The uk.media.tv.sf.startrek HTML FAQ
The uk.media.tv.sf.startrek HTML FAQ
Not so much an FAQ as a collection of posts...
If you're seeing this on the newsgroup, and want to killfile, you can do so
on Message-Id:
*umtssfaq@pierrot.co.uk - for the regularly posted version
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*umtss*faq@pierrot.co.uk - for all versions
Our Spoiler Policy
What you should(n't) talk about
Some standard stuff
And how we feel about adverts
A note on Spoiler policy.
All articles about shows not yet broadcast on terrestrial stations in the
UK should have an appropriate subject, and a page (25 lines) of space*.
Example
Subject: (Spoiler) Series:Season.Episode Title Medium
Series - TOS (!!!), TNG, DS9, VOY
Medium - BBC/SKY/VID/???
This also includes information about forthcoming films, rumours etc...
* Some people have questioned why we don't use the Form Feed character (^L), the answer is, it works differently depending on the newsreader/platform.
Similarly, "why not use ROT13?" The problem with ROT13 is that although the great majority of newsreaders support it, not all do, and in some of them it is particularly difficult to quote the rotted text back
Tenuous Links.
We also have a "tenuous link" policy. If you're following up an article and you're not talking about ST, please use email. However if you can link the followup to something vaguely Trek, then do so...
A good example of this was given by Dave/Vivianne recently, where the thread had veered onto childminding. They brought it back to Trek by wondering how they deal with this problem on the Enterprise.
Some Standard Do's and Don'ts.
Firstly there are several good guides to posting style and (though not content :), if you are new to the net please read them.
Line Lengths.
Please keep them to about 70 characters.
Quoting
Please try to trim any unimportant lines from a post that you are following up. This includes sigs.
Binary Posts
Are not appropriate for this newsgroup (it is a discussion group). There is a group called 
alt.binaries.startrek that should be used for this purpose.
Me-too posts.
Posts consisting entirely of agreement with a previous post without adding further information or argument are discouraged.
If someone asks a question a reader is in a position to answer, we check that someone else hasn't answered it already, unless there is further information specifically to be added."
Commercial Postings and Adverts.
We recently had a vote on this subject. The results were nearly unanimously
in favour of _NO_ commercial adverts, even Trek related ones.
Results can be found at UMTSS Ads