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==  DC.GENERAL.MODERATED  Newsgroup Posting Guidelines   ==
==  Version 0.99                                    23 Sept 1998     ==
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==  Maintained by                 K.A. Glass <salgak@huskynet.com>   ==
==  Posting Frequency                                       Weekly   ==
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     This document is intended to answer questions and clarify
unofficial but generally accepted policies for the local USENET
newsgroup titled 'dc.general.moderated'.

     If this document has been e-mailed to you, chances are that you
have violated one of the generally accepted guidelines of
'dc.general.moderated'.  Most likely, you have posted an inappropriate
out-of area message to the newsgroup.

     The author of this document makes no claims as to the accuracy of
this document.  In short, it is provided "as is."  However, I have
endeavored to keep it as factual and usable as possible, so please feel
free to EMail  K.A. Glass (salgak@huskynet.com) with any comments you
may have.

     This document is divided into two sections, as follows.  The
disclaimers and such, including the copyright notice and appropriate
licenses, appear at the end for easier access to the meaty stuff.


Part I - 'dc.general.moderated' related issues

     1.  What is 'dc.general.moderated'?
          1.1 What is meant by "dc"?
     2.  What kinds of posts are acceptable to 'dc.general.moderated'?
     3.  What kinds of posts are unacceptable to 'dc.general.moderated'?

          3.1 Possible ramifications of posting unacceptable material
     4.  Discussion
     5.  If my post is unsuitable for 'dc.general.moderated', where
           might  it better go?
     6.  Abuse of dc.general.moderated and Ramifications

Part II - FAQ related issues

     1.  Who is the author of this document / who died and made him
         king, boss, judge, etc.? / Why was this document written?
     2.  General Disclaimer
     3.  How is this document be distributed? (USENET, WWW, FTP, EMail)
     4.  How may I distribute this document?
     5.  Can I use this document as a basis of a document for my
         (other, regional) newsgroup?


I.1  What is 'dc.general.moderated'?

     'dc.general.moderated' is a USENET newsgroup for
     discussion of items of general interest specific to the
     Washington, DC, Metropolitan area [see I.1.1] residents,
     in an atmosphere free of excessive cross-posts.


I.1.1 What is meant by "dc"?

     The "dc" of 'dc.general.moderated' is generally regarded as
     including the city of Washington, D.C. and its suburbs in
     Maryland and Virginia, as well as areas as distant as
     Baltimore, Maryland, and Fredericksburg, Virginia.

     'dc.general.moderated' is a restricted conterpart to dc.general.

     It is very rare that a posting should include more than one
     *.general  newsgroup.  The essence of USENET is its' multiplicity
of
     specialized groups: we would ask that you USE the specialization.
     Montgomery County specialized events belong in md.mont.general,
     and so forth.  Use good sense in narrowly defining your target
     audience to get the optimum response from interested persons, and
     minimum response from those who wonder why you're posting
     irrelevant information to a given group...

I.2 What kinds of posts are acceptable to 'dc.general.moderated'?

     'dc.general.moderated' is a robomoderated discussion group:
     that is to say, we have software enforcing a few basic
     rules for posts.  As of the date of this FAQ, the rules
     are as follows:

      Any acceptable message must have:
      - No more than 4 newsgroups total
       (should weed out a lot of spam)
      - No *.general other than dc, va, md, balt, md.pg, md.mont,
        or wv (amendable if other local hierarchies appear)
      - Posted to no other dc.* groups other than dc.general
        (if it's not of general interest, why post it here ??)
      - Not be cross-posted to any *.test
        (to stop the occaisional net.joker)

      Any message that does not meet the criteria will be robomoderated.

      You will note that we do not, at this point, suggest moderation
      by topic, or the exclusion of net-abusers, trollers, or spammers.
      This is not to say that we may not consider doing so at some time
      in the future, if the noise level begins to drown out the
      newsgroup.

      Changes to bot moderation policy must be approved by the current
      administrator(s) of the dc.hierarchy, and will be announced on
      dc.general, dc.general.moderated, and dc.config at least 24 hours
      prior to implementation


I.3 What kinds of posts are unacceptable to 'dc.general.moderated'?

     Posts that are NOT DC-metro area specific are inappropriate for
     dc.general.moderated


     Make-Money-Fast posts are considered scams.  As such, they will
     be subject to immediate cancellation from the dc.general.moderated
     newsgroup.


     Other types of posts considered inappropriate for the
     dc.general.moderated newsgroup may be added at a later date.
     Please consult this FAQ periodically for updates.

I.3.1 What are possible ramifications of posting inappropriate
material?

     We KNOW that posting to a large number of regional groups
     will undoubtedly give your post wider exposure and hence you will
     have a better chance of finding someone to agree. . .or violently
     disagree with your position. However, there are several reasons
     why you shouldn't:

          - Imagine if everybody did.  The regional newsgroups would
          become effectively mirrors of ALL the newsgroups.  The
          Internet is a self-policing entity relying on the intelligence

          and common sense of users to keep it afloat... and you would
          be destructive rather than constructive.

          - As such, it is incredibly poor netiquette.

          - DC area administrators may take it upon themselves to
          write a letter to your system administrator [root@.. or
          postmaster@..] indicating your rudeness.  In turn, your
          system administrator may, at their discretion, reduce your
          Internet access, account privileges, etc.

          - As mentioned at the top of this document, if you have had
          this FAQ e-mailed to you, chances are that you have breached
          rules of netiquette as perhaps outlined in this FAQ.  Please
          take the information contained herein to heart, and let the
          e-mail to you be considered a first and only warning.

I.4 Discussion

     For the most part, discussion in dc.jobs should be kept on, or at
     least CLOSE to the original topic.  Intelligent, reasoned argument
     is not only allowable, it is welcomed.  However, Flamewars,
     name-calling, and similar behavior is not welcome.  And besides,
     this is only USENET: getting worked up enough to blow gaskets
     over what somebody else wrote just isn't worth the effort.  Relax.
     Go for a walk. Get up, get a coke and a bag of chips.

     And leave the flaming for alt.flame. . .


I.5 If my post is unsuitable to 'dc.general.moderated', where might it
    better go?

     Yes, we DO know that Washington, DC, is the capital of the United
     States, and the seat of our Federal Government.  But
     dc.general.moderated, as previously stated, is for discussions of
     topics of LOCAL interest SPECIFIC to the DC Metro area.  And so...

     Political Issues dealing with various aspects and actions of
     the FEDERAL government, including one's opinion of the President,
     Senator such-and-such or your particular political viewpoint on
     a national issue have other forums in which they are more
     appropriate.  We would suggest the alt.politics.* hierarchy,
     talk.politics.*, or a localized *.politics newsgroup.

     Federal Policies regarding purely local issues (i.e. the Wilson
     Bridge, the DC Financial Control Board, Home Rule, etc) are
     on topic here.  But discussions over your favorite political topic,

     such as abortion, Federal gun control policy, etc. are not welcome
     here.  The users of  dc.general.moderated politely request that you

     post them elsewhere, in a group dedicated to your particular axe to

     grind.  If you're still not sure where to post, try a topic search
at
     http://www.dejanews.com


I.6 Abuse of dc.general.moderated and Ramifications

     When a user posts an item that is inappropriate to
     dc.general.moderated, that user may receive a notice
     from the dc.general.moderated monitor which
     includes text explaining the error, a copy of this FAQ for
     reference, and a copy of the offending post.  Often, the
     error is an easy one to fix.  In some cases, users may choose
     to ignore these notices and continue to post inappropriately,
     paying no heed to the guideline for the group.

     If it is determined that the user has no intention of following the

     guidelines for the dc.general.moderated newsgroup, then the monitor

     may take further action against posts from the user, including
     reporting of user's inappropriate posts to their news admin,
     postmaster, and or sysadmin.  In extreme cases, the user may be
     entered into the robomoderation bot to cancel anything from the
     user in the newsgroup.  Should this occur, the user must contact
the
     monitor in order to discuss the guidelines for
dc.general.moderated,
     and to be removed from the bot.  In any case, at least 24 hours
notice
     will be given on dc.general.moderated, dc.general, and dc.config
prior
     to any bot moderation changes.

II.1 Who is the author of this document / Who died and made him
     king / Why was this FAQ written.

     K.A. Glass <salgak@huskynet.com> maintains the
     'dc.general.moderated' version of this FAQ.  It is heavily
     based on other DC Newsgroup FAQs with inputs from other
     DC area system administrators and residents.

     Nobody died and made us kings, and as such this document does not
     necessarily represent any sort of established "laws."  It is our
     best attempt towards bringing some form of order to a category of
     newsgroups which, given the rash of inappropriate posts of late,
     definitely needs it.

     Each draft of this document has been posted to
     'dc.general.moderated' (when created) , 'dc.general'
     (general discussion about the Washington, D.C. area),
     and 'dc.config' (discussion about the dc.* newsgroups.)
     If you have suggestions for improving this document, please forward

     them to the maintainer, K.A. Glass (salgak@huskynet.com).

II.2 General Disclaimer.

     K.A. Glass and other local DC area system administrators who
     aided in drafting this document make no legally enforceable claims
     as to the accuracy of this document.  As such, he/they are not
     responsible if reading it, downloading it, printing it out, or even

     being in the same room with it causes you to go blind, your
     computer to implode, or your dog to hate you.

II.3 How is this FAQ distributed?

     This FAQ is posted at least twice per month to 'dc.general',
     'dc.general.moderated', and 'dc.config' by the maintainer, K.A.
     Glass <salgak@huskynet.com>.

II.4 How may I distribute this FAQ?

     Please see the copyright notice below.  If it is unclear or you
     have any questions, contact the FAQ maintainer at
     <salgak@huskynet.com>.

II.5 Can I use this FAQ as a basis for my (other, regional) newsgroup?

     Yes.  In fact, this FAQ is directly based on other DC newsgroup
     FAQs.  However, please cite the authors where appropriate.  In
     fact,  this entire document may be used as a FAQ for another
     newsgroup with only place names changed.  However, I do
     not wish to be responsible for answering questions in regards
     to newsgroups from Buffalo to San Luis Opisbo, so if you are
     going to use this FAQ for your newsgroup, make sure you
     set it up so I won't have to.  I would also appreciate your telling

     me that you are indeed going to use the FAQ.


This document is not complete, but is posted as a start.  Just remember
the Golden Rule:  If you don't like it, then write your own FAQ.  (or
make polite suggestions about improving mine.) Also, you are free to
contact the maintainer or post publicly in 'dc.general', where any major

revisions are discussed before going into effect.


A note: Credit is given to A. Reichert <reichera@clark.net> from whose
dc.jobs FAQ were the source and basic format for this document.
*****
This document is Copyright (c) 1998 K.A. Glass, all rights reserved.
Permission is granted to reproduce it electronically on any system
connected to the various networks which make up the Internet, USENET,
and FidoNet, so long as it is reproduced in its entirety, unedited, and
with this copyright notice intact.
*****