APANAŽ Cross-Posting Policy (Last updated - 1 October 1998) Australian Public Access Network Association Inc. ARBN 081 355 722 APANAŽ - Prefered guidelines and policies on Crossposting ------------------------------------------------------------------- revision 1.0 written by Eddie Beaumont 2/4/98 reviwed by Phil Homewood 21/4/98 -------------------------- CONTENTS -------------------------- 1.0 Introduction 2.0 Guidelines 3.0 Policy on Crossposting 4.0 Appendix 4.1 Recommended Software 4.2 Relevent Articles/WebSites 4.3 History -------------------------- 1.0 - Introduction -------------------------- With the increase in users on the Internet utilizing Usenet for the passing of information, the server costs of maintaining the exponential rise in both message size and numbers has made a more pragmatic approach to quality news messages important. In particular cross-posting and it's commercial brother-in-arms spam (Bulk Commerical Advertisement) plague most newsgroups. These forms of nework abuse slow down news-links in sheer volume and elongate the process of usenet reading because of the constant sifting involved in finding 'real' articles. With the interest of maintaining a professional face on the Internet, it is necessary to have a common set of guidelines and policy for all APANA members to follow. Outlaid in the documentation that follows is hopefully a set of simple guidelines and policy which should enable an easy method of reducing the risk of excessive posting. -------------------------- 2.0 - Guidelines -------------------------- In general, keeping crossposting to a minimal is desired. Before beginning a cross-post, ask yourself if it is really neccessary. Many news-groups have an "announce" subhierarchy which is read by usually anyone interested in that particular area. This is often moderated, and may require sending your message to the moderator first. A "general" group is often available too. Where crossposting becomes neccessary, keep the number of groups to less than 4. Crossposting to more than this can cause cross-hierarchy thread explosions of postings, as by default most news-readers will reply to all groups a particular article was sent to. Don't constantly repost an article to keep it within the newsgroup. If you want an article to remain, please set a high expire time on it (but no longer than 1 month). This will ensure your article stays around longer. This can be accomplished by using the "Expires:" header if supported by your newsreader. For further details, consult your newsreader documentation. -------------------------- 3.0 - Policies -------------------------- 1. No article shall be crossposted such that it will spawn a thread in more than three groups. 2. Posting the same article multiple times to get around rule 1 is extremely unsound behavior. It is acceptable to post the same article up to three times, to avoid the generation of a permanent floating flame war between groups that are known to be antagonistic towards each other, or to comply with a group's policy against crossposting. 3. Posting the same article every day or every week to get around rules 1 & 2 is unsound behavior. If an article is expected to hang around for a month it should have an expiry date set a month in the future. 4. It is never permissible to post a message more than three times or to more than ten groups in total, no matter how many times it's posted or how the followups are set. 5. Breaches of these rules can result in action defined in the Rules of APANA. Currently this action may be in in the form of a fine, suspension for a specified period or expulsion. It will be the decision of the local Regional Committee as to what form the action will take. If a resolution cannot be made by the local Regional Committee, the Management Committee of APANA has final say. --------------------------- 4.0 - Appendix --------------------------- 4.1 Recommended Software ------------------------ Any software that attains the Good NetKeeping Seal of Approval will help you manage your news better. Packages that currently have this seal are as follows: MacOS HogWasher 1.0b6 (Seal No.: 000006) MacSOUP 2.3 (Seal No.: 000001) MT-NewsWatcher 2.4.1 (Seal No.: 000003) NewsWatcher 2.2b6 (Seal No.: 000002) NewsWatcher 2.2 (Seal No.: 000002) NewsWatcher 2.2.2 (Seal No.: 000002) YA NewsWatcher 3.0b10 (Seal No.: 000004) Unfortunately no Win95/NT or *nix news-readers have passes evaluation yet, however a copy of the evalution is available on-line at the GNKSA website. 4.2 Recommended Articles/Websites --------------------------------- Most of APANA's cross-posting policy was derived from the Usenet II website, located at . The Good NetKeeping Seal of Approval (GNKSA) website can be found at , with software evalutions found at . 4.3 History --------------------------------- revision 1.0 - Initial Version by Eddie Beaumont 2/4/98. APANAŽ is the Registered Trademark of the Australian Public Access Network Association Inc. APANAŽ newsgroups (tm), APANAŽ network (tm) and the APANAŽ logo (tm) are trademarks of the Australian Public Access Network Association Inc.