Editing UFO FAQ (1994)/00 Introductory Material (section)

==Hints on Posting==

Alt.alien.visitors is not a moderated group, which means that just about
anybody can post just about anything.  This arrangement will only work if
people who post to a.a.v. behave in a reasonable manner.  The following
guidelines are suggested :

(1)  Give every post a subject heading which describes as clearly as possible the content of the message

(2)  Try to stay on topic.  Do not post on subjects that are clearly unrelated to the newsgroup.  Take them to the appropriate news group for discussion.  If your comments are a message to a specific person
then use email rather than post to the whole world. 

(3)  Messages are received by people in many different countries. 
Different countries use different formats for dates.  In the USA, 
for example, people would read 3/7/94 as the 7th day of March 1994.  
In the UK the same string would mean the 3rd day of July 1994. 
Confusion will be reduced if people always quote the month either in 
full or by the first three letters e.g. 3 Aug 94.

(4)  Be selective in the material you quote from earlier messages.  Do not 
completely repost other peoples postings and then write your
opinion about it.  Selectively edit the the post to get the information  
you need from it to make your point.
    
(5)  The subjects of UFOs and possible alien visitation are controversial.
Many people have many different ideas about the origins of UFOs and
alien visitors.  It is unlikely that everybody will agree with every
post made.  Constructive critisism of ideas is encouraged, but do not
get into 'flame wars' or hurling abuse.  There are so few hard facts
in this area that the person you think is an idiot may end up being
correct.  Be tolerant of the other person's view.
 
(6)  UFOs and aliens can also be a source of ridicule from some people. 
Occasionally these people will send a message like 'UFOs don't exist';
'you are all nuts' or 'get a life'.  Ignore them, it is unlikely that
they will be hanging around to read any follow-ups posted and it just
wastes bandwidth.

(7)  If you are sending a message informing readers that a TV programme or
something else is on at a specific time, remember to state the channel
and where it can be seen.  For example, in the UK we have several 
channels broadcast by Sky TV.  But there are channels in other parts
of the world also called Sky. Better than saying 'tonight' state
the actual day/date,  some systems may not get the message out on the
same day you write it.  If you include the time either use the 24 hour
clock or state explicitly if it is am or pm, and include the time zone.

(8)  Avoid posting the same message to several newsgroups.  Many people read
a number of related newsgroups.  It is a waste of bandwidth and 
everybody's time to read the same message several times.  With the
spread of Usenet more people are obtaining their news by dialup 
connections.  It is costing these people real money to download redundant
messages.

(9)  The idea of Usenet is communication.  Do not waste everybody's time by
giving previous posters spelling or grammar lessons.  Although Usenet is 
distributed to many universities and colleges, not everybody has a PhD in 
english.  There are many different spellings of words in the different
forms of english spoken around the world.

Although designed for alt.alien.visitors, these suggestions could be 
applied to both other Usenet groups and to other networks.