Newsgroup: it.hobby.satellite-tv
Titolo: Mini-FAQ: How to find the *right* Satellite TV newsgroup v1.1

 for the
following information.  Since he's the moderator, doubtless he ensures
that these guidelines are applied:-)
    FYI, fido.belg.satellite is a Belgian Fidonet newsgroup which is also
    routed to the Internet. It covers any subject (even remotely) related
    to satellites. The following general rules apply :
    - no flames
    - no advertising, except for BBS's or other (online) stuff that have
      related content.
    - allowed languages in national Fido newsgroups are almost always those
      spoken in the originating country but english postings in mentioned
      newsgroup won't upset anyone. Most participants are able to reply
      in english.
    - posting information about hacking the Multichoice analog and/or 
      digital package is prohibited because Belgium is one of the
      company's main operating theathers and therefore any such
      information is also illegal in that country. Info about BSkyB, the
      Nordic channels & others is however allowed.
2) CROSS-POSTING: 
   =============
 
In general, there is no need to cross-post articles to two or more of the
aforementioned groups; each has its own clearly delineated task, and
there is little overlap between them.  The one exception is for
announcements of binaries to be posted to a.s.tv.c and a.b.s-tv.
Likewise, there is no need to post the same article separately to two or
more groups; pick ONE group and post just there.
However, the newsgroup alt.satellite.tv.europe was supposed to have been
superseded by the group rec.video.satellite.europe, which, being a member
of the "Big-8", ought to achieve better propagation.  It wasn't killed
off immediately (well, it was, but I resurrected it) because some people
wanted to discuss decryption, which is barred by its charter.  However,
the newsgroup alt.satellite.tv.crypt was created to fulfil that purpose,
and is as widely distributed as a.s.tv.e.  Therefore the latter group is
really redundant, yet people persist in cross-posting (or more often,
multi-posting) into it.  Please don't: posting to a.s.tv.c or r.v.s.e (in
Europe) is usuallly quite sufficient.  When following up to an article in
a.s.tv.e (if it appears to "belong" there), would you please cross-post
into r.v.s.e, and set follow-ups such that the discussion continues in
that latter group, which is the right place (unless, of course, the
cross-post and follow-up should be to a.s.tv.c :-).
3) NEWSGROUP CHARTERS: 
   ==================
 
Check the charters of the groups before posting.  For example, the
charter of r.v.s.e specifically prohibits discussion/queries related to
non-official means of decryption (although discussion of the *theory*
behind TV encryption is permitted).  Since all the above groups have been
created within the past four years, their charters can be found in the
original newgroup control messages archived at 
ftp.uu.net
, e.g. in URL:
 
ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/rec/rec.video.satellite.europe
 
4) ADVERTISING: 
   ============
Most groups are hostile to continued advertising (with the exception, of
course, of a.s.tv.forsale), but will tolerate a *reasonable* level of
advertisements, PROVIDED that the Subject line starts off with the
four-character sequence "AD: " (without the quotes, of course), and is
posted no more often than once a week.  The group r.v.s.e specifically
makes advertising of non-official means of decryption off-charter.
Transgress against these guidelines and you will find many reports going
to your service provider: people *have* lost their accounts for abusing
these groups.
If you see an advertisement to which you object (because it's in the
wrong place, or posted too often, or doesn't have the AD: marker) then
*don't* post a follow-up; send mail to the advertiser (send them a copy
of this Mini-FAQ if you wish).  If this doesn't work, then complain to
his service provider, with copies of the full postings, including the
headers.  For off-topic advertising (i.e. the b*****d who kept on
plugging his Nokia Orange mobile phones), complain immediately to the
service provider; such advertisers have lost their access to the 'net in
the past.
5) HTML: 
   ====
Many people are using web browsers (Netscape or MSIE) for news reading
and news posting.  Most older hands recognize the shortcomings of using a
browser as a newsreader, but I can appreciate that some will prefer the
concept of "one tool for everything".  However, users of such browsers
are warned to please check their browser's default settings; of late,
there has been a spate of postings where the article contains two copies
of the same content, once in plain ASCII text, and another with exactly
the same information, but wrapped up with a whole pile of HTML, along
with fancy font changes etc.  Apart from annoying those with readers that
present *both* copies (in all their ugliness), such dual posting is a
waste of network bandwidth and server spool space: in general, the HTML
version adds an unnecessary 200% overhead to an already creaking system.
I understand that both MSInews v4 and Mozilla v4 post this way by
default: please find the setting and correct it to post only ASCII.  This
is becoming a big bitching point in many newsgroups, so please try to
stop it before it overwhelms these groups too.
6) ABOUT THIS FAQ:
   ==============
 
I've cross-posted this to all the aforementioned groups, although I only
read a.b.s-tv, a.s.tv.c, a.s.tv.e, and r.v.s.e myself.  If regular
readers of the other groups already have such guidelines on posting then
please let me know and I'll exclude those groups from future repostings
of this article.  Please ensure that any such regular posting in those
other groups makes clear the purpose of alt.binaries.satellite-tv: it's
getting far too much non-binary traffic, despite it's being clearly
named; in December I had correspondence with one guy who imagined it
covered the delivery of Usenet via satellite!  [Incidentally, the group
for that would appear to be alt.usenet.satellite.]
BTW, for the benefit of people in the Americas who want to see European
TV: don't bother asking in the *.europe newsgroups; the satellites with
which *we* are familiar are invisible from the Americas, because they're
mostly below the horizon.  Some European channels are relayed to the USA
and elsewhere: ask in the r.v.s.tvro or r.v.s.misc group for details of
*American* satellites carrying these channels.  (The same goes, but in
reverse, for those wanting to see American channels in Europe.)
Any suggestions for additions/alterations gladly accepted: I'm intending
to post this article on a regular basis.  In this posting, I've added an
X-Killfile: BHK-Mini-FAQ
header; if you don't want to bother reading future issues of this
posting, then use this to killfile it.  I'm also incorporating a
X-Changes: 
header.  The current one says CONTENT (because I've added this paragraph,
and the one about HTML, and added to some others), and if your killfile
processing permits, I'd advise you to set it so that such a revision is
refetched and not killed. If I merely make changes to formatting, then
this will say MINOR instead, and most usually I expect to repost with
NONE; so these too can be used as criteria for killfiling.
-- 
Brian {Hamilton Kelly}                                         
b...@dsl.co.uk
                Tony Blair's New Labour: The Windows'95 of Political Parties
             (c/w Plug'n'Pray and a pretence of offering object-orientation)

-Sky just ask all people who have paid for the latest ppv event to place card in
decoder and they shouldt a message, i have a card that i messed up with the old
phoenix 3 software with ppv on it.
I place in the decoder and the card after a message started decoding sky for 5
sec or so then gave incorret card then decoded again this process is continues
will we get to see the movie and if not after the ppv event will sky issue a
clear ppv code with will turn the cards back on ?
- 
Freebooter