From: sridhar@enuxha.eas.asu.edu (Sridhar Venkataraman)
Subject: Tips on using soc.net-people [l.m. 30/09/92]
Followup-To: poster
Originator: sridhar@homecheese.VAR.ASU.EDU
Organization: Arizona State University
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 22:52:05 GMT
Expires: Thu, 29 Oct 1992 23:01:06 GMT

Soc.net-people is a newsgroup for various postings about particular people.
It is mostly used to look for old friends that you have lost track of, but
it can also be used for several other types of posts, like announcements of
personal events (e.g. an obituary or a class reunion) and queries for an
address (e-mail or otherwise) for a particular site.  Most of the time,
replies are done through e-mail, so if someone else posts a query for
information that you also would like, usually the best thing to do is e-mail
the person who made the query and ask that person to send you the
information that he/she gets.

If the phone number of the person or site that you are trying to get in
contact with would be good enough, you should consider calling directory
assistance first, which in the U.S. and Canada is 411 or 555-1212 within
your area code, (xxx)555-1212 to another area code; check the front of your
phone book to make sure that these numbers are correct for where you live.
Alternatively, you can get the postal address and phone number of almost
anyone in the U.S. and Canada by calling a company called Superbureau at
(800)541-6821.

If you will post to look for someone, or an address for a particular site,
then your best strategy is as suggested in a post from mid-February of 1991.
Dan Schneider asked people who had posted to this group looking for someone
to tell him if they were successful or not.  The results of Dan's "survey"
was as follows :

=> In nearly all successes, the seeker knew the name of the
=> organization or school where the seekee was located.
=> Apparently there is a fairly decent chance that *someone*
=> at the school or organization reads SNP religiously and will
=> assist by taking a minute out and fingering the lost person
=> or glancing in a directory.

Cary Timar responded that this meant people should put the name and last
known location of the person in the subject line, so that people who only
scan the subject lines of the articles can easily decide which to read and
which to junk.  Cary gave four examples :

=        Subject: Vanderbilt - Cary Timar
=        Subject: Vanderbilt - general
=        Subject: Nashville (I think): John Smith
=        Subject: Tennessee somewhere: John Smith

Edson Smith (edson@rand.org) writes:

= You might want to let these people know that there's a not-for-profit
= organization called Overseas Brats which tries to put people in touch with
= their old school friends.  If you write them and tell them your name, the
= overseas schools you attended, and the dates and grades you were there,
= they'll tell you if other people from your school are listed in their
= database.  For a nominal fee (I think it was $15) they'll send you all
= sorts of information.

= The address is:

=     Overseas Brats
=     PO Box 29805
=     San Antonio, TX 78229

= I of course should mention that I have absolutely no affiliation with this
= organization.  I heard about them through my wife (who went to high school
= in England), and although they couldn't help her find any of her old crowd
= (it was a very small school), we were both impressed by their newsletter.

If you have a more general question, such as other tips that apply to
posting to any newsgroup or the meanings of certain abbreviations that often
appear in messages, you should read the newsgroup news.announce.newusers to
see if it is answered there before sending the question to soc.net-people or
another newsgroup.

Here is a note from Eugene Miya (eugene@nas.nasa.gov)...

= It is suggested that you not post blanket requests for ALL hosts or people
= on the Internet.  This sounds suspiciously like a walking security problem.
= The people who are problems don't need to do this, they know how, but a few
= people who MIGHT be problems don't need encouragement.  This is a great way
= to attract attention (raise a red flag) to you and potentially get into
= more trouble than a list would be worth.  We are talking thousands of hosts
= and approaching millions of users: be it pyramid schemes, unauthorized entry,
= denial of service attack, etc.

The comprehensive USENET posting for finding net people has the following
header: (PLEASE read it before you post here)

 From: jik@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens)
 Newsgroups: comp.mail.misc,soc.net-people,news.newusers.questions,news.answers
 Subject: FAQ: How to find people's E-mail addresses
 Frequency: biweekly
 Archive-name: finding-addresses

Available in the indicated USENET newsgroup(s), or via anonymous ftp
from rtfm.mit.edu as

/pub/usenet/news.answers/finding-addresses

Also available from mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu by sending a mail
message containing:

send usenet/news.answers/finding-addresses

Send a message containing "help" to get general information about the
mail server.  

-- 
Sridhar Venkataraman                        sridhar@enuxha.eas.asu.edu