- When you post and reply, remember to include OLTL: in the subject line.
- RATSA is shared by four soaps. An abbreviation in the subject line makes it easier for people who don't watch OLTL to killfile the posts. All four characters are important, including the colon (:).
Some newsreader software, like Microsoft Outlook Express, can strip a header. If you own such software, please make sure to read the header in your reply and add the soap abbreviation if it's been stripped out.
- Don't give away spoilers.
- Spoilers are tidbits about future shows, casting decisions (like firings), anything that influence the plot. Also, details about today's show may be considered spoilers because of differing time zones. Some people don't like to read spoilers. So, out of respect for the anti-spoiler contingent, spoiler information protected in two ways:
- Don't put the spoiler in the header.
BAD: Bo Elopes with Lindsay!
GOOD: Bo and Lindsay! or They Eloped! - Put space between the top of your message and the beginning. This way, those with newsreaders with "preview" features (that show the first few lines of the post) won't risk accidentally seeing the spoiler.
When in doubt, add space.
- Don't put the spoiler in the header.
- Don't change a subject line arbitrarily.
- Unless you're drifting far away from a thread's original topic, don't change the subject line when you reply. Subject lines link the posts on the same topic in a thread that is easy to follow. Change the subject line only if the conversation and the subject line don't match.
- Snip the previous post judiciously.
- You should always quote the post to which you're responding (and if you're a WebTV user, you should at least paraphrase the important parts), but only those parts to which you're responding. It's also perfectly okay to delete the previous poster's sig.
- Give your news server a chance to post an article before re-posting.
- If you think you posted an article but don't see it immediately, don't assume that it wasn't posted. Sometimes articles take a while to show up on your own news server. Also, your newsreader may not have an automatic "refresh" or "reload" feature; click the appropriate button on your toolbar to load messages that your server's received since you logged on. You might also check Deja.com (the service formerly known as "DejaNews") for your post and any responses. However, Deja.com may take a few hours to show your post.
- Don't assume that because no one responded that your article or response wasn't posted.
- The Usenet is not like a chat room where your message is seen in real time and will garner a real time response. It's not and it probably won't. Do not keep reposting because you're expecting an immediate response. Also, bear in mind that no one is obliged to respond to your comments or questions; and, while everyone may agree with what you've said, they may not respond because they have nothing new to enhance the discussion.
- Don't post in all caps.
- Posting in all caps makes your message hard to read and is considered shouting, which is considered to be rude (thereby causing some people to skip it entirely or to flame the poster). Allowances are made, on the other hand, for those with visual impairments, where all caps enable the poster to participate more easily.
- Be sure to provide a valid e-mail address somewhere.
- It's not fair to other posters if don't provide some means of private contact. Again, the Usenet is a public forum and not a private mailbox. It's understandable that you want to protect your e-mail address from robots that search Usenet newsgroups for addresses to spam. You can put your proper address or instructions how to make the address valid in the sig. For example, the e-mail address bo_buchanan@lpd.org can be protected bo_buchanan@nospam_lpd.org with an instruction in the sig to "remove 'nospam_' to send mail."
- Wrap your lines when you post.
- Most newer newsreaders have a setting where you can limit your line length to no more than 74 characters, ensuring that your post is not one very long line that needs to be scrolled to be read. If your newsreader does not have this capacity, make sure to manually add a carriage return or line break around the 74th character of each line.
- Make sure you are attributing the quoted material to the right person.
- When you're quoting a post be sure that the poster attributions above the body text match the quoted text. It isn't kind to mis-attribute stunningly thoughtful insights to the wrong person; nor is it kind to mis-attribute snarky posts (like, "That Dorian's nothing but a shrieking *itch").
- Add space between your response and the post to which you're responding.
- A carriage return adds to readability and it lessens the chance that your response will blend in with the original post. Netscape, especially, adds a character (default is >) at the beginning of each quoted line. If your response catches one of these characters your new text will show as italic and be hard to distinguish from the previous post.
- Keep your sig short and sweet.
- It's Usenet tradition to keep your signature to four lines or less. This is one of the most frequently broken "rules" because our sig files advertise our individuality, but it's very important to keep in mind because of bandwidth considerations.
- Never post in HTML or include binaries (pictures or sound files) in your posts.
- Usenet is mostly a text-only medium. The only exceptions to this convention are newsgroups with binary in their names. This is done because some newsreaders (primarily Unix-based) cannot read the binary file anyway; and out of bandwidth considerations. Imagine, if you will, that you have a 100Kb picture of Bo Buchanan that you decide to share with RATSA, so you post it. That post is sent to the 10,000+ news servers around the world that subscribe to rec.arts.tv.soaps.abc, blissfully unaware that their precious disk space is being misused. So please, no files.
- Don't spam the newsgroup.
- Don't post chain letters and advertisements, and don't send them to the people you see in RATSA. If you see an advertisement for a get-rich-quick scheme or other questionable item, your best defense is to determine the spammer's ISP and forward the quoted message, including message headers, to abuse@spammer's_ISP.com. ISPs don't like to have their system resources burdened or their good names besmirched and may warn the spammer or delete the spammer's account.
- Go to alt.test to post a test.
- Got a new sig file? Want to make sure your news server is still working? Post to the newsgroup available for specifically that purpose, alt.test. More than likely a post with the subject line "Test" and content "Ignore - just testing" will not be ignored and may, in fact, attract a snarky comment or two.
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These guidelines are adapted from the FAQs of fellow RATSAfarians Julia Hayden (julia@julen.net) and Christine Meyer (christine@mahnamahna.com). Many thanks to both!