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How To Write a Good Newgroup MessageHow To Write a Good Newgroup MessageCopyright (c) 1996-2001, Brian Edmonds $Revision: 1.19 $ $Date: 2001/07/23 06:50:23 $This document may be freely retransmitted in Usenet or email; permissionto reproduce in any other media should be requested from the author,Brian Edmonds <brian@gweep.ca>. The latest edition ofthis FAQ can be found on the web at: http://www.gweep.ca/~edmonds/usenet/good-newgroup.html send mail to majordomo@gweep.ca with the following line in the body: get faq good-newgroup.txtWhile the information given here is specifically aimed at peopleinterested in creating groups in the alt hierarchy, most of the adviceis equally valid, at least at the technical level, in any hierarchy.Note that most hierarchies have their own local set of rules governinghow new groups are created, so while advice given here regardingalt.config may not apply, you should consult whatever guidelines orrules may be in force in the hierarchy you are considering a new groupfor.Thanks to Bill Hazelrig, Eli the Bearded, and others for ideas andsuggestions in writing this FAQ.ContentsContentsWhat is a newgroup message?Why do I need to write a ``good'' one?Do I really have to go through alt.config first?The ``For your newsgroups file'' informationWhat is a charter?What should I not include in a newgroup message?What is a ``Control'' header?I've written a control message, where do I send it?What if I want the newsgroup moderated?I've been rmgrouped, what should I do?What is a ``booster'' message?What is a newgroup message?A newgroup message, or more accurately a newgroup control messageis fundamentally a news posting with a few special headers, and usuallysome extra information in the body of the message. The basicexpectation is that such a posting will create the specified newsgroupon machines throughout the world. Technical information on the newssystem, including the format of control messages can be found in RFC1036, available at http://www.gweep.ca/~edmonds/usenet/rfc1036.txt ftp://ftp.internic.net/rfc/rfc1036.txtIn keeping with the wording in many RFCs, I will be using thefollowing terms in the rest of this FAQ:MUSTThis is an absolute requirement. If you do not follow it, then yournewgroup message will be technically invalid and automatically ignored by any correctly functioning news site.SHOULDThis is not mandatory, but following it will greatly increase the acceptance of your newgroup message and your newsgroup will get better propagation as a result.MAYThis is optional, and will have little influence on the acceptance of your newgroup message.SHOULD NOTWhile not technically wrong, doing this will reduce the acceptance of your newgroup message and ultimately hurt the propagation of your newsgroup.MUST NOTThis will make your newgroup message technically invalid and have a large negative impact on the future of your newsgroup.Why do I need to write a ``good'' one?Some people may tell you that none of the suggestions given below areimportant, and as long as you don't violate any MUST NOT restrictionsyour newgroup message will work. To a point this is true, and yournewsgroup will be created at some sites. However, at many sites,the news admins will ignore newgroup messages that do not follow atleast a good portion of the advice in this FAQ.On top of this, some individuals (aka control freaks, or the cabal(there is no cabal)) will actively respond to ``bad'' newgroup messageswith an rmgroup (remove group) message. This does not mean thenewsgroup will be erased at all sites, but it will be at some, and atmany others, the news admins will give serious consideration to such amessage as a recommendation that the newsgroup not be created. The oddsare that the news admin will know, and often respect the opinion of theperson sending the rmgroup message, while you will probably be unknownto them. In short, your newgroup message is unlikely to be wellreceived.Do I really have to go through alt.config first?You SHOULD propose every new newsgroup on alt.config, and allow at leasta week for discussion before sending a newgroup message. While this isnot an absolute requirement, if you do not propose the newsgroup inalt.config, many news admins will not create it, and you are almostguaranteed to get more than one rmgroup message in response.You also SHOULD pay close attention to advice given to you about yourproposal. Some of it may be flames or knee-jerk reactions, but some ofit will be valuable in modifying your proposal so that it is likely tobe created at a greater number of sites. If you accept and follow anyadvice as best you can, it is very unlikely that your newgroup messagewill attract any rmgroup messages.In your newgroup message, you SHOULD include a brief summary ofwhen you proposed the newsgroup, and the ensuing discussion. This isnot strictly necessary, but if the discussion was more than a coupledays ago, it helps to refresh the memory of those admins whoparticipated. Some people try to pull a fast one by claiming that theirnewsgroup was proposed in alt.config, when really it wasn't. Almostalways, someone will call them on it, and the resulting rmgroup messageswill reduce the newsgroup's chance of survival.You also SHOULD include in this section any traffic or readershipstatistics you have which show that this newsgroup is likely to beactively used by many people. This is actually the one area where manyotherwise reasonable proposals fall down, so consider it carefully andtry to collect as much quantitative (numerical) evidence as you can bothbefore and during the discussion in alt.config.The ``For your newsgroups file'' informationThis information SHOULD be in every newgroup message. It contains thedescriptive text that many news readers will display to users as extrainformation to help them decide if they want to subscribe to thenewsgroup. The description SHOULD be meaningful, as it is part of theway you will be advertising the newsgroup to prospective readers. Thedescription SHOULD fit with the newsgroup name on one line (80characters), otherwise it will display unattractively in many newsreading programs. For some newsgroups with particularly long names,this may not be reasonable, however, so it is by no means an absoluterequirement.The actual format of such an inclusion consists of two lines (with notext immediately before or after). The first is the phrase ``For yournewsgroups file:'', while the second line is the newsgroup name, one ormore spaces or tabs, and the description. Both lines should have noother text or spaces before them on the same line. An example:For your newsgroups file:alt.video.laserdisc LD players and selections available for them.Typically, this section will be placed first in a newgroup message,though placing the summary of the alt.config discussion first is alsoreasonable.What is a charter?Every newgroup message SHOULD contain a description of what thenewsgroup is supposed to be for, commonly referred to as its charter.Ideally you should write this before proposing the newsgroup onalt.config, and adjust it according to recommendations given there.One or two short paragraphs is usually sufficient for a charter. If youcan't explain what the newsgroup is for in this amount of space, thenyou should probably give serious consideration to whether or not it'sreally a good idea. This isn't a hard and fast rule though, so if thereis a lot that needs to be said about the newsgroup, do so. Justremember, you don't want to bore the news admins who are reading this...As part of the charter, you MAY also include pointers to moreinformation on the topic of the newsgroup, such as web pages, mailinglists, or ftp sites.You should also keep a copy of the charter, as it makes an excellentstarting point when creating a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) documentfor your new newsgroup.What should I not include in a newgroup message?In your newgroup message, you SHOULD NOT argue that any merits of thesubject matter imply that it deserves a newsgroup. This is at bestirrelevant, and to some news admins is a very bad argument,serving only to annoy them (thus making an rmgroup response morelikely). The main consideration for most news admins is simply how manypeople are likely to read the newsgroup.You also SHOULD NOT refer to the newsgroup as having passed a vote forits creation. There are no votes in alt, so any such implication islikely to provoke an rmgroup response.You also SHOULD NOT make reference to the existence of any other altnewsgroup as justification for the creation of your newsgroup, as almostinvariably this will be a bad argument, even if it doesn't seem like oneto you. If you equate your newsgroup with one that some news adminsomewhere considers to be a bad newsgroup, then you will be hurting theacceptance of your newsgroup.What is a ``Control'' header?That, and the ``Approved'' header are the two special headers that everynewgroup message MUST contain. In addition, the message SHOULD containa specially formatted ``Subject'' header. The special ``Subject''header is not strictly required, but is strongly recommended forcompatibility with older news servers.The ``Control'' header MUST be comprised of the word ``newgroup'',followed by the name of the newsgroup. The ``Approved'' header SHOULDcontain your email address, or that of your news admin if he/she issending the newgroup message for you. The ``Subject'' header SHOULD beidentical to the ``Control'' header except that it is prefixed with theword ``cmsg''. (Inclusion of a Subject header in this format is nolonger required, but is a good idea for backwards compatibility). Anexample:Subject: cmsg newgroup alt.video.laserdiscControl: newgroup alt.video.laserdiscApproved: brian@gweep.caNote that the contents of the ``Subject'' and ``Control'' headers SHOULDNOT contain uppercase letters. Use of mixed case is not strictlyprohibited, but it is rarely used and may break some software. Use ofuppercase letters in newsgroup names is strongly discouraged in proposedrevisions to RFC1036.These headers MUST occur with all the other message headers, and if theyonly occur in the body of the message, it will be treated as if theywere absent. How you can accomplish this depends on your system and thenews software you use. You may even be prevented by the system fromincluding them. In any case, if you are unsure how to include suchheaders, ask your news admin.I've written a control message, where do I send it?Control messages are posted just like any other news article. There aretwo schools of thought over what newsgroup(s) they should be posted to,however. The first approach is to post them to the group which you arecreating. This has the advantage that the control message will onlytravel to sites which carry related groups, and will not bother siteswhich do not carry them. However, some news servers will not allowlocal posting to groups which do not exist, resulting in a chicken andegg problem.The other school of thought is to post them to alt.config, as it is acentrally recognized group that is likely to be carried at every sitethat carries the alt hierarchy. If your server allows posting tonon-existent groups, then combining these two approaches, andcrossposting the control message to both alt.config and the group youare creating is entirely reasonable.Note that if posted correctly, a control message will not actuallyappear in any of the groups you post it to. This is because the serverrecognizes it as special and posts it to the pseudo-group control (or onsome servers control.newgroup). You should not post directly to any ofthe control groups, as while it does not generally seem to causeproblems, they do not function in quite the same way as normalnewsgroups. On many sites there is no guarantee that messages so postedwill not simply vanish into the ether.If you do post a technically correct control message, but find it showsup in the normal groups instead of in control, check the headers of theposted message. It is likely that either your reader or your serverdoes not allow users to post control messages, and strips the``Approved'' and/or ``Control'' headers. In this case, you will have tocontact your local news admin and request his or her assistance.Providing him or her with a prewritten copy of the newgroup message willmake his or her job much simpler.What if I want the newsgroup moderated?In this case, all of the above requirements and advice still apply, andthere are a few additional things you need to know. First off, runninga moderated newsgroup is often tough work, and you will need to have agood understanding of how both news and mail operate. In fact, if youdidn't already know and understand most everything I've said already inthis FAQ, you may not be ready to undertake newsgroup moderation.That said, there are two additional requirements for creating amoderated alt newsgroup. First, you SHOULD provide both submission andcontact email addresses in the body of the message. The submissionaddress is where postings are mailed for approval, and the contactaddress is where other moderator related mail, such as questions orcomments, should be sent. These are typically included immediatelyfollowing the ``For your newsgroups file'' section, and are in a formresembling the following:Moderator submission address: alt-fred-moderated@gweep.caModerator contact address: brian@gweep.caThe submission address MUST be the address where you will be acceptingpostings for approval, and it is strongly advised that it be an addresswhich is dedicated to this task alone (your private email address is abad choice). You SHOULD make arrangements for a backup moderator whocan monitor this address and approve postings in the event of theprimary moderator suffering an extended absence from the net. You alsoSHOULD include a brief summary of the intended moderation policy, and alist of the names and email addresses of all initial moderators.Note that while including this information is not strictly mandatory, ifyou fail to do so, your newsgroup will not work. Most sites areconfigured by default to send postings to a special address atmoderators.uu.net, so unless you have made prior arrangements with themall postings will be going into a black hole. It may be possible toarrange for the moderation address to be honoured at UUNET, which is infact a very good idea, but do not assume it will happen automatically.You can email the moderation contact at moderators-request@isc.org toinquire.Second, you MUST append the word ``moderated'' to the ``Control'' headerof your message (and to the ``Subject'' header too, though this is onlystrongly recommended). This is what will actually indicate to the newssoftware that this newsgroup is to be moderated.While `self-moderated' groups are technically possible, and have beenimplemented on a few special occasions such as alt.hackers andalt.sysadmin.recovery, you should not consider it for your group. Manynewsreaders will not allow users to self-moderate for the simple reasonthat this is abuse when done in regular moderated groups. If you cannotfind a real moderator for your group, a self-moderated version willalmost assuredly be a failure.I've been rmgrouped, what should I do?The most important first step is if this has made you upset, take abreak. Go for a walk, fix yourself a snack, take a nap, but most ofall, give yourself time to cool off. A hasty, emotional response willonly make things worse.Next, carefully read any explanation included in the text of the rmgroupmessage, and read over this FAQ again. If there is anything here thatyou failed to do, or or anything that you did and should not have, thenyou're in trouble. Your best bet in this situation is to privately mailthe individual who sent out the rmgroup and admit your mistake. Explainthat you did your best, and appeal to them to help you correct yourerror and and either send a new newgroup message for you, or ifnecessary return to alt.config again for another discussion period.If you did in fact do everything right, and the rmgroup message hascited you for a mistake you did not make, then you should again mail theindividual who sent the rmgroup. Politely explain that you have in factfollowed all the guidelines and give them any more evidence you have ofthis that is not already in the newgroup message. Most of the time itwill simply have been a lapse of attention on the other person's part,and he/she will be only too happy to remedy the situation by resendingyour newgroup message for you, with a note to the fact that theirearlier rmgroup was incorrect.If, in either of these cases, you have mailed the originator of thermgroup message and a few days pass with no response, you should then goback to alt.config and post a polite message explaining your dilemma.Do not attack the person behind the rmgroup message, or complain aboutthe unfairness of the situation, simply state your case as clearly andconcisely as you can. Once the situation has been resolved, you maythen want to request that one of the alt.config regulars resend yournewgroup message for you.What is a ``booster'' message?A ``booster'' message is essentially exactly the same as a newgroupmessage. In fact, all it is is just sending another newgroup message sothat hopefully sites which either did not see, or which ignored thefirst message will create the group the second time around. Whensending a booster newgroup, you SHOULD add a short paragraph at thebeginning of the body of the message explaining that this is a boostermessage, and include information such as when the group was firstcreated and why you're sending the booster.Note that you should not send boosters too often, as typically newsadmins are notified of newgroup requests by email from the news server,and you don't want to annoy anyone by cluttering up their mailbox.After creating a new group, sending a booster every couple weeks for thefirst month or so is typically a good idea, and then perhaps every sixmonths to a year after that, but be careful not to overdo it. It isgenerally far more effective in getting a site to carry a new newsgroupto have one of their users request it, than it is to send multiplenewgroup messages. Brian Edmonds, July 23, 2001  |
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