Read Before Posting to

rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks

The newsgroup for Marvel Comics' X-Men

Subject: Table of Contents

• Introduction
• BEFORE Posting Your First Post to racmx...
• How To Post (Basic Netiquette)
• Where To Post (and it might not be to racmx)
• Subject Lines and SPOILERS / SPOILERSPACE
• Common Posting Problems
• Credits

Subject: Introduction

The racmx newsgroup exists as a community; it has rules and customs. Breaking these customs may cost you in terms of your "popularity" or your credibility. The purpose of this FAQ is to help newer readers (and remind older ones) figure out the mysteries of posting to rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks.

Subject: BEFORE Posting Your First Post to racmx...

If you're new to a newsgroup, you should check and see if it has any FAQ postings or posting guidelines. In the rec.arts.comics.* family of newsgroups, you can usually find such posts in rec.arts.comics.info.

FAQ posts are also posted to most of the comics newsgroups, including racmx. It's called a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions list) because it answers the questions that many new readers have. Even if you've read the books for years, the RACMX FAQ may tell you things that you never knew. So check it out! Kate the Short keeps the General RACMX FAQ at:

URL: http://users.rcn.com/kateshort/faqs/racmxFAQ/

You can also find links to almost all of the rac.* FAQs at:

URL: http://users.rcn.com/kateshort/faqs/

Once you've read the FAQs, read racmx itself, preferably for more than a month. If you're in a hurry, then try reading *every* *single* *post* for two full weeks. You'll see whether your questions have already been answered, learn who posts the most helpful answers, and discover which topics get on people's nerves. That helps to avoid flamewars.

If you have further questions about newsgroups or posting to news, read news.newusers.questions. Whether it is a technical question or a netiquette question, these people are the ones to help you out. You can also visit the news.newusers.questions mirror site at:

URL: http://users.rcn.com/kateshort/nnq/

Subject: How To Post (Basic Netiquette)

Please be concise when writing, and format your posts:

• Turn off HTML encoding, MIME encoding, v-cards, attachments, and the like, as usenet is an ASCII-text-only medium. If you need help turning off the HTML, ask in news.newusers.questions.



• Leave in the attributions and some of the previous poster's text, so we know who and what you're responding to.



• Type a response *below* the quoted material you're responding to, so it reads like a conversation. Please don't top-post!



• Delete the portions of the post that you aren't responding to, including the other person's .sig file, to save news server space.



• Use paragraphs shorter than 24 lines, leave blank lines between paragraphs and after punctuation, and hit return after every 72 to 75 characters, so your posts are readable on any size monitor.



• Use standard punctuation, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling, so your posts are easy to read.



• Keep your own .sig file to fewer than eight lines, (under four is best!), to save news server space.

The easier your posts are to read, the more people will read them.

Please be nice to the other posters to the newsgroup. Remember, there *are* creators reading this newsgroup, so qualify your dislikes with specific details. Similarly, please don't flame others. Constructive criticism gets better results than insults.

Please send private responses over email. If you aren't sure if it should be said, take it to private e-mail. Better yet, don't post a followup or email a reply at all.

Please make sure you're posting to the appropriate newsgroup(s) and delete any groups that are inappropriate. Make sure you post followups to the right newsgroup(s), or use email, if you really change topics. Rule of thumb: if it's covered in another rec.arts.comics.* group, it is definitely off-topic. If there is no other forum for the discussion posters tend to be slightly more tolerant of off-topicness.

Subject: Where To Post (and it might not be to racmx)

Not *every* aspect of the X-Men is on-topic in racmx. The *comics* and their creators are, but other aspects generally belong in other newsgroups in the rec.arts.comics.* hierarchy:

• *ALL* auction/for-sale posts belong on rec.arts.comics.marketplace. Even if you want to buy an X-Men comic, or want to know how much a book is worth, ask over at .marketplace. They'll be happy to help! Do *not* crosspost your sales lists. Really. Please.



• Stories and fan-fiction should be posted to alt.comics.fan-fiction (stories with copyrighted characters), or rec.arts.comics.creative (stories based on original material besides copyrighted characters). You can post "pointers" to your story-- just post a message on racmx saying "I've posted part XYZ of my story Story Name Here on alt.comics.fan-fiction."



• Picture files should be posted to alt.binaries.pictures.cartoons or alt.binaries.pictures.misc with an appropriate subject, such as "X-Men Storm Pic." If it's ASCII art, post it to alt.ascii or rec.arts.ascii. You can post a "pointer" telling us what you posted, where you posted, and the subject header you posted under. Pictures posted to the newsgroups get converted into HUGE binary files. These take forever to download, and time equals money if you've got a slower connection or live overseas. A binary in a discussion group is sometimes 100 times larger than most posts!



• Other newsgroups for toy and game discussions include rec.games.frp.super-heroes for roleplaying games, rec.toys.action-figures for toys and figures, and rec.collecting.cards.non-sports for trading cards and CCGs.

Subject: Subject Lines and SPOILERS / SPOILERSPACE

*Please* use concise and informative subject lines, which reflect the subject of your post, *without* giving away any just-published info that would spoil it for anyone who didn't pick up her books yet. That way, interested readers can find the subjects they want to read, the subjects they want to save for later, and the ones they want to avoid.

• If it didn't occur *in the books* at least two weeks ago, DON'T post it without using SPOILERS.



• Use the word SPOILERS in the subject line to indicate that your post has plot-sensitive information in it. Even if you're talking about info from Previews/Wizard/X-Fan/letter columns, you can't assume that all readers will have seen the info, or that they *want* to know the info.



• If you just read issue #712 and learn that Cyclops dies, don't put: "Cyclops dies! SPOILERS!" in the header, because that gives away all the info! Instead, try: "X-Men #712 Cyclops SPOILERS". That way, posters who can't get their books for a few days can avoid it.



• When you write your actual post, tell us the issue number and remind us that your post includes SPOILERS. Then, hit return twenty-four times (one screenful of space) so that there's a whole bunch of white space between the beginning of the post and the actual spoilers, so a reader can see that there are spoilers ahead. You can fill the space with silly quotes if you want. : )



• If you shift topics, say, from talking about Gambit to talking about Kitty and Wolvie, just remember to change the Subject header to reflect it. If it was: "Re: Gambit is really unique" change it to: "Kitty and Wolvie (was Re: Gambit is really unique)". That way, the people who like Kitty know that the discussion has gone on to talk about her, and the Gambit fans won't have to endure talk about Kitty in a thread labelled "Gambit is really unique."

NOTE: REVIEW implies spoilers. Again, leave spoiler space intact.

Subject: Common Posting Problems

If your posts aren't showing up, or nobody seems to be responding, try these tips:

• Go to http://groups.google.com/ and see if your posts are showing up. If your post hasn't shown up, do NOT post it to the newsgroup two or three more times. Usually, we will have seen it the first time. If you want to test your postings, try posting to misc.test; you will get about three to five replies from automatic reply servers. If you can't find your posts, email your ISP for assistance.



• If nobody is replying to your posts, again, be patient. Remember that time moves ... differently on the net. It takes much longer for posts to reach some sites than it does others. It may take six days to travel around the world, and then six to get a reply. Besides, people will respond if they feel like responding to it. Some people won't respond because they think someone who knows the character or issue better will answer, or they just aren't into a particular title or team.

Newsreaders are really funny things sometimes. Some won't show your articles until you exit the newsreader and restart it. Others might have a delay of a few minutes until your post appears. Still other newsreaders will *never* show you anything that you posted yourself. If you aren't sure how your newsreader works, ask in the group news.newusers.questions.

If your server doesn't get a group, point your browser at Google Groups: http://groups.google.com/ . Google Groups is a searchable collection of newsgroups, including the really hard-to-find alt.* groups and local/ regional groups. Through this service, you can read as many posts as you wish from any newsgroup or author, and you can post directly to the group or send email to the original poster. So, if you haven't been able to get any of the alt.comics.* groups on your local internet account, try Google Groups.

Subject: Credits

The Keeper of the Read Before Posting FAQ would like the thank the following people:

* David R. Henry, for being such an awesome FAQ-Keeper role model;
* Marty Blase, for lending his considerable time and assistance;
* and love and kisses to Aardy, who showed me how to use .txt and ftp.

Welcome to rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks! (a RACMX FAQ of introduction)
Read Before Posting (a RACMX FAQ for detailed netiquette and assistance)
The General RACMX FAQ (a RACMX FAQ for detailed story/character questions)

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URL: http://users.rcn.com/kateshort/faqs/read.htm
Last updated: 2004-01-19