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**Posting FAQ - New posters, please read**

This FAQ was compiled by several regulars here:

Welcome Sewists and new posters! Here are some guidelines to posting to the sewing newsgroups. In case you are wondering where you are and how you got here, you are in a newsgroup, AKA "Usenet" which is a part of the internet that has been around much much longer than the www, which it is not a part of. These groups are not moderated.

This information is protocol and etiquette that has been in use for over *20* years on Usenet (newsgroups are Usenet) I have edited this from these sites:

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link to the news.newusers.questions web site,
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, If you are seeking information on a common topic, try doing search at
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if you don't find your subject, post a basic question tothe group. Be precise in your requests for information. If you are seeking help on a technique, or are having a problem, the more information you give, the more someone will be likely to be able to help you with your request. Put some thought into your header: "problem" or "I need help" are much more likely to be ignored than a specific header such as " help: facing has wrinkles" or "where can I find fine linen".

There is a "what machine should I buy" FAQ.

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NO Advertising. NONE. No commercial ads, no auction notices, no eBay announcements, no "for sale" private party ads, no links to a commercial site; nothing. There are marketplace groups for ads. (rec.crafts.textiles.marketplace) Ever been to a Usenet group that has more ads than posts? This also includes one line posts announcing commercial sites. And yes, this is a grey area, but in past discussions the overwhelming majority are in agreement that all ads need to go to the marketplace. If you would like to know more about advertising on Usenet, here's a link link to it: Advertising on Usenet: How To Do It, How Not To Do It

Please don't argue with us about it should be OK for

**you** to do it.

Edit your replies. If you are replying to a post that is rather lengthy, use your editing functions to pare the message down. If you reply without leaving a portion of the request in, and the header isn't clear, many people will not know what you are posting about. If the subject changes in the course of a reply, change your header so that people will know what your post is about.

The sewing newsgroups are pretty chatty. Keep in mind that not everyone may be interested in the non-sewing chatter about kids, cooking, pets, parenting, religion, whatever. It's polite to put an OT for OFF TOPIC in the header, either if the thread has "derailed" to not be about sewing anymore, or if it's obviously not sewing related.

Please do not top post: this is putting your answer above the comment you are replying to. It's hard to track the conversation when you do this.

This is a public forum, and an international one. There may be hundreds of people reading your posts. Many people have to pay for their download/online time by the minute which is the main reason for keeping headers concise and posts succinct. Also, don't assume that everyone is in the USA; they are not!!

No photos. This is not a binary group. Please post photos to the web and put up a link. NO HTML either, this is a text only forum.

Signature files: No more than 4 lines please. (bandwidth again) If someone is a participant in the group, it is considered acceptable to list business information in the signature file.

No "me-too ism": it's a waste of bandwidth. So is, "I know I saw something somewhere...."

Remember this is a public, unmoderated forum that reflects each of us as individuals. If someone's posts really drive you nuts on a regular basis, you can make them "go away" using a killfile. This is an option in most newsreader software that will block any posts by a specified sender. For the how on killfiles see: Killfile and Anti Troll FAQs at

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is any form of unwanted posts or email, usuallycommercial and unsolicited. Please don't ask for an email only reply. DL put it very well: "I don't normally send an email copy unless it's specifically requested, and I usually won't respond at all to someone who says, "I don't normally read this group, so please send me an email copy," but I don't mind at all sending a copy to someone who says, "I read this group regularly, but a lot of posts never make it to my server."

The difference is that the first person is basically saying, "I'm too busy and too important to be bothered with checking in the newsgroup for answers. I don't value your time in composing a response, and maybe spending some time doing research to answer the question, but _my_ time is too valuable to waste coming back here to read it. I also don't care if anyone else is able to benefit from the responses--just send me the email."

Many many people have contributed to this over the years. Thanks to all for links, editorial comments and input.

Reply to
BEI Design
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welcome.

are

You

(Did you see the bit about "top posting"?)

;-)

Beverly

Reply to
BEI Design

Thank You

Reply to
Vikki In WA State

And "Edit your replies."

(Try not to feel picked on -- this is just a good place to address something that needs to be addressed now and again.)

Terms often fuzzily understood:

"Top posting" is the practice of quoting the entire expletive-deleted thread and tacking on a reply at the top. This is the required format in at least one newsgroup. Alt.sewing is not that newsgroup.

"Bottom posting" is the practice of quoting the entire expletive-deleted thread and tacking on a reply at the bottom. This is the required format in at least two newsgroups. Alt.sewing is not one of those newsgroups.

"Quote and response posting" is the practice of trimming a post down to the part to which you intend to respond, then writing your response under that excerpt.

If you have separate responses to separate parts of the post, you delete all un-necessary material above the first part to which you intend to respond, put your cursor under that part, type your response, then delete material below your response and above the next relevant part, repeat until done.

In newsgroups with very short threads -- and threads in alt.sewing are characteristically very short -- there are many quote-and-response posts that look like bottom posts, the only difference being that the quote-and-response poster paused to ask himself "do I need all of this?".

Quote-and-response requires more thought than top/bottom posting, because it's possible, when editing a complicated post carelessly, to leave a quote labeled with the wrong "so-and-so said" line. When you say that George said something that was actually said by Bill, both George and Bill are apt to become very annoyed with you, even if both of them agree heartily with the sentiment expressed in the quote. Nobody likes to be lied about.

One easy out is to delete everything, and then write a post that makes sense on its own. Remember that the object isn't to intricately follow some obscure dance-step of rules, the object is to post messages that make sense, and to have conversations that are easy to follow -- even when, as often happens with Usenet, the order in which messages arrive isn't the order in which they were written.

Joy Beeson

Reply to
Joy Beeson

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