http://www.atm.ch.cam.ac.uk/sports/hints.html (PC Press Internet CD, 03/1996)
Helpful Hints
Helpful Hints
Here are a few pointers on what you could do to avoid difficult
situations, and prevent alienating most of the readers on the newsgroup.
TEST-ARTICLES - Many people tend to post test articles on r.s.s just to see if
everything works as it should. The intent is admirable but there are specific
groups for this purpose namely 'alt.test' and 'misc.test'. With the kind
of traffic involved in this group it would be nice to be able to keep out
the unneccesary articles, rest assured that if your article is posted without
problems on the test groups they will certainly work on r.s.s.
CAPS-LOCK - Please make sure your capslock key is off when you write an
article to r.s.s, otherwise it may be ignored because it is hard to read.
By all means use caps to emphasise words, but use caps sparingly.
FLAMES - You will see items which, inadvertantly or intentionally, will
insult and incense you. The actions you take from there are important, most
of all do not get carried away and begin hurling abuse, after all everyone
is entitled to an opinion and your respect of this is more valued than any
repertoire of insults you may have.
If this advice goes unheeded then, inevitably, this will develop into
more insults, incoherent arguments and generally it ends up in an all out
flame war. First consider the motives of the article and look for telltale
signs of a wind-up or an element of humour. Next consider whether to post the
reply or send E-Mail. Invariably the quarrel is between two people and the
rest of the readers do not wish to witness the slanging match use up their
resources. If in doubt use E-Mail. Last of all consider whether you might not
be better off using discretion rather than aggression and not reply at all.
In any event please don't let your emotions rule over better judgement.
Avoid racist, overbearing comments and sweeping generalisations. It
sounds easy enough but it is surprising how often simple points are overlooked
and ignored. Any such remarks could land you in the killfiles of many readers
and any subsequent articles from you could easily be ignored. So it is
more prudent to choose your words with a little care and avoid problems.
HEADINGS - Use meaningful subject headings for your articles. Rather than
choosing 'HELP!' you might try something like 'Seeking List of English
Champions'. If there are many different topics in your article try finding
a common thread or simply state 'Various requests/results and news'.
EDIT OFTEN - When replying to an article and including the text of the
original article edit the quotes down as much as possible. In other words
don't include a 100 line article just so you can add 'Right On!' at the end.
Also be mindful of the 'Subject' and 'Newsgroups' lines. Make sure they are
always appropriate, changing them when neccessary.
SPACING - Also make sure you keep each line of your article to under 80
characters long. 80 columns is the standard width of most screens and
anything over this will make the article look messy for some people,
eventhough it might look OK on yours.
SCORELINES - Now imagine it, you've just seen a stupendous game and are keen
to post the result. So far so good. At the other end of the globe another eager
fan is looking forward to the telecast which will be shown a day or two later.
Rather than to ask the second fan to desist from the USENET for the duration
and having the articles pile up, a little care by the person who posts the
score is appropriate. Do NOT put the scoreline in the header, or say so-and-so
wins the Cup. Rather name the teams (eg. Marseille - Milan) and use the result
in the body of the article. Even better yet insert a message along the lines
of "Warning, score coming up" and put a [Control-L] on the following line by
itself, and then follow it with your post. The [Control-L] acts as a pagebreak.
If you're not sure practise on 'alt.test'.
TWO RSS'es - Rec.sport.soccer exists as two entities. One as a USENET
newsgroup and also as a mailing list. Be mindful of the vast difference
between getting each article in your system mailbox and logging into the net
anytime the mood takes you. Mailing list subscribers will get huge mail boxes
and many attacks will seem more personal to them, and will feel more provoked.
USENET readers will be able to weed out troublesome persons by the use of
kill-files or even read only those articles which concern a given subject and
ignore all others. Just to let you know, as this will govern the sort of
response you get.
Correspondence to sports@atm.ch.cam.ac.uk.
This page maintained by Owen Garrett, Centre for Atmospheric Science.
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