This document contains specific information on configuring several types of news reader (that is, software used for reading and posting to news) for posting to uk.* newsgroups in a way that conforms to the various official guidelines and to general good netiquette. This is not itself an 'official' document but is intended to be helpful to new uk.* users. It is also not a guide on how to write articles, simply on how to post them; however, one piece of general netiquette bears repeating here - it is important to read newsgroups for a time before posting to them to make sure they really are what you think.
Currently there are several news readers which are able to post in formats other than plain text, such as HTML or RTF; some can post articles in a dual format with a plain text part and then the text in another format. While this means that articles look attractive when read with a compatible news reader, remember that not everybody is using the same news reader as you. Many users will not be able to easily read posts in HTML. Also, articles in HTML or combined format articles are much longer than plain text articles and so are taking up extra bandwidth for the same content.
For these reasons, posting in HTML or any format other than plain text is generally frowned upon in the uk.* hierarchy, and is banned under many group Charters. Following are step-by-step instructions for configuring some common news readers to post in plain text only.
Plain text is the default posting format for news in Mozilla (released versions 1.0 and later). Here is how to turn off HTML format for a specific account if necessary:
Note: This information applies to the final release version of Communicator 4.5 only, not to any Preview Releases (which had a slightly different interface).
Alternatively, to turn off HTML posting for a single newsgroup:
Plain text is the default posting format for news in these versions of Outlook Express. Here is how to change it back globally if necessary:
You can also configure the default posting format for news servers (not groups) individually:
Quoting is the practice of including sections of text from another article when are replying to that article. The quoted text is set off from your replying text by a quoting character - usually a greater-than sign >. Quoted text is useful since it provides a context for the reply, without the reader having to find the original article. It may also be the case that previous articles have appeared out of order, or not at all - you cannot assume that readers of your article have seen all the articles you reference. Done properly, quoting can make it easier to follow a complex thread of articles. Done improperly, quoting can be confusing to readers, and may even be insulting to other posters (for example, by accidentally attributing a quoted statement made by one poster to another). Here are some of the things to bear in mind when quoting:
On <uk.foo> in <m-1234@oenone.demon.co.uk> on Fri,
11 Sep 1998 15:15:51 +0100, "Alex D. Baxter" <alex-faq@oenone.demon.co.uk> wrote:
Unfortunately, the default for these two news readers seems to be to place the cursor on a blank line before the quoted text when replying to a message. All you can do is remember to move the cursor to the bottom of the quoted text before typing your reply (perhaps this would be a good opportunity to trim the quoted text).
Note: This information applies to the final release version of Communicator 4.5 only, not to any Preview Releases (which had a slightly different interface).
Here are some other guidelines which may be of help in reading and posting news:
Many posters use spaces or tabs to align text in articles. Some articles also contain diagrams in 'ASCII art' which are only correctly viewable using a fixed-width font (such as Courier). So if you want to view articles as they were intended to be seen, use a fixed-width font.
Many posters are used to reading news articles in a terminal or window that is 80 fixed-width characters wide. If you wrap the text of your articles at a 72 character margin this gives plenty of space for quoting characters in replies before the lines either need re-wrapping or overflow the 80-character width.
Most news readers allow you to sign off the end of a post with a personal signature file. If you choose to use one, the recommendation is to keep it to a maximum of four lines (of 70-80 characters). This does not include the signature separator (two hyphens, space, return "-- ") which most news readers automatically place before the signature when you post. When creating a new signature, check that it has no extra spaces or blank lines at the end.
Note that current and several past versions of Outlook Express are unable to use the standard signature separator as the space is stripped. There are apparently third-party software packages that can fix this problem but the maintainer has not been able to test any as yet.
After configuring your news reader, it is probably a good idea to send a test post to check that it is working as you expect. Rather than posting test messages to a regular newsgroup, which may annoy some readers, there are newsgroups specifically created for this purpose. In uk.* the test newsgroup is called uk.test. Be aware that there are various servers running software called "autoresponders" that look for messages in test newsgroups and send an e-mail to the poster when a test message is seen. If you do not want to receive these e-mails include the word "ignore" in the Subject line of your test post.
It is advisable to read a newsgroup for some time before posting, to get a feeling for the subjects under discussion. Reading the group's formal Charter is also a good idea, since it may contain details such as rules on advertising or topics that are considered inappropriate for that group.
Most newsgroups in uk.* have a charter; the complete listing of Charters within the hierarchy can be found on the UK Usenet homepages.
Maintainer: Alex D. Baxter <alex-faq@oenone.demon.co.uk>;
Original idea: Andy Mabbett <andy@pigsonthewing.org.uk>;
With help from: Mark Goodge <mark@good-stuff.co.uk>, Denis Fuller <bedfordtlfan@yahoo.com>, Rick Martin <rick.martin@pixel-group.com>, Dave Postill <dave.postill@pobox.com>, Dr. John Stockton <jrs@merlyn.demon.co.uk>, Batch <miles.batchelor@bigfoot.com>, and Dave Hodder <dmh@dmh.org.uk>.
Please send any additions, corrections, or suggestions to Alex Baxter at <alex-faq@oenone.demon.co.uk>. I am always looking for information on configuring news readers not already covered, on any platform.
This article is provided as is without any express or implied warranties. While every effort has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information contained in this article, the maintainer assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.