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Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!faqserv From: davisl@u.washington.edu (Lisa Davis) Newsgroups: alt.romance.chat,alt.answers,news.answers Subject: alt.romance.chat Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Supersedes: <romance-faq/chat-newsgroup_876222027@rtfm.mit.edu> Followup-To: alt.romance.chat Date: 23 Oct 1997 09:38:40 GMT Organization: University of Washington Lines: 436 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU Distribution: world Expires: 21 Nov 1997 09:32:10 GMT Message-ID: <romance-faq/chat-newsgroup_877599130@rtfm.mit.edu> Reply-To: davisl@u.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-Host: penguin-lust.mit.edu Summary: This FAQ contains answers to some common questions about alt.romance.chat (ARC). The newsgroup is *not* about personal-ads or email-me or let's-chat or 1-900-SEX posts or ads for commercial dating services. It's talk about romance and fun and general silliness. X-Last-Updated: 1997/08/20 Originator: faqserv@penguin-lust.MIT.EDU Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu alt.romance.chat:126989 alt.answers:29805 news.answers:115224 Archive-name: romance-faq/chat-newsgroup Alt-romance-chat-archive-name: ARC-faq Posting-frequency: Twice a month Last-modified: 19 August 1997 URL: http://weber.u.washington.edu/~davisl/ARC FAQ: Alt.Romance.Chat Lisa Davis davisl@u.washington.edu Changes: - There is a new FAQ maintainer. ------------------------------ Subject: 1. Introduction This FAQ contains answers to some common questions about ARC. It provides a fairly good introduction to the group, so please take a moment to read it. If you want the short version: Alt.romance.chat is about romance and fun and general silliness. The newsgroup is *NOT* the place to post personal-ads or email-me or let's-chat or 1-900-SEX posts or angst or ads for commercial services (dating services, catalogs of erotic material, etc.). Posts of those kinds are actively discouraged. BTW, the 'chat' in the name has nothing to do with the 'live chat' rooms and other public forums with some of the subscription services (AOL, Prodigy, Genie, Delphi, IRC, etc.). We were here first -- the word 'chat' has been co-op'd by those other folks, and we're not happy about it! There is one other 'FAQs' that appear in our newsgroup. The one you are reading is generally accepted as the 'official' FAQ. See #15 below for more information on the others. ------------------------------ Subject: 2. Table of contents 1. Introduction 2. Table of Contents 3. What is this thang called 'alt.romance.chat'? 4. Should I post personal ads to ARC? NO! 5. "E-mail me", "I want to chat", and 1-900 posts in ARC. NO! 6. No? But you said this was a place for meeting people!!! 7. Are these people serious? 8. What is the RFA? And how do I get an 'official' title? 9. That last message was really stupid. Should I flame? 10. I want to talk dirty. Should I do that in ARC? 11. How come everybody seems to know everybody else? 12. Hey! That last post had nothing to do with ARC! 13. What's the difference between ARC and alt.romance? 14. Where are all the good men/women? 14a. Where are all the good men/women (Alternate answer #1) 14b. Where are all the good men/women (Alternate answer #2) 15. Hey! There's more than one FAQ for this group??? 16. Where can I get more information on the USENET? 17. Now what? ------------------------------ Subject: 3. What is this thang called 'alt.romance.chat'? Alt.romance.chat is nominally dedicated to questions, advice, poems, stories, anecdotes, ruminations, etc., regarding "romance." Romance is probably undefinable, so don't worry about any ARC.accepted.norms... There aren't any. (Actually, that's not true. Norm is down there at the end of the bar! (Hi Joshua! *wave*) There are Rip's, Rob's, and Ross's, and more than a few cats (HiYa!) around here. But, don't ask about grog! Please. It's for your own good!) For those of you with Web access, we also maintain a home page for our newsgroup. The home page is called the ARChive, and can be found at the following URL: <URL: http://weber.u.washington.edu/~davisl/ARC> The ARChive contains this FAQ, a link to our USENET newsgroup, a picture gallery of some ARC.folk, a collection of articles from the CASTLE thread, links to the home pages of some of our ARC.folk, and links to some other interesting romance-related places. Please not that the home page is on a donated site, so the ARChive has minimal 'flash'. We don't want to impact the performance of the site. ------------------------------ Subject: 4. Should I post personal ads to ARC? NO! There seem to be some indexes floating around in net.land (particularly in Europe), that say ARC is a place to post personal ads. They are *wrong*! Do not post personal ads to ARC. There are other social newsgroups, like alt.romance, alt.support, alt.cuddles, alt.couples, soc.singles, etc., and none of them are appropriate for personal ads, either. There are groups that *are* appropriate for "ad" posts. For example, try the alt.personals and the alt.sex trees. If you are looking for someone to email with, try soc.penpals. Commercial ads (i.e., ads for dating services), of any kind, are prohibited. You should also be aware that, like most newsgroups, we have some unofficial net.cops in ARC. These are people who will send a copy of your personal ad to your "postmaster" (i.e., your system administrator) with a stern complaint about you. In one instance, the offender's sys admin received over 60 complaints! Is your personal ad *really* something you want your System Administrator to read? Or your boss??? Please note that some access providers, like America On-Line, have a strict policy about adhering to the rules and guidelines of newsgroup. You can lose your account. It has happened, and you have no recourse, because you agreed to the policy when you signed your user agreement (i.e., service contract). If you're in doubt as to the correct group to post in, check out the FAQs for these groups. They can be found on RTFM.MIT.EDU, and accessed via anonymous ftp. While you're there, read a copy of the Netiquette Guide. The net will thank you. (And so will your mother -- do you have clean underwear on?) ------------------------------ Subject: 5. "E-mail me", "I want to chat", and 1-900 posts in ARC. NO! With regular frequency, we get posts along the lines of "e-mail me", or "I want to chat" or "1-900-SEX-THIS", mostly from newlings. Please don't post this sort of thing to ARC! See #4 above about ARC's unofficial net.cops. They don't like these kind of postings either! Again, do you *really* want your System Administrator involved? If you want an e-mail penpal, try soc.penpals. If you're looking for an e-mail friend in ARC, lurk for a while. Read the posts. Get a feel for the personalities. Then, ask someone directly, in e-mail. (*pinch* Yikes! I said "feel for the personalities", not "feel the persons"! Sheesh! You people!) ------------------------------ Subject: 6. No? But you said this was a place for meeting people!!! It is. However, like any group or party, there are certain conventions that are really just common courtesy. For example, do you usually walk up to a group of strangers at a party and say "Hi! I'm a SWM ISO DHF for wild, frenzied sex"??? If you do, then you need some serious help, and ARC is not the place to get that help. If you want to meet the ARC.folk, just hang around for a while. Follow the threads. Make a comment or two about a thread. Start your own thread. Ask a question about romance or love or relationships that has been bothering you for as long as you knew what romance or love or relationships were. Or better yet, start a net.food-fight! (Speaking of which, have you seen my Super-Pie-O-Matic 2000?!?!? No??? *SPLOOSH* Now you have!!) ------------------------------ Subject: 7. Are these people serious? Much Silliness and other OddUnRomanceRelated conversation goes on here. That's why it's a *.*.CHAT group. Folks who lurk or post in ARC might be joined by the common thread of "romance," but it's also something of a social contact arena. However, ARC is not an IRC or MUSH or a MUD or a MOO area, nor do we have "chat lines". If that's what you want, you need to look elsewhere. (And you'll probably find that one blue sock you've been missing all these years, too!) ------------------------------ Subject: 8. What is the RFA? And how do I get an 'Official' title? RFA stands for Romantic Fireside Association. It is a subset of the people who read and/or post to ARC, and who find romance in situations involving fire - fireplaces, candle-light, campfires and the like. To join, simply post a story/poem/anecdote in ARC featuring: (a) fire of some sort and (b) Romance. Put "RFA Application" in the Subject line to help people spot it! The existing members of the RFA will then vote to accept your story. You only need two votes of acceptance and you're in! Don't panic - you don't need to wait for votes from everyone! If you want, you can then choose a title. The title should be approved by the RFA Prez (currently, Lisa Davis at davisl@u.washington.edu), who keeps the list of member titles. This ensures that titles don't get mixed up. Don't be miffed if people don't respond immediately; they're often busy and some sites don't get all the messages. Also be aware of net.lag -- it can be days or even a week before your message is distributed widely on the net. So be patient. Emailing your application to the Prez will help speed the approval of a title! The current list of RFA titles is at our website, so you can check the titles that have been used already. ------------------------------ Subject: 9. That last message was really stupid. Should I flame? No! Take a deep breath. Let it out. *phew* There is one norm of ARC we forgot to mention. DON'T FLAME. We take pride in keeping ARC as flame-free as possible, so as not to waste bandwidth or incite hard feelings. If you have a problem with someone here, take it to e-mail. Chances are, nobody else wants to read it. If you really can't contain yourself, follow-up to alt.flame. (And do something about your breath, will ya?) ------------------------------ Subject: 10. I want to talk dirty. Should I do that in ARC? Sex and violence. *sigh* We like to consider ARC part of the Family.Net. We don't tend to be very profane, explicit, or perverse. That's what alt.sex, talk.bizzare, alt.angst, and other such places are for. We suggest you go over there. ------------------------------ Subject: 11. How come everybody seems to know everybody else? Because we do! But think about it for a moment. If you don't say something, we don't know you're out there. You will also notice that the threads in the group tend to run in cycles. Oftentimes, a small group of ARC.folk appear to be dominating the postings. Don't worry. We're not ignoring you. If you feel left out, step up and say something. We don't bite (unless you ask very very politely!). ------------------------------ Subject: 12. Hey! That last post had nothing to do with ARC! Watch out for cross-posting. We sometimes are inflicted with flame-bait from other groups. Ignore them. They go away faster that way. Just pay attention to the newsgroups that you are posting or following-up to, and all of us will enjoy ARC that much more. Be aware that many of the regular ARC readers do not even *bother* to read a thread that is cross-posted. So if you feel you are being ignored, make sure you haven't cross-posted your article. While you may feel that your post is germane to several groups, a large number of people believe that cross-posts do more harm than good, so if you do decide to cross-post, be prepared to get some complaints. Also, watch out for idiots who don't bother to read a newsgroup for a couple of weeks before they post. Ignore them. If you can't, send them a gentle e-mail note and point out that they made a mistake. Don't expect any gratitude, though. Many newlings and wanna-be anarchists (masquerading under the guise of "Free Speech" and "First Amendment" rhetoric) will flame you back for merely suggesting that they don't have the GodGivenRight(tm) to spew irrelevent nonsense to the widest possible audience. Some newsreaders have a feature known as a "kill file". This will allow you to automatically kill (i.e., never see) posts from a particular person or site or subject line. Check the documentation or man page of your particular software for more information. ------------------------------ Subject: 13. What's the difference between ARC and alt.romance? About four letters and a period. Actually, the difference is more a matter of attitude than anything else. Both groups tend to deal with similar subjects. However, in AR, you *are* likely to get flamed for having a problem with a relationship. ARC is much more friendly, but does drift off of the strictly 'romance' topic from time to time, with stories and poems and general silliness (that's why it was created in the first place, BTW). There are people who read both groups, and enjoy both. Others seem to think that one group is better than the other. *shrug* It takes all kinds. We should warn you though: cross-posting between AR and ARC is generally frowned-upon by some folks in AR. They seem to think we're inflicting ourselves on them. Go figure. ------------------------------ Subject: 14. Where are all the good men/women? Define "good". No, I'm not being overly Zen again, I'm serious (actually, cats are the universe's most perfect Zen creatures, so if I want to be overly Zen, I will. *nyeh*). *ahem* Where were we? Oh, yes. The definition of "good". Think about it. What makes a perfect partner (or at least one better than the ones you're currently dating)? And don't tell me "I'll know it when I see it", because I may have to come over there and piddle on your feet!!! *deep breath* Right. Ok, now that you know what you're looking for, go find it. Get out of the house. Go do different things (after all, whatever you're doing now isn't working, is it?). Once you get out and start doing the things you enjoy, you'll start meeting people who also enjoy those things. The more social contacts you make, the better your chances of meeting that someone special. After all, if you don't play the lottery, you can't ever win! And whining from the sidelines just irritates the players. ------------------------------ Subject: 14a. Where are all the good men/women (Alternate answer #1) From: grog 1) in the Marines. 2) hiding with Waldo 3) sitting at home wondering where the others are 4) downtown, jes' lookin' for some tush! 5) avoiding the net like a plague 6) over there in the Self-Help section 7) have you *really* tried mashing lips with the nearest frog? 8) sitting at home, wondering why you aren't calling 9) possibly unconscious in GrogCave (CaveJanes only =)." ooga. ------------------------------ Subject: 14b. Where are all the good men/women (Alternate answer #2) As posted in alt.humor.best-of-usenet... From: rick@eaglet.rain.com (Rick Lindsley) Newsgroups: pdx.singles Subject: Where the women are (was Final Post Ever!!!!!!) Chris A Hough <Chris_A_Hough@ccm2.hf.intel.com> writes: I have posted to this newsgroup several times, all with the same result.... NOTHING! :( Either there are no women reading posts on this group, or I am doing something wrong.... The women are out there (I've corresponded with and actually met several), but they are waiting to see who makes the most idiotic or pathetic posting. They communicate using that secret woman telepathy that draws all women to a single restroom at the same time, somehow relays, across many city blocks, a description of the man that just hit on them in an obnoxious way so that all women in the area are warned, and, perplexedly, causes two women to unconsciously wear the same style dress to a New Year's Eve party. They will eventually issue scores, which will not be published, based on idiocy, patheticism, and originality in creating new words. Using these, they will select one male for extensive study, and return to their planet for three years. The first person to notice this will be a husband or SO somewhere who notes the laundry has not been done for several weeks and begins to investigate. Watch for that posting. Sadly, some men will never notice at all. So far as I can see, Chris, your posting is neither pathetic nor idiotic, so hey, get with the program! :) Oh, and there's far fewer women than men out here in cyberspace. Patience is a virtue. And besides, a patient human just really totally confounds and annoys a cat. Trust me. Rick ------------------------------ Subject: 15. Hey! There's more than one FAQ for this newsgroup??? Besides this one, there is one other FAQ that appears in ARC on a regular basis. However, the one you are reading right now is generally considered the "official" FAQ. The ARC Net.Cop's Police Squad mini-FAQ (which is posted by Tom Burleigh a day or two after the official FAQ appears) is a good humored attempt to do something about our continuing problems with large amount of innappropiate postings. In a nutshell, it lists the regular users who "net.cop" the group and agreed to be listed, and gives a synopsis on how to "net.cop". (As to how this got into a nutshell, I don't know. :) While some users may disagree with the approach, please realize that the goals of trying to minimize the large numbers or personal ads, email-me ads and other such stuff in ARC are generally considered worthwhile. ----------------- Subject: 16. Where can I get more information on the USENET? Glad you asked! You can anonymous ftp to one of the following: rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet-by-groups/news.announce.newusers ftp.uu.net:/usenet/news.answers and pick up a copy of the Netiquette Guide ("Emily_Post..." see below), as well as the other Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) lists that are there. Some suggested reading: How_to_find_the_right_place_to_post_(FAQ) A_Guide_to_Social_Newsgroups_and_Mailing_Lists A_Primer_on_How_to_Work_With_the_Usenet_Community Answers_to_Frequently_Asked_Questions_about_Usenet Emily_Postnews_Answers_Your_Questions_on_Netiquette Hints_on_writing_style_for_Usenet Rules_for_posting_to_Usenet Anonymous_FTP:_Frequently_Asked_Questions_(FAQ)_List What_is_Usenet? What_is_Usenet?__A_second_opinion. USENET_Software:_History_and_Sources For Web access, some URLs are <URL:ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/news.announce.newusers/> <URL:http://ug.cs.dal.ca:3400/newbie.html> <URL:http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/FAQ-List.html> <URL:http://www.kuleuven.ac.be/> <URL:http://www.cs.ruu.nl/cgi-bin/faqwais> ------------------------------ Subject: 17. Now what? So, stay awhile and see the sights! I know there's a champagne jacuzzi around here, a vat full of chocolate (don't mind the cat hair -- it's a long story and it wasn't my fault!), a castle, some strawberry fields, a beer spring, grog's cave (be afraid, be very, very afraid!), and other places that I'm sure folks will be glad to take you to! If you want to talk to me, I'm under the ARC.couch, sleeping. ------------------------------ FAQ Contributors: Grog (fes9s@faraday.clas.virginia.edu) Ross Mair (rmair@nyx10.cs.du.edu) Cheshire Cat (smccoy@dr3w.ess.harris.com) Thomas L. Burleigh (tburleigh@delphi.com) Puter (rbischof@ingr.com) Rick Lindsley (rick@eaglet.rain.com)