From: zerkle@toadflax.cs.ucdavis.edu (Dan Zerkle)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.announce
Subject: Instructions for submissions to comp.sys.amiga.announce
Keywords: administrivia
Date: 15 Oct 92 17:53:15 GMT
Expires: 5 Dec 92 08:00:00 GMT
Reply-To: zerkle@cs.ucdavis.edu (Dan Zerkle)
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Organization: U.C. Davis Department Computer Science


                Instructions for Submissions

                   as of October 15, 1992


This file gives instructions on how to make submissions to
the comp.sys.amiga.announce newsgroup.  Possibly revised
editions are posted every two months.

TYPES OF ANNOUNCEMENTS

This group distributes announcements of import to people
using the Commodore brand Amiga computers.  Announcements
may contain any important information, but most likely will
deal with new products, disk library releases, software
updates, reports of major bugs or dangerous viruses, notices
of meetings or upcoming events, and so forth.  A large
proportion of posts announce the upload of software packages
to anonymous ftp archive sites.

WHO SHOULD POST

To make a post, you should be directly associated with the
material in the announcement.  It is best if you are the
author of the software, or the publicity officer of a
company announcing the product or event.  Some companies
give their announcements to people that have e-mail
accounts.  That is fine.  If you are not associated with the
company (just a customer, for instance), please do not
attempt to post.  Instead, contact the company and tell them
about the newsgroup, then ask the company to submit the
announcement directly.

USENET IS NON-COMMERCIAL

This group is not an advertising forum.  Product
announcements may not contain hype or denigrating
comparisons with competing products.  Announcements of
products should contain only a straightforward description
of features.  A look at the "news" or "new products" section
of a computer magazine should give an idea of the proper
presentation.

WHAT TO POST

One of the regular administrative posts describes guidelines
for announcements of software, including FTP uploads.
Please read that document before submitting an announcement
of a software package, whether commercial or not.  You may
also wish to follow the basic outline described there for
hardware or other announcements.

If you are announcing hardware, please give power
requirements and list which Amiga models the device can use
(500/1000/2000/3000/4000, NTSC/PAL).  Also list any software
that is required or included.

If you are announcing a meeting, convention or other event,
make sure you list what will happen at the meeting, with
names, times, topics, and so on.  Give detailed travel
directions to the meeting place so that anybody can find it.

HOW TO SUBMIT AN ANNOUNCEMENT

Once you have your announcement written, you should submit
it to the moderator.  The primary moderator is Dan Zerkle.
The preferred method for submitting announcements is via
electronic mail.  Send your submissions to
announce@cs.ucdavis.edu.

Please do NOT make submissions by simply posting them.  Some
systems will forward these to the moderator, but often the
return address will get mangled, and this will foul up any
forwarding mechanism if a backup moderator is serving.

Other methods of submission are possible.  For instance, if
your company mails out press kits, the moderator can
transcribe them.  Please contact Dan at the e-mail address
shown above or call (916) 756-5170 to make other
arrangements.

Assuming you send your announcement through electronic mail,
an acknowledgement will be sent within two days.  If you
receive no acknowledgement after a reasonable wait, send the
announcement again.  This time, you should include your
telephone number in case there is some trouble getting e-
mail to you.  If you still get no acknowledgement, call the
number above.

If there are no problems with the announcement, it will be
posted immediately.  The moderator may make minor edits for
spelling, grammar, or clarity, but their presence will be
noted in the post.  If there is some problem with the
announcement, it will be returned with a note about the
problem, so you can fix it.  Likely reasons for rejection
are inappropriateness for this group, incomplete information
about a product, much too much information (listing every
single minor feature), or too much selling hype.  After you
fix the problem, you should mail the announcement in again.
About half the posts are accepted only after a revision.

CROSS-POSTING

Cross-posting isn't permitted.  Also, it is generally not
necessary to re-post your announcement in other Amiga
groups, as comp.sys.amiga.announce has low traffic and very
high readership.  Comp.unix.amiga is an exception, as many
readers there don't read the comp.sys.amiga.* groups.

CONTACTING THE MODERATOR

Finally, if you have any questions about this group or if
you need help writing an announcement, contact the moderator
at his personal e-mail box.  The address is
zerkle@cs.ucdavis.edu.

--
Read all administrative posts before putting your post up.  Mailing
list: announce-request@cs.ucdavis.edu.  Comments to zerkle@cs.ucdavis.edu.
MAIL ALL COMP.SYS.AMIGA.ANNOUNCE ANNOUNCEMENTS TO announce@cs.ucdavis.edu.