HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE A.T.T. A Guide to Readability on alt.toys.transformers 1: Not everyone has the same newsreader as you, so don't use its advanced features no matter how cool they are. o Hypertext is for the web. Leave the HTML out (but leave the URL in!). o Multi-part messages in MIME format are ugly and almost unreadable if you don't have a MIME-capable newsreader, and most people don't, so don't make posts in MIME format. MIME stands for Multi-purpose Internet Mail Extension: it wasn't designed for Usenet or news. o Most people are reading news in fixed-width fonts on screens that are 80 characters wide. If you can resize your window, don't. If your newsreader does linewrapping for you, don't assume that everyone else's can, too. Make your lines about 75 characters wide, and everyone will read your post. Make your lines about 85 characters wide and no one will read your post. o Under most circumstances, you should not post a followup *and* e-mail a CC: to the person you're following up to. (AOL, for example, asks if you want to do this.) The person you're following up probably reads news regularly and will see your followup, so the e-mail copy is just mailbox clutter. 2: Watch the spoilers. o If you're talking about an episode which just came out, or a piece of information that was just announced, it's a spoiler. Some people won't have seen the episode or heard the news, and they like to be surprised, so don't mess with their fun. o Put SPOILER in the Subject:, and put 24 blank lines in your text before you start blabbing. o A ctrl-L will force a page feed for most people, but not all. Use a ctrl-L at your own discretion, and use at least a few blank lines just in case. o Spoilers also include information about episodes which haven't come out yet. You may want to include a second layer of spoiler protection before discussing this stuff. 3: Watch the quotes. o DO include enough quoted text to get the context of the discussion. o DO include proper attribution (usually an e-mail address and a name) of quoted text. o DON'T quote the entire message--if you're quoting more than ten lines without interjecting comment, you're quoting too much. o DON'T retain multiple layers of quotes--if you're quoting more than two levels deep, you're quoting too much. o DON'T quote sigs, unless you're explicitly commenting on them. o DON'T play word games--quoting encourages discussion about wording over discussion of ideas, so resist the urge to dissect language for ambiguities and contradictions. 4: No binaries. o Do not post binaries to any group without binaries in the name. A binary is a picture, video clip, audio clip, executable etc.-- essentially anything other than plain text. o Do not ask where you can get cool scans of character X. Check the web instead. Keep in mind that cool scans of character X are illegal theft of intellectual property under most circumstances and some people take intellectual property rights very seriously--usually including the artist who did the art for that cool scan. 5: Don't flame. o Use reasoning and example rather than volume and flame. When you respond to something you disagree with, critique the content of the article, not the person who wrote it. Don't post when you're angry, you may regret it later. o Flame wars waste the time of everyone on the newsgroup. If you really WANT to pick a fight, please try one of the groups created specifically for that purpose--alt.flame, *.advocacy, and most of the groups in the talk.* hierarchy. o There are immature individuals who seek attention by intentionally posting flames and flamebait. Your best option is to put them in a kill file (consult your newsreader documentation). For the sake of everyone else, please don't respond to them! 6: Give your sources. o This isn't Watergate, so name your sources when stating news and rumors. Claiming anonymous "inside sources" makes people automatically distrust and disbelieve you--and there are people here who know or who even *are* "inside sources", so they can shoot you down cold. o When posting unconfirmed news and rumors, please put "RUMOR:" at the beginning of your Subject: line. 7: Grammar, spelling, and punctuation count. o Do you really want other Usenetters to think you're illiterate? Communicate your ideas clearly. (Strunk & White's "The Elements of Style" is cheap and short and can help you write more effectively. It's even on the web!) http://www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/strunk/ o Anything written in all caps is read as if the writer were yelling. It's usually considered obnoxious and unpleasant and it makes your post hard to read. o Similarly, writing only in lower case makes your post hard to read; it's also usually construed as style-over-substance pretentiousness. o Finally, English is the lingua franca of Usenet. Post in other languages at your own discretion while being aware that most potential readers will be unable to understand you. Original by Greg Morrow and Jonathon S. Tuttle with Francis Uy Adapted for alt.toys.transformers with permission. Last modified: 30 December 96 Maintained by H. Jameel al Khafiz