2.   News groups

2.6   How should I make a posting to a newsgroup?
The "cultural flavour" of different newsgroups varies widely, so it is advisable to lurk (i.e. just read) the messages until you are sure that your proposed post will be on-topic, not duplicating current discussions and is not already covered in the FAQ (if the newsgroup has one). If asking a technical question, be sure to give full details of relevant hardware and software (e.g. PC, running Win95, using Eudora, etc.).

Here are more tips to help secure a useful reply:

  • start a new thread if you are starting a new topic (In Turnpike you do this from the Article menu). It will confuse people if you reply to an existing discussion by raising an entirely different issue;
  • make sure the subject line is informative;
  • if you quote a previous message, only quote enough to show the context;
  • ensure that what you write follows any quoted material rather than preceding it (doing it the other way round can make for very confusing reading if somebody then quotes your message in turn);
  • unless you are having problems downloading news, it is not a good idea to ask for replies by email - if you post a question in public, others may wish to see, or comment on, the answers;
  • avoid writing in capitals (it's called SHOUTING!);
  • use a short signature (4 lines is quite enough);
  • posting the same message to more than one newsgroup is rarely warranted (see section 2.8);
  • don't refer to news as "mail" - they are not the same thing and the misusage is liable to confuse your readers;
  • don't post again just because you don't see a reply within a few hours.

If you get any of this wrong, don't worry - users of d.i.s.n should still help you (posters to other groups may not always be so polite!). Finally, if the problem is really vexing, try and cool off before posting. You will then be able to explain the problem more rationally! If you do post something you later regret, it is possible to cancel a news article (in Turnpike select the message in either the Newsstand or the Mailroom, choose Cancel Article from the Message menu and then connect to Demon to send the cancel). This can never be 100% effective since not all machines act on cancels and your words may already have been been quoted by others. The longer you leave a cancel, the less effective it will be.

See section 12.5 for advice about use of email names in news articles.
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