.jewelry
Peter W.. Rowe,
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 355
Default [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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