Last-Modified: 01 September 1999 Version: 1.3 URL: http://www.whirlnet.demon.co.uk/demon/demon-news-faq.txt Posting-Frequency: weekly demon.news Mini FAQ v1.3 *** Please read this FAQ before posting *** Introduction This FAQ was written as an attempt to cut down, if not eliminate entirely (well, one can hope), the amount of off-topic posting in demon.news by increasing visibility of a document in addition to the Which Newsgroup FAQ that explains the purpose of this newsgroup. Q: What is demon.news for? demon.news is for discussion about the management (such as charters and technical points) of current newsgroups in the demon.* hierarchy and the creation of new newsgroups. It may also be used as a medium for announcements about the demon.* hierarchy by Demon Internet. That's all? That's all. Nothing else. Anything else is off-topic and is very annoying and is anyway likely to be ignored. It is *NOT* for "news" about Demon Internet, nor comments about Demon in general, nor adverts of any kind, nor discussion about Demon's news server, nor requests for other groups or hierarchies. Q: So what _is_ the correct newgroup for my comment/question? See the 'Which Newsgroup FAQ' that is posted to this and many other demon.* newgroups on a weekly basis. It is also available at: ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/doc/general/whichgrp.faq or for a copy of this, and complete information about the demon.* hierarchy, visit: http://www.whirlnet.demon.co.uk/demon/ A quick pointer: if it's to do with Demon themselves (not your system) try demon.service (warning: contains a high flamage content, but not as much as you would get if you posted the same article to demon.news) Important announcements by Demon are posted to demon.announce - it is *highly* recommended that *all* customers subscribe to this group, or the equivalent mailing list. For details on this see: http://www.helpdesk.demon.net/announce/ Q: How do I create a new newsgroup? demon.news is for new demon.* newsgroups. Info on this follows in the next section. Info for creating newsgroups in other hierarchies (e.g. alt.*, uk.*) is located nearer to the end of this document. Q: How does demon.news work? Write a proposal (a 'Request For Discussion' or RFD) for a new newsgroup and post it to see if you get any support for it. You should be aware, however, that there are often reasons why the proposed group is unnecessary. Some common reasons follow in the next section. Q: What might cause a group proposal to be rejected? These are several relatively common reasons that newsgroup proposals are rejected: "The traffic is being handled perfectly well in another group" An example of this: a proposal for demon.ip.support.win98, and one for demon.ip.support.ie5 - it was said that demon.ip.support.win95 and demon.ip.support.ie4 respectively handle the few questions perfectly well "There is no traffic to justify the creation of this group" Obviously when you are proposing a new newsgroup you must have enough traffic about that topic appearing elsewhere to justify the group "The group is not demon-specific" A proposal such as "a group where Demon customers can talk about music" would be turned down because of this reason. There are many newsgroups out there that can handle such a topic much better and wider Of course, this is Demon Internet's own newsgroup hierarchy, and they will obviously have the final say as to whether a proposed group is to be created or not. A Note On demon.ip.support.* Groups demon.ip.support.* groups are used for discussing issues relating to connecting to Demon Internet with the relevant Operating System. When the majority of the demon.ip.support.* groups were created several years ago, domestic Internet access was far, far less widespread as it is today. Because of this, assistance between the small number of customers using a particular OS was the best way to obtain techinical support. Today, this is not so often the case. There are far more newsgroups existing worldwide for almost all Operating Systems. These cover the whole OS, and so have a far wider and experienced audience to be able to assist in problems than would exist in a demon group. This also applies, to an even greater extent, to the demon.tech.* groups. Q: How do I request Demon's news server to carry a newsgroup that it doesn't currently carry? Do *NOT* ask in demon.news! Mail newsmaster@demon.net requesting for it to be added. It would be best to include a sample article so that he or she can find out how to get the group. Q: Who looks after the demon.* hierarchy? demon.* is the newsgroup hierarchy for Demon Internet. Their newsmaster (reachable at newsmaster@demon.net) is the person who issues the control messages. Recently, all control messages have been and will be signed with the "demon.news" PGP key, available from: ftp://ftp.demon.co.uk/pub/news/doc/demon.news.txt Q: What about other newsgroup hierarchies? I cannot go into much depth here, but simply there are two groups of newsgroups you should be interested in. Local groups, despite often being propogated worldwide, are intended for inhabitents/users of that particular area or service. The uk.* newsgroups is widely used and has a comprehensive variety of groups available. See: http://www.usenet.org.uk/ for more information. The "big 8" are the main global hierarchies. These were the original Usenet - comp.*, humanities.*, misc.*, news.*, rec.*, sci.*, soc.* and talk.* Most newsgroup names are self-explanatory, *but* it is still almost *essential* to read a group for a few days to learn what is going on, what it is for, and whether your comment is already being discussed, before diving in. Other local groups exist for almost all areas of the world, including wales.*, scot.*, ni.* (Northern Ireland), ie.* (Ireland) and nl.* (The Netherlands). More detail is available in the demon.ip.support.newuser FAQ posted weekly to demon.answers and demon.ip.support.newuser, and also at: http://www.musonix.demon.co.uk/newuser/ Q: How do I create a new newsgroup in another newsgroup hierarchy? This has nothing to do with demon.news! demon.news is only for newsgroups in the demon.* hierarchy. Most newsgroup hierarchies have a *.config or *.news group to discuss the creation of new groups. As a quick pointer: alt.* hierarchy alt.config "big 8" (comp, humanities, misc, news, rec, sci, soc, talk) news.announce.newgroups and news.groups uk.* hierarchy uk.net.news.announce and uk.net.news.config Also see http://www.usenet.org.uk/ The denizens of the above groups will be able to guide you through the process. The different hierarchies have different methods of group proposition and creation. Amongst other things, it is important to have evidence of the potential usage of your proposed group. For further information see section 9.2 of the demon.ip.support.newuser FAQ (posted weekly to demon.answers and demon.ip.support.newuser) Thanks to... Tez Boyes, Richard Clayton, Alan Grunwald, Mike Bristow, amongst others. Mail any comments etc to me, Alan Ford, at: alan@whirlnet.co.uk -- Alan Ford * alan@whirlnet.co.uk * DFax: +44 (0)870 1600868 ICQ: 3033272 * WWW: http://www.whirlnet.co.uk/ * PGP: 0x8F807D7D demon.news Mini-FAQ: http://www.whirlnet.co.uk/demon/demon-news-faq.txt demon.* Newsgroups Guide: http://www.whirlnet.co.uk/demon/groups.htm