Northern Ireland USENET Heirarchy ni.*

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ni.* newsgroup charters

Other Usenet related information

ni.* newsgroups draft general rules

  1. Spamming to NI groups (or to other groups) is a Bad Thing. In other words, you shouldn't post the same message to multiple newsgroups in the NI hierarchy. The idea behind having different newsgroups is to try and impose some order on Usenet. Without it, it all turns into one mess of threadless chatter. Most people subscribe to more than one NI group and dont need to see your message more than once. This equally appiles to posting the same message multiple times in the same newsgroup.

  2. If you want to advertise something, make sure you do it in a net-friendly way. Remember that not everyone wants to read your advert. Other people are paying to read your advert. If you can, post it to one group where it is of most relevance. If you are advertising a Web site, ni.www or ni.announce is probably the best place for it.
    Remember that all ni.* groups do not permit commercial postings. Period.

  3. Quoting
    • There is no need to quote an entire message to add your reply. Most news software uses "threading" and so if you reply to a message then your message is included in the thread.
    • If anyone wants to read the message to which you are commenting, they only need to click once or twice and they can see the original message for themselves.
    • Excessive quoting is painful to read and a waste of time. There is no point at all in quoting someone's six line text sig (we'll get to sigs soon enough I'm sure!).
    • Careful quoting will perhaps include the relevant lines from the message you wish to comment to.
    • A good guideline is to check if you are adding more than you are quoting. The more you are adding and the less you are quoting, the better.

  4. Don't be put off posting to any NI group because of something anyone said, unless of course you plan to post something which conflicts with the newsgroup charter, in which case the poster accepts the normal punishment of being boiled alive in a tub of lard.

  5. Privacy
    • It's considered bad form indeed to take a an email which someone has sent privately and make it public. Although this can happen in the rough and tumble of a "flame war", it's bad manners. Although it should be known than email is NOT secure and all correspondence which is intended for only one person should be encrypted, it's still very rude to post a private message. I'm sure there will be legal implications if the message is of real importance.

ni.* reorganisation

Proposals: - Draft restructuring proposals.
  1. ni.business.chat be removed - Its a spam haven and useless.
  2. ni.commerce-discussion be created to replace above group. This group to be non-moderated. No commercial postings or solicitations will be permitted. Reasonable replys providing requested assistance will be permitted (i.e. if someone asks for something and you supply it or know of someone who does you may provide a pointer to that information - preferably a web page).
  3. Anti-Spam measures. All ni.* groups be subject to Anti-spam measures. Essentially what this means, if if I see a 'SPAM' or 'Commercial post' then I'll cancel the article - regardless of other cross posted newsgroups.
  4. Creation of ni.binaries.misc
    John Kennedy suggested a Binaries group for ni.* (he has subsequently gone off the idea, I now agree with him). Some people have been using ni.test for binaries posting which isn't really relevant. Practically everyone here has access to web pages - I'd suggest people put the image/binary on there and simply point people to the address. That way the binary isn't getting copied around the world (yes thats how it works) - only people who want to see it will download it.
  5. Creation of ni.community.voluntary
    " Paul, what is the chance of getting an ni.community.voluntary group set up, for use by people in the community and voluntary sector, particularly those coming on-line through community networks such as CINNI?"
    - David R. Newman
    pgregg - Group doesn't warrant its own hierarchy, perhaps a ni.community-services ?
  6. Creation of ni.adverts
    " Jason Dowzell <comtech@dnet.co.uk>
    Newsgroups: ni.buy-and-sell
    Hows about a new newsgroup called ni.adverts where genuine NI companies can post details of special offers or just general prices for products or services. As I see it it is the best way to stop guys like me and others (eg. Alan at Xtreme) annoying you by posting in esp. ni.buy-and-sell.
    It could still be filtered by you to stop American crap from coming through or stuff from elsewhere which does'nt relate to NI businesses.
    pgregg - Group doesn't warrant its own hierarchy, better as ni.business.adverts? - Though don't blame me if it's spammed to shit. I and others not interested in the group will not look at it, thus I will not be cancelling Non-Ni commercial posts within the group.

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