From: eugene@amelia.nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya)
Subject: [l/m 4/15/91] Netiquette: 	Distilled Wisdom (12/28) XYZ
Followup-To: poster
Organization: NAS Program, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 92 12:20:09 GMT
Reply-To: eugene@amelia.nas.nasa.gov (Eugene N. Miya)

Panel 12

NETIQUETTE:

READ news.announce.newusers.  When in doubt, ask an experienced user
using email.  Broadcast posts are expensive.  Read all 28 panels
of the Distilled Wisdom FAQ chain.

Send mail in preference to a posting a followup.

Read all available postings on a subject before posting.  Or send email.

When you attribute (>) news articles: minimize (cut down the attribution,
remove the previous poster's signature line. DON'T ATTRIBUTE 100 LINES OF TEXT,
THEN POST A TWO LINE COMMENT.  That is a true stupid waste of bandwidth
and disk space.  If you are serious about email replies, include a
signature.  Mail can be flakey.  Do not assume that your mail system
is the only one in the world.  The world does not work that way.

EDIT your SUBJECT: lines.  Ask an experienced poster by mail about
a subject.  Mail is far nicer than news: more care, less flamage, more
friends.  But, don't take the news too seriously, but remember in the
real backcountry, you are playing with lives.  This wisdom is the product
of such loss.  There are cyclic topics (see 5/28) on this group centering
on equipment (dull, but sometimes necessary; use a book instead), ethics
(more interesting, but you can never resolve them), and the odd interesting
topic.  You can write, but can you read?  Your post will show.

Either way, cyclic topics bore people, everyone after the 3rd round.

GIFs: Graphics Interchange Format: A popular thing for people with
bit-mapped graphics X-terms or workstations is to use outdoor oriented
backgrounds.  Ignore this if you have a vt100 clone, an IBM 3270, etc.
These bit-maps are typically encoded in a variety of formats: under the
terms like GIFs, uuencoded, etc.  DO NOT POST GIFS to this (rec) newsgroup.
Specialized groups exist (alt.pictures.*) for posting pictures. Ignoring
copyright problems, GIF files tend to be rather large.  If you post a
large GIF, certain sites like hosts at some one's home, fill their
disks up fast, faster than flamage, pictures are large.  Many people
do not appreciate this, and they will send nasty-grams to your news system
administrator.  Second, depending on the size of the files (e.g., UUCP has
a default 100KB limit which most people don't change, or lower [like 30KB]),
you can create a situation which causes two computers on the network to
thrash: thus preventing other news and mail from between between those
machines.  This is even more annoying.  This happens on sites connected
via phone where incomplete transfers take place: the stupid computer just
tries again, and again, and again.  [Definition of recursion: See recursion.]
GIF posters typically mean well but unintentionally cause problems like
the little old lady on the freeway.  So don't post GIFs [IN THIS GROUP].
Pointers, okay, no images.  Alt.pictures groups.  If you don't have them,
that's your site's choice.  Follow it.  Then, get them to change it

DO NOT ADVERTISE products or commercial services.  Some sites are
in domains which do not allow personal use of computer networks
(send or receive).  Simple personal sales are not generally frown upon
(e.g., I have a pack for sale), but they belong in *.wanted.* or
*.market.* style groups.  (A cross-post is perfectly acceptable in this case.)
The biz. hierarchy is for businesses.  Ads for products violate certain
laws governing Internet usage.  The rec.* groups are clearly optional
for some sites.  SPECIFICALLY: pyramid schemes are reported to civil
authorities; these are clearly illegal.  Doing them electronically
does not change their legality.

SPECIAL NOTE: DO NOT ASK OR ACCEPT MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE from the net.
Do not ask in r.b, consider sci.med or misc.legal.  These are licensed
professions.  First aid is okay (good samitarian laws), but you should Cc
to sci.med.
In article <1991Aug5.171418.17996@riacs.edu>,
watson@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov (John S. Watson - FSC) writes:

|> Mark Twain once said:
|>   "Be careful of reading health books, you might die of a misprint."
|>   Today we could replace "health books" with "usenet medical advice".

Remember: Ask your news adminstrator.

TABLE OF CONTENTS of this chain:

12/ Netiquette 					<* THIS PANEL *>
13/ Questions on conditions and travel
14/ Dedication to Aldo Leopold
15/ Leopold's lot.
16/ Morbid backcountry/memorial
17/ Information about bears
18/ Poison ivy, frequently ask, under question
19/ Lyme disease, frequently ask, under question
20/ "Telling questions" backcountry Turing test (under construction)
21/ AMS
22/ Words from Foreman and Hayduke
23/ A bit of song (like camp songs)
24/ What is natural?
25/ A romantic notion of high-tech employment
26/ Other news groups of related interest, networking
27/ Films/cinema references
28/ References (written)
1/ DISCLAIMER
2/ Ethics
3/ Learning I
4/ learning II (lists, "Ten Essentials," Chouinard comments)
5/ Summary of past topics
6/ Non-wisdom: fire-arms topic circular discussion
7/ Phone / address lists
8/ Fletcher's Law of Inverse Appreciation and advice
9/ Water Filter wisdom
10/ Words from Rachel Carson
11/ Snake bite
Newsgroups: rec.backcountry