General Behaviour
When thou enter a city abide by its customs. (The Talmud)
- THINK BEFORE YOU POST!
- Remember that AFPers include people whose culture, language, and humor may be different to your own. Be careful with slang or local terminology.
- Some people still pay for connectivity by the minute, and the more you post, the more they may pay to read. Others have only a limited time in which to read the group. These are very good reasons why you should ask yourself whether that post you're writing really does offer anything of interest or relevancy to others.
- Bear in mind that not everyone will use the same tools to read as you do. Some AFPers may not be able to use a mouse or be visually impaired. Try to ensure that your posts are as accessible as possible to all (see Snip! Snip!.
- Remember that posting anything to a newsgroup is akin placing your message on a 30ft billboard in a crowded street. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people are going to read your words - not only today but, probably in years to come. If you don't want your spouse/partner/boss/mother-in-law/worst enemy to know your 'secret', don't post it to AFP!
- AFP isn't another form of LiveJournal or IRC. Whilst some exchange of personal information is part and parcel of AFP, posting excessively, or exclusively, about yourself and/or your life is unlikely to win you many friends long term. Consider getting a personal blog and restricting your post to AFP to those topics which everyone can contribute to.
- Posting excessively on any subject can be percived as trying to down out others or even an attempt to bully. Do you really want to be seen in that light?
- Respect the copyright on material that you reproduce. Almost every country has copyright laws.
- If you are going to quote someone, try and ensure that you do so accurately and attribute the text accordingly.
- Never quote from a private email without the specific permission of your e-correspondant.
- Do not post HTML articles. AFP is a text-only newsgroup. Added to which, many standard newsreaders cannot interpret HTML. Not only will your 'priceless prose' be turned into complete gibberish but you will cause great irritation.
- Do not post binary attachments or v.cards to AFP.
- Try to limit line length to aproximately 65-70 characters.
- When you followup another post, place your comments below the quoted material. Some popular news software automatically places the cursor above the quoted text by default. Ignore this and move the cursor down to the correct place manually. If you are replying to a particularly long article or you have a number of comments to make to different points, it is a good idea to intersperse your text amongst the quoted material accordingly to achieve a conversational-exchange effect
- Use Subject Tags. If you are unsure which tag to use, re-read the Subject Tagging FAQ first.
- Use both upper and lower case in your posts. UPPER CASE LOOKS AS IF YOU'RE SHOUTING.
- If you have access to a spell checker, use it. Otherwise, make sure you proofread your posts before sending them. Whilst a certain number of typos (typing errors) are only human, AFP, in general, expects a high standard of grammar, punctuation and spelling.
- If you include a signature keep it short - no longer than 4 lines. If your news software allows it, try and use the correct signature delimiter:
--[space][carriage return]
This will allow many news clients to automatically remove your signature from any followups a fellow poster might make. - If you are following up a post and find that the previous poster's .sig is still in your followup, please remember to remove it manually. Quoted .sigs normally add very little to the content of a post - unless, of course, it's the .sig itself that you want to comment on.
- Remember that newsgroup servers are located across the globe and that Usenet works because these servers pass articles to one another. So wait a little while before you check to see whether your article has appeared in the newsgroup. Don't post an article and expect it to appear immediately. If your post hasn't appeared after a short time, wait a bit longer and check again before assuming that it wasn't sent correctly and re-posting it. Duplicated articles are a sure fire way to upset people.