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How to survive in Usenet

Usenet rules — 'conventions' is probably a better word for it —  are based on RFC1036, Son-Of-RFC-1036 and RFC1855. Feel free to read those documents for a deeper understanding of usenet. Here in this document I will give a short summary, the basics if you will. Some of the points made here may sound ridiculous to you or well over the top, but these are rules based on well-founded tradition (Usenet is much older than the WWW), and applying them to your every day life in usenet wil help you to get your message across.

These policies should not be considered as some kind of restriction to your "online freedom and individualism" (whatever that means), but instead guide you and help you getting along in this text-only medium; and you will soon find out that most rules make sense!

Content

• Message format must be plaintext
• Do not post attachments into non-binary groups
• Use a valid "From:" line
• Use a descriptive and suggestive "Subject:" line
• Use a valid MESSAGE-ID
• Do not crosspost, and if you really can't avoid it, set a follow-up
• Restrict body line lengths
• Quote sensibly
• Use a short attribution line
• Use a correct signature
• Use correct character sets / encodings
• Perform correct subject changes
• Do not  start your comments at the top!
• Netiquette (various entries)
  

 
 

I. Technical Rules (RFC1036 / Son-Of-RFC-1036)

• Message format must be plaintext

First and foremost: Do not use HTML in Usenet. It is considered bad style, apart from the fact that HTMl is flat-out unnecessary: I have yet to see a posting where HTML enhances content and information (and that is one of the fake excuses notorious HTML posters adopt besides their "I'm an individual and I want to express this in my postings" blatherings). Usenet is not about shiny colours and cool fonts, it's about communicating in a way so that most people will be able to receive, read and understand your message. Many people still use plaintext-only programs, and some news servers even reject HTML (and you do want your message to get around the world!).There are other ways to emphasize what you want to say, with so-called plaintext tags: *bold* /italic/ _underline_  (many newsreaders treat plaintext tags specially by formatting them accordingly). The bottom line is: If you want to be understood and read all over the world, do not use HTML. Simple as that.
 
• Do not post attachments into non-binary groups

Another capital mistake. It is not OK to post attachments to text-only newsgroups. Not even the tiniest picture to illustrate a point you are trying to make. Posting unwanted attachments is not only considered impolite, it is also unwise from a technical point of view: Properly configured news servers will reject your posting to text-only groups if it contains attachments. In addition take into account that many people still use dial-up connections to access the Internet, and making them download attachments is extremely evil. So if you post attachments you may find yourself at the bottom of someone's killfile faster than you can say "It's just a GIF, people!".
 
• Use a valid "From:" line

Bad: Joker <not@yourbusiness.ass>
Good: Holger Metzger <usenet@holgermetzger.de> 
A valid From: line contains of a full name (first and last name) and a valid email address. Avoid using extended characters (öäü) in the From line, better: avoid extended characters in the header (subject, from, and so on) at all. Use US-ASCII. Why a valid email address? Because people may want to reply to you via private email. Yes, I know, there are spambots out there, lurking on usenet harvesting email addresses for their evil businesses. Solution? Simply get one of those free email addresses (Hotmail, Netscape, Yahoo) for usenet. Why US-ASCII only? Because some newsreader programs have difficulties displaying extended characters correctly (some servers also have problems with extended characters, but this has become rare nowadays). And did I mention that a real name enhances your credibility?
 
• Use a descriptive and suggestive "Subject:" line

Bad: Need help
Bad: Netscape 7.2
Good: Mailnews line break doesn't work
Good: Netscape 7 crashes in module gklayout.dll
It's always a good idea to be as specific as you can get to attract as many readers as possible; especially readers who know the problem you are talking about. Some users put their complete question in the subject line. Also a BAD, BAD idea. A subject line is the "appetizer" for other people to read your message. But the actual CONTENT should (read: has to) be in the BODY.
 
• Use a valid MESSAGE-ID

The Message-ID line gives the message a unique identifier. It is recommended that no Message-ID be re-used for at least two years. 
A valid MESSAGE-ID sort of looks like this: <3C666F1E.5000405@holgermetzger.de>. It consists of a unique string in front of the @ and a FULLY QUALIFIED DOMAIN NAME after the @. Check the source of a news message (in Netscape: Ctrl+U) to see how this looks like in "real life". The full name of the host at which the message entered the worldwide network is the part after the @. Netscape uses the email hostname for creating the message-id, which is not the correct way, because there might be the chance that other people using the same email service get the same message-id, and the one already on the network might get overwritten by the new message with the same ID (I know, this may never happen, but it could). Remedy for Netscape 4.x: Set the email address in quotation marks, so that Netscape 4.x lets the news server create the message-id (best way). Netscape 6.x/7.x and other Mozilla versions let the news server create the message-id, which is the best way dealing with this technical problem. By the way, the angle brackets are part of the MESSAGE-ID and may not be omitted (Outlook Express uses the MID in the attribution line without the brackets which makes it completely useless). So when you quote a message-id in a posting (for example, "This has already been discussed in <message-id>, be sure to add have it complete) P.S.: It is not allowed to use an IP-address as FQDN. So what can you do with a message-id you might wonder? Well, for starters you can search through Google Groups using a message-id and thus finding any message that is stored there (you simply have to know its "address").
 
• Do not crosspost, and if you really can't avoid it, set a follow-up

Follow-up messages are to be posted to one newsgroup only. If you set the keyword "poster", all follow-ups will be send to you (and only you).
 
• Restrict body line lengths

Restrict body line lengths to approx. 70-75 characters. The "70-75" number comes from the widespread use of display devices which are 80 columns wide, and the desire to leave a bit of margin for quoting etc. Do not underestimate this problem. Many people still read their news on *nix terminals and such things, where 80 is a common width. So be nice to them. And remember that you want to reach as many people as you can, and limiting the line length not only enhances this, but also may avoid trouble for defect news readers such as Outlook Express to mess up the quoted portions of the text.
 
• Quote sensibly

Readability is enhanced if quoted text and new text are separated by an empty line. Posters SHOULD edit quoted context to trim it down to the minimum necessary (50% thumb rule). Some newsgroups have their own rules, so be sure to check their FAQs for directions. But still, quoting sensibly is one of the most important rules. It's a fact that many people simply skip messages that are "too long". Again, you do want your messages to be read, don't you. Also. please, when you quote a previous poster, include the parts you refer to! It has become a new "fashion" by many new users to delete everything and then simply put in a "Thank you for your help" as the sole content of their reply. This is JUST AS BAD as quoting everything. "Sensibly" is the key here. Please help the rest of the community by giving reference points.
 
• Use a short attribution line

The attribution line is the text that newsreaders automatically add when you reply and quote a message (in Netscape it is Author wrote:). Keep this attribution line short. Do not use multiple lines, it's line, not lines, and "funny" lines get boring really fast (keep in mind that "fun" is in the eye of the beholder). So better be conservative, i.e. use a classic line such as "Someone wrote". Quoting the Message-ID like some news readers do is considered bloat, since this information can already be found in the header.
 
• Use a correct signature

Signatures are short (yes, short, as in 4 lines at the max) closing texts, automatically added to the end of articles by posting agents. If a poster or posting agent does append a signature to an article, the signature SHOULD be preceded with a delimiter line containing (only) two hyphens (ASCII 45) followed by one blank (ASCII 32). Posting agents SHOULD limit the length of signatures, since verbose excess bordering on abuse is common if no restraint is imposed; 
4 lines is a common limit.
Example:

-- 
Cheers, 
Holger 
http://www.holgermetzger.de

The "-- " (dash-dash-BLANK) is important since many newsreaders recognize a signature by this and can treat a signature in a special way, for example they can automatically cut it off when replying. 
Note: Netscape 4's HTML editor (plaintext is not affected) creates an invalid signature by deleting the blank. Outlook Express does the same in most cases (but this has been fixed in the latest versions).. 
Note #2: The signature belongs to the end of the body. Nowhere else. There's a lot of discussion going on about this matter, and especially people new to usenet don't understand this convention. But think about it: in conjunction with quote-trimming and quoting sensibly it really doesn't make sense to put a signature on top of everything - many newsreaders would cut off everything below the signature delimeter and delete the actual content of the message. Also, honestly, signatures are highly over-rated anyways... let's face it...  most of the "funny" remarks or additions are really completely boring to 99% of all users (see above). Do not use HTML in signatures as well; remember there are people out there who use news readers with no HTML facilities. Also keep in mind that HTML blows up your messages, which means massive load on those poor news servers world.wide.
 

• Use correct character sets / encodings

If characters used in the body of you message exceed the US-ASCII character set make sure that your newsreader handles this properly by adding the correct character set to the header so that other programs can interpret the message correctly.
Example for most western-european languages: 

MIME-Version: 1.0 
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; 
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit

If you want to use the new EURO currency sign in your messages the correct header would be this:

MIME-Version: 1.0 
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15; 
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit 

Netscape, for example, handles this superbly. If a character exceeds the default US-ASCII/iso-8859-1 limit, then Netscape will ask what to do. 
Xnews and Outlook Express, among others, do not know how to do this correctly. Xnews doesn't know MIME at all, while Outlook Express does not know iso-8859-15. So consider using a program that fixes this automatically, for example Hamster, http://www.tglsoft.de/
 

• Perform correct subject changes

Correct subject changes in a thread follow a specific rule (surprise!).

Example: 
The original thread started with the subject "old subject", but some of the discussion develops into a different direction, so someone changes the subject line to "New subject" and puts the old subject in brackets, using the following structure:

Subject: New Subject (was: old subject) 

Now everyone replying to this message with the new subject should delete the "was" part, so that the new thread is finally separated from the old one, and people can stick to their favourite thread:

Subject: New subject

Why the hassle? Because smart newsreaders (such as Mozilla based readers) can automatically detect the "was:" part and delete it automatically.
 

• Do not  start your comments at the top!

This is commonly referred to as "Top-Posting". Really a bad idea, since it seduces you to quote everything else below your remarks. Remember the "trim down quotes" rule.

II. Netiquette (RFC1855)

• You should not send heated messages ("flames") even if you are provoked. On the other hand, you shouldn't be surprised if you get flamed and it's prudent not to respond to flames.
• Respect the copyright on material that you reproduce.
• Remember that people with whom you communicate are located across the globe.
• Remember that the recipient is a human being whose culture, language, and humor have different points of reference from your own. Remember that date formats, measurements, and idioms may not travel well. Be especially careful with sarcasm.
• Use mixed case. UPPER CASE LOOKS AS IF YOU'RE SHOUTING and is considered very very bad behaviour.
• Use symbols for emphasis. That *is* what I meant. Use underscores for underlining. _War and Peace_ is my favorite book.
• Use smileys to indicate tone of voice, but use them sparingly. :-) is an example of a smiley (Look sideways). Don't assume that the inclusion of a smiley will make the recipient happy with what you say or wipe out an otherwise insulting comment.
• Wait overnight to send emotional responses to messages. You might regret an immediate response later. Again, remember that there is another human being on the other line.
• Do not post binaries to non-binary newsgroups.
• Do not spam people. If your message does not show up immediately, be patient. If you accidentally sent the message a couple of times use the CANCEL option to delete messages. DO NOT attempt to cancel any articles but your own.
• Consider that a large audience will see your posts. That may include your present or your next boss. Take care in what you write. Google archives it all. :-)
• Do not use vcards/html in news. It is considered inpolite.
• Avoid sending messages or posting articles which are no more than gratuitous replies to replies.
• Read all of a discussion in progress (we call this a thread) before posting replies. Avoid posting "Me Too" messages, where content is limited to agreement with previous posts. Content of a follow-up post should exceed quoted content.
• Although there are Newsgroups which welcome advertising, in general it is considered nothing less than criminal to advertise off-topic products.
• In groups which discuss movies or books it is considered essential to mark posts which disclose significant content as "Spoilers". Put this word in your Subject: line. You may add blank lines to the beginning of your post to keep content out of sight.
• Do not use "X-No-Archive". It does not make sense because people will quote your message, so whatever you are trying to "hide" will be on record anyway; and if you think your post is not good enough to be archived... why bother? Why should anyone take you seriously? Many usenet veterans will not read or reply to your post when they see the "x-no-archive: yes" header, even in this day and age. In other words: Let others benefit from answers you received.
  

Latest changes to this document: September 2005.