Subject: [FAQ] "hello: welcome to alt.fan.pratchett" #2/2
Date: 18 Sep 1998 01:00:11 +0200
From: "ppint." <yppint@lspace.orgy>
Organization: interstellar master traders, lancaster (u.k.)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.pratchett
Followup-To: poster

Archive-name: pratchett/welcome-to-afp-2
Posting-Frequency: weekly (every friday)
Last-modified: 6/6/98 (6/6/98 for merkins)
Maintained-by: ppint. <ppint@lspace.org>
URL: http://www.lspace.org/faqs/

-------------------------------------------------------------

[FAQ] "hello: welcome to alt.fan.pratchett" article #2/2

It's long, but it does explain many of the things you may not have met
before, if you're new to afp, or to the 'net; and which you may find it
helpful at first to print out, to be able to refer to it, whilst doing
other things on, or with <g>, your computer; that's fine, so long as you
print it out in full - or, if there should only be some bits you need,
those bits, plus the acknowledgements, & where to find the whole faq (&
the copy- right bit at the end).

Contents

[PART #1/2:]

1.0     * netiquette
1.0 through 1.12
   [<fx: chop>: table of contents of part one: see:
   "[FAQ] "hello: welcome to alt.fan.pratchett" #1/2"]

[PART #2/2:]

2.0	* social aspects of the net & afp
2.1	  + tolerance
2.2	  + afpfriendships, infatuations, romance and love
2.3	  + people ignoring you
2.4	  + net addiction, net burnout
2.5	  + hate mail, harassment & stalking

3.0	* technical matters
3.1	  + spam, and unsolicited commercial e-mail
3.2	  + kill files
	  + how to killfile this article (# 1 & 2)
	  + plonking
3.3	   + configuring and using your 'net-software
3.4	   + redirecting replies
3.5	   + sundry - other good advice for afpers
___________________________________________________________________

			[PART 2]

2.0	* social aspects of the net & afp

2.1	  + tolerance

One of the most important qualities for peaceful interaction in real life
- and on afp. Possibly best appreciated by considering that every one of
us is in a minority of one: _all_ sorts of people make up afp - old,
young, black, white, yellow, brown, pink, everything in between - and
that's just the human beans.

As to faiths & religions, you'll also find atheists and theists - all
varieties of atheists and theists, including ba'hais, buddhists [if
buddhism be a religion, which gets debated every so often...], friends
[ditto; but so far un-afpdebated sfaiaa], christians, hindus, jews,
moslems, pagans, taoists, wiccans - and, for all I know, animists, jains,
mithraists, parsees, sikhs and zoroastrians, as well as the - *_far_* more
rational <g> - lapsed agnostics...<g>... [- if I've missed out your
favourite, please let me know... ('mongst christian brands, I best like
the Uniates - unless friends ("quakers") be considered christian)].

As to sexual orientations, you'll find (if you're bothered to look)
bisexuals, heterosexuals, homosexuals, monosexuals, monogamists,
polyamorists, polyandrists, polygamists, serial monogamists and possibly
even asexual beings, not to mention mainline^H^H^H^Hframe, PC, Macintosh
and Psion abusers, & even (I believe), Amstrad, Atari, Commodore and
BBC/_Acorn_ users on afp...<g>...

Just about the only *truly* *stupid* way to approach afp, is to assume
that anyone's ideas are unworthy of your attention simply because they're
different from yours... - we can't help but make assumptions about people
based on our prejudices - which are al- most inevitably wrong, when it
comes to individual, real people.

Afp mostly gets along fine, as long as afpers remember that everybody else
is people too, and hardly anyone intelligent evil scum.

Afp's a "place" where a degree of advocacy is accepted - or, at least, is
not _automatically_ out of line, but be careful: this can all too easily
turns into a 'your OS/software sucks' (or *gun*control*) slanging match;
please help keep the temperature of any advocacy thread way down low. And
be alert (afp *needs* lerts!) for _any_ tell-tale sign that someone hasn't
realised when an advocacy article - or even entire _thread_ - was meant as
a joke... And please _try_ to keep aware that, whilst being the butt of
any such joke may sting, it isn't half as uncomfortable, as discovering
one's over-reacted wildly to what would otherwise have been a nine-hour
giggle, or wonder; or brought the offender, rather than yourself, into
disrepute...

Afp is also a place where it isn't very safe to attempt to justify one's
own superstitions or beliefs by logical argument; and any attempt to do so
automatically lays one's ideas open to logical analysis and possible -
hopefully gentle - ridicule: and this applies as much to atheists', as to
theists', illogical superstitions; stating one's superstitions or beliefs
openly as such, is by far the safer policy - or keeping quiet <g>: they
may be pressed to serve as a basis for afpers to build upon more or less
logically, sometimes into quite amazing heathrobinson-esque structures; or
questioned as to their more obscure details, or implications; this too is
almost always done in an interestedly friendly manner <g>.

2.2     + afpfriendships, infatuations, and romance

On afp, you're likely to be getting to know people whose interests are
closer to your own, and overlap with yours, to a greater extent than many
of the people you know in real life. Sooner or later, you will probably
find yourself chatting with an afper, apparently of the approprate sex,
who you find increasingly attractive - and who, it seems, finds you
interesting in return... and a flirtation, or something rather more
serious, develops.

If it remains a flirtation, and you're both happy with this, that's fine.
But if either (or both) of you want to see if it could become something
more than this, "don't panic" <g>.

(_Do_ remember that you most probably know nothing about each other, save
for what you've read of one another's afp articles and in private emails,
and possibly phone conversations, and so it's a good idea to arrange the
first meetings on "neutral territory", at an afpmeet arranged on the
newsgroup in a public place, such as a pub, or a book-signing by pterry,
or anywhere else where neither of you will feel under too much pressure -
and where either, or both of you can decide "it was a mistake" without
risking ruining the 'net friendship you have - or the social date.)

(Also remember that anyone's net.persona is only one expression of the
whole person and, as in the characters people choose to play in fantasy
role-playing games, may be an idealisation, or a gross distortion, or a
complete fabrication - or anywhere between these, and some part of the
real person posting...)

All this is fine (hopefully), if this afper happens to live within
anything from half a dozen to a hundred miles away from you - depending on
whether either of you have a car, or a bike, or can afford bus, coach or
rail fares - but what happens if you live three hundred, a thousand, or
tens of thousands of miles apart?

This is when things can get painful; and, _especially_, if you find you
are well and truly in love with each other, strange though this might
sound: but separation from your beloved can become unbearable, or seem
very like it; and not all endings can be happy - whilst, if it had
remained "an affair", or a non-sexual friendship, and had been accepted as
this, parting, or the partings, and the separation, might not've hurt so
much...

But there's no legislating for love; and even distances of _tens_ of
thousands of miles - and more - _may_ be surpassable.

But it is also possible for things to go wrong. The man or woman who
seemed so loveable by email, may prove to be very different IRL (in real
life); or maybe the flirt who seemed so very physical is in fact
frightened of being touched, or maybe she/he's _too_ attentive physically,
and it feels like they're constantly pawing at you, never giving you a
moment of peace; or maybe there's a side to their character they've
hidden, not necessarily with the _intent_ of deceiving you - maybe, a drug
dependency such as alcoholism, or an irresistable urge to gamble, or a
history of the violent abuse of their partners.

The only advice is, take the time you need to get to know the real person,
and to let them get to know the real you, as you would anyone else you
were meeting for the first time, whether meeting them at a party, or in a
pub bar, or through an introduction by a mutual friend, or (possibly the
nearest comparison) the first visit by a pen-friend.

2.3     + people ignoring you

The first few times you post to afp, it is quite possible that no-one will
follow up to your articles, and no-one email you a reply, either: how
come, if we're so friendly a crowd as we say ?

The 'net is _not_ totally reliable. Sometimes a post takes several days,
to make it around the world to all the newsservers afpers depend upon for
their newsfeeds - and sometimes an article never does appear on the
newsgroup it was posted to, or appears on no server other than your own.
This is rare, in my experience, but I have known maybe a dozen of my own
articles go missing over the past two or three years.

If your first articles consistently do not appear upon your own news
supplier's download of afp to you within a day or so of your posting them,
check your 'net/news/email setup, reading all the available documentation,
ask your internet service provider (or your local friendly "bofh" - or
person in the computing department you went to, to first get news access),
if you cannot trace the problem and fix it, and possibly ask someone by
email, who seems both friendly and to know what they're talking about,
upon a newsgroup appropriate to the software that you're using. [see
section 3.3]

It's also nearly inevitable that quite a lot that "new bugs" post to begin
with, has been posted and read by afpers before them: they may just fail
to strike a chord in the people who see them. other possibilities include:

You may have been killfiled if your previous behaviour was sufficiently
obnoxious, though this isn't very likely to be true, and you're a new bug;
not unless your first articles were _really_ grossly unpleasant or nasty.

Your article may have said it all; sometimes, an afparticle doesn't turn
into a thread, because there simply isn't anything else that could be
said, save "aol!  aol!  aol!"

Your article may have turned up on afp slightly later than another article
which was basically similar, and followups have been made to that article,
rather than to yours.

You may have had the misfortune to post to afp in the middle of a
discworld convention, when up to seventy per cent of all active afpers are
enjoying themselves in the Adelphi Hotel in Liverpool (c.18/19th September
1998, the next one, IIRC), or coughing in the dust at a Clarecraft do in
the fens and sub-sealevel marshes of Norfolk, listening to the roar of a
surprised dinolush in a little red tent (9/10 August 97, last one).

So don't give up, just because there was no response to your first
postings - go on reading, and sooner or later you'll find yourself in the
middle of a passionate discussion of the anglo-dutch wars, or choux
pastry, or the numbering systems used for identifying UK and Merkin trunk
roads, or whether or not the Master truly *could* have been on the verge
of comprehending the Clangers' musical language...

2.4     + net addiction

The amount of time it's possible to spend keeping up with afp can become a
problem, either because the financial cost of the time you spend becomes
more than you can afford, though this is unlikely (unless you are reading
afp online), or because you're devoting so much time to afp, that
important activities such as work, and play, and relationships in real
life begin to suffer.

How much time is too much? This differs from person to person; it depends
a lot on how much else there is in your life. If you notice the warning
signs, or if your friends, relatives or work colleagues - or bosses -
point them out to you, think seriously about whether you need to cut down,
or schedule your life, and afp, rather better. [<thinks>: memo to self:
_why_ was I typing- up the first draft at 02:10, Tuesday morning, when i
needed to be up and out early, and I was feeling more than a little under
the weather, from a combination of the bug that'd given me tonsilitis, and
the second antibiotic course I had been prescribed?  "_How_ much time _is_
too much ?" <wry <g>> - Am I an afpdict?]

If you don't have a social life outside afp, is this by your own choice? 
If it is through force of circumstances, about which nothing can be done,
that you are so dependent upon the 'net, it is still worth asking whether
it wouldn't be a good idea to add other groups to your ambit, for times
when you're fed up with everyone - or nearly everyone - here?  If it is
not, it may well be time to start asking yourself whether to start doing
things to build, or rebuild yourself a life in the real world, as well as
"here" on afp (and other newsgroups).

+ net burnout

Afpers tend to care for each other, especially in times of personal crisis
or loss, and one day, you may find yourself helping.  Do be careful,
however, not to trap yourself into a supportive r“le for too many people
at once: you could end up over-taxing your physical or emotional
resources, risking damage to yourself.  This might also leave you too
drained to be of further help to any of them, when they'd come to rely
upon your support: pace yourself, and your help will last the longer, be
more rewarding, and of more use to your friends.

Your time spent on afp should always be fun, on balance. If you find it
becoming a drag, or hard work, or depressing, ask why; is it because of
anything that you can affect, or should you take a break and relax by
doing something you enjoy IRL? Physical activity is good, exercising
muscles and keeping the blood circulating freely - ideally, in the company
of friends. Walking, jogging, cycling, dancing, helping share looking
after friends' kids, if you have none of your own to keep you honest - or
even getting on with (your share of?) the housework, though I can't claim
this last is very high on my list of favourite recreational activities.

2.5     + hate mail & harassment

There is a nasty side to the 'net, as there is to real life: it isn't
anything like so common in the UK, as it - apparently - is in Merkia (I
don't know about other countries); but this could change, though I hope
not (save by the Merkin incidence falling).

There are many more people reading newsgroups, than posting to them - the
figure I've seen quoted is that there are around one hundred "lurkers",
for every "poster" (I don't know where this statistic comes from, if from
anywhere other than out of thin air. I suspect that afp has rather a
higher proportion of posters, but I don't know this, and know of no way
that anyone, other than a newsmaster/mistress could even begin to find
out).

Most are good people, give or take a little now and then, but there are
also dangerous nutters out there in the real world - people who hold
deeply prejudiced, biased, or plain _hateful_ views of some topic or
other, whether upon religious grounds, or because they suffer from
personality disorders, or because they are psychopaths, either unable to
distinguish between right and wrong, or incapable of learning the reasons
to behave according to any moral code, or physically incapable of the
mental processes necessary to follow any such thought process.

These people usually prefer to keep out of the public eye, but may make
their presence felt by sending anonymous or semi-anonymous hate mail, or
threats, to people against whom they feel they have a grievance.

You will hopefully never receive such a message, but if you do, here are
steps you should take:

Do *not* attempt to email a reply to the person, and do *not* make a
public post mentioning it. Acknowledging the mail in any way may provoke
further, and more disgusting, responses.

*Do* realise that the person is intolerant and misguided: do not believe
*anything* of what they say about you, or anyone else.

*Save* the message, and forward a copy, with all the header lines, by
email to your internet service provider, or to the responsible person in
charge of the net access in your workplace, or print out a copy and take
it to the person for your "pastoral care", if you are a student in a
school, or other academic institution (they used to call 'em "moral
tutors", when I was at university - at some, they probably still do <g>)
and ask who the appropriate person is, to take steps to deal with the
matter. (if you are of an age, that pastoral care is inappropriate, then
either a local friendly bofh, or security, or the police - or a
combination of these - may be appropriate.)

If the sender of the hatemail persists, and *especially* if they show any
familiarity with your real life workplace, home address, or children, or
your children's nurseries or schools, print out the saved emails with full
headers, write out a letter that explains the problem in simple, step-by-
step stages, and contact the police. _They_ may need taking through the
idea of email fairly slowly, but be clear to them that it is essentially
either a hate-mail, or a harassment, or potentially a stalking problem,
and they should understand this, and be concerned to help you.

As I said, this will hopefully never happen to you at all, whether as a
result of posting to afp, or anywhere else - but you should be aware that
it could.

murky@lspace.org has kindly made an offer, though he's aware of his
perhaps not being the most technically competent to undertake the task, to
do his best to track down the culprit and contact the ISP's administrators
with the evidence of hatemail; but remember that whoever you ask to help
you will *need* the original emails *complete*with*all*headers*.

+ afp proposals

These are a tradition, light-hearted and meant in fun and in good humour:
feel free to ignore, reject and/or accept - but be warned: doing _any_ of
these may involve you in duels on afp in which the most common weapons are
cabbages & brussel sprouts, multiple marriages and/or flirtations. Or not.

3.0     * technical matters

3.1     + spam, and unsolicited commercial e-mail, and how to minimise
them

"Spam" and "velveeta" are the names given to multiply-posted or
cross-posted articles, frequently commercial advertising, inapprop-
riately posted to newsgroups. They are an irritation which would be far
worse, were it not for the actions of a number of people to help cancel
such unwanted postings nigh as fast as they are perpetrated - but only
pressure upon ISPs, and in turn by them, upon those major ISPs and
carriers permitting the abuse, can have a preventative effect - IIUC (if i
understand correctly).

"Unsolicited commercial email" (uce) and "unsolicited bulk email" (ube)
are the email equivalents of junk mail; "make money fast" (mmf) pyramid
schemes are illegal virtually everywhere in the world and may be found
received in news downloads or by email:

A judicious combination of the use of a mailkill file [see the next
section down, 3.2];

The choice & configuration of the mailbox from which you post to
newsgroups (especially if your ISP allows you a number of boxes on one
subscription fee); and/or the adoption of a simple trick in varying the
address given in the "From: " and "Reply-to: " lines, in the articles you
post - but remember to tell people how to correct the address in a short
message _above_ the sig.file separator, just as your articles end; this
brief message can be stored as a small file, and imported into your
articles, rather than having to write it out afresh each time;

These are steps you can take that will significantly reduce the amount of
uce & ube you receive - especially if you adopt this last tactic from the
start of your newsposting career.

[NB: Do _not_ do this with your own private emails, and remove the "uce
trap" from any courtesy copies (CCs) you're sending, before you log on to
send them, unless this is technically impossible.]

[Some people object to this tactic on principle - most of these do not
seem to regard the waste of time uce/ube causes, nor the phone costs of
their - or perhaps your - 'net time, as significant, and express disbelief
that uce and ube could commonly reach a level of thirty-six a day, or 90%
of the mail <wry <g>> - or higher...]

3.2     + kill files

News and mail kill filling are an ever-increasingly important part of the
'net; both to filter out postings liable to be of no interest to you,
before even downloading them, and to reduce the amount of junk posts and
mail getting through. If your news and email reader(s) don't have a
killfile option, you almost certainly will want one that does. Different
afpers will support different readers about as vehemently as they will
their favourite operating systems - it's mostly a matter of taste, so long
as they perform the functions required of them - though afpers seem
generally agreed that no web-browser is also even half-way decent a news
and mail reader.

If you are not happy with your software - or, indeed, your ISP - asking
for advice will almost certainly garner recommendations afplenty - but be
sure to specify what machine you are using for net access, and the
operating system(s) you have available <g>, and the country (and state,
for Merkins) you're living in...

You can set a properly functional kill-filing system to exclude all posts
with certain words in the subject line, or from particular addresses, or
over certain lengths - any of the categories in the header lines - and you
can make any exceptions that you wish to, from these given killfile
criteria.

The afp subject line keycode letters [see section 1.5] allow you to
killfile whole topic areas of afp, but don't killfile on [FAQ] or
[announce] - the articles covering frequently asked questions (and some
that aren't asked so often, but perhaps ought to be), provide information
about afp, lspace and the other pratchett newsgroups, and on PTerry's
books, and other related publications, get updated, as is necessary, and
added to, from time to time; whilst you could miss out on messages of
immediate importance from afpa
to killfile on an afp keycode letter, enter a line in your news killfile:

Subject: *\[X\]*

where "X" is the keycode letter by which you wish to killfile _all_
articles (save any specifically excepted in lines starting with a "!",
followed by the criterion for unconditional acceptance listed in that
line: exclusion-from-kill lines overrule all kill lines' criteria). see
section 1.5 for full details of the keycodes, but:

[A] = annotation;
[C] = cascade;
[F] = afp fan activity IRL such as afp meets, discworld conventions,
	signings by terry if afpers're arranging meeting up at them, etc;
[G] = game related;
[I] = irrelevant (to terry & his works);
[M] = meta (about the newsgroup, alt.fan.pratchett);
[R] = relevant to terry pratchett, his works, and those of others based
	directly upon his - and without a keycode of their own.

to killfile news from a particular address, enter a line in your news
killfile:

From: <someone@somewhere.co.uk>

filling in the particular address; to killfile all news from a particular
site, whoever may be posting it, enter a line in your news killfile:

From: *@<somewhere.com>

filling in the particular nodename (the address from the "@" sign
onwards): "*" is a wildcard, matching any and all characters in a given
position:

It's a good idea to except the postmaster at most nodes from the general
killfiling:

!From: postmaster@<somewhere.ac.au>

or possibly:

!From: postmaster@*.*

and:

!From: postmaster@*.*.*

etc., to cover the forms of most of the nodenames you killfile; it is the
address that will be used from which to write to you upon "official"
matters (such as reports of spam/uce/ube) by many sites.

Nobody can stop you killfiling, so long as your software allows it, and it
can be a good way of avoiding unnecessary annoyance, rising blood pressure
and outright confrontation - although it can also be argued that standing
up to it - politely - is more public-spirited [which latter course of
action is that advocated by counsels of perfection, inc..].

News killfiling by a subject class that consistently irritates you, should
you discover this to occur, is in principle probably "better" than
killfiling afper contributors - there is always the chance that they'll
post more interesting stuff in other threads.

+ how to killfile this article (# 1 & 2)

to killfile this afpfaq (# 1 & 2/2) so you don't see it in afp every three
days, what you need to enter in your news killfile is a line (- no gap
between the first letter and the lefthand edge):

Subject: *"hi: welcome to afp"*

[the asterisk matches any character, or characters] - your news-reader's
documentation should tell you how to do this ("rtfm" <g>).

+ plonking

It is unusual, to say the least, to make a post saying that you have
killfiled somebody. Doing this is undoubtedly rude, but when they've been
deliberately and persistently unpleasant, and neither polite private
email, nor even more carefully-worded afparticles pointing out
misbehaviour have been heeded, some people (including, upon occasion,
yr.hmbl.spnt.) follow up the "last straw" article with a "*plonk*". this
is an article following up to the offensive last straw, quoting the
objectionable part or parts, and replying "*plonk*".

This is an afpccepted way of saying that you've killfiled someone's
articles - mostly, people seem to do this very rarely, if at all, and
those who do, seem to do so for some limited period of time, such as a
week, or a month - at least, to begin with...

What's the reasoning? - I think the reasoning came after the rise of the
practice, not before, but i've seen it explained thus:

It lets other afpers know that you've tried - or feel you've tried - long
enough, with this particular spog, and that if they've been feeling the
same way, they now know they're not alone.

And they, too, may decide to plonk the offender - who just may discover
that quite a larger number of people, than ewrote to him (or her: but
usually a him), feel that he's been way out of order. (It also allows
others to say "no, it's *you* who's being over the top here"; or "you're
*both* behaving like little boys".)

And the offender may, finally, decide to apologise - and change his ways,
which is the more important thing, before he runs out of people with whom
to afpsocialise. Or not.

Whereas, if an offender's articles are killfiled without the afpublic
plonk, no-one, including the miscreant, may ever know; and so, will
probably never dream of changing their ways - not even _slightly_.

I do not know whether anyone's kept record of whether or no the "*plonk*"
process works more often than not.

3.3     + configuring and using your 'net-software

Many of the tips and suggestions in this article rely on your ability to
use your editor and newsreading software properly.

If you don't know how to use either of these to achieve these effects,
first read the  documentation provided with the 'net suite ("RTFM" <g>).
If you are not certain you have understood it, try playing around with it,
_after_ first saving a copy of the initial settings - so you can restore
them afterwards, if needs be !

If you still have no luck, it's usually best asking your ISP's help or
support desk - or the suppliers', or the software's publishers, if your
ISP wasn't the supplier, and doesn't support it.

If that doesn't work, there are newsgroups devoted to the problems, and
the advantages, and new developments, of most of the popular 'net suites -
and many that aren't so popular.

The demon.ip.support.* groups, which are available to any ISP "peering
news" with demon, or anyone else who carries them, are good places to post
a request for help - but do be as careful as you can, to ask in the right
group! (The obviously tricky one is demon.ip.support.pc - which is for
queries and news about 'net software that runs under dos (msdos, ibmdos,
drdos, novell dos, caldera opendos), and is _not_ for software that only
runs under windows - windows users, and windows 95 users, have their own
groups (this arose because the dos group was named before it was
considered anyone might attempt to access the 'net using windows, and it's
all but impossible to rename a newsgroup).

If your problem is afp-specific, it is probable there's at least one afper
who knows the answer, or can work it out - and we may be able to help with
more general questions.

But in any case, it is important that you tell whoever you ask for help,
exactly what computer, which operating system, which newsreader and
mailreader, and which editor you are using.

3.4     + redirecting replies

If you want, or need, to have any e-mail replies to you sent to another
account name, not the one you use to post, set your newsreader or editor
to give this other e-mail address in the "Reply-to: " line:

Reply-To: <me@my.other.address>

Whatever the address may be, and it will do so automatically, to every
article you post.

(If you want to do this to just an odd article, then edit the header line
either during composition, or from the mailqueue, before you log on.)

	+ redirecting replies for other people

If you open a mailbox for a visiting afper, and do not need to close it
immediately after they return home (or move onto another afphost), it's a
good idea to keep their username@yournode live, but to alias it to their
home address (or, to the mailbox their new afphost has opened for them):
this should be fairly simple to accomplish, if you follow the instructions
for your email software ("rtfm !" <g>), and will usually involve the
following line in the "alias file":

username their.name@their.home.node.address

or

username their.name@the.new.host's.node.address

this will automatically forward their mail into their mailbox.

3.5     + sundry - other good advice for afpers

If you're new to the 'net, it's a _very_ good idea to take the newsgroups,
news.announce.newusers & news.newusers.questions.

These groups have lots of good information for people learning to find
their way around the newsgroups, and learning how to behave on the net,
including how to use kill files and how to do intelligent and useful
things with article headers. most of your early questions will probably be
answered by periodic posts in these newsgroups. The somewhat archly-
entitled "Emily Postnews Guide to Netiquette" is also well worth reading
(even though I've covered some of what is contained therein), and is
posted to the group, news.announce.newusers, frequently.

_______________________________________________________________

<phew !>: reached the end of this introduction to afp, at last.

Much more information on afp is available in the FAQs:

These are afposted periodically - variously monthly, or weekly, depending
on the particular article - and are also available by "anonymous ftp"
[re-read your software's documentation] from ftp.lspace.org and its
mirror-sites on different continents, ftp-au.lspace.org,
ftp-uk.lspace.org, ftp-us.lspace.org - along with an awful lot more,
including the full text of a story set on a circular world, free for
afpers' private delectation, by its author, one Terrance Pilchard (or some
such) and, doubtless, other places as well, in the directory
/pub/pratchett/words/faqs and also, I believe, on www.lspace.org

(C) ppint., ppint@lspace.org (P.Pinto) 6/6/98 (6/6/98 for Merkins):
Permission to print out copies for purely personal use explicitly given.

_________________________________________________________________

My thanks to: kitten, Margaret Gibbs, Alfvaen, Nicarra, Jason Magnus, John
Palmer, /*, John Ockerbloom, David Mar, and John Barnstead, of
alt.callahan's, upon whose "Guide to New Patrons" this article is, with
permission, modelled; and also to the bellinghman, and to karen, any other
afpers whose names i've forgotten, and to all of afp, for being a friendly
'net place well worth working to help maintain.
_________________________________________________________________

<fx: mops brow>: ok, what have I missed out, or plain got wrong?

- constructive comments very welcome: please trim all of the above
article, except the bits you're commenting upon, before posting <g>.

- new, and relatively new bugs', and lurkers' reactions and opinions are
especially welcome, though it's open season for all...

- love, ppint.
[to reply, please remove any "y"s from the reply-to: line]
--
			"moderation in all things"
						[classical athenian dictum]
			"including moderation"
						- ppint., 1967