From: msieweke@hayes.com
Newsgroups: rec.food.veg
Subject: suggested guidelines for dealing with r.f.v
Date: 14 Apr 92 12:10:05 GMT
Organization: Hayes Microcomputer Products, Norcross, GA

I've been watching most of the recent flame-wars (and "kill"ing the rest),
and I think it's time we had a posting giving guidelines on how to deal
with rec.food.veg.  Here's what I came up with - time to break out the
asbestos underwear.  I hope you have as much fun reading this as I had
writing it.



      How to survive on rec.food.veg (subtitled "Get a life!")

1. This is rec.food.VEG, not rec.food.aLittleMeatIsOK.  Don't tell us
that "Meat eating is really OK" or "You can cut down on fat/protein
without giving up meat."  Most of us don't care.  A significant portion
of the readers are _ethical_ vegetarians, which means that they didn't
become vegetarians for health reasons.  The rest of us still don't care.

2. Unless you are posting an opinion, give references.  Don't say how
upset you are that we don't agree with you; just give us some facts and
references that could convince us to change our mind(s).

Corollary to number 2: Learn to distinguish opinion from fact.

3. Don't expect your doctor to agree with r.f.v.  Most of them don't have
significant training in diet and nutrition.  The field of nutrition changes
yearly with new research.

4. Don't try to be subtle.  Someone will always misunderstand.  Use those
smilies if your humor is not obvious.  See number 5.

5. Remember that no two people read the same thing, even in the same note.
Everyone has his/her crusade and will read that crusade into every note.
You can't help this, but don't be surprised if someone reads something
in your posting that you never intended.

6. Remember that this is a worldwide net.  Be sure to mention when your
information is specific to your local country.  For example the beef/dairy
industry differs greatly in the US, the UK, and India.  Also, remember that
cultural/language differences may make some concepts difficult to explain.

7. Don't resort to personal attacks.  Few people are really stupid; most
are just poorly informed.  See number 8.

8. Don't take it personally.  Not everyone hates you (Really, they don't!).
If you must respond to a personal attack, take it to e-mail.

9. Chill out.  Learn what or who are volatile subjects or people.  Learn
to avoid (or "kill") those subjects or people.  See number 10.
BTW, (6) "chill out" is an Americanism meaning "Don't take everything so
seriously" or "Relax and have a beer!"

10. Don't believe most of what you hear and only half of what you read.
If it doesn't contain references, it may be only an (uninformed, perhaps)
opinion.  News is more like a verbal conversation than like a book, so
re-read the first line of number 10.

11. If you change the topic of discussion, change the subject line.  People
will get upset when their interesting "vegetarian singles" discussion gets
changed into a "vegetarians are a religious cult" flame-war and they can't
"kill" the topic without losing interesting articles.

12. Don't cross-post or repost from talk.politics.animals.  It was created
to keep those discussions out of r.f.v.

13. Dont correc speling errers.  Enuf sed.

14. Anarchy rules r.f.v.  Some people are more vocal than others, but no
one can keep you from posting or reading here.


If you read this far, you must have found this interesting (if not enjoyable).
You can do what you wish with the above, but please give me credit.

Some of the above apply to specific people.  Rich Young, read numbers 1, 10 
and 11.  Mary Shafer, read number 2.  Carol Miller-Tutzauer, read numbers 2, 
7, and 8.  Michael Traub, read numbers 7 and 8.  Kamchatka Charlie, read 
numbers 2, 5, and 10.   These are not intended to be flames, but (5) someone
will always misunderstand.

If this bothers you, Hey! Read 8 and 9! :-)  If this didn't make sense, I
will be happy to clarify any statement via e-mail.
-- 
Mike Sieweke                            ...!uunet!hayes!msieweke
Hayes Microcomputer Products            msieweke@hayes.com
Norcross, Georgia                       hayes!msieweke@uunet.uu.net
"I've never seen so many people obsessed with the trivial!"
   - a co-worker after his first time reading news
Newsgroups: rec.food.veg