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==  DC.FORSALE    Frequently Asked Questions and Posting Guidelines  ==
==  Version 1.20                                   January 15, 1997  ==
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==  Maintained by                                       A. Reichert  ==
==  Posting Frequency                             4 times per month  ==
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==          Based on the PHL.FORSALE FAQ by Adrian Cybriwsky         ==
==                    and the work of JD Falk                        ==
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     This document is intended to answer questions and clarify
generally accepted policies for the local USENET newsgroups titled 
'dc.forsale.computers' and 'dc.forsale.misc'.  Throughout this document, 
the term 'dc.forsale.*' will include both of these groups, as 
appropriate.

     If this document has been e-mailed to you, chances are that you
have violated one of the generally accepted guidelines of
'dc.forsale.*'.  You may receive more than one copy of this document.  
While the official maintainer of the document is A. Reicher, a number of 
others have decided to send it out as well, with the idea that 
reinforcement of ideas never hurts.

     The authors of this document makes no claims as to the accuracy of
this document.  In short, it is provided "as is."  However, we have
endeavored to keep it as factual and usable as possible, so please feel
free to EMail me or the rest of the members of the dc.forsale Advisory 
Committee 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.forsale.*' related issues

     1.  What is 'dc.forsale.*'?
          1.1 What is meant by "dc"?
     2.  What kinds of posts are acceptable to 'dc.forsale.*'?
     3.  What kinds of posts are unacceptable to 'dc.forsale.*'?
          3.1 Possible ramifications of posting unacceptable material
     4.  Special Case Posts
          4.1 Commercial postings
          4.2 Legally questionable items/services wanted/forsale
          4.3 Discussion
     5.  If my post is unsuitable for 'dc.forsale.*', where might
         it better go?
     6.  Posting Guidelines and Common Pitfall(s)

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 FAQ written?
     2.  Who is the dc.forsale Advisory Committee?
     3.  General Disclaimer
     4.  How is this FAQ be distributed? (USENET, WWW, FTP, EMail)
     5.  How may I distribute this FAQ?
     6.  Can I use this FAQ as a basis of a FAQ for my 
         (other, regional) newsgroup?
     7.  How do I contact the dc.forsale Advisory Committee?
     8.  Other useful information.

I.1  What is 'dc.forsale.*'?

     'dc.forsale.*' are USENET newsgroups devoted exclusively to the
     sale and trade of items of specific interest to Washington, D.C.
     metro area [see I.1.1] residents.  The hierarchy consists of two
     groups:  dc.forsale.computers and dc.forsale.misc.  These two 
     groups are the result of a split of the old dc.forsale newsgroup, 
     which is now defunct.

I.1.1 What is meant by "dc"?

     The "dc" of 'dc.forsale.*' is generally regarded as including the
     city of Washington, D.C. and its suburbs in Maryland and Virginia,
     within one hour's drive of D.C., excluding delays for traffic,
     weather, etc.  It also includes, by special exception, Baltimore, 
     Maryland, the state of Delaware, as far west as Martinsburg, West 
     Virginia, and a few adjoining areas that do not have their own 
     widely carried .forsale groups.

     'dc.forsale.*' is analogous to New York City's 'ny.forsale',
     Philadelphia's 'phl.forsale', and Baltimore, Maryland's
     'balt.forsale'.  It is very rare that a posting should include
     more than one of these newsgroups, though Baltimore postings are
     commonly crossposted to 'dc.forsale.*' due to the poor propagation
     of 'balt.forsale' (not all Baltimore systems carry the newsgroup.) 
     Almost never is there a reason that a posting should include more
     than two of these local newsgroups -- messages meant for a wider
     audience should be posted to newsgroups meant for wider
     propagation (see I.5.)

I.2 What kinds of posts are acceptable to 'dc.forsale.*'?

     Offers of sale/barter/giveaway of goods/services, notice of
     auction, desire to purchase/barter goods/services that are of
     specific interest to peoples residing in the area defined in I.1.1
     should comprise the majority of posts to 'dc.forsale.*'.  The
     items must be of particular interest to Washington, D.C. metro
     area residents as defined by the notion that either the item is
     relatively immobile/unshippable [couches, cars, grand pianos],
     located exclusively in the D.C. area [apartments, real estate], of
     particular interest to area residents [Books such as "Guide to to
     D.C. Restaurants"], or the buyer/seller does not want to deal with
     shipping out of area [perhaps the seller/buyer prefers dealing
     face-to-face.]  Postings to the 'dc.forsale.computers' newsgroup
     should be for hardware and software directly related to the use
     and operation of computer equipment.  Any other items should be
     posted to the 'dc.forsale.misc' newsgroup.  Of course, computer
     goods should NOT be posted to the 'dc.forsale.misc' newsgroup
     since a separate group exists specifically for these items.

     Postings from outside the DC area are acceptable only in rare 
     cases.   One such case might be when the poster is normally in 
     the DC area, and has left the item(s) for sale with a local contact 
     (please name the contact and how to get in touch with him or her).  
     Another is when the item(s) for sale are uniquely appealing for 
     DC-local people, such as Adams Morgan real estate or Redskins tickets.

I.3 What kinds of posts are unacceptable to 'dc.forsale.*'?

     Basically, posts that would be better served in other regional
     newsgroups or more general or item-specific newsgroups are
     unacceptable to 'dc.forsale.*'.  This includes:

          - Economics 101 textbooks from U. Cal Berkeley
          - Dorm refrigerators from the University of Michigan
          - "Want to buy any memory" from anywhere in the world 
          - "286-12 System, Loaded!" from South Florida
          - Real estate in Birmingham, U.K.
          - Anything offered by someone out of the D.C. area to be
            shipped into D.C., but not of any more particular interest
            to D.C. residents than to Chicago residents.

     Additionally, notices of software available via the Internet are
     generally not appreciated.

     It's not a question of whether the item CAN BE SHIPPED into D.C.;
     with the great numbers of courier services available these days
     (_all_ of which have offices here in the Nation's Capital),
     absolutely anything can, conceivably, be shipped here.  The
     question that should be asked before posting to 'dc.forsale.*' is
     whether the item could just as well go into a different newsgroup,
     such as one with broader scope, or a different, more appropriate
     regional focus.

     Additionally, articles that are cross-posted to greater than seven
     newsgroups are indicative of a non-regional nature, and will be
     subject to immediate cancellation.

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

     We KNOW that posting to a large number of regional forsale groups
     will undoubtedly give your item wider exposure and hence you will
     have a better chance of getting a good price for it. However,
     there are several reasons why you shouldn't:

          - Imagine if everybody did.  The regional newsgroups would
          become effectively mirrors of more general 'misc.forsale.*'
          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 (see section II.8).

          - Readers of 'dc.forsale.*' 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.  The sysadmins
          contacted on this and related issues have unanimously
          concluded that this FAQ is in the right, and have thanked us
          for bringing this matter to their attention.  This included
          system administrators of university sites, large online
          services, and smaller private access providers.

          - As if this were not enough, please realize that the vast
          majority of experienced 'net users truly abhor this type of
          breach of netiquette -- not because it is commercial, but
          because it makes the 'net a noisier, less pleasant place.

          - 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.

     In some cases, the dc.forsale Advisory Committee may cancel posts if 
     they are deemed inappropriate for the newsgroups.
     Note that, with the exception of excessivly cross-posted articles 
     this is a tool of last resort, and is never used unless
     multiple appeals to the common sense and better judgement of the
     offending party have produced either no response or a negative
     response, or if the post in question is blatant abuse.

I.4 Special Case Posts

     A number of posts are marginally acceptable in 'dc.forsale.*'. 
     That is to say, there is no clear consensus as to whether or not
     they are acceptable to 'dc.forsale.*'.  It must be noted that as
     they are only marginally acceptable, out-of-D.C. posts of these
     sort are often the /most/ frowned upon.

I.4.1 Commercial Postings

     Commercial postings are offers to buy or sell by corporate or
     sub-corporate, profit-driven entities.  This includes long
     distance phone service providers, tee-shirt printers,
     computer-related item manufacturers and resellers, lawyers,
     real-estate agents, travel agents, and others.  The larger the
     commercial entity, the less justified it is in posting to
     'dc.forsale.*', as this is in violation of the "flea-market" air
     of the newsgroup.

     Local small businesses, vendors and service organizations should
     feel free to post to 'dc.forsale.*' so long as the product or
     service they are selling is indigenous to the DC metro area. 
     Please keep in mind though that even though this is a great
     opportunity for inexpensive advertising, many people who pay for
     their Internet/Usenet connectivity view this as advertising at
     their (the recipients') expense, just like unsolicited faxes. 
     Please limit your posts to once a week if you do not have anything
     significant to change in the ad.  News articles are usually
     archived on most sites for several days.  Posting more frequently
     wastes space on someone else's machine--your low cost advertising
     is being underwritten by other folks, who then have to pass the
     costs along to their users (your prospective customers), so keep
     that in mind.  Out-of-D.C. commercial postings are in EXTREME
     violation of netiquette.

          Note:  In various *.forsale groups, there have been a few
          cases of commercial entities posting under the guise of an
          individual, private seller.  If you have direct knowledge of
          the fact that a seller is indeed a commercial entity, you
          may be justified in posting a followup to the original
          message stating that that is indeed the case.  Similarly,
          you may be justified in some cases in writing to the user's
          system administrator if you believe that the user's use of
          his account for commercial purposes may be in violation of
          that user's system policies.  Most educational sites
          (designated by the .edu domain), for example, do not allow
          commercial posts by their users.  It must be noted that
          George Washington University (*.gwu.edu) is included in this
          -- for some strange reason a large number of commercial
          posts have been seen from that site over the years, but
          we've been told by GWU administrators that these users are
          always dealt with.

I.4.2 Legally-Questionable Goods/Services

     It is generally viewed as poor netiquette to post legally
     questionable offers for goods/services to 'dc.forsale.*'.  This
     includes offers of sale of drugs, child pornography, weapons, sex,
     etc.  Please use your best judgment before posting desire to buy
     or sell items of this sort.  Sellers of pornography (including
     those "harmless" old Playboys you have in your attic) to minors is
     probably against the law in most places.  If you have a legitimate
     goal of buying/selling items of an adult nature, please respect
     readers' sensibilities by using descriptions of an adult nature
     only where absolutely necessary.  It may be best if posts of an
     adult nature ask for readers to email the seller for further
     information.

I.4.3 Discussion

     For the most part, discussion in 'dc.forsale.*' should be kept to
     a minimum.  However, messages telling of sales gone bad might be
     appropriate if they are not written provocatively as to degenerate
     into 'flame-wars.' If somebody offers a Chevrolet for sale,
     however, messages discussing the advantages of Fords to Chevrolets
     are not appropriate.  In a similar vein, if somebody offers a
     memory chip for sale for $55, please do not follow up with a
     message stating that that is a ridiculous price unless you
     personally are prepared to sell the same item for less.  Give free
     market mechanisms a little room to operate!

I.5 If my post is unacceptable to 'dc.forsale.*', where might it better
go?

     If your post is of a forsale/trade/want to buy nature, it might be
     better placed in one of the following newsgroups:

          - misc.forsale.* [general postings of items for sale/trade. 
          Specific classes of items for sale such as autos, comic
          books, aviation items, etc., net-wide.]

          - *.marketplace [again, specific classes of items,  
          net-wide.  Tend to be more of a commercial nature.]

          - biz.marketplace [nothing but commercial postings, often
          business-to-business.]

          - a more appropriate local forsale group, etc.

     Please consult your system administrator [root@yoursite] if you
     need help in locating an appropriate newsgroup.

I.6 Posting Guidelines and Common Pitfall(s)

     When posting items for sale to any of the dc.forsale.* newsgroups,
     the following guidelines should be kept in mind.

     - People posting items wanted or for sale in the dc.forsale.* 
     newsgroups should be local to the DC area.  As mentioned above, 
     this generally means that it should be fairly convenient for 
     anyone else in the Metro D.C. area to complete all parts of the 
     transaction without leaving the D.C. area as previously defined in 
     I.1.1.  Again, it is important that you mention the location of 
     the item(s) for sale in your post.

     - The "Subject:" line of your article should tell what you're 
     selling.  Lines like "For Sale" don't say anything new.  If 
     you're selling more than one thing, such as a couch, love
     seat, and chair, you might group these together and use a  
     Subject: line such as "Home furnishings for sale".

     - If you are posting a "Want To Buy" article, precede the item you 
     want to buy with "WTB:" in the Subject: line.  People selling 
     things don't need to put anything before the item being sold.

     - In the body of the article, please repeat what it is you are 
     selling, perhaps in more detail.  Give the condition of the 
     item(s), the price or trade value, any restrictions on the
     transaction, and the physical locate of the item.  LOCATION IS 
     IMPORTANT IN YOUR POSTS!  

     - When you post to the dc.forsale.* hierarchy, include a line at the 
     top or bottom of your post indicating location.  This can be a 
     city/state combination, a phone number for potential purchasers to 
     contact you with, or some other indicator.

     If you post from a nation ISP, such as AOL or Netcom, it is 
     especially important for you to include your location in your  
     message.  If location is omited and the members of dcfadv are not 
     able to determine the actual location, you may receive a copy of 
     this FAQ along with a notification that your post was inappropriate.

     - Please choose ONE of these newsgroups in which to post your ad.
     For instance, if you post an item to dc.forsale.computers, please 
     do NOT also post it to dc.forsale.misc!  Doing so cuts down on the
     usefulness of both newsgroups.  If you have a variety of items to 
     sell, some of which are computer related, and some that are not.  
     Please split the items up into two posts, putting the computer related 
     items into dc.forsale.computers, and the rest into dc.forsale.misc.

     Also, only rarely would it be appropriate to also post such an item 
     to, say, dc.general.  This is not to discourage you from 
     cross-posting to another appropriate nearby forsale newsgroup, such 
     as balt.forsale.

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

     A. Reichert maintains the 'dc.forsale' version of this FAQ.  It is 
     heavily based on a similar FAQ for 'phl.forsale', written by Adrian 
     Cybriwsky and the work of J. D. Falk, the original FAQ maintainer.  
     There has also been much input from other people.

     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.

     Contrary to what you might think or have been told, UseNet is not
     a free and open forum.  Newsgroups have charters, and each newsgroup
     should have only relevant articles.   Newsgroup/UseNet 
     maintenance costs a lot in terms of communications costs, disk space,
     time and labor, etc.  A user's "access fee" gives access - it 
     does not cover these donated costs.  To keep Newsgroups useful and 
     to keep UseNet from dying of overuse/abuse, newsmasters continually 
     monitor newsgroups for appropriate use, and take necessary action when
     inappropriate use is evident.

     Each draft of this document has been posted to
     'dc.forsale.computers', 'dc.forsale.misc', 'dc.general' (general
     discussion about the Washington, D.C. area), and 'dc.config'
     (discussion about the dc.* newsgroups.)  At this time, I have
     received *NO* dissenting opinions from 'dc.forsale.*' readers, and
     many compliments and offers of thanks.  It is clear that the
     readers of 'dc.forsale.*' appreciate this FAQ.  However, if you
     don't like this FAQ, please feel free to make polite suggestions
     to the author(s) (either privately or in 'dc.general'), or write
     your own.

II.2 Who is the dc.forsale Advisory Committee?

     Because it is best not to rely totally on one person's judgment in
     all issues, the dc.forsale Advisory Committee was formed
     by a number of concerned D.C.-area users, and is open to the
     public.  

II.3 General Disclaimer.

     A. Reichert, J. D. Falk, Adrian Cybriwsky, and the members of the
     dc.forsale Advisory Committee make no legally
     enforceable claims as to the accuracy of this document.  As such,
     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.4 How is this FAQ distributed?

     This FAQ is posted four times per month to 'dc.forsale.computers', 
     'dc.forsale.misc', 'dc.general', and 'dc.config' by the maintainer, 
     A. Reichert.  It can also be obtained more immediately via the 
     following methods:

     World Wide Web <http://www.clark.net/pub/reichera/dcf/dcf.html>

     FTP ftp.clark.net, filename '/pub/reichera/dcf/dcf.faq'

     EMail Send a message to majordomo at boink.clark.net> 
          containing nothing but the words "get dcfadv dc.forsale.faq"
          in the body (the subject line will be ignored.)  It 
          may take as long as a full day before you receive the 
          document.

II.5 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 (see section
     II.7).

II.6 Can I use this FAQ as a basis for my (other, regional) newsgroup?

     Yes.  In fact, this FAQ is directly based on the 'phl.forsale'
     FAQ, and includes a great many quoted portions from that document. 
     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 this one.) 
     Also, you are free to contact the dc.forsale Advisory Committee or 
     post publicly in 'dc.general', where any major revisions are 
     discussed before going into effect.

II.7 How do I contact the dc.forsale Advisory Committee?

     Contact addresses for the dc.forsale Advisory Committee are:

     Name:                            Mailbox:     Host:
     A. Reichert (FAQ Maintainer)     reichera     clark.net
     dc.forsale Advisory Committee    dcfadv       boink.clark.net
     Information                      majordomo    boink.clark.net

II.8 Other useful information.

Newsgroup:
            news.announce.newusers

RFC1855 - UseNet Netiquette: 
            http://www.cybernothing.org/cno/docs/rfc1855.html

Regional Newsgroup Information Database:
            http://www.unicom.com/regional/

*****
This document is Copyright (c) 1995-1997 by J.D. Falk, A. Reichert, 
Joseph S. D. Yao, and members of the dc.forsale Advisory Committee, 
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. 
*****