From: eugene@amelia.nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya)
Subject: [l/m 12/8/91] Reminders for old hands and new readers ([b|c]a.general)
Followup-To: poster
Organization: NAS Program, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 92 11:30:51 GMT
Reply-To: eugene@amelia.nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya)

Welcome to both ba.general and ca.general.  If you are new to the net,
please read this.  Just a bit of community memory.  (A reminder.)
The purpose of these news.groups is for "general" announcements,
local queries, and the like.  The purpose of these groups is NOT
for continuing or extended discussions.
***DO NOT POST ADS TO GENERAL.  READERS CONSIDER THIS AN UNFRIENDLY ACT.***
A proposal is under evaluation to remove *.general groups.

If you need HELP, ask a network guru (either in person, email, phone, etc.).
Read the occasional postings to news.announce.newusers to learn The netiquette.
Read a while first.  Get the rhythms and a good style.

Consider trying email instead.  The Yellow Pages(tm), a phone, and a map
can work wonders.

Extended discussions on topics of political interest belong in the
ca.politics and ba.politics groups.  ADS BELONG IN THE wanted, forsale,
or market groups depending where you are.  These groups were formed due to
the frequency of these specific posting types.  Use them.
Special note to new users from BBSs like CompuServe:  The Usenet
differs significantly from these services.  Discussions are not
structured on the basis of who's logged on at the time (like CB).
A person can see your note days after you post it and make a comment.
So selection of newsgroups takes an important place.  Choose wisely.

It is not generally a good idea to ask for medical or
legal advice, those professions are regulated and licensed.  Advice from
novices can lead you astray, and you have no legal recourse against them.
If you need a precursor, misc.legal or sci.med with ba (or ca) distributions
are better than general.

Additionally we have:
ba.announce		ba.food			ba.internet	
ba.market.computers	ba.market.housing	ba.jobs.offered
ba.market.misc		ba.market.vehicles	ba.motss
ba.mountain-folk 	ba.music		ba.news	
ba.news.config		ba.news.group		ba.news.stats
ba.politics		ba.seminars		ba.singles
ba.sports		ba.test			ba.transportation
ba.wanted		ba.windows.x		ba.jobs.misc
ba.weather

Or in the Santa Cruz area

scruz.events            scruz.general           scruz.test              
scruz.politics		 scruz.sysops

Or in the Los Angeles area:
la.eats		la.general	la.news		la.seminars
la.test

Or in the Orange County area:
oc.acm			oc.general	oc.test		oc.unix

Or in the Sacramento area:
sac.general	sac.swap	sac.test

Or in the San Diego area:
sdnet.cerfnet	sdnet.computing		sdnet.crl	sdnet.forsale
sdnet.general	sdnet.jobs		sdnet.motss	sdnet.movies
sdnet.talks	sdnet.test		sdnet.wanted

Or state-wide
ca.driving	ca.earthquakes	ca.environment	ca.general
ca.news		ca.news.group	ca.politics	ca.unix
ca.test		ca.wanted
And the ever popular alt.california (state of Mind).  There may be more.

MINIMIZE CROSS-POSTING.  Use Follow-up: and edit Newsgroups:/Subject: lines.
Don't post multiple separate copies either. MINIMIZE and use F-Os.  If
stringing newsgroups, the *.general groups should be added last.
NEVER FOLLOW-UP DISCUSSION TO *.general.

NOTE: General local information will be handled by a server daemon.
This is being established.  More as details are implemented.

[The last time a frequency survey was done on the posting rate of this message
(once every 2 weeks or so) 1/3 said cut back, 1/3 said stay the same,
1/3 said post more information, more frequently => please ask your system
admin for help, not these postings.]

Kill-line:
/: [l/m 12/8/91] Reminders /:h:j
Xref: sparky ca.general:435 ba.general:1657