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Charter and Moderation Rules
For the newsgroup uk.gay-lesbian-bi

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CHARTER: uk.gay-lesbian-bi (Moderated)

uk.gay-lesbian-bi provides a forum for the discussion of lesbian, gay
and bisexual related issues from a UK viewpoint, but not the morality of
such issues.

uk.gay-lesbian-bi is intended as a safe space for lesbians, gay men,
bisexuals, their friends and those interested in matters of sexuality.
All posters are requested to respect this.

The newsgroup is moderated and operates under the moderation guidelines
listed in the moderation policy statement contained within this charter.

Announcements of relevant events are allowed. Long announcements belong
in uk.announce.

Personal advertisements must not be posted to uk.gay-lesbian-bi; use
uk.adverts.personals.gay-lesbian-bi or one of the many other personal
groups instead.

Commercial advertising is forbidden.

Pointers to commercial sites fall under the rule about commercial
advertising other than statements in .sig files four lines or under in
length.

Test postings should be sent to appropriate test groups.

Excessive cross-posting is inappropriate. Posters are requested to
restrict cross-posting to no more than two other newsgroups and all
such articles must meet the requirements of the charters of all groups
involved.  All cross-posts with other moderated groups, except those
for uk.net.news.announce and signed by Control, may be rejected unless
sequential approval rights have been established.

Encoded binaries e.g. pictures, compressed files, etc. are forbidden.
Such material belongs on a web or FTP site to which a pointer may be
posted. Cryptographic signatures e.g. PGP may be used where
authentication is important and should be as short as possible and under
ten lines.

All articles must be readable in plain text; no HTML, RTF, or similar,
or attachments are allowed. To see how to make your newsreader comply
with this, please read .

Please do not top post;  when quoting parts of a previous post please
retain the author's name and quote only enough to give context and place
your reply beneath the quoted section.

Warning
Anyone posting contrary to this charter may be reported to their
'postmaster' and, or, Service Provider.

Moderation Policy Statement

Method

Moderation will be by a pre-approved system: a semi-automatic moderation
bot running STUMP system or similar will receive all postings to the
group.

Individuals who have made one approved posting will automatically be
added to the pre-approved posters list, unless posting using a shared
non-individual generic 'From' address in which case all such articles
shall be approved individually.

All pre-approved posters will have their articles automatically accepted
and forwarded on to the group unless contrary to the auto-reject
software. Their pre-approved status can only be revoked by the
moderators if they violate the moderation policy and this action must be
supported by a two thirds majority of the moderation panel and reported
immediately to the group.

Withdrawal of pre-approved status will be for a period of one calendar
month, during which the poster shall be removed from the pre-approved
and added to the manual list and have articles manually moderated;  upon
expiry of the withdrawal period they shall be removed from the manual
list and pre-approved status shall be restored on the same terms as
first time posters i.e. following their next posting of an approved
article.  A record will be kept of all withdrawals of pre-approved
status for a period of twelve months from the date of withdrawal.

Pre-approved posters who have inadvertently breached the moderation
rules can apply to the moderators to be restored to the pre-approved
list sooner than one month and the moderators can do so if they are
satisfied that the offending post was genuinely made in error.

All encoded binaries, HTML and other non-plain posts identified by the
moderation software will be rejected by the moderation bot.

The remaining posts from people not on the pre-approved list will be
sent to the moderators.

The moderators will approve all postings regardless of content unless
they are:

1.  a personal ad.

2.  a commercial article, including those aimed at overcoming the ban on
    commercials e.g. by generating commercial URLs or pop-up windows for
    the sole purpose of advertising or by including a time-delayed
    subscription requirement or silent dialler.

3.  an encoded binary, HTML or non-plain text article that has escaped
    the automatic software, or any article not readable as plain text;
    no HTML, RTF or similarly formatted or word processor formats or any
    attachments are allowed.

4.  an article cross-posted to more than four groups in total including
    uk.gay-lesbian-bi;  or an article cross-posted to another moderated
    group unless a group where sequential approval rights have been
    established; or unless to uk.net.news.announce and signed by
    Control; cross-posted articles must meet the charter requirements
    of all the groups involved.

5.  a test post, except from a moderator or one of their Admins; all
    zero content articles, random character or randomized text and
    incomprehensible articles shall be deemed to be test posts.

6.  an identical debut article;  or an article with identical content or
    an article with similar content but different headers which has been
    sent to the group more than twice in any 24 hour period;  or an
    identical or similar article which has been sent to the group more
    than twice in any 24 hour period and which in the opinion of a
    moderator forms part of a mail-bomb attack on the group and a
    moderator's vote shall be obtained to ratify the action taken in the
    interests of accountability.

7.  an article of spam or velveeta, defined as one which has been multi-
    posted across usenet and, or, posted simultaneously or separately to
    each of several other groups unless a request for help or advice
    when consideration will be given since uk.gay-lesbian-bi provides
    both and the article may be relevant to several other groups.

8.  an article where the follow-up has been set by the author as part
    of a flood to another hierarchy or group.

9.  an article intended for the moderators or their Admins including all
    automatic responder messages;  or a repetitive robot generated reply
    to formal reject notifications and after 12 or more similar replies
    auto-reject software will be activated to drop any recurrences.

10. an article intended to scam or to acquire passwords or money, or
    to request money or donations unless by an appropriate registered
    community charity, or a robot or worm generated article.

The moderators will return these rejected posts to the sender, if one
can be identified, with an appropriate standard e-mail of explanation:

- Personal ads, and suggest that future ads should be sent to
  uk.adverts.personals.gay-lesbian-bi or other personals newsgroups,
  mailing lists or websites.  A personal ad is an article with no other
  content such as could be sent to a personals newsgroup or appear in a
  lonely hearts column, or one which is aimed at someone more or less
  unknown.  Where the poster appears to need guidance or help a personal
  e-mail from a moderator will also be sent to offer appropriate advice.
  All personals sites will be rejected as personals (or, sometimes, as
  commercial and all subscription sites will be rejected as commercial).

- A posting that exceeds the cross-posted limit of four groups; or a
  posting that includes another moderated group unless necessary
  sequential approval rights have been established.

- Multiple or identical postings.

- Test posts.

- Commercial posts.

- A posting in other than readable plain text.

- Encoded binary posts, and scam, robot and worm articles will be
  rejected but not returned.

If a moderator doubts that a post falls within one of these categories
then they should seek clarification from the poster whenever possible,
or guidance by simple majority from the moderation panel, before action
is taken; the panel are also guided by FAQ3. If a reasonable doubt
still exists then the moderators will approve the article.

Unless on notified leave a moderator will have been deemed to have
abstained from any website or e-mail discussion if no response is made
within three days of the matter first being flagged or raised. A quorum
for all panel decisions where a majority or two-thirds is required shall
comprise at least four moderators.

Openness
The moderation software will make a monthly report to the group stating
the number of articles received, approved and rejected by robot and
human moderators, the total number of human moderator articles processed
and the total of new posters pre-approved. Logs of the moderators'
actions are available on a web page maintained on the moderation server.
Rejected articles (other than binaries, for which only the headers will
be kept) will be held on the server for public inspection for one month
after they have been rejected. Excessively long articles may be
truncated to 60 lines before storing them in the archive.

Action to withdraw pre-approved status and commence manual moderation
of an individual will immediately be communicated to the group.

The moderators will be subject to annual election and recall as set out
below.

Housekeeping the pre-approved list
After notice on the group, the contents of the pre-approved posters list
shall be reviewed on a rolling monthly basis with any inactive address
older than six months to be automatically dropped.  A record of one
year's worth of names shall be maintained and once a Votetaker has been
requested all names added to the pre-approved list before close of
voting shall be added to it, and this will used by the Votetaker to
determine voting eligibility in matters regarding the moderators.
The server Admins shall carry out appropriate housekeeping on the
pre-approved list only in the interests of security and integrity and
as and when necessary and agreed with the moderation panel.

Requests for removal of pre-approved listing
Anyone who wishes to have their name removed from the pre-approved list
may e-mail their request direct to the moderators' list.

Cancels
The moderators or their Admins may issue cancels for any articles not
authorized or approved by the moderation system, e.g. where forged
headers or similarly non-approved articles have eluded the moderation
process.

Moderation Panel

Composition

1.   There shall be a panel of not less than 4 and not more than 12
moderators.

Election

2.   Initially moderators shall be the panel elected as part of the
charter change process.

3.   Then each year thereafter elections will be held for the posts of
moderator.

i.   11 months after moderation comes into effect (and every twelve
     months subsequently) the moderation panel will appoint a neutral
     party to conduct the election as Votetaker. The Votetaker will
     issue a call for nominations for a new moderation panel.
ii.  Nominations will be open for 10 days and to be valid each nominee
     will have to be proposed and seconded by pre-approved posters
     (self-nomination is permitted). All pre-approved posters shall have
     the right to vote, regardless as to whether they were pre-approved
     before or after the opening of nominations.
iii. At the end of 10 days a list of candidates (including their
     proposers/seconders) will be published.
iv.  A five day period of hustings will be held during which the
     candidates will answer questions from posters to the group.
v.   The Votetaker will issue the first call for votes, to be followed
     by a second call for votes five days later, the voting period
     lasting in all for 10 days, votes shall only be valid if submitted
     on official ballot forms.
vi.  Voting will be by the Single Transferable Vote method, with a
     reopen nominations candidate (RON) added to the ballot. If RON
     passes the quota then all the then unfilled places are void
     requiring a new election for those vacancies.
vii. Each voter shall receive an acknowledgement from the vote
     taker. They will be given a unique identification as part of their
     acknowledgement, this will enable them to verify their vote when
     the result is published while protecting their identity from other
     voters.
viii.The Votetaker will publish the result and a voting list comprising
     voter identifiers and their vote.
ix.  In the event of less than 4 moderators being elected or RON passing
     quota the Votetaker will issue a second request for nominations no
     later than 1 month after the close of ballot and hold elections for
     the remaining vacancies. Those elected at this election shall serve
     until the annual round of elections are held.
x.   In the event of the resignation, removal or death of a moderator
     the next highest candidate (if they are still willing) from the
     previous election will be appointed for the remainder of the term.
xi.  If the number of moderators falls below 4 or if the moderators
     consider it necessary due to excessive workload, they will appoint
     such temporary moderators as are necessary (the total number of
     moderators not to exceed 12) to efficiently moderate
     uk.gay-lesbian-bi. Their appointment to be confirmed by a vote of
     the pre-approved posters within 21 days. They will serve until the
     annual round of elections are held.

Leave of Absence and Removal

4.   Moderators should inform the moderating team of periods when they
will be inactive. The moderation panel may appoint a temporary
moderator to stand in during this period, the position being offered
first to the highest loser from the last election, or failing that a
person of their choice.

Other than such periods any moderator that does not take part in
moderation activity for 21 consecutive days shall automatically be
removed from the moderation team.

5.   Moderators who either approve excluded posts or decline to approve
non-excluded posts may be removed by a two thirds decision of the other
moderators.

6.   Any moderator may be removed by a vote of no confidence.

i.   Such a vote may be proposed by any pre-approved poster and will
     need to be supported by 9 other pre-approved posters.
ii.  People on the pre-approved list at the time when the vote of no
     confidence is tabled shall be eligible to vote on such a proposal
     i.e. people added to the pre-approved list after the formal request
     for a no confidence vote will not be permitted to vote on this
     occasion.
iii. A ballot should be held within 10 days of a formal request for a
     vote of no confidence. A neutral person will be asked by the
     moderation panel to conduct the ballot.
     The question shall be:-
     "Do you have confidence in X as a moderator of uk.gay-lesbian-bi
     yes/no/abstain"
iv.  For the purposes of calculating a majority only votes yes or no
     will count. A simple majority of votes cast for no shall indicate
     that the group has no confidence in the moderator and s/he shall
     immediately be removed from the moderation panel.
v.   A vote of no confidence in the whole moderation panel will not be
     permitted, only a vote for each individual moderator.
vi.  The Votetaker shall use the same anonymising method as outlined
     for the annual election of moderators and shall publish the result
     with the anonymous identifiers and how they voted.
vii. After the conclusion of a vote of no confidence which fails no such
     similar motion shall be brought against the same person for a
     period of three calendar months.

Moderation Software and Location
The moderation software shall be the STUMP system or similar, and shall
be located on a server as agreed by the Admins and moderation team.
STUMP (Secure Team-based Usenet Moderation Program) logs all decisions
automatically on a website, and is fully described at:
.
The moderators will arrange a back up server and in the event of the
loss of the moderation server will ensure the back up server provides
continuity.

Changes to Moderation Policy
All changes to moderation policy will be treated as a formal charter
change requiring a full RFD and CFV in uk.net.news.announce cross-posted
to uk.net.news.config and uk.gay-lesbian-bi.

Moderators

        Bryan
        Dale
        Gregoire Kretz
        Kate West
        Paul Anderson
        PaulG
        Stephen M Baines
        Yaz

The names of current moderators are published regularly on the newsgroup
and on the newsgroup's web page.


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                              General FAQ

                    For the newsgroup uk.gay-lesbian-bi

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FAQ : Frequently Asked Questions for uk.gay-lesbian-bi
Version 6.06
From: Lyn David Thomas 
Date: 17th September 2001

-------------------------------------------------------

Notes from the FAQ maintainer:
Posting frequency - Weekly

*What's New*

Updated web and other resources, adding chaos and removing oaktree.
Tidied up and corrected various bits.

0 - Contents
--------------

1.     Introduction

2.     About uk.gay-lesbian-bi

3.     Frequently asked questions

1 - Introduction
------------------

1.a.   This FAQ

This is the sixth version of the FAQ for the newsgroup
uk.gay-lesbian-bi. This FAQ tries to do two things: answer
some questions about the group itself, to answer some of
the more often asked questions on the group.  A second
Resources FAQ will to offer more information on gay,
lesbian and bisexual resources on the net and a third FAQ 
will provide information on the moderation system and 
guidelines for posting.

1.b    FAQ Maintenance

The maintainer of this FAQ is Lyn David Thomas
 If you have any comments or questions,  please mail me 
and I'll do my best to answer questions or include any 
suggestions in a future revision of this FAQ.

2 -  About uk.gay-lesbian-bi
--------------------------------

2.a.     When was uk.gay-lesbian-bi created?
Uk.gay-lesbian-bi was created on the 28th of February
1995 and its charter updated, modified and published on
Tue, 18 March 1997 at 21:01:03 GMT.  The group subsequently
opted to become moderated after a vote which closed on
16th May 1998 after a substantial delay this became a
reality in April 1999!

2.b.    What is uk.gay-lesbian-bi for?
The purpose of the uk.gay-lesbian-bi newsgroup is laid
out in its charter.

The charter is as follows:

ONE LINE GROUP DESCRIPTION
uk.gay-lesbian-bi moderated For bisexuals, lesbians and gays in the UK

CHARTER:

uk.gay-lesbian-bi provides a forum for the discussion of lesbian, gay
and bisexual related issues from a UK viewpoint.

uk.gay-lesbian-bi is intended as a safe space for lesbians, gay men,
bisexuals, their friends and those interested in matters of sexuality.
All posters are requested to respect this.

The newsgroup is moderated and operates under the moderation
guidelines as outlined in the moderation policy statement 
contained within this charter.

Moderators:

The following moderators were elected in May 2004

     Bryan
     Dale
     Greg
     Kate West
     Paul Anderson
     PaulG
     Stephen M Baines
     Yaz

Commercial advertising is forbidden.

Announcements of relevant events are allowed. Long announcements
belong in uk.announce.events.

Test postings should be sent to appropriate test groups and not to
uk.gay-lesbian-bi

Binaries are not permitted other than pgp encryption blocks under 10
lines, directions as to where binaries may be found are permitted.

All articles must be submitted in plain ASCII text, no html, mime or
word processor files please.

Pointers to commercial sites fall under the rule about commercial
advertising (other than statements in .sig files 4 lines or under in
length).

Excessive cross-posting is inappropriate. Posters are requested to
restrict their cross-posting to no more than two other newsgroups.

Personal advertisements should not be posted to uk.gay-lesbian-bi, use
uk.adverts.personals.gay-lesbian-bi or one of the many other personal
groups instead.

MODERATION POLICY STATEMENT

Method

Moderation will be by a pre-approved or white list system. A
semiautomatic moderation bot running STUMP system (or similar) 
will receive all postings to the group.

Individuals who have made one approved posting will automatically 
be added to the pre-approved posters list. These posters will have
their articles automatically accepted and forwarded on to the group.
Their white list status can only be revoked by the moderators if 
they violate the moderation policy, this action must be supported 
by a two thirds majority of the moderation panel and reported 
immediately to the group.

Suspension from the whitelist will be for a period of one calendar 
month after which the pre-approved status will be restored on the 
same terms as first time posters.

White list posters who have inadvertently breached the moderation
rules can apply to the moderators to be restored to the 
pre-approved list sooner than 1 month, the moderators can add 
them to the list if they are satisfied that the offending post 
was genuinely made in error.

All binaries identified by the moderation software posted by
non-whitelisted posters will be rejected by the moderation bot. The
remaining posts from people not on the whitelist will be sent to the
moderators.

The moderators will approve all postings regardless of content unless 
they are:

1. a personal ad
2. a commercial article
3. a binary article that has escaped the automatic software.
4. an item cross posted to more than eight groups in total including
   uk.gay-lesbian-bi
5. a test post.
6. an identical article, or an article with identical content - ie
   articles which have the same content but different headers, sent
   more  than four times in the same 24 hour period to the group and
   is in the opinion of at least two thirds of the moderators part of
   a "mail bomb"  attack on the group.
7. An article that is not sent as plain text.

The moderators will return personal ads to senders with a standard
mail informing them of the action and suggesting that future ads 
should be sent to  uk.adverts.personals.gay-lesbian-bi, 
soc.personals, or any of the other personals newsgroups, mailing 
lists or websites. 

A personal ad is an article with no other content such as could be 
sent to an personals newsgroup or appear in a lonely hearts column.

Commercial postings will be returned to the sender (if one can be
identified) together with a standard mail explaining the action.

Any binary postings will be rejected, where the sender is 
identifiable a standard mail will be sent explaining the 
action.

A posting that exceeds the cross posted limit of 8 groups will 
be returned to the sender (if one can be identified) with a 
standard mail explaining the rejection.

Test posts will be returned to the poster (if one can be 
identified) with a standard mail explaining the action.

Originators of multiple identical postings will be informed 
of the action of the moderators (if one can be identified).

Submission in other than plain ASCII text will be returned to 
the sender (if one can be identified) with a standard mail 
explaining the action of the moderator.

If any moderator doubts that a post falls within one of these 
categories then they should seek guidance from the moderation 
panel before rejecting/accepting the post.  If a reasonable 
doubt still exists then the moderators will approve the article.

Openess

The moderation panel will make a weekly post detailing the number 
and type of articles rejected.  Logs of the moderators' actions 
will be available on a web page maintained on the moderation 
software. Rejected articles will be held on the server for 
public inspection for one month after they have been rejected 
(other than binaries - only the headers of which will be 
kept).

Action suspending the whitelist status of an individual will be 
immediately communicated to the group.

The moderators will be subject to annual election and recall 
as set out below.

Moderation Panel

Composition

1.  There shall be a panel of not less than 4 and not more than 12
moderators.

Election

2.  Initially moderators shall be the panel elected as part of 
the charter change  process.

3.  Then each year there after elections will be held for the posts 
of moderator.

i.   11 months after moderation comes into effect (and every twelve 
months subsequently) the moderation panel will appoint a neutral party 
to conduct the election as vote taker.  The vote taker will issue a 
call for nominations for a new moderation panel.

ii.  Nominations will be open for 10 days and to be valid each nominee
will have to be proposed and seconded by white list posters
(self-nomination is permitted).  All white list posters shall have the
right to vote, regardless as to whether they were white listed before 
or after the opening of nominations.

iii. At the end of 10 days a list of candidates (including their
proposers/seconders) will be published.

iv.  A five day period of hustings will be held during which the
candidates will answer questions from posters to the group.

v.   The vote taker will issue the first call for votes, to be 
followed by a second call for votes five days later, the voting 
period lasting in all for 10 days. Votes shall only be valid if 
submitted on official ballot forms.

vi.  Voting will be by the Single Transferable Vote method, with 
a reopen nominations candidate (RON) added to the ballot. 

If RON passes the quota then all the then unfilled places are 
void requiring a new election for those vacancies.

vii.  Each voter shall receive an acknowledgement from the vote taker.
They will be given a unique identification as part of their
acknowledgement, this will enable them to verify their vote when the
result is published while protecting their identity from other voters.

viii.   The vote taker will publish the result and a voting list
comprising voter identifiers and their vote.

xi.   In the event of less than 4 moderators being elected or RON 
passing quota the vote taker will issue a second request for 
nominations no later than 1 month after the close of ballot 
and hold elections for the remaining vacancies.  

Those elected at this election shall serve until the annual 
round of elections are held.

x.  In the event of the resignation, removal or death of a moderator 
the next highest candidate (if they are still willing) from the 
previous election will be appointed for the remainder of the term.

xi.  If the number of moderators falls below 4 or if the 
moderators consider it necessary due to excessive workload, they 
will appoint such temporary moderators as are necessary (the 
total number of moderators not to exceed 12) to efficiently 
moderate uk.gay-lesbian-bi.  

Their appointment to be confirmed by a vote of the white 
list posters within 21 days.  They will serve until the annual 
round of elections are held.

Leave of Absence and Removal

4.  Moderators should inform the moderating team of periods 
when they will be inactive.  The moderation panel may appoint 
a temporary moderator to stand in during this period, the 
position being offered first to the highest loser from the 
last election, or failing that a person of their choice.

Other than such periods any moderator that does not take 
part in moderation activity for 21 consecutive days shall 
automatically be removed from the moderation team.

5.   Moderators who either approve excluded posts or decline to 
approve non-excluded posts may be removed by a two thirds decision 
of the other moderators.

6   Any moderator may be removed by a vote of no confidence.

i.   Such a vote may be proposed by any white list poster and will   
     need to be supported by 9 other whitelist posters.

ii.  People on the white lists at the time when the vote of no
     confidence is tabled shall be eligible to vote on such a 
     proposal ie people added to the whitelist after the formal 
     request for a no confidence vote will not be permitted to 
     vote on this occasion.

iii. A ballot should be held within 10 days of a formal request for a
     vote of no confidence.  A neutral person will be asked by the
     moderation panel to conduct the ballot.

The question shall be:-
"Do you have confidence in X as a moderator of uk.gay-lesbian-bi
yes/no/abstain"

iv.  For the purposes of calculating a majority only votes yes or no
     will count.  A simple majority of votes cast for no shall    
     indicate  that the group has no confidence in the moderator and
     s/he shall immediately be removed from the moderation panel.

v.   A vote of no confidence in the whole moderation panel will not be
     permitted, only a vote for each individual moderator.

vi.  The vote taker shall use the same anonymising method as outlined
     for the annual election of moderators and shall publish the
     result with the anonymous identifiers and how they voted.

vii. After the conclusion of a vote of no confidence which falls no
     such similar motion shall be brought against the same person for
     a period  of three calendar months.

Moderation Software and Location

The moderation software shall be the STUMP system (or similar), and
will be located on a server provided by 

Jon Ribbens < jon@oaktree.co.uk>. 

[NOTE this has now been replaced with a server at www.chaos.org.uk]

The STUMP moderation software (Secure Team-based Usenet Moderation 
Program) is fully described at:

      http://www.algebra.com/~ichudov/stump/

It enables a team of moderators to moderate the group, they require 
no special software and all the decisions of the moderators are logged 
on an automatically maintained website. Several features can be 
automated and it permits great flexibility that enables it to be 
customised for the group's needs.

The moderators will arrange a back up server and in the event of the 
loss of the moderation server will ensure that the back up server takes 
over the process of administering the moderation software.

Changes to Moderation Policy

All changes to moderation policy will treated as a formal charter 
change requiring a full RFD/CFV in uk.net.news.announce cross posted 
to uk.net.news.config and uk.gay-lesbian-bi.

2.c.  For further information on uk.gay-lesbian-bi, including both 
      FAQs, links to other resources, a link to the Friends page (a
      group of people willing to give support to people by e-mail)
      and a little information on regular posters see the
      uk.gay-lesbian-bi home page at:

      http://www.chaos.org.uk/~ukglb/index.html

2.d.  Further information about moderation and logs of moderator
      activity can be viewed at:

      http://www.chaos.org.uk/~ukglb/index.html

      If you wish to post an article direct to the moderators for
      inclusion  on the newsgroup, the submission address is:

      uk-gay-lesbian-bi@usenet.org.uk

      If you wish to contact the moderators directly email can be sent  
      to:

      uk-gay-lesbian-bi-request@usenet.org.uk

3.    Frequently Asked Questions
--------------------------------------

3.a.  What FAQs?

      This group is, as yet, quite young so the number of questions
      that  occur frequently are few.  I have tried to include them
      here.  In  the Resources FAQ I have included pointers to some
      sources of  information that might pre-empt other questions.

3.b.  Are heterosexuals welcome on uk.gay-lesbian-bi?

      Yes, provided that the newsgroup's ideals are respected - it is
      primarily a forum for gay/lesbian/bisexual/etc. issues and is
      intended as a "gay, lesbian and bi-friendly space" but everyone
      is welcome to read and contribute.

3.c.  What subjects are/aren't legitimate on uk.gay-lesbian-bi?

      Anything gay, lesbian or bi-related that's on your mind is fair
      game, with a few major exceptions, primarily that condemnations
      of or "justifications" against homosexuality do not belong in
      uk.gay-lesbian-bi.  They can go in alt.politics.homosexuality or
      alt.politics.misc.

3.d.  What about cross-posting messages?

      Excessive crossposting should be avoided - restrict yourself to
      news announcements. Offenders are likely to get flamed by others
      on the group - it is recommended that cross posting should be
      restricted to no more than two other groups. Anything cross
      posted  to more than eight groups will be automatically rejected
      by the  moderation bot.

3.e.  Why shouldn't I post  personal ads to uk.gay-lesbian-bi?

      Because this is a discussion group - not a personals group.
      If you want to post a personal ad, then appropriate newsgroups
      would be :

      uk.adverts.personals.gay-lesbian-bi,
      uk.adverts.personals,
      alt.personals.motss or
      alt.personals.bi

      The charter also forbids personal ads.

3.f.  Can I post uuencoded images?

      In a word NO, this is a discussion group.  By all means post a
      pointer to binaries  e.g. one of the binaries newsgroups or a
      web site. Binaries are by their nature large - often hundreds,
      even thousands of lines long.  They take a time to download (and
      so incur cost to the person downloading), and take up large
      amounts of disk space.  They are also specifically forbidden by
      the charter of the group.

3.g.  This newsgroup's full of crap, where are the serious discussions?

      The newsgroup contains what ever people send to it.  Anyone
      reading uk.gay-lesbian-bi can start a new discussion. Serious
      discussions do take place on the newsgroup, if you don't like
      what you see start one!

3.h.  Is there a cabal on uk.gay-lesbian-bi?

      No, but there are a number of regular posters to the newsgroup. 
      They no more own or control it than any other member of the uk
      gay, lesbian and bisexual net community. Some regular
      contributors have added profiles to the other uk.gay.lesbian.bi
      home page at:

      http://bi.org/uk-glb

      Though this is now very, very out of date!

      There is also a link from the main page at:

      http://www.chaos.org.uk/~ukglb/index.html

3.i.  What does MOTSS mean?

      MOTSS - Member Of The Same Sex

      therefore, by derivation

      MOTAS - Member Of The Appropriate Sex
      MOTOS - Member Of The Opposite Sex

      For information on other commonly used acronyms see:-

      http://searchwebmanagement.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid27_gci211776,00.htm>

      and there's a look-up facility at:

      http://www.ucc.ie/cgi-bin/acronym

      that searches 15000 acronyms.

3.j.  What does SIMCHAJGC mean?

      It's a more temperate version of LOL or ROTFL, and it stands for
      Sitting In My Chair Having A Jolly Good Chuckle

3.k.  What are News Archive Systems and why should I know about them?

      Google is an example of an archive system.  Because newsgroups are 
      publicly viewable it is possible to archive anything sent to them 
      automatically. So if you post to a newsgroup you may well find
      that a third party, by using one of these services, can find
      out what you  have been posting.

      Some do not archive newsgroup posts if you put

      "x-no-archive" 

      in the headers of the article, but I can not confirm this for 
      any particular service. I am also told that X-no-archive also works 
      in the first line of the body text if a reader cannot add extra header
      lines.  One way to get round the problem if you are not happy
      with your name being attached to an article is to use one of the
      anonymous remailing services.

      An additional use for archive systems is that people with censored
      newsfeeds can also use this service to read those news groups
      that don't appear in their newsfeed.

3.l.  What is an anonymous remailer?

      My thanks to Iain Bowen for supplying me with this info.

      An anonymous remailer (also called an "anonymous server") is a
      free computer service that privatises your e-mail. A remailer
      allows you to send electronic mail to a Usenet news group or to
      a person without  the recipient knowing your real name or your
      e-mail address.

      Why would YOU use remailers?

      Maybe you're a computer engineer who wants to express opinions
      about computer products, opinions that your employer might hold
      against you.   Possibly you live in a community that is
      violently intolerant of your social, political, or religious 
      views. 
      Perhaps you're seeking  employment via the Internet and you
      don't want to jeopardise your present job.
      Possibly you want to place personal ads. Perchance you're a
      whistle-blower afraid of retaliation. Conceivably you feel that,
      if  you criticise your government, Big Brother will monitor you.
      Maybe you don't want people "flaming" your corporate e-mail
      address. In short,  there are many legitimate reasons why a law
      abiding person might use  remailers.

      If you would like further information including:

     (1) Anonymous Remailer FAQ,
     (2) E-Mail Privacy FAQ, and
     (3) PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) Software FAQ.

     send this:

     To: abacard@well.sf.ca.us
     Subject: Send FAQs Info
     Message: [Ignored]

     For additional information on privacy and remailers try the 
     following web site.

     http://www.stack.nl/~galactus/remailers/

     or e-mail

     galactus@stack.nl

     This URL provides sterling information on privacy and remailers
     from an authoritative source, plus links to a number of other
     relevant sites (including Andre Bacard's).

3.m. Where are the best gay clubs/pubs/nightlife in..?

     Questions of where is the best place in crop up all the time.
     The resources FAQ will shortly have a list of guides to LGBi
     cities but at present I don't have a list of such sites in
     Europe.  

3.n. Why do some threads content bear no relationship to the thread subject?

     This is know as "thread drift", and it can be very annoying to
     people.  The reason for this is that many people only download
     the headers and then mark those topics of interest for future
     collection.  This means  that they may well miss interesting
     discussions or pick up lots of  unwanted articles.  Generally it
     is regarded as being good netiquette to change the subject
     heading if you are changing the topic
     ie "new subject(was: old subject)".


3.o. How is uk.* run, where can I find out how to create a group, what is
     an RFD or CFV?

     Documents explaining how the uk.* hierarchy is managed are
     published on a regular basis and are available on the Web or by
     e-mail.

     All readers of uk.* newsgroups would be advised to read the
     moderated,  low- traffic , where any proposed changes to this
     charter (or for new groups) will be announced.

     Taken from the Welcome to UsenetUK document:

     Where can I find these documents?

     1. Wait for the them to come around on 'uk.net.news.announce',
     or read them again from that newsgroup (they should still be
     around on your provider).

     2. If you have Web Access, look at

     http://www.usenet.org.uk

     where you will find them all, plus much other useful information
     about Usenet, both in the UK and Worldwide.

     3. If none of the above methods works for you, send email to

     infolist@pcserv.demon.co.uk

     with the following in the body of the message

        index
        help
        end

     and you will be rewarded with a long list of documents that you
     can summon.

3.p. What is all this talk of Radishes?

     From Rupert Thompson ,

     The best Greek verb of all time is _rhaphanidoo:_ which Liddle,
     Scott and Jones' Greek-English lexicon glosses as "I thrust a
     radish up the fundament of (punishment for adulterers)". Catullus
     makes a reference to having one of his enemies with his feet tied
     together, bent over, with Catullus wielding a radish "carved for
     withdrawl". It seems the radish was carved to have the same
     properties as a bearded mullett. And these are Greek radishes,
     not those wee red things you get nowadays. Think mouli.

     Thus Iain Bowen has declared that the Radish is the official
     uk.glb vegetable.

     For said item see the picture at:

     The Radish!


------------------------------------------------------------------------

Resources FAQ
For the newsgroup uk.gay-lesbian-bi

------------------------------------------------------------------------

F.A.Q.2: Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Resources On The Net
From: Lyn David Thomas 
Version: 2.22
Date: 10th April March 2001
Last Updated: 12/12/00

-----------------------------------------------------

Notes from the FAQ maintainer:
Posting frequency - Weekly

*What's New*


------------
0 - Contents
------------

1.     Introduction

2.     Help and Support

3.     On Line Conferencing

4.     Mailing Lists

5.     Newsgroups

6.     World Wide Web Pages

7.     Web Magazines

8.     Bulletin Boards
 
9.     Dating On The Internet

10.    City and Regional Guides

11.    Switchboards and Helpline



1 - Introduction
----------------

1.a.   This FAQ  

This FAQ attempts to put together a listing of some of the 
resources that are available on the net that could be of use to 
readers of uk.gay-lesbian-bi.  Much of the material is drawn 
from the original uk.gay-lesbian-bi FAQ as drawn up by Alan 
Fleming , and contains 
information suggested by a number of people.

As ever though the responsibility for the contents of this 
FAQ are mine and mine alone.
 
1.b    FAQ Maintenance

The maintainer of this FAQ is Lyn David Thomas
 
If you have any comments or questions,  please mail me and 
I'll do my best to answer questions or include any 
suggestions in a future revision of this FAQ.

2 - Help and Support
--------------------

2.a     This is a list of resources that may be useful to 
people coming out or in need of some form of help and 
support.

2.b     EuroPoz mailing list, a support and information 
service for people in Europe who have been diagnosed as 
HIV positive.  Digital Diversity is provides the technical 
and financial resources to run the service, all the 
administrative work will be done by positive people. 
To subscribe to EuroPoz, send an e-mail address to 
EuroPoz-REQUEST@diversity.org.uk
People who aren't yet online can find out how to get 
connected by writing to EuroPoz, PO Box 7248, London E5 8UL.

2.c    soc.support.youth.gay-lesbian-bi is a usenet newsgroup 
for the support of gay, lesbian or bisexual youth.  It is 
moderated and is a safe and friendly place to discuss issues 
of importance to yourself. 

It also has a World Wide Web page at:

      http://www.youth.org/ssyglb/

For people without either access to newsgroups or to the 
World Wide Web it can be accessed by way of a e-mail list.

To subscribe, mail:

listserv@netcom.com 
with
subscribe glb-youth-l Your.email.address
in the body.  

2.d     GLAMS, the site for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals with 
multiple sclerosis, in the UK. 
The URL is:

      http://freedom.co.uk/glams/home.html


3.  On line Conferencing
------------------------

3.a     Internet Relay Chat is a method of "talking" to 
people in real time, it is the internet equivalent of the 
chat line services provided by BT etc, most of this is by 
means of special software but you will also find chat areas 
on some World Wide Web pages.

3.b     IRC operates on many different servers, linked up
into several different networks.  For UK based people, IRCNet has
many UK and Europe based people on it.  Servers for it located
in the UK (which will be faster for UK based people) are run by
Demon at ircnet.demon.co.uk, BT at chat.bt.net and Netcom at 
irc.netcom.net.uk, each of them using ports around 6667.  A much
smaller service is offered called GayChatUK, run at 
irc.gaychat-uk.co.uk on port 6667.

3.c     Software to use IRC is easily available.  Under Windows,
a popular piece of software is mIRC, available at 

      http://www.mirc.co.uk

It is easy to use and set up.  Under Unix
(and similar, including Linux, FreeBSD etc.), software often comes
with your distribution e.g. ircII and BitchX.  

3.d     IRC is divided into many different 'channels' (separate
forums for discussion).  On IRCNet, there are popular local
channels e.g. #gaylondon, #gaymidlands, #gaymanchester
and #gay-south-uk.  Different channels exist also for
different topics e.g. #gaychub, #gayteensex, #gaysmuk

3.e     On CIX (Compulink Information Exchange) there are 
a number of  different conferences for gay, lesbian and 
bi discussion: gaychat, gay, bi-o and bi-c. Gaychat and 
bi-o are open conference, subscribers to CIX can join 
these conferences at any time. Gay and bi-c are closed, to 
get access to those conferences you have to mail the 
conference moderators to ask for admission. To find out who 
are the current moderators use the command 'show gay' which 
will give up to date information. 

3.f     On Compuserve, there is a gay and lesbian section 
in HSX200 in which there are a number of UK members. Type 
GO HSX200 and follow the instructions. You need to sign a 
'closed section agreement' for section 10.

3.g     On Microsoft Network (MSN) there is a gay section 
called Planet Out. WISE (Wales, Ireland, Scotland, England) 
is the UK area. The go word is PNO; I think PNOWISE will take 
you straight to the UK stuff. 

3.h     AOL's forums contain some gay related offerings, which
can only be accessed through AOL.  Details of accessing the
forums can be got from AOL themselves.

3.i     Gay.com is a popular web-based chat forum, based at
http://www.gay.com.
Gay.com has had a dedicated UK site featuring dedicated
content for the whole country - including news, features, 
personal ads, message boards and of course the chat.

It's accessible either by going to:

      http://www.gay.com

and selecting "UK" from the list of options when you first 
visit, or by going directly to:

      http://uk.gay.com

It requires use of Java, but most modern web browsers will 
be compatible - follow the instructions on screen if you 
have problems with your browser.


4 - Mailing Lists
-----------------

4.a     Mailing lists are a system of emails sent to all 
members on the mailing list. They have the advantage of 
being more private than newsgroups or IRC.  

4.b     uk-motss and uk-motss-women

There are two UK lists run by Nigel Whitfield 
uk-motss and uk-motss-women.

        UK-motss is a discussion list with around 400 
members participating in discussions on almost every 
topic imaginable. If you are interested in joining, 
send mail to:

    uk-motss-REQUEST@diversity.org.uk

and ask to be added to the list.

        UK-motss-women was formed as a counterpart to 
the uk-motss mailing list, and is women-only. The contact 
address for this list is:

    ukmw-REQUEST@diversity.org.uk


The uk-motss mail server is no longer running. The files 
that it provided are available by anonymous ftp to:

    uk-motss.diversity.org.uk

Additional information, including frequently asked questions 
for uk-motss and terms of membership can be obtained on the 
web at:

      http://uk-motss.diversity.org.uk/


4.b      cam-motss - A regional Cambridge-based gay, lesbian 
and bi mailing list. Contact David Garner dmg@eng.cam.ac.uk 
to join or for more information.

4.c     Digital Diversity (a non profit organisation that aims 
to encourage the use of the internet amongst LGBi people in 
the UK runs a number of mailing lists.  

For more info on Digital Diversity see:

      http://www.diversity.org.uk

Nigel Whitfield's uk-motss and the uk-motss-women
lists are also hosted by digital diversity.

Other Digital Diversity lists include: 

       via info@diversity.org.uk

announce - for announcements and information about DD's
activities.

health - discussion and information about LGB health 
issues

workplace - workplace issues

       via campaigns-REQUEST@diversity.org.uk

The Campaigns List; for discussion of issues related to 
LGB campaigning

       via qtv-REQUEST@diversity.org.uk

Queer TV is a new list specifically for distributing Paul 
Giaccone's weekly TV and Radio programme listings, which 
contain details of everything of gay, lesbian and bisexual
interest.

As well as making the listings available beyond their 
original audience of uk-motss members, the list provides a 
space for members who wish to comment about the listings 
and the programmes featured in them.

For more details, or to subscribe, send e-mail to
qtv-REQUEST@diversity.org.uk

       via EuroPoz-REQUEST@diversity.org.uk

EuroPoz mailing list, a support and information service for 
people in Europe who have been diagnosed as HIV positive.
Although Digital Diversity is providing the technical and 
financial resources to run the service, all the administrative 
work will be done by positive people. 
To subscribe to EuroPoz, send an e-mail address to 
EuroPoz-REQUEST@diversity.org.uk
People who aren't yet online can find out how to get connected 
by writing to EuroPoz, PO Box 7248, London E5 8UL.

4.d     There is also a mailing list for the users of the 
#uk-poofs IRC channel. Mail uk-poofs-request@quipu.com for 
admittance to the main list, if you are only interested in 
announcements of meetings etc. then mail 
uk-poofs-announce-request@quipu.com


4.e     EURO-QUEER is a list devoted to communication among 
European l/b/g/t activists, organisations and individuals.

It has a specific focus on queer EURO-NEWS and EURO-ACTIVISM, 
but it is also a forum for GENERAL L/B/G/T DISCUSSION.

To find out how other European queer groups are working and 
how the situation for queers is in different European 
countries, all subscribers are encouraged to contribute 
with queer-related information from their regions.

The list is not moderated, but the number of daily postings 
from each specific subscriber is limited to two messages. If 
needed this restriction may be suspended by contacting the 
list maintainer (euro-queer-approval@queernet.org).

This list is available in a digest and a non-digest format (as 
a stream of individual mail messages).

Subscription/unsubscribe requests are managed by an 
automated server called Majordomo.

TO SUBSCRIBE:

Send a mail message to

  majordomo@queernet.org

The first (not subject) line of the message should be

  subscribe euro-queer-digest (for the digest format)
  subscribe euro-queer        (for the separate-message format)

(If you are subscribing a different address from the one you are 
using to send the request, you should use a line of the form

subscribe euro-queer-digest myotheraddress@my.other.system (digest)
subscribe euro-queer myotheraddress@my.other.system    (non-digest)
  
4.f     soc.support.youth.gay-lesbian-bi a moderated discussion 
group for support of gay, lesbian and bi youth can also be 
accessed by way of a mailing list.  

To subscribe, mail:

listserv@netcom.com 

with

subscribe glb-youth-l Your.email.address

in the body.

4.g     A current listing of all gay, lesbian and bi mailing 
lists is available in the Queer Resource Directory, in the 
pub/QRD/electronic/email directory at swish.qrd.org 
 
This listing is maintained by the QRD staff.

To obtain a full listing of all the current gay, lesbian and 
bi lists, send an e-mail message to FTPMAIL@swish.qrd.org 
with the following four lines:

open
cd /pub/QRD/electronic/email
get lbgt.list.of.lists
quit

4.h    uk-bi is a mailing list for bisexuals in the UK.to 
subscribe send an e-mail to listserver@ogham.org
with the message 
subscribe uk-bi 

4.i    The Youth Lists - the internet's only youth only 
mailing lists for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, 
questioning, and supportive youth ages 21 and under - also 
has list for those 21-25 - their web page is at:

      http://www.youth-guard.org/youth/


The lists are orgainised into two age groups YOUTH13-17
and YOUTH17-21.

In order to become a subscriber of the YOUTH13-17 list, 
you must be 17 years old or younger. Subscription requests 
from persons younger than 13 will be considered.
  
To subscribe send mail to:  

        listproc@youth-guard.org

In the body of your message type: 

    "subscribe youth13-17 YOURNAME" 


Replace the word YOURNAME with your real name, an alias name, 
or your email address.  The subscription command MUST be in 
the BODY of your message and NOT the subject line!


In order to become a subscriber of the YOUTH17-21 list, you must 
be between the ages of 17 and 21. No exceptions will be made.

To subscribe send mail to:  

	listproc@youth-guard.org

In the body of your message type: 

	"subscribe youth17-21 YOURNAME"

Replace the word YOURNAME with your real name, an alias name, 
or your email address.  The subscription command MUST be in the 
BODY of your message and NOT the subject line!

There's also now a 21-25 list.

To subscribe send mail to:  

	listproc@youth-guard.org

In the body of your message type: 

	"subscribe youth21-25 YOURNAME"

Replace the word YOURNAME with your real name, an alias name, 
or your email address.  The subscription command MUST be in the 
BODY of your message and NOT the subject line!


4.j      Hullmotss is a new, general-purpose mailing list for 
Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual people in, around, or otherwise 
connected with the glorious City and County of 
Kingston-Upon-Hull.

It is unmoderated, and is fairly low-volume.

Currently, hullmotss has no restrictive guidelines as to 
what is on-, or off-topic... general chat, serious discussion, 
calls for help, as well as (subtle) cruising are all equally 
valid.

Homophobes are not welcome, however, and will be vaporised 
as soon as they surface!

To join, please visit the following URL:

      http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/hullmotss

or for further info, have a look at:
        
      http://www.tribune.demon.co.uk/hullmotss

4.k     OneList has a wide range of mailing lists, many of which 
are LGBTF friendly - go to:

      http://www.onelist.com/

Its free and easy to use.
From there use the search facility, search on  "gay" or whatever
will bring up scads of stuff and other keywords will refine
the selection.  Once signed up there's selection of web-reading, 
digest mail and individual mail so there's no need to use the browser 
if you don't wish to.

There are similar lists available from:

4.l   http://www.yahoo.co.uk/

4.m   http://www.excite.com/

4.n   http://www.msn.com/




5 - News Groups
---------------

5.a     News groups are discussion areas or forums where 
people post messages or discussions.  Any one can subscribe 
to a newsgroup and there for they are less private than a 
mailing list.

5.b     uk.gay-lesbian-bi.  If you are reading this then you 
are already subscribed to this newsgroup :-)

The charter is as follows:

ONE LINE GROUP DESCRIPTION
uk.gay-lesbian-bi moderated For bisexuals, lesbians and gays in the UK

CHARTER:

uk.gay-lesbian-bi provides a forum for the discussion of lesbian, gay
and bisexual related issues from a UK viewpoint.

uk.gay-lesbian-bi is intended as a safe space for lesbians, gay men,
bisexuals, their friends and those interested in matters of sexuality.
All posters are requested to respect this.

The newsgroup is moderated and operates under the moderation guidelines as
outlined in the moderation policy statement contained within this charter.

Moderators:

The following moderators were elected in May 2004

     Bryan
     Dale
     Greg
     Kate West
     Paul Anderson
     PaulG
     Stephen M Baines
     Yaz


Commercial advertising is forbidden.

Announcements of relevant events are allowed. Long announcements belong in
uk.announce.events.

Test postings should be sent to appropriate test groups and not to
uk.gay-lesbian-bi

Binaries are not permitted other than pgp encryption blocks under 10
lines, directions as to where binaries may be found are permitted.

All articles must be submitted in plain ASCII text, no html, mime or word
processor files please.

Pointers to commercial sites fall under the rule about commercial
advertising (other than statements in .sig files 4 lines or under in
length).

Excessive cross-posting is inappropriate. Posters are requested to
restrict their cross-posting to no more than two other newsgroups.

Personal advertisements should not be posted to uk.gay-lesbian-bi, use
uk.adverts.personals.gay-lesbian-bi or one of the many other personal
groups instead.

MODERATION POLICY STATEMENT

Method

Moderation will be by a pre-approved or white list system. A semiautomatic
moderation bot running STUMP system (or similar) will receive all postings
to the group.

Individuals who have made one approved posting will automatically be added
to the pre-approved posters list. These posters will have their articles
automatically accepted and forwarded on to the group. Their white list
status can only be revoked by the moderators if they violate the
moderation policy, this action must be supported by a two thirds majority
of the moderation panel and reported immediately to the group.

Suspension from the whitelist will be for a period of one calendar month
after which the pre-approved status will be restored on the same terms as
first time posters.

White list posters who have inadvertently breached the moderation rules
can apply to the moderators to be restored to the pre-approved list sooner
than 1 month, the moderators can add them to the list if they are
satisfied that the offending post was genuinely made in error.

All binaries identified by the moderation software posted by
non-whitelisted posters will be rejected by the moderation bot. The
remaining posts from people not on the whitelist will be sent to the
moderators.

The moderators will approve all postings regardless of content unless they
are:

1. a personal ad
2. a commercial article
3. a binary article that has escaped the automatic software.
4. an item cross posted to more than eight groups in total including
   uk.gay-lesbian-bi
5. a test post.
6. an identical article, or an article with identical content - ie
   articles which have the same content but different headers, sent more
   than four times in the same 24 hour period to the group and is in the
   opinion of at least two thirds of the moderators part of a "mail bomb"
   attack on the group.
7. An article that is not sent as plain text.

5.c     uk.adverts.personals.  This is the group for posting 
personal ads to for people in the UK.  

5.d     uk.adverts.personals.gay-lesbian-bi.  For people who 
prefer posting to an exclusively LGBi group.  Please note, ads 
should _not_ be crossposted to uk.gay-lesbian-bi.

5.e     The largest USENET gay, lesbian and bi newsgroup is 
soc.motss.  It covers many gay, lesbian and bi matters and
issues, with a general American bias, though people from all 
over the world contribute to the group. 

5.f     alt.sex.bondage and rec.arts.bodyart carry topics of
interest to some specific gay, lesbian and bi sub-communities.

5.g     alt.sex.motss carries sexually explicit discussion for 
gay, lesbian and bi folks.

5.f     alt.politics.homosexuality and talk.politics.misc tend 
to a higher level of flamage about gay, lesbian and bi issues.

5.h     clari.news.gays:  This is part of Clarinet, a commercial 
subscription service carried by some Usenet sites. Carries UPI 
newswire stories relating to lesbian/gay issues.

5.j     sci.med.aids for AIDS issues.

5.k     soc.bi: for discussions of bisexuality.
	FAQ at:

        http://bi.org/~jon/soc.bi/

5.l     alt.bisexual: also for discussions of bisexuality

5.m     soc.support.youth.gay-lesbian-bi: a moderated 
discussion group for support of gay, lesbian and bi youth.

5.n     There are also many groups containing binaries - 
encoded pictures - which may be interesting to some people.  
They generally fall under the alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.* 
and alt.sex.pictures.* hierarchies.

5.o     This listing is by no means exhaustive, there are 
many LGBi groups out there!


6 - WWW Pages
-------------

6.a     World Wide Web pages are files sitting on computers in 
different parts of the world, think of them as books in a 
library.  If you have the appropriate software you can view 
them very much as you would view pages in a book.  There are 
literally thousands of sites in the UK and millions in the 
world.  This list is in no way comprehensive.
 
6.b     The uk.gay-lesbian-bi home page is at

      http://www.ukglb.org.uk

This contains the FAQs for the group, some information on 
regular posters and some general info for people including
a link to the Friends page (a group of people willing to
give support to people by e-mail).

Further details - including information relating to the
moderation of the group can be found at:

      http://www.chaos.org.uk/~ukglb/index.html


6.c     Digital Diversity's web pages are at 

      http://www.diversity.org.uk/

This is the site for the lgb on-line group; information 
includes details about the group, pointers to other resources 
and also material such as the text of Section 28, what to do 
when you're arrested and the GLC charter for gay rights. Site
still under construction.  A very useful resource.

6.d     The Queer Resources Directory (QRD) is an online library 
with about 5000 files of interest to MOTSS folks.  It started out 
as an archive site for ACT-UP in the late 1980s and has grown to 
encompass news clippings, media kits, resource lists, contact 
information, and everything else.  currently, the QRD lives at 
swish.qrd.org, and is run as an all-volunteer operation on 
donated hardware and network access.  All files are accessible 
via email, FTP, 
gopher, WAIS, and the WorldWideWeb 

      http://swish.qrd.org/QRD/.html/QRD-home-page.html

Send e-mail to qrdstaff@swish.qrd.org for more information.

6.e      soc.support.youth.gay-lesbian-bi: a moderated 
discussion group  for support of gay, lesbian and bi youth also 
has a webpage at: 

      http://www.youth.org/ssyglb/

6.f   http://bi.org/ - WWW site for bisexuals

6.g     The mailing list uk-bi has web pages at:

      http://bi.org/uk-bi/ UK mailing list

6.h     The Other Queer Page at:

      http://www.im1ru12.org/toqp/

The site contains positively encyclopaedic links glb sites 
of interest with topics ranging from coming out to 
action/education and including an extensive section of 
personal homepages sorted by location (now over 550
listed!) - to which you can add your own.

6.i     Coming Out and Staying Out:

      http://www.gmhp.demon.co.uk/coming-out/


A common sense guide to the process of coming out and 
living as a LGBi person.

6.j     Pride Scotland Pages:

      http://www.pridescotland.org/

6.k     soc.bi FAQ at:

      http://serf.org/~jon/soc.bi/faq/

Lots of useful bi info.

6.l     GLAMS, the site for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals with 
multiple sclerosis, in the UK. 
The URL is:

      http://freedom.co.uk/glams/home.html 

6.m     South Staffordshire MESMEN Project

      http://freespace.virgin.net/staffs.mesmen/newsite/

Web site for a local health project, useful local links.

6.n     Youth Assistance Organization youth information
web pages. YAO or YOUTH.ORG) is a service run by volunteers, 
created to help self-identifying gay, lesbian, bisexual and 
questioning youth. YAO exists to provide young people with a 
safe space online to be themselves.  American orientated but 
still useful.  Pages at:

      http://www.youth.org/


6.o  "The Site" has lots of links gay related links and information,
including listings of helplines and organisations, look under health
and sex at:

      http://www.thesite.org.uk


6.p     Any lgb person interested in transport might like to have 
a look at:

      http://www.transportgroup.freeserve.co.uk

It's an enthusiasts group that's been about for 25 years and still 
going strong.  New members always welcome.

6.q   http://www.gayyouthuk.co.uk Information for gay youth


6.r     UK Out! is "The Guide to Boyz and Girlz on the net and is on:

      http://www.out.org.uk

Arranged by region this guide has pictures of some of the 
regulars that you might bump into on the newsgroups, IRC or 
see their home pages. 

It is currently down for a major renovation - 
it's meant to be up again sometime soon.



7 - Web Magazines
-----------------

7.a     These are magazines which are also produced in the 
form of WWW pages, they often have a higher readership on the 
Web than they do in their paper form!

7.b     QX Magazine is available on the web at:

      http://www.qxmag.co.uk/

This is a weekly London mag otherwise found free at scene venues.

7.c    Scotsgay Magazine on the web at:

      http://www.scotsgay.co.uk

A very handy publication containing news and views from Scotland
complete with listings and personals (including e-mail 
personals).

7.d    Bi Community News, UK newsletter at:

      http://bi.org/~bcn/ 

7.e     Shout! Magazine at:

      http://www.shoutmag.demon.co.uk/

A community paper for the Yorkshire area.

7.f     Capital Gay - an American based webnews site at:

      http://www.capitalgay.com/


7.g    Outcast magazine - a news and information with a more
political edge can be found at:
 
      http://www.outcastmagazine.co.uk




8 - Bulletin Boards
-------------------

8.a     These are, as the name suggests, dial up computer 
bulletin boards.  A number offer limited internet connectivity.

8.b     Ooh! Communications Bulletin Board

The board is run on a group of hunt lines accessed on 
0181 395 3108.  There are five dial in nodes in all and 
standard ANSI or RIP terminal programs can access it.

The BBS has over 1,300 conferences in all, with over 150 
exclusively gay conferences, many of which are not 
available through internet.  They have internet usenet and 
mail-lister areas for gay clients and offer e-mail access 
for all callers without charge.

It also carries HIV-Net, a charity run group of conferences 
dedicated to keeping gay men informed about HIV.

The board is connected to internet via dircon and 
gay/lesb/tv/ts/bi users can request more information by 
sending a blank email to QUEERY@ooh.dircon.co.uk

They also have over 16gb of general files as well as 
male glamour shots.

Clients can evaluated the board for 90 days unlimited 
access and after that they can either subscribe for 22 
per year or use the free single line node on 
0181 395 1028.

8.c     Monochrome is a bulletin board with a lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgendered section.
More info can be found on:
http://www.mono.org/~euroboy/equalops.htm


9 - Dating on the Internet
---------------------------
 
9.a     For many people one of the most exciting aspects of the
internet is its ability to put people in touch with each other.
There exist a number of ways that people can look for new friends
or partners.  One is to join an e-mail list and take part in the 
discussions, most lists are also the starting point for social 
events.  This is also true for most of the usenet newsgroups.
However most e-mail lists and most newsgroups (except those set 
up specifically for personal ads) do not welcome personal ads.
In addition to special newsgroups people also can add their 
details to a number of web pages, some of which are free and
some of which are charge a fee.

9.b     uk.adverts.personals.  This is the group for posting 
personal ads to for people in the UK.  

9.c     uk.adverts.personals.gay-lesbian-bi.  For people who 
prefer posting to an exclusively LGBi group.  Please note, ads 
should _not_ be crossposted to uk.gay-lesbian-bi.

9.d     alt.personals.motss.  This is an international 
personals newsgroup.  May have a lot of traffic and he
heavily dominated by North America.

9.e     UK Out! is a set of pages and is the UK "Guide to Boyz 
and Girlz on the net - it also has a personals section.
For details go to

      http://www.out.org.uk

Back up again now after a major revamp, and greatly improved.

9.f     Gay Dating Co.  Telephone dating reaches the Web!  
This is the first UK telephone dating service with a web 
presence that I have seen.  They also offer "10 minutes 
Virtual Chat for free".

Contact them at:
 
      http://www.gay-dating.co.uk/dating



10 - City and Regional LGBi Guides
----------------------------------

10.a     This section contains information about a locality, some
will contain scene info and others will include support groups etc.
In addition many of the web magazines (section 7) may well contain
local guides - I have tried to put the towns in alphabetical order.

10.b     Links to a guide to gay Birmingham at

      http://www.engage.demon.co.uk

10.c    A guide to what's on and where in London - including some 
commercial resources.

      http://www.g-l-n.co.uk



11 - LGB Switchboard and Helpline websites
------------------------------------------

11.a    Bradford Lesbian & Gay Switchboard

      http://www.site44.com/blgsc/

11.b    Brighton Lesbian & Gay Switchboard

      http://www3.mistral.co.uk/brighton/

11.c    Gloucestershire Gay and Lesbian Friend Helpline

      http://www.dircon.co.uk/gay-lesbian-helpline-glos-uk/

11.d    Loathian Lesbian & Gay Switchboard

      http://www.lgls.org/

11.f    Lesbian & Gay Foundation (Manchester)

      http://www.lgfoundation.org.uk/

11.g    Nottingham Lesbian & Gay Switchboard

      http://www.nottscity.net/switchboard/

11.h    Lesbian & Gay Switchboard West Midlands

      http://www.zedweb.freeserve.co.uk/lgswm.htm


------------------------------------------------------------------------

Moderation FAQ  for the newsgroup uk.gay-lesbian-bi

------------------------------------------------------------------------

FAQ 3: About Moderation and Guidance on Compliance
Version: 2.9g   August 18th 2003
---------------------------------------------------

*What's New*
List of moderators updated.

*This FAQ*
Aims to help posters understand and comply with the moderation criteria
for the group.  It is only guidance - the formal moderation criteria are
contained in the group's Charter.

*Other FAQs*
These are published on the moderation website and archived on Google:
 "FAQ : Frequently Asked Questions for uk.gay-lesbian-bi" - this
     includes the full text of the Charter and Moderation Policy.
 "F.A.Q.2: Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Resources On The Net"
     details of other g-l-b resources on the net.
A legal advice FAQ shall be published shortly.

Contents
--------
1.   Introduction & Background
2.   What types of posts the Charter disallows, by Moderation
3.   Guidance on Meeting the Moderation Criteria
4.   Frequently Asked Questions on Moderation


1    Introduction
-----------------

1.a  This FAQ

This FAQ explains why uk.gay-lesbian-bi is a moderated newsgroup.
The guidance in this FAQ is just that - it is guidance on how the group
feels that the broad criteria in the Charter are normally interpreted. 
To quote the inimitable Gregoire:   This FAQ exists because although
  "99% (or whatever the figure is) of messages posted go through
   automatically and without a fart, you have to plan for a few
   unpleasant posts."
To give a bit of perspective, the group can get as many as 150 to 200 
posts a day with no more than 1/2 dozen usually requiring some sort of 
action from the moderators.

1.b  FAQ Maintenance

The author of this FAQ (first published in September 2000) is Pete
Denton (Pete-d).  The current maintainer is Paul Anderson (paul);  if
you have any comments, questions or suggestions, please mail me and I'll
do my best to answer them.

1.c  What is Moderation & Why is uk.gay-lesbian-bi Moderated?

Moderation is a system which filters posts to a newsgroup before they
reach the group.  When uk.gay-lesbian-bi started out it was an easy to
use discussion forum for gay, lesbian and bisexual people.  Over time,
different types of articles started to appear which made the discussions
difficult to follow - some of these were relevant to gay, lesbian and
bisexual people but others were not.  These included personal and sex
ads, so the newsgroup uk.adverts.personals.gay- lesbian-bi was set up.

During 1997 and 1998 there was a great deal of discussion on the group
about the way that more and more 'spam' and other sex posts appeared in
the newsgroup.  It was felt they might be discouraging new posters and
making the discussions more difficult to find.  A vote was held and by a
majority of 66 to 6 the group became moderated and the first moderators
took office in 1999.

It is NOT an aim of moderation to exclude viewpoints which the regular
posters or moderators do not agree with.  Uk.gay-lesbian-bi is intended
as a safe space for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, their friends and
those interested in matters of sexuality.  All posters are requested to
respect this.

Further information about moderation and logs of moderator activity can
be viewed at:   http://utter.chaos.org.uk/~ukglb/

You should be able to post to uk.gay-lesbian-bi in the same way you post
to any unmoderated newsgroup.  However, you can also e-mail articles
direct to the moderators for inclusion on the newsgroup, the submission
address is:   uk-gay-lesbian-bi@usenet.org.uk

If you wish to contact the moderators directly, e-mail can be sent
to:  uk-gay-lesbian-bi-request@usenet.org.uk


2    What types of posts the Charter disallows, by Moderation
-------------------------------------------------------------

The Charter containing the moderation criteria is posted on the
moderation website:   http://utter.chaos.org.uk/~ukglb/
and in "FAQ : Frequently Asked Questions for uk.gay-lesbian-bi"

Here are the types of posts which moderation aims to stop:

     "The moderators will approve all postings regardless of content
      unless they are:
       1. a personal ad
       2. a commercial article
       3. a binary article that has escaped the automatic software
       4. an item cross posted to more than eight groups in total 
          including uk.gay-lesbian-bi
       5. a test post
       6. an identical article, or an article with identical content
       7. an article that is not sent as plain text."


3.   Guidance on Meeting the Moderation Criteria
------------------------------------------------

During the first year of moderation it became clear that the criteria
laid out in the charter were very broad and open to interpretation.
This section of FAQ3 aims to assist in determining the types of post
which would normally be expected to comply with the moderation criteria.

The guidance here does not replace the criteria laid down in the
charter.  However, it may be used to help the moderators in determining 
whether to approve/reject posts or suspend posters.

The majority of posts to uk.glb are automatically moderated.
  
Articles which do not comply with the moderation criteria but which are
posted by people who are automatically moderated can result in that
poster having all their posts hand moderated for a month.


**Guidance on the interpretation of the classes of banned posts**

Note that the word 'normally' is used here in the examples given - this 
is to remind you that this is guidance only and that as such it cannot 
foresee every possible eventuality.  The ultimate decision lies with the
elected moderators who have to act within the Charter.

i.   a personal ad

     There is an appropriate personals newsgroup where personal
     ads should be posted:  news://uk.adverts.personals.gay-lesbian-bi 

     Articles which contain the following will normally be
     considered to be personal ads:

     * requests for life partners or sexual partners

     * requests for contact with another individual (remember this is
       about avoiding the group becoming a space for personal ads for
       people unknown to each other) - including posts like:
         "I saw someone at abc place on Wednesday, he had green
          hair and I thought it was great - I want his babies.
          Does anyone know who he is?"

     * responses to (but not discussion of) any of the above

     * URLs for websites whose main content is one or more personal ad 

     Articles which contain the following will not normally be 
     considered to be personal ads:

     * invitations to social group activities - e.g.:
        "I'm trying to arrange a group of people to go to xyz
         venue on DD/MM/YY";
        "I'm doing a booze run to Calais and have n empty seats
         if anyone wants to share the fuel and ferry costs";
        "I'm visiting NiceTown, do you fancy meeting for a chat and
         coffee, Mr Known Poster?  Is anyone else in the area?"

     * requests for travel or other information

ii.  a commercial article

     Articles which contain the following will normally be considered to
     be commercial:

     * advertising or promotional information for products or services
       provided by profit making organizations and for which payment
       must be made (including room/flat/house to let type posts by
       absent landlords or letting agencies)

     * links to websites where membership fees are required, where a
       site contains a significant number of banner adverts or where a
       significant proportion of the content is only accessible through
       fee paying AVS or similar services

     * URLS for websites containing information on a single commercial
       venture (including joint marketing initiatives between more than
       one commercial organization)

     * posts either wholly or mainly dedicated to describing the
       contents of any publication from which an advertising income is
       generated (either online or in print) and/or providing details of
       (or linking to sites containing details of) subscriptions.

     Articles which contain the following will not normally be
     considered to be commercial:

     * local guides which contain information on more than one
       commercial venture (where there is only one local gay pub/club/
       shop, the moderators should be made aware of this so that they
       can consider this when moderating the article)

     * information about events and activities by voluntary or amateur,
       non profit making groups

     * posts containing articles (or extracts from articles) published
       elsewhere, where the intention of the poster is clearly to
       stimulate debate and discussion (although the poster will need to
       be aware of the implications of the relevant Copyright Laws)

     * responses to requests for information about commercial
       organizations and activities

     * requests for people to join in a flat/house share in order that a
       glb friendly household may be created

     * links to sites which contain small banner ads placed there by the
       by the web hosting company

     * links to commercial websites given as part of a standard sig (see
       4.12 in this FAQ about signatures and sig separators).

    There was a move a while ago to look at setting up a group specially
    for commercial ads but nothing came of these.  If anyone thinks that
    this would be a good idea and is prepared to put in some work to see
    it happen, then please feel to discuss that in uk.glb.

iii. a binary article that has escaped the automatic software

     Binary articles are not permitted in any newsgroups in the
     uk.* hierarchy.

iv.  an item cross posted to more than eight groups in total including
     uk.gay-lesbian-bi

     See also comments in section 4.3 of this FAQ about cross posts. 

v.   a test post

     The group uk.test exists if you need to test whether your news
     software is correctly set up to post to uk.* groups.  If you are
     concerned that your posts may not be getting through to the
     uk.gay-lesbian-bi moderation bot please contact the moderators at
     uk-gay-lesbian-bi-request@usenet.org.uk who will be able to help.

     A test post is normally a short post with either no content or
     no meaningful content.  It may also have the word 'test' in its
     subject line or main body.

vi.  an identical article, or an article with identical content

     This means articles which have the same content but different
     headers, or sent more than four times in the same 24 hour period
     to the group and is in the opinion of at least two thirds of the
     moderators part of a "mail bomb" attack on the group.

vii. an article that is not sent as plain text

     Articles should not be posted in HTML, RTF or any other non plain
     text format.  This is a requirement of all newsgroups in the uk.*
     hierarchy.  Your news software's help file will show you how to use
     the correct settings, and a web page 'how to post in plain text' is
     at:   http://www.usenet.org.uk/ukpost.html 


4.   Frequently Asked Questions
-------------------------------

4.1  Who are the moderators?

The following moderators were elected in May 2004

     Bryan
     Dale
     Greg
     Kate West
     Paul Anderson
     PaulG
     Stephen M Baines
     Yaz

4.2  What subjects are/aren't legitimate on uk.gay-lesbian-bi?

Anything gay, lesbian or bi-related that's on your mind is fair game
(within the moderation criteria).  Condemnations of, or "justifications"
against, homosexuality are not welcome in uk.gay-lesbian-bi; they can go
in alt.politics.homosexuality or alt.politics.misc.  However, homophobic
posts will not be stopped by the moderators as they are not banned by
the moderation criteria.  This does not mean the homophobic comments
will receive a welcoming response on the group and individual posters
may seek to take this issue up with the relevant ISPs.

Moderation does not exclude posts which the moderators do not agree with
or which criticize the moderators.  When it was voted for, posters were
adamant that moderation must not allow censorship of unpopular views and
opinions.

4.3  What about cross posting messages?

Excessive cross posting should be avoided - it is recommended that cross
posting should be restricted to no more than two other groups.  Anything
cross posted to more than eight groups will be automatically rejected by
the moderation bot.

Due to the way moderation operates it is not possible to approve posts
which are cross posted to another moderated group.  If you feel that
your post is on topic for more than one moderated group you should post
it separately to each.

If a cross posted message is rejected it will not appear anywhere - this
again is down to the way that moderation operates. If you wish your post
to go to the other groups you should remove uk.gay-lesbian-bi from the
newsgroup line and try again.

4.4  What happens if my posts are manually moderated for a month?

If you post something in breach of the moderation criteria the
moderators may vote to manually moderate your posts for a month. 
You are still welcome to post - all that happens is that there may be a
delay in your messages reaching the group as they have to be moderated
next time one of the moderators is online. At the end of this period you
will automatically return to being treated as if you are a first time
poster to the group.

4.5  Why does it take a long time for my posts to appear?

There are three main reasons for this:
  - The moderation system requires some (and all new) posters to have
    their articles moderated by hand.  This is done by volunteer
    moderators who are not always online.  They try to do things as
    quickly as they can, but there may be a delay of a few hours until
    the next person logs on.  If it is unclear whether or not your post
    should be approved there may be a longer delay but this should not
    normally be more than 24-48 hours.
  - The mail relays that send your post to the moderation server may
    experience problems, this may cause delays outside the moderators'
    control - please be patient as most posts do eventually turn up.
  - Sometimes usenet propagation is slow: whilst your post may have been
    approved by the mod server, it may have been held up on its way back
    to your news server - such posts do usually appear, eventually.

If your posts are being manually moderated, you will receive an e-mailed
notification when your post arrives in the queue.  If your post has not
turned up you can always e-mail the moderators for more information
(uk-gay-lesbian-bi-request@usenet.org.uk) but please do not post your
articles there.  If your newsreader won't post directly to the newsgroup
the correct address for posting articles to is:
uk-gay-lesbian-bi@usenet.org.uk

4.6  What if I wish to challenge the moderators' decision? 
 
If you have a message rejected or you are changed to having your posts
manually moderated and you feel that the moderators' decision is unfair,
  or 
if you feel that the moderators have rejected someone else's post or
changed their moderation status unfairly,
  or 
if you are unhappy with the actions of an individual moderator who you
feel has acted beyond his/her powers,
  then, you should try first to e-mail them at:
  uk-gay-lesbian-bi-request@usenet.org.uk 
 
Your e-mail should make it clear why you feel that the decision was
unfair.  The moderators have the power to change your moderation status
or to ask you to resubmit the article so that it may be approved.  They
may need a short time to consider things and may also need to get back
to you for more information.  They will normally act within a week of
receipt of your e-mail.

If you feel that there is an issue which needs to be discussed on the
main newsgroup you can post there. 
 
The moderators have the power to remove an individual moderator who they
believe has acted beyond their powers. 
 
At any point you have the right to propose a motion of no confidence
against individual moderators.  See the Charter and question 4.9 (in 
this FAQ) for recommendations.

4.7  How do I see which posts have been rejected?

A rolling 30 day archive of rejected posts can be accessed on the 
moderation website:   http://utter.chaos.org.uk/~ukglb/

4.8  How does someone become a moderator?

Moderators are elected on an annual basis - roundabout April/May time.
Details of how to nominate and vote are included in the Charter and
posted to the group at the appropriate time.  If the number of elected
moderators is insufficient, the moderators may co-opt additional ones to
serve until the next election, such action subject to confirmation by
the group in an open vote.

4.9  How do I propose a vote of no confidence in a moderator?

To propose a vote of no confidence you need to be a poster whose
articles are automatically moderated and to have an additional 9 such
posters to act as seconders.  How you get these seconders is largely up
to you.  You might wish to post to the newsgroup stating what your
intentions are and inviting people to e-mail you if they are willing to
support you.  You might choose to e-mail people directly who you think
are likely to support you.  You may have other ideas of your own.
People who have previously had articles automatically moderated but who
are currently subject to manual moderation may also propose, second and
vote in motions of no confidence. 

Once you have your 9 seconders, you should e-mail your motion to the
moderators (uk-gay-lesbian-bi-request@usenet.org.uk) who will then
contact an independent vote taker.  A ballot will be held within 10 days
of a formal request for a vote of no confidence.  The question in the
ballot will be "Do you have confidence in X as a moderator of
uk.gay-lesbian-bi: yes/no/abstain."

You may choose to post a copy of your motion to the newsgroup at the
same time that you send it to the moderators - this way there will be a
chance for voters to discuss the issue involved, for you to put your
case and for the moderator concerned to put theirs.

You should note that a vote of no confidence in the whole moderation
panel is not permitted, only a vote for each individual moderator.  If a
vote of no confidence fails, no similar motion of no confidence can be
brought against the same person for three months.

4.10  Can I post rejected articles to the newsgroup?

Reposts of rejected posts to the newsgroup where the clear purpose is
discussion in the newsgroup are permitted.  Repeated reposts of articles
for no other reason than to bypass moderation will be deemed to be in
breach of the moderation criteria.  As a first step though, you should
consider raising your concerns directly with the moderators:
uk-gay-lesbian-bi-request@usenet.org.uk

If someone can not justify their reposting of an original article or if
this happens more than once with a single post or once with many posts
simultaneously they are normally in breach of the charter. 

If you want to post an apology to the group for something you posted
which accidentally breached the moderation criteria, this is great. 
Do be careful not to re-post the offending article by accident as well
though!

Reposts of rejected posts (or posts which have resulted in a change in
moderation status) with only short additional comments (e.g. "sorry for
posting this" or "why was this rejected?") will normally be contrary to
the moderation criteria.

4.11  How do I know who has been changed to having their posts manually
      moderated?

Admin Notices are posted to the newsgroup as this happens.
        
4.12  What are signature files and sig separators?

A personal signature or sig is a short closing text automatically added
to the end of articles by some news readers.  They can help to identify
the poster, sometimes they contain links to the poster's personal or
commercial web sites.

If you append a signature to an article, it should be preceded with a
delimiter line, known as a sig separator, containing only two hyphens
(ASCII 45) followed by one space (ASCII 32) then a carriage return,
using the keys: dash, dash, space, return (shown at the end of FAQ3).
The signature is considered to extend from the last occurrence of the
sig separator up to the end of the article.  If you use anything else as
a sig separator, for the purposes of moderation, your post will be
treated as if there is no sig separator.

The group's Charter and usenet convention states that signatures should
not be more than 4 lines long. 

4.13  What are the conventions on quoting text?

It is standard Usenet practice to post your responses underneath the
comments to which you are responding.  It is normal to snip the previous
article of the bits which do not relate to your comments - leaving just
enough to give the context for your comments.  Some software is badly
written and does not follow this convention by default.  Moderation does
not have any bearing on this, but you may find that you get a better
reaction from your fellow posters if you follow the convention.
Also see:   http://www.html-faq.com/etiquette/?toppost
            http://www.usenet.org.uk/ukpost.html
            http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt
           
4.14  Is there anything else?

Please tell me, just reply to this post. :)

-- 
 faq3 version: 2.9g   August 18th 2003

