[2297] in comp.os.os2.announce archive
** Welcome to comp.os.os2.announce !!! ** **UPDATED**
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Mick Brown)
Thu Jan 2 10:19:42 1997
To: os2ann.DISCUSS@bloom-picayune.MIT.EDU
Date: 2 Jan 1997 15:07:08 GMT
From: lfirrantello@BIX.com (Mick Brown)
Reply-To: lfirrantello@BIX.com (Mick Brown)
Source: lfirrantello@BIX.com (Mick Brown)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome to comp.os.os2.announce, the newsgroup where 87,000* readers find out
about:
* new OS/2 applications
* updates to FTP archives of OS/2 programs
* OS/2 user group meetings
* new OS/2 publications
* updates to the OS/2 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) lists
* news about OS/2-related workshops, seminars, and demonstrations
* beta testing programs for coming OS/2 applications
* new releases of OS/2 and ServicePaks for existing versions
* miscellaneous OS/2 informational news
The charter indicates that this group is intended to publish occasional
informational postings, news, FAQs, and announcements directly related to
using OS/2, and using OS/2 software.
Some topics are not appropriate for this group. In general: if your post
doesn't help others use or learn about OS/2 it belongs in another newsgroup.
For Example:
* jobs offered or jobs sought.
* questions about OS/2 or OS/2 software
* discussion or opinions about OS/2 or OS/2 software
* excessive advertising "hype"
* "Windows Stinks", "OS/2 Rules", or other advocacy
* non-OS/2 related announcements or news.
There are many other newsgroups in the comp.os.os2.* hierarchy and elsewhere
which welcome discussion of these other topics. Please read the charters of
the other groups and post your message to an appropriate newsgroup.
Sections:
First things first
How to submit to comp.os.os2.announce
Alternate ways to submit to comp.os.os2.announce
Posting Guidelines
How to Post Anonymously
Speeding Submission Processing
Posting Checklist:
What happens after you submit an article
Turnaround Time
First things first
------------------
This group is moderated. This means all posts are checked by the moderator
before appearing in the group. The moderator is like an editor in a newspaper:
he accepts, rejects, and may make minor changes to submitted articles before
they are published in the group. The editor's (moderator's) charge is to
ensure that articles conform to the charter listed above.
The moderator does not and can not ensure total accuracy of posts appearing in
comp.os.os2.announce. The post's author bears the primary responsibility for
his statements. Where there is a factual error which can be documented, please
feel free to submit a corrective post with references to the documentation of
the factual error.
How to submit to comp.os.os2.announce
-------------------------------------
For most people, posting to this group appears no different than posting to
any other group. Your news software, and news server will handle the details
of forwarding your submission to the moderator completely automatically.
The major difference will be that your post will NOT appear in the newsgroup
immediately.
For those who can submit this way, please do so. These submissions are usually
easier for the moderator to process.
Alternate ways to submit to comp.os.os2.announce
------------------------------------------------
You can email my submission address directly, if your news software returns an
error message, or returns a copy of your submission to you. Please format it
the same way you would on your news software, and send it to
comp-os-os2-announce@uunet.uu.net.
Posting Guidelines
------------------
1. Please make the subject line as meaningful as possible, the subject line is
used by readers and some of the USENET news indexing programs. Words like
announce or announcement, are redundant in this newsgroup and will be
removed.
Something like "VENDOR: New News Reader v4.3 by ZyX Products" is
good. I discourage subjects like "for comp.os.os2.announce" or "submission"
or "announcement" or "new program".
Please use a keyword in the subject. A suggested list of keywords appears
below.
2. Please describe your product, software, FAQ, or whatever. And please write
the description from the point of view of someone unfamiliar with your
product. This doesn't need to be long. Usually just one or two sentences is
sufficient.
** My most frequent complaint is that the descriptions often assume the **
** reader already knows what the product is or what the service does **
** REPEAT: Do not assume the reader knows what your product does **
3. Please include all information necessary to:
* get more information
* get your software from a FTP or WWW site (PLEASE USE URL references)
* get other software your package requires but does not include.
** Missing or inaccurate information is another frequent complaint **
4. Please include valid email addresses so the moderator can contact you to:
a) confirm receipt or your submission, b) ask questions about your post
Bounced email and no contact information in the body of the post means that
your submission will be silently rejected. Please include the
reply-to: your.email.address@yoursite.com line as the first line of your
submission. Some news servers have bugs that destroy email addresses in the
headers sent to moderators even though they work properly for unmoderated
newsgroups.
5. User Groups: Please include meeting fees, date, and location, and some sort
of contact information.
I suggest also indicating the usual meeting location, day and time so that
potential visitors can plan. Please allow at least a week for processing
and news propagation.
6. Software announcements: Please indicate full URLs for files mentioned
including host directory and filename. If it is currently in an incoming
directory indicate where it is expected to be placed. For example: "PMProd
is currently located at ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/os2/incoming/pmprod27.zip
but is expected to move to /pub/os2/network/tcpip".
7. If you are not the originator of the information, please provide an
indication of this fact. Please make sure that reposting is desired by the
originator.
8. This group is primarily intended for occasional announcements and news
postings. Resubmissions are generally referred to another appropriate
newsgroup.
Please contact the moderator at lfirrantello@bix.com if you have a periodic
announcement other than user group meetings.
9. Crosspost requests are usually not honored to other moderated newsgroups.
Crossposts to local hierarchy OS/2 newsgroups depends on the moderator's
site's access to the newsgroup (unavailable newsgroups cause posting
failure). Crossposts into non-OS/2 newsgroups are discouraged.
10. Suggested keywords for subject lines:
BBS BOOK COURSE DEMO DRIVER GAME
NEWSLTR RESELLER SEMINAR WEB
BETA - alpha/beta/gamma software testing programs
FREEWARE - free software
IRC - IRC internet chat meetings
MAGAZINE - paper magazine
PR - press release
SOFTWARE - non-commercially distributed software
UG - users' group
VENDOR - commercial software or hardware supplier.
ZINE - electronic magazine
11. Generally forbidden keywords: ANNOUNCE, ANNOUNCEMENT, ANN, NEW, etc.
How to Post Anonymously
-----------------------
Anonymous posting is allowed for those who do not want to receive excessive
email concerning their submissions.
1. Please post as usual, with proper email addresses in your From: header in
your news reader. The moderator may have to contact you. If the moderator
cannot email you, your post will be rejected without notice.
2. Place the following as the first line in the body of your message:
"Anonymous: yes"
This will allow my posting scripts to remove identification information so
your mailbox will not be inundated with questions about your post.
Speeding Submission Processing
------------------------------
It will help speed processing your post if you include the following at the
top of the body of your post followed by a line of "-" dashes.
Reply-To: Email address (requested)
Submitted by: Email address (requested)
Source: Email address (optional)
Date-to-post: DATE (optional)
Anonymous: yes (optional)
Followup-To: newsgroup (optional)
Newsgroups: list of newsgroups separated by commas (optional)
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Email addresses should be like: "Mick Brown <lfirrantello@bix.com>" or
"lfirrantello@bix.com (Mick Brown)" or "lfirrantello@bix.com
Reply-To: should be filled with the email address that will respond to
comments about your posting. This will be used to set the news header when
posted.
Submitted by: should contain your email address. This will replace the
corresponding news header when posted. Please include this header since your
news reader may have your email address incorrectly configured.
Source: should contain the contact information of your third party source.
Please do not supply this, if you or your company is the source.
Date-to-post: ONLY use this if you want your post DELAYED until a particular
date. Please do not include this otherwise.
Anonymous: yes. ONLY supply this if you cannot handle email contacts for some
reason.
The followup-to: and Newsgroups: lines are best handled by setting them in
your news reader software. However you can include them here if you are
submitting by email or cannot figure out how to set them properly in your
news reader.
Followup-To: newsgroup indicates which newsgroup will contain discussion of
your post.
Newsgroups: indicates which newsgroups will get a copy of your post.
Posting Checklist:
------------------
a) Your suggested subject line
b) your name, as you would like it to appear in the announcement
c) your email address, where the moderator can reach you in the
event of a question
d) note whether you would prefer that your email address be withheld
from the announcement
e) the name and email address of the source (if a third party) including
acknowledgment of permission from the source to submit to USENET
f) the text of the announcement, restricted to 79 characters per line
g) include any relevant filenames and locations for shareware products
NOTE: Please use URL format.
h) filling out the appropriate portions of the above template will speed
processing. Filling out the template will help me contact you if your news
server is one of those that mangles the from: and reply-to: headers.
** Please place your name and email address in the body of your submission **
** I am receiving an increasing number of submissions where the news server
** has mangled From: and Reply-To: headers in submissions. This means that **
** my email to you bounces and I have to reject the anonymous submission. **
** Placing the "Submitted by:" and "Reply-to:" lines from the template is **
** the preferred method of placing your email address in the body of your **
** submission. **
What happens after you submit an article
----------------------------------------
1) I send email confirming receipt of your submission. If you do not get an
email from the moderator within a reasonable time (generally 24 hours), please
contact me at lfirrantello@bix.com.
2) I will contact you if I have a question about your submission. Usually this
is because you announced software and didn't indicate how to obtain it in the
body of your submission.
3) If I think your submission doesn't meet the requirements of the charter he
will send a note indicating why I think it is inappropriate under the charter,
and optionally what changes could make it acceptable under the charter. If you
disagree, feel free to write me with your reasoning about how it does meet the
charter. I am willing to listen, and try to maintain an open mind.
4) If your article meets the charter, it is posted to the group, usually
within two days, without further contact with the submitter. If it doesn't
appear within a week on your server, please contact me at
lfirrantello@bix.com.
Turnaround Time
---------------
The moderator is a volunteer. Moderating comp.os.os2.announce is necessarily a
lower priority task, therefore some delay will occasionally occur, depending
on workload. More extended absences that would prevent me from processing
submissions will usually be noted in the newsgroup. If the task of moderating
this newsgroup ever becomes too heavy, I would expect to step down, rather
than letting the newsgroup stagnate.
* comp.os.os2.announce readership estimate for 1995 May, taken from the
occasional posting in the newsgroup news.lists. Consult that newsgroup for
information on how the survey is conducted. The margin of error is
approximately +/- 5 percentage points. The monthly readership estimate:
40,000 1995 July
87,000 1995 May
71,000 1995 March
72,000 1995 January
46,000 1994 July
46,000 1994 June
67,000 1994 May (skewed result)
69,000 1994 April (skewed result)
45,000 1994 January
50,000 1993 November
49,000 1993 October
35,000 1993 September
30,000 1993 August
31,000 1993 July
26,000 1993 June
22,000 1993 May
===============================
Reposted with modification by
--Mick Brown (lfirrantello@bix.com)
Moderator comp.os.os2.announce
=====================================================================
| c.o.o.announce submissions: POST [or email comp-os-os2-announce@uunet.uu.net]
| Please address other correspondence to lfirrantello@bix.com .
| Please see: http://www.bix.com/pub/os2ann/pindex.htm for posting guidelines
