From: Karen <karen@lspace.org>
Subject: [FAQ] {M} {I} {G} {R} {A} {F} - Tagging and how it works
Newsgroups: alt.fan.pratchett.announce,alt.fan.pratchett,alt.books.pratchett
Followup-To: poster
Reply-To: afpfaqs@goodgulf.demon.co.uk
Organization: I live in hope
Keywords: Pratchett Discworld FAQ netiquette tags keycodes
Approved: afpa-mod@lspace.org,ridcully@unseen.ankh.edu
X-Autoposter: This FAQ was autoposted by <leo@lspace.org>

Archive-name: pratchett/subject-tag-faq
Posting-Frequency: weekly
Last-modified: 17 July 2000
Maintained-by: karen <karen@lspace.org>
Previous-maintainer: ppint. <ppint@lspace.org>
URL: http://www.lspace.org/faqs/

This and all the other FAQs for Pratchett newsgroups and things
Pratchett related may be found at:

<http://www.lspace.org/faqs/>


Additionally, if you are unable to find the answer to your query in the
relevant FAQ, or have a more general query or request, there is a Help
Facility to be reached by mailing:

<afp-help@lspace.org>



   ---------------------------------------------------------------
                       * Alphabetti Spaghetti *

AFP's [X] subject tags for threads - how and when to use them.
You may find it useful to print this out and keep handy until you are
familiar with the usage.

Alt.fan.pratchett can be a fairly heavy-traffic newsgroup. In addition,
afp'ers rarely restrict their contributions to matters strictly to do
with Terry Pratchett, and his writings.

Tagging assists visual selection of threads likely to be of greatest
interest and avoidance of threads of least interest. It also enables
automatic selection, sorting or kill-filing, for those with newsreaders
with a kill-file facility [1][2].

Please apply the following guidelines:-

1) Please *use* tags when starting a thread, or when following up to a
   thread where someone has omitted to use a tag.

2) The tag should be at the *beginning* of the subject - placing it
   within the subject words may be fun but for those who sort on tags
   rather than actually kill by tag this wrecks the sorting.

3) Please *do* change the tag, as the nature of the discussion changes
   [remove the old tag completely, or else "deactivate" it, by changing
   the square brackets to some other symbol, e.g. "*X*". In the case of
   this FAQ the square brackets surround the actual tag which is [FAQ]
   and curly brackets are used to "deactivate" the other tags.

4) Please use *one* tag. Multiple tagging can generally be avoided by
   reading the definitions below.

5) Please *don't* introduce use of new tags. Such proposals should be
   discussed on group first. Many new tags have been suggested before -
   try looking on dejanews before suggesting new tags please.

6) Please *don't* modify the strict "[X]" format - else, this voluntary
   system breaks down. Square brackets only, please for the actual tag -
   in this case [FAQ].

7) NB for those who are new to afp but are familiar with tagging, the
   [Q] tag for questions is *not* in use on these groups. Nor is there a
   need for a separate "newbie" tag.



Currently recognised tags are:

   [A] - Annotation - articles commenting upon, or explaining,
         references in Terry Pratchett's novels and shorter stories.
         Leo Breebaart (leo@lspace.org) uses [A] tagged articles to
         select additions to the awesome Annotated Pratchett File which
         may be obtained by ftp from ftp.lspace.org
         (also <http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/>)
         Please *check* the APF before submitting new annotations.

   [R] - Relevant - articles (other than annotations) that are directly
         related to and are discussing Terry's works, publications,
         theatrical productions, films and other activities that are
         based upon them, including the companion maps, art & craftwork,
         inasmuch as they relate to the original works and each other.

   [I] - Irrelevant - threads whose subjects are not *directly* related
         to Terry's works, publications or other "spin-offs", nor to afp
         fan activity, nor to afp-the-newsgroup. Please bear in mind
         that [I] is not intended as a licence to repeatedly introduce
         contentious or other subjects for their own sake - consider
         whether the subject has already been aired recently and is
         still of wider interest:))

   [M] - Meta - These are for the discussion of issues relating to afp
         itself and how it operates. Please take the time to look at
         them as and when they arise - this is *your* group after all.
         They are the forum for discussing changes to the way your
         usenet community operates (eg how tagging is used, FAQ issues
         etc), as well as activity on the newsgroup and matters
         generally within the group itself which may be of
         concern/interest to subscribers.

   [F] - Fan - details of afp fan activity, normally "in real life" (or
         as close as afpers get to the same), frequently involving
         hostelries and other establishments serving alcoholic beverages
         and/or curries...
         Also, reports on such activities (and where to find all the
         incriminating evidence, in all its gory detail), and proposals
         for repeating the experience(s), once the perpetrators of the
         previous outrage have recovered sufficiently.

   [C] - Cascade - content-free, "articles" deliberately building up a
         "cascade", or visual effect.
         Please have regard to the negative effect of cascades upon afp
         as well as bandwidth wasted, before starting another cascade.
         If you must cascade, please *trim* quotation to the references,
         plus the cascade itself. [n.b. afp has *already* experienced
         the completely content-free cascade on numerous occasions.]
         Where a cascade arises from another thread please retag it
         *promptly*.

   [G] - Game - articles about the discworld computer games and, by
         extension, about earlier discworld games, and those as-yet
         unwritten... - whether board-, computer-, jigsaw- or fantasy
         role-playing- games... TCoM is on ftp.lspace.org.

 [ABP] - not an afp keycode letter, obviously, but indicates a
         thread cross-posted from, or to, alt.books.pratchett.
         This should always be [R] the cross-posting to abp should be
         removed if veering at all from [R]elevance.

 [ANNOUNCE] - an article cross-posted from alt.fan.pratchett.announce,
         and also cross-posted to alt.books.pratchett; plus followups.
         This may be [F], [G], [M] - or even [R].  [to make an
         announcement to afpa, please send it to the moderator
         afpa-mod@lspace.org - submissions should be sent in with good,
         clear subjectlines, repeating all important information from
         subjectlines in the main body of the text. There is a FAQ for
         submissions to afpa which you should check first.]

 [FAQ] - an article of fundamental importance to the way the
         newsgroup works - from Frequently Asked Questions. These should
         be considered the supporting documents of the afp community -
         ie of recurrent and/ or abiding interest to everyone on
         alt.fan.pratchett. periodically posted to afp; available by
         anonymous ftp from ftp.lspace.org and mirrors (incl. ftp-au.,
         ftp-uk., and ftp-us.lspace.org) in the directory
         /pub/pratchett/words/faqs/ and also to be found on
         <http://www.lspace.org/faqs>

Guidelines specific to Alt.books.pratchett:

Please *read* the "ABP Posting Guidelines" for detailed information
specific to ABP. These comments relate to the use of tagging
specifically. A copy may be found on dejanews or from
afp-help@lspace.org if necessary.

Since all posts should be relevant to the works of Terry Pratchett the
[R] and [I] tags are effectively redundant on posts specific to ABP.
[R] is obviously still needed for posts crossed to AFP, [I] cross-posts
from/to AFP would inevitably be off topic for ABP and so should not be
made.

The tag most commonly in use on ABP is the [A] tag, which distinguishes
annotations from other relevant posts.

Where threads become [I] they may be crossed to AFP to continue the [I]
discussion on that group - please remember to change/add the tag and
set followups to AFP. Please also remember first to consider whether or
not the embryonic [I] thread is likely to be of *interest* to the
readers of AFP (of which you may well be one). If it is not likely to
be of interest to AFP please let it die out or cross to a more
appropriate group instead. Or of course there is always "follow-up to
poster"...

Finally, speculation about future developments is now considered
acceptable on ABP. BUT please remember to include a subheader
[SPECULATION] inside the post just above the speculative section. This
is not a "tag" as such and does not need to be added to the heading
unless the entire post is [SPECULATION]. Currently speculation is still
considered unacceptable on AFP - please remember this if cross posting
threads there - add the [R] and excise the [SPECULATION].


General comments:

If you are new to usenet and everything seems strange, and hard to
follow, lurking a while, reading threads as they develop, and also
reading the other FAQ's (such as the "Welcome FAQ's") should help.
The main newsgroup FAQ, the afp-faq, maintained by Orin Thomas, is
essential reading whilst you are lurking and a useful reference
subsequently.

Then when posting - think about last week's posts.
Which do you actually remember? Which do *you* wish you had
written? Which of your own posts will you be pleased to see in the
*public archives* in years to come?  And remember - you are never
obliged to follow up a post.


Thanks to Julie Lund for tidying up the FAQ formatting for me :)

  [1] - afp-help can probably answer questions on how to killfile
        using most of the popular offline newsreaders in use -
        but _do_ read the documentation ("rtfm")(<g>) *first*, then ask
        of your 'net software's publisher, or your isp's help/support
        desk (or line), if they were the provider: they are more likely
        to have the detailed answers already.

  [2] - I have a set of guidelines for killfiling using dis216d/snz130,
        dos-based shareware which as a number of people have pointed out
        to me really belong in the relevant VI FAQ (which as yet we
        don't have) Please mail me for these at the above address. I
        will send them along with any other info I have which may be of
        help to VI users:)


--
Karen@lspace.org