Last updated on 23 June 1995
The original version of this document is at ftp://ftp.aol.com/pub/usenet/aol-usenet-aup.txt
This document explains how America Online's Terms of Service are applied to USENET and local newsgroups. It outlines the procedures that America Online members or other newsgroup participants can use to handle newsgroup abuses. It also gives pointers to other resources available to learn about newsgroup culture.
It is important for members to make themselves aware of the various conventions, guidelines and local culture in newsgroups before becoming an active participant. Read the document titled "IMPORTANT: Please Read" for general guidelines, as well as the articles posted to aol.motd, news.answers and news.newusers.questions.
Participating successfully in newsgroups is a matter of common sense and courtesy. Most America Online members are able to use their own sense of what is appropriate to guide their behavior. However, there will always be innocent, inadvertant postings; there will also always be malicious, intentional postings. While it is not always clear which is the case, certain activities will result in an America Online member receiving a Terms of Service warning or more severe action. Postings that will result in Terms of Service actions include the following:
CHAIN LETTERS. Chain letters are prohibited on America Online and the Internet. Posting a chain letter to newsgroups (or via e-mail on the Internet) is inappropriate and can result in your account being terminated or your access to newsgroups being restricted. If you receive a chain letter from an America Online member, report it to postmaster@aol.com immediately. If you receive a chain letter from someone on the Internet, contact the postmaster at their site (using postmaster@their.domain.name; for example, postmaster@umd.edu).
COMMERCIAL ARTICLES. The vast majority of newsgroups are NOT commercial and participants in those newsgroups will object strongly to commercial traffic. If you have any questions about a commercial article, you should review the newsgroup's FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) or charter document. If you cannot find a FAQ or charter, contact NewsMaster, one of the America Online Cyberjockeys (identifiable by their screen name beginning with "CJ") or PMDAtropos for clarification.
INAPPROPRIATE POSTS. Each Newsgroup focuses on a particular set of topics. Posts not related to these topics are not appreciated by the participants. It is important that America Online members become familiar with the culture and guidelines of a particular Newsgroup BEFORE posting. Doing so will make your experience with newsgroups much more pleasant.
Most valid complaints against a member will result in the offending article(s) being canceled and the America Online member receiving a Terms of Service warning. Additionally, your access to newsgroups may be restricted depending on the nature and severity of the violation.
Second instances of abuse will result in your account and all screen names associated with it being restricted from newsgroups access. Second instances of commercial abuse of newsgroups, or of commercial chain letters, will result in your termination from America Online.
Third instances of abuse will result in your termination from America Online.
America Online also reserves the right to either restrict access to newsgroups or terminate accounts for severe cases of Newsgroup abuse. This would include what is known as "spamming", which is the act of posting large numbers of (usually irrelevant) messages to numerous newsgroups.
America Online local newsgroups (those which begin with "aol.") are fully subject to America Online's Terms of Service. Members should familiarize themselves with AOL's Terms of Service by going to keyword TOS before posting in local newsgroups.
To report a violation of America Online's Newsgroup Terms of Service, send a complete copy of the article or e-mail message to postmaster@aol.com.
Inappropriate posts to newsgroups can be deleted if action is taken in time. When the postmaster, working in conjunction with Terms of Service staff, determines that a complaint is valid and that the violation occurred in one or more newsgroups, a special message will be sent out which will cancel (delete) the original article. While members should always do their best to post appropriately in a newsgroup, it is possible that they may need to have an article they posted canceled. An article can be canceled by sending the following information in e-mail to NewsMaster:
Each article sent to newsgroups has a unique identifier called the Message-ID. The America Online Newsgroup administrative staff use Message-IDs to issue cancel messages. You can find the Message-ID of an article by looking in the headers section of the article (located at the bottom). You will see a line which is similar to the following:
Message-ID: <287bdqf$g7u@search01.news.aol.com>
The information inside the '<' and '>' characters is what we need to cancel the article.
NewsMaster can cancel a newsgroup article up to four days after it was originally posted. Due to the nature of newsgroups, it is important that cancels be issued as soon after the original posting as possible -- preferably within 24 hours.
If you have questions about newsgroups or an article you'd like to post, you have several avenues you can pursue, including: