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The act of creating a news article and sending it out through the Usenet system is known as posting an article. When you decide to post an article, you can either post a follow-up article to another article or create a new article on a new subject. Your news reader typically has different commands for the different types of posts that it can perform.
Posting a Follow-Up
A follow-up article is a reply to another article. This article stays in the same subject thread as the original article and is shown as a reply by threaded news readers.
When you post a follow-up, you can choose to include the original post. Including parts of the original post is a good way to provide a frame of reference for your reply. Remember that several days may pass between the time some sites see the original article and your reply. If you do choose to include the original article, try to include, or quote, only the parts of the article that are relevant to your reply. It gets tedious trying to wade through several levels of included files and quotes looking for the new information. Also, some news servers will reject your reply if the quoted material is more than a certain percentage of your entire message, depending on the policies of the administrators.
You should check the Subject line to make sure that the subject still accurately reflects the content of your post, and change it if you’re now discussing a new topic. Also, take a look at the Newsgroup line to make sure that your follow-up is going to the appropriate newsgroups. In particular, consider whether sending the message to multiple newsgroups is appropriate or whether the topic is relevant to only one or two of the original newsgroups.
Posting a New Article
If you decide to start a thread of discussion on a new subject, you want to post a new article instead of a follow-up. The mechanics of posting the article are very similar to those of posting a follow-up. You give the appropriate command to your news reader; your news reader asks for some information, such as the destination newsgroups, subject, and distribution; and you’re placed into an editor. The major difference is that you’re creating a subject thread instead of replying to one.
TIP: A complete document on Usenet writing style is posted regularly to the newsgroup news.announce.newusers.
You should think about several things as you write your article. You can think of them as “Usenet Style Tips” if you want. These tips cover the format of your article and its content.
You should keep your lines less than 80 characters long. Many terminals can’t display lines that are more than 80 characters. Similarly, you should try to keep the length of your article under 1,000 lines or so. Some sites are still running old versions of the news transport software, and long articles can cause them problems.
You probably want to create a signature file that’s automatically included at the end of every post. Most news readers support signature files, although the exact mechanism varies depending on your software. Most people put their name and e-mail address in their signature file, along with their geographical location. Some people add a witty quote or a small ASCII picture. Try to avoid having a large signature file. It is considered bad netiquette to include your full name, nicknames, an inspirational quote consisting of Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass,” and a twenty-line ASCII art drawing of your car. A good rule is to limit yourself to four lines. Some news software automatically limits your signature to four lines or so.
You need to give a subject to your article when you post it. Try to pick a subject line that’s short, yet descriptive. Thousands of people scan the subjects in any particular newsgroup, and you want them to be able to pick out your article if it’s of interest to them. Also, carefully consider which newsgroups you’re going to post your article to. Most news readers allow you to post an article to more than one newsgroup. You should post to only the smallest number of groups that you need. Remember that thousands of people are reading each newsgroup.
Throughout this chapter, the importance of being aware of how the tone and content of your message are interpreted has been stressed. This general consideration of behavior on Usenet, and the Internet in general, has its own term—netiquette. Netiquette applies to all areas of the Internet, including electronic mail.
The term netiquette simply refers to “proper and polite” behavior as it applies to Usenet news. Most of the time, you should have no real problems on Usenet as long as you remember that it’s a very big and diverse place. Not everyone on Usenet shares your background, beliefs, or values, and you should try to remember this as you post articles.
Make sure that you clearly communicate your ideas in your posts. With the lack of body language and the delay between posts and replies, it’s surprisingly easy to interpret someone’s meaning incorrectly. Also, remember that many participants don’t speak English as a native language and may be unaware of local idioms and sarcasm.
Blatant commercial advertising is frowned on in Usenet news. There are appropriate newsgroups for advertising products and services. Similarly, don’t post chain articles, such as the infamous MAKE.MONEY.FAST or Craig Shergold get-well card article. These articles have been circulating around Usenet for years, and you (and your systems administrator) will incur the wrath of thousands of people instantly if you post one of them.
Resist the urge to post flames, especially spelling and grammar flames. Even though flames seem to be a permanent part of the Usenet “landscape,” these personal attacks and raving messages accomplish little. If someone should flame you for one of your posts, take time to calm down and carefully consider how to respond; the best solution might be not to respond at all. Sometimes you may receive a flame, but a calm response from you may elicit an apology from the person who flamed you. If you just zip off another flame in anger, you only escalate the problem. Remember that the person on the other end is really a person, not a computer.
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