What is a Newsgroup

     Newsgroups were originally designed as discussion boards.  They have since evolved into private and public, moderated and un-moderated, binary (for file sharing) and non-binary forums.  The news group alt.support.diabetes is a semi un-moderated, public, non-binary newsgroup.

     What do you mean by semi un-moderated?
     BY "semi un-moderated" we mean that almost anything is welcome to be discussed in ASD but we do try to keep things "on topic", and of course our topic is Diabetes.  If you wish to discuss something not directly related to diabetes we ask that you simply put "OT" in your subject line before sending your post.  In this way we let everyone know that the post has little if anything to do with diabetes.  And those who do not wish to download such posts can simply skip over them.  We do NOT tolerate commercial posts of any kind.  If you have something to sell, don't post it in any of our three forums.  We do not tolerate supplement or herbal remedy pushers or anyone claiming to have found an all natural or magical cure for diabetes.  If you post anything of this nature, our experienced spam fighters will research your product and your ISPs Terms Of Service agreement.  And when appropriate we will report such abuse of our forums to your ISP as a TOS violation as well the appropriate legal agencies if your product and your advertising turn out to be fraudulent scams.  This type of abuse of our forums can result in the loss of your internet account and or fines and legal action against you for violation of USA and International laws governing advertisement and the medical industry.
 

     Are there any other types of posts that are not welcome in the ASD forums?

      Since Diabetes does not discriminate against anyone, we will not condone, either by open agreement or silence, with discrimination against any group of people, regardless of: age, race, creed, nationality, sex, sexual orientation, religion or lack of religion. 

      We understand that these are difficult times.  We know that many of our readers and posters have very strong views concerning current world events and that many of us have friends and family members putting their lives on the line on both sides of the conflicts.  People are suffering and dying and we grieve for them and their loved ones. 

     What is a "binary" newsgroup.

       A binary newsgroup is the only type of newsgroup where it is appropriate to share files.  Such as image files, mp3s, movies, and software.  These newsgroups normally have the word "binary" or "binaries" in the name of the group. example: alt.binaries.jazz.mp3.  Our newsgroup, alt.support.diabetes is a NON binary newsgroup.  It is also inappropriate to post using RTF (rich text format), HTML (hyper text markup language), html signatures or v-cards.  The reasons for this are, 1. ISPs are trying to save space on their servers and do not want to include many of the binary newsgroups on the net, so they will delete any posts that contain RTF, HTML or binary attachments.  This means some people won't ever see your original post. 2. Some of the news reader software out there is not capable of handling these items and will often lock up or crash. 3. It is established UseNet etiquette that has been in place long before ASD was created.  In some newsgroups people often start long flame wars over this issue. To avoid this issue all together simply set your news reader to post original and reply messages in plain text only.

     What is Top and Bottom posting?

       Top and bottom posting simply refers to where you place your text in the body of a reply post to another person's post.  The established UseNet etiquette  is to quote only enough of the post you are replying to so that everyone knows what your reply is about and to place your reply below the quoted text.  If you are replying to several sections of a post, quote that section and place your reply below it.  This keeps the thread in an easy to read format.  We do not require you to post in this manner.  We do ask you to consider it.  Not because of UseNet etiquette, because some of our readers are visually impaired or completely blind and use Text to Speech software that allows their computer to literally read the post back to them.  Can you imagine how confusing it gets when the replies come before the original quoted post? 

     What are trolls?

     The word "troll" as it is used here is a fishing term.  It means to cast a line out and drag it behind a boat waiting for something to take a bite on the bait, hooking them and reeling them in.  Now you know what a troll is.  The best thing to do is use your news reader's "kill file" feature.  Once you add someone to your kill file you will never see them again.  If your news reader does not have the "kill file" or junk mail feature you will have to practice self moderation and simply skip the posts when reading through the group.  If the troll's posts violate their ISPs TOS they will have action taken against them.