*.answers post-approval guidelines

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Date: 18 Aug 2004 06:41:44 GMT

Archive-name: news-answers/postapproval-guidelines
Version: $Id: postapproval-guidelines,v 1.22 2001/05/09 17:25:54 ngb Exp $
Posting-Frequency: monthly
Copyright-Notice: see Section 8

[A recent copy of this document can be obtained via anonymous FTP as
rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/faqs/news-answers/postapproval-guidelines.
If you do not have access to anonymous FTP, you can get a copy by
sending email to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with the command
"send faqs/news-answers/postapproval-guidelines" in the message.]

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

Subject: 0. What is this document?

This document describes what you need to do if you'd like to change
something about your posting after it's been approved for the
*.answers newsgroups. For more information about submitting a posting
for approval in the first place, see the "*.answers submission
guidelines", available by anonymous FTP as
rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/faqs/news-answers/guidelines or by
sending email to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with
"send faqs/news-answers/guidelines" in the body of the message.

CONTENTS

Changing things after approval

1. Change a posting's posting frequency
2. Change a posting's header(s)
       2.1 Subject
       2.2 Newsgroups line
       2.3 From line, without changing maintainers
       2.4 Archive-name line(s)
       2.5 Followup-To line
       2.6 Other normal or auxiliary header lines
3. Add parts to or delete parts from a "posting"
       3.1 Split up a single-part posting
       3.2 Add a part to a posting which already has multiple parts
       3.3 Delete a part from a multi-part posting
       3.4 Add a diff posting
4. Transfer a posting to a new maintainer
5. Terminate a posting (i.e., stop posting it forever)
6. Cancel one of your postings
7. Create a new posting
8. About this posting

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

Subject: Changing things after approval
=======================================

The following is a list of some situations which might occur AFTER
your posting has been approved for *.answers, and what you need to do
for each one. (If you find you've made an error, and you're just
correcting your headers to agree with what was approved in the first
place, you don't need to get it reapproved; but sending us a note
would be nice so we don't bug you about the original problem when our
archival software notices it.)

Note that if none of these situations occur, the *.answers moderators
will expect you to continue posting your posting regularly, and there
is no need to resubmit your posting just because you are regularly
revising its CONTENTS.

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

Subject: 1. Change a posting's posting frequency
=================================================

Inform news-answers-request@mit.edu of the new frequency, unless you
have a Posting-Frequency line in your auxiliary header; in that case,
just change that line. In either case, you do not need to await
reapproval from us, unless you are also changing other headers that do
require approval.

We only require notification if the posting frequency changes, not the
actual posting date. For example, you do not need to notify us if you
change your posting date from the 1st to the 6th day of the month, if
our records indicate your posting frequency is "monthly".

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

Subject: 2. Change a posting's header(s)
=========================================

2.1 Subject

Inform news-answers-request@mit.edu of the new Subject line, or
resubmit the entire posting to news-answers@mit.edu; in either case,
wait for reapproval before posting, so that we can remove obsolete
archived copies. (Exception: If all you're changing is the date or
version number, and it was obvious from your original submission that
those might change, we've already marked it as a wildcard in our
records, so there's no need to resubmit it or wait for reapproval.)

2.2 Newsgroups line

Inform news-answers-request@mit.edu of the new Newsgroups line, or
resubmit the entire posting to news-answers@mit.edu; in either case,
wait for reapproval before posting, so that we can remove obsolete
archived copies. This applies also if you are posting to new or
renamed newsgroups.

If a newsgroup has been split, or renamed, we still need you to tell us
exactly what groups you will be posting to in the future, and what
order they'll appear in. Wait for reapproval before cross-posting to
*.answers and the new newsgroups. Also let us know if you will
continue to post to the obsolete newsgroup for a few months.

2.3 From line, without changing maintainers

If the From line of your post changes, let us know what the new
address is by sending a note to news-answers-request@mit.edu before
posting. Make sure you specify whether the change is permanent or is a
one-time exception.

You do not need to wait for reapproval if you are sure that the
posting software at your new site will produce correct headers, unless
you are also changing other headers that do require approval.

2.4 Archive-name line(s)

Inform news-answers-request@mit.edu and wait for reapproval before
posting, so that we may remove obsolete archived copies. This applies
also if you wish to change any newsgroup-specific archive names you may
have in your posting.

2.5 Followup-To line

As long as it exists and doesn't contain any *.answers newsgroups in
it, you don't have to tell us if you change its contents.

2.6 Other normal or auxiliary header lines

As long as you don't change the overall structure of your headers
(i.e., they still conform to the guidelines), you don't have to inform
us about changes to other headers, or adding new headers.

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

Subject: 3. Add parts to or delete parts from a "posting"
=========================================================

3.1 Split up a single-part posting

Read Section 2.4 in the *.answers guidelines (see the top of this file
for where to get a copy) for more information on multiple-part
postings. Submit all the parts to news-answers@mit.edu. Wait for
approval before posting.

3.2 Add a new part to a posting which already has multiple parts

Note: In order to reduce how often you need to ask for new parts, you
might consider asking for more than just one new part approved at a
time, thus making your postings individually smaller and giving them
more room to grow. If you do this, please start using all the parts
that you've gotten approved at once, i.e., don't ask for 3 new parts
and then only expand to use the first new part at first, and then the
second, and then the third. Just spread your posting a little thinner
for a while.

    a. If the new part's headers are consistent with the other parts

    This means that that the Subject lines and archive names follow a
    pattern already established for your posting. For example, your
    Subject lines are in the form "foo FAQ part * of *" and your
    archive names look like "foo-faq/part*". The old parts might have
    their subjects changed because the "of *" changed, but that still
    matches the same pattern.

    Inform news-answers-request@mit.edu of the Subject lines of all
    parts with changed Subject lines, and the Subject line and archive
    name of the new part. Wait for approval before posting the new
    parts.

    b. If the new Subject or Archive-name does not fit an established
          pattern

    Submit the new part(s) and all significantly changed parts to
    news-answers@mit.edu. Wait for reapproval before posting them.

3.3 Delete a part from a multi-part posting

Inform news-answers-request@mit.edu. Wait for approval before posting
if this will cause important changes in the other parts (changing
subject lines from "foo part * of 20" to "foo part * of 15" does not
count as an important change).

3.4 Add a diff posting

Read Section 2.5 of the "*.answers submission guidelines" (see the top
of this file for where to get a copy) for information on diff
postings. Submit the diff posting to news-answers@mit.edu. If your
posting had only one part before the change, change its archive name
(see Section 2.5 of the "*.answers submission guidelines") and submit
both the posting and the diff posting. Wait for reapproval before
posting the diff, and the regular posting if its archive name has
changed, to *.answers.

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

Subject: 4. Transfer a posting to a new maintainer
==================================================

The old maintainer should inform news-answers-request@mit.edu of the
change in maintainers. The new maintainer should read the "*.answers
submission guidelines" and inform news-answers-request@mit.edu that
he or she has done so. Furthermore, the new maintainer should resubmit
the posting (MINUS THE APPROVAL HEADERS) even if there are no header
changes planned except for the From and/or Reply-To lines, since we'd
like to confirm that the new maintainer's news server doesn't munge
headers. The new maintainer should wait for reapproval before posting
for real with the necessary approval headers.

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

Subject: 5. Terminate a posting (i.e., stop posting it forever)
================================================================

Inform news-answers-request@mit.edu.

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

Subject: 6. Cancel one of your postings
=======================================

If you made a mistake (for example, perhaps you posted one of your
articles multiple times by accident), you won't be able to cancel the
article from your news reader software as you normally might.

Instead, to have an article canceled, send us email at
news-answers-request@mit.edu with the Subject line "Urgent: cancel
needed". Specify your article's Subject line, Newsgroups, Message-ID
(if convenient), and what went wrong such that you need the article
canceled. (Note that this only applies to articles cross-posted to
*.answers. We can't cancel other articles, but you should be able to
cancel any article you post to non-moderated newsgroups yourself.) We
make every effort to process cancel requests as quickly as possible.

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

Subject: 7. Create a new posting
================================

Submit it to *.answers following the "*.answers guidelines", just like
you submitted your previous posting(s).

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

Subject: 8. About this posting
==============================

(c) Copyright 1991-1997 by the *.answers moderators, all rights
reserved. Redistribution of this document is hereby freely granted so
long as the document is redistributed in its entirety (here
interpreted as all text which were not automated generated by software
as part of the distribution process); in particular, with attributions
and this copyright notice. We would appreciate hearing about any
interesting redistributions.

Comments about, suggestions about or corrections to this posting are
welcomed. If you would like to ask us to change this posting in some
way, the method we appreciate most is for you to actually make the
desired modifications to a copy of the posting, and then to send us the
modified posting, or a context diff between the posted version and your
modified version (if you do the latter, make sure to include in your
mail the "Version:" line from the posted version). Submitting changes
in this way makes dealing with them easier for us and helps to avoid
misunderstandings about what you are suggesting.

Many people have in the past provided feedback and corrections; we
thank them for their input. Remaining ambiguities, errors, and
difficult-to-read passages are not their fault. :)

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

      dalamb@qucis.queensu.ca (David Alex Lamb)
      n.g.boalch@durham.ac.uk (Nick Boalch)

      jik@mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens) [Emeritus]
      pshuang@mit.edu (Ping Huang) [Emeritus]
      pgreene@optics.rochester.edu (Pamela Greene) [Emeritus]

 -- the *.answers moderation team <news-answers-request@mit.edu>

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

End of "*.answers post-approval guidelines" Digest
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