FAQ - (Short version) Advertising and posting polices of this moderated group

For those who'd like more detail than what follows, request the full version in
email from me, or find it in archives on Google (search for FAQ)

Rec.crafts.jewelry is a moderated, non-commercial newsgroup. Here's the basics
on what's allowed here, and what's not.

1. This is a moderated newsgroup. That means that .All postings to the group
are reviewed by the moderator (me) to ensure that they conform sufficiently to
the group's charter. I review new messages one or more times per day, and post
those that meet the requirements to the group. This introduces a time delay,
which can range from a few minutes to many hours or a full day, between when you
post a message, and when it then appears in the newsgroup, and therefor, a
similar waiting period between when you post a question, and when any answers or
replies will show up in the group. Please wait long enough after sendinga
message to account for this before assuming your message has been lost or
rejected. If you suspect the latter, or need help with posting to the group in
general, feel free to contact me via email. For readers, actual posting to the
group is done as normal. Send posts with the same news software you normally
use. The details of moderation are handled by your ISP, so you need do nothing
special. If you have trouble posting to the group, however, there are other
options, in which case please contact me for help.

2. The basic topic of this group is the craft of jewelry, including primarily
gold and silver smithing and related metalworking methods of jewelry makers, but
the group's topic includes most aspects of the jewelry business and hobbyas
well, not just the technical aspects of the craft. This includes business
aspects, marketing questions, gemology, lapidary, beadwork, and more. Most
topics of discussion or questions about jewelry and the industry are valid here.

3. This is a non-commercial group. That means you cannot advertise jewelry or
other things for sale here in most cases. The intent is to prevent the group
from becoming just a sales venue for people selling their jewelry, or
advertising their ebay auctions, or the like, as well as to keep the group from
becoming just another online catalog for one or another jewelry manufacturer or
gem dealer. So for sale ads ("I've got my used rolex for sale...") or web site
promotion ads ("come visit my new site where my stuff is for sale") are
prohibited. Some limited advertising, or specific interest to jewelry
craftspeople, can be allowed, selling things like your used tools and equipment,
books, hard to find materials, or the like. Ads like this must be for direct
sale through the ad, not a link to an online auction or commercial web site.
They must preface their subject header with the tag "[ADVERT]" (without the
quotes), and if ads are allowed, an advertiser is allowed no more than one ad
per month, at the moderator's discretion. Note that in general, educational
opportunities, classes, announcements of local interest groups, or similar
"public service" postings are not treated as advertisements, so long as they
don't become overly commercial. The principal "loophole" to advertsing is the
long standing tradition of usenet that allows a poster to include a short
"signature file" at the end of their posting, which may contain links to the
users site, or other such information, which may indeed be commercial. But it
must be clear in a post that this is merely a signature file, not the main
purpose of putting the post in the group. Posts which are empty of otherwise
new content, will not be approved.

4. The charter of the group specifies that all postings must be in plaintext
(ascii text) only, with no binary attachments or non ascii text. That means
that while you can post the URL to an image or page on the web on which aphoto
or graphic is located, you cannot just attach that graphic to your posting
itself. It means you must turn off HTML formatting or Rich Text formatting, or
the like, when you post to this group, so that the messages are sent justin
plain text. If you need to include a graphic in your posting, you may either
simply tell readers who're interested, to request it from you via email off
list, or you make your graphic available on the web, and post the URL. Most
ISPs provide some web space along with your internet access account for a
personal page or the like, and you can use this if you know how, or you can use
one of several web based image hosting services that will host your images for
free. Two such services are www.imageshack.ws or www.photobucket.com, and there
are others. Both are generally easy to use, and free.

5. Posters are expected to observe general standards of civil conduct inthat
personal attacks and "flame wars" are not permitted. I don't like playing
"censor" for what people can or cannot say, but please just don't get into big
personal fights or vicious name calling. Simple enough. Argue all you like
about the topics themselves, just don't take it to the personal attack level.

Peter Rowe
moderator
rec.crafts.jewelry.