From: ins739l@lindblat.cc.monash.edu.au (William Fang)
Subject: MONTHLY POSTING: Usage of comp.sys.amiga.* and Netiquette V0.1
Organization: Monash University
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 08:20:41 GMT


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    MONTHLY POSTING: Usage of comp.sys.amiga.* and Netiquette V0.1

This article contains some generic information about the usage of the
comp.sys.amiga.* newsgroups.  It is posted by me every month in
comp.sys.amiga.introduction.

Pay attention to the version number of this article. It indicates what
kind of changes are made to the contents compared to the previous
posting.

First number changed:
	Major changes and/or items added.
Second number changed:
	Minor changes.


If you have suggestions about this article, feel free to mail them to
me so I can improve this document. You can reach me by e-mail:
10667547@eng2.eng.monash.edu.au         <- file server account
kroddos@yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au           <_ Un*x account


I'd like to thank the following people for their contributions:

Steve Hayman(sahayman@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu) Comp. Science Department
	Who is the author of a similar article in comp.unix.questions
that I used as the basis for this version.

			      DISCLAIMER
Use the information in this posting at your own risk and cost.
All opinions expressed are mine, not necessarily those of my employer.


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			       Introduction

If you have not already read the overall Usenet introductory material
posted to news.announce.newusers, please do. Much of this article overlaps
with the common sense guidelines posted there.


		   Should I post my question to the net?

Often the answer is "No, you can get an answer a lot faster without posting
a question.". Before you post, you should try -

     o Reading the manual for your system. Some day you may encounter the
     phrase "RTFM", which stands for "Read the fine manual" (except 'F'
     doesn't really stand for "Fine"). If you ask someone a question and
     they tell you to RTFM, it's an indication that you haven't done your
     homework.

     o Find a good introductory book on the Amiga. There are plenty of such
     books available, and you will save yourself a lot of trouble by having
     one handy and consulting it frequently.

     o Read the "MONTHLY POSTING: Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
     Vx.x" in comp.sys.amiga.introduction as well as the articles in the
     newsgroup you plan to post your question in. It might be that it is
     something asked before.


Please remember that the comp.sys.amiga.* newsgroups are read by thousands
of people around the world, and that posting a question to this group will
cost a lot of time and money by the time your article is distributed to
Japan, Australia, Europe (including the Soviet Union), Africa, Israel, and
all corners of North America.

Also, some people receive these newsgroups as part of a mailing list rather
than a newsgroup. If you're one of these people, please don't send a
"Remove me from this list" or "UNSUBSCRIBE" message to the wrong place.
Take the time to figure out where you're getting this stuff from, and send
your request to the mailing list maintainer, *not* to the list or newsgroup
itself! Ask your local postmaster for help.


	       To which newsgroup should I post my question?

The choice of newsgroup is harder than you might expect. There are over ten
newsgroups that deal with amiga related subjects. To find out which
newsgroup is the best one to post your question in you can read an article
in comp.sys.amiga.introduction called "MONTLY POSTING: Amiga newsgroups
under comp.sys.amiga.* Vx.x" in which a list is given of all major amiga
groups with an explanation of what kind of questions go there.


		    What information should I include?

It's hard to include all the relevant information.  If you have a problem
and are posting an article, please be sure to mention:

     o A descriptive subject line. Many people will decide whether to read
     your article solely on the basis of the subject line, so it should be
     a good statement of your problem.

    NOT GOOD                                  GOOD

    "Help"                "How do I restore a corrupted floppy disk?"
"DPaint question"          "DPaint III can't save file on Hard-Disk"

     o What computer you are using, with what add on's,
      and what specific version of the operating system it uses.

     For example,
		    - Amiga 1000, ALF 30MBytes HardDisk (ST-225+OMTI RLL),
		    Kickstart V1.3, Workbench V1.3, after running SetPatch.

     o If possible, the *exact* text of any error message you may have
     encountered.

				   WRONG
"I can't save file"


				   RIGHT
"When I click "Save as..." in DPaint III, and type HD0:german-a".pic in the
file line of the SAVE requester,
I get:
     Can't save file, illegal character in filename.
What does this mean? It isn't in the UserManual. This is using an AMIGA
2000 with Kickstart V1.3 and Workbench V1.0"

			 General tips if you post.

It's a good idea to post unrelated questions in separate articles, so that
people can keep different discussions separate. It's also a *very* good
idea to include a line or two like this:

	  "Please e-mail your answers to me and I'll summarize what I get
	  and post the results to comp.sys.amiga.graphics" using the title:
	  "SUMMARY: DPaint III can't save file on Hard-Disk"

This prevents many identical responses from different users to the same
question from clogging up the newsgroup. And make sure you really summarize
what you get - don't just concatenate all the mail you've received, be
selective!


		      Should I cross post my article?

You might find that you want to post an article that doesn't really belong
in just one newsgroup but in several. Try to find out which group is the
best (Eg. Use the article MONTHLY POSTING: Amiga newsgroups under
comp.sys.amiga.* Vx.x posted in comp.sys.amiga.introduction.) and post in
this group.
If you can't decide cross post the article in the appropriate groups and
edit the Followup-To: line to the best group. If there is no best group
make comp.sys.amiga.misc the Followup-To: group.
Please don't cross post your FOR-SALE articles in
comp.sys.amiga.marketplace to both misc.forsale and misc.forsale.computers.
Only use misc.forsale.computers and only then, when you think you'll
increase the chance of selling by posting here too.

		  Should I post an answer to a question?

It's very tempting to post an answer to a question you read on the net,
especially when you think "Aha, finally - a question I can answer!"
Consider though that when a simple question is asked, such as the sort
about to be answered below, many other people around the world already know
the answer and may be posting their own reply.  In order to avoid dozens of
replies to simple questions, please wait a day or so and see if anyone else
has already answered the question. If you have something special to
contribute, please do so, but make sure you're not duplicating something
someone else has already done.

You should feel free to reply to any question by e-mail. Even if the user
gets 200 responses to his question, at least the load on the rest of the
net is minimized.


		       Something about .signature's!

You have without doubt noticed that almost everybody uses the last lines of
an article for some personal information. This part of an article is called
a signature. (The file that many mail and news programs take by default to
add at the end of a message is called .signature.) This signature is mainly
used to state your name and information like the company you work for, the
e-mail adress you can be reached by etc.
Some people add a funny/famous quote also.

Please don't get over-creative. Signature's with complete ascii drawings,
useless information and other nonsense aren't appreciated and take up
band-width unnecessary. Try to keep it short, you should be able to keep
your signature 4 or 5 lines.


			  What about those people
	 who continue to ask stupid or frequently asked questions
      in spite of the Frequently Asked Questions & Answers document?

Just send them a polite e-mail message, possibly referring them to this
document. [MONTHLY POSTING: Frequently Asked Questions and Answers Vx.x in
comp.sys.amiga.introduction.]  There is no need to flame them on the net -
it's busy enough as it is.
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