Subject: Bible of Usenet FAQ
From: Kevin Atkinson <[email-masked]>
Date: 10 Dec 1994 11:11:00 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.internet.services,news.future,news.admin.misc,news.groups,news.answers,alt.answers

Archive-name: usenet/bible-faq
Posting-Frequency: bi-weekly
Last-modified: 1994/12/01

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This is the FAQ for the hopefully soon to become Bible of Usenet.  This
document is designed to tell you what this list is about.  Any comments 
except direct submissions should be sent to [email-masked], NOT
[email-masked].  This FAQ is in its beginning stages so I will welcome
suggestions and/or corrections.

This FAQ can be optioned at ftp.clark.net:/pub/usenet-b/info/bible-faq, 
by fingering [email-masked], or by sending mail to [email-masked]
with a subject line of help.

Please redistribute this FAQ in an any way you see fit.  

  ---------------------======Contents======-------------------------
<> What is The Bible of Usenet?                                     <>
<> How can I help?                                                  <>
<> How else can I help?                                             <>
<> What am I already aware of and/or using?                         <>
<> Where can you get it?                                            <>
<> Where is this list going to go?                                  <>
  ------------------------------------------------------------------  

  ------------------------------------------------------------------ 
<> What is the "The Bible of Usenet?                                <>
  ------------------------------------------------------------------

The Bible of Usenet is going to be a collection of all the information on
Usenet in a nice neat format. The information that it will include is:

        -A Short Description of the group.
        -A Long Description of the group
        -Any FAQ's that go with the group
        -The Moderators name and e-mail address if moderated
        -Where and how the group is archived, if at all.
        -Its average volume
        -Its average number of readers

I would also like to include in the future.  

        -The estimated Noise ratio. (High, Medium, Low, None, etc.)

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<> How can I help?                                                  <>
  ------------------------------------------------------------------ 

You can help in several ways. One of those ways is by contributing a
long description or archived site for any given group.

To submit a description start the Subject line with either "D: " or
"Desc: " and follow it by the newsgroups name (the space after the
colon is important so please don't leave it out.)  The body of the
message should be the description.  The message should be sent to
[email-masked] For example here would be a submission for
rec.arts.startrek.current:

  From: Kevin Atkinson <[email-masked]>
  To: [email-masked]
  Subject: Desc: rec.arts.startrek.current

  Discussion of Star Trek television programs, movies and books aired or 
  released for the first time within the past four months, information
  about future programs, movies and books, and speculation of same, if
  based on information still current (such as speculation of cliffhanger
  resolutions).

Please note that any white spaces to the far left of the line would
automatically get chopped off.  For example:

      Discussion of Star Trek television programs, movies and books
  aired or released for the first time within the past four months,

will become:

  Discussion of Star Trek television programs, movies and books
  aired or released for the first time within the past four months,

You can, however, prevent this by putting in a "." at the beginning of the
line. It would then only cut off to the "." and the "." would become a
" ". For example:

  .   Discussion of Star Trek television programs, movies and books
  aired or released for the first time within the past four months,

will become:

      Discussion of Star Trek television programs, movies and books
  aired or released for the first time within the past four months,

This method can be used for formatting things in list format.  For example:

  Appropriate topics would include, but not be limited to :
  .        - CPC/PcW/GX4000 hardware, software,
  .        - CPCEMU, the CPC emulator from Marco Vieth, currently v1.0 at

which will come out looking like:

  Appropriate topics would include, but not be limited to :
           - CPC/PcW/GX4000 hardware, software,
           - CPCEMU, the CPC emulator from Marco Vieth, currently v1.0 at

The descriptions can be of any length, as long as they are greater then
4 lines and less then 60.  The longer the description the better, as long as 
it is not repetitive or drown out.

You can include comments for the person who approves you posts by 
including it after at least 3 "#".  For example:

  (Body of message)
  ###
  I think you should chose this description over the previous one because
  it is longer and explains what posts are not allowed in this group.

Please also use this method if you mailer automatically adds your signature
at the end of the posts so that they don't have to be edited out.

You can send a location to where the archive is sent in a similar fashion
except that you should begin the Subject with either "A: " or "Arch: ".
Also, the first line (of the body) should contain the pointer to the ftp
site in the "site:/path/" style or the e-mail address.  Please then
leave a blank line before you give the information on how it is archived
or how to get a post if it is a mail server.  Please also include the
time range the archive covers.

Once a submission is send it will be proceed by a perl script (to see if
there is already something there) and will be mailed to a reviewer for
inspection.  The reviewer will either accept, reject, or ask you to make
changes to it before it gets accepted.  You will be notified as soon as
it gets accepted or rejected and you name will go down as an contributor.

I strongly encourage you to first check what's there before submitting by
asking the usenet-b what information is available for the group or by
checking it against the list of newsgroups descriptions that I need
(and/or have).

To ask the bible what information is available for the group send a message
to "[email-masked]" with a subject line of "See: Newsgroup".  For
example to see what's there in news.answers you would send a line with a
subject "See: news.answers".  Upon receiving the request the server will
mail you the raw database file of that group.

To get the list of newsgroups that lack descriptions send mail as above
(with "See:" in the subject line) with "desc-still-needed" as the Newsgroup
name.  If you rather see a list of all the newsgroups that have a descrip-
tion use "desc-have" instead.  These files are also available via ftp under 
ftp.clark.net:/pub/usenet-bible/info.

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<> How else can I help?                                             <>
  ------------------------------------------------------------------ 

I could also use some people to help me review the submissions sent to
me, so if you are TRULY interested please let me know and I could tell
you what's involved.

If you can think of any other way you can help me (like help me with
my perl scripts) please let me know.

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<> What am I already aware of and/or using?                         <>
  ------------------------------------------------------------------ 

I am aware of ALL the lists being posted to news.lists and I am using
that information by the mean of perl script; sending me information
in these posts would be just a waste of effort.

I am also aware of the collection at ftp.uu.net however, these charters
are not in any neat format that I can use with perl scripts like the
postings to news.lists which means that the only way to make use of them
is to go through them my-self.  I have currently made it through
half of the "comp.*" heritage and I plan on finishing that heritage as
long as the other heritage.  (I can still use your help though)

I was not aware of Cameron Laird list of archived newsgroups however
I now am and I plan on making use of this list as long as forwarding any
information on where a group is archived to Cameron.

I was also somewhat aware of news.groups.reviews however I really didn't
give it much thought.  I am now however planning on making use of this
info. in near future.

I also what to add that if someone is going to print a book very similar
to what I am posting my reaction is WHO CARES.  You have to pay for there
book while my list is going to be available free of charge.

  ------------------------------------------------------------------ 
<> Where can you get it?                                            <>
  ------------------------------------------------------------------  

An abbreviated version of the bible is available under
ftp.clark.net:/pub/usenet-bible/report/ it is currently around 600K long.
This is the only version I plan on making available at my home site.  All
other versions of the BIBLE, once created with perl scripts, will appear
at the mirror sites in order to avoid the load on my system.  I already
have one mirror for my files at "usenet.eel.ufl.edu:/usenet/bible" and I 
am also hoping to get rtfm.mit.edu to mirror my files.  I will keep you 
informed on the status of mirrors for The Bible of Usenet.

The Bible of Usenet also has a WWW page at 
        http://www.clark.net/pub/usenet-b/www/home.html
and a gopher site is comming soon as soon as I figure out what to do.

  ------------------------------------------------------------------ 
<> Where is this list going to go?                                  <>
  ------------------------------------------------------------------  

Well, that all depends on you.  I need descriptions from YOU guys if you
want this list to get anywhere.

I plan on creating a plain text version, a TeX version, a PS version form
the TeX and/or the RTF file, an HTML version, a RTF version, and a windows
help version.  However I will start with a plain text and work on other
versions once this Bible starts to get somewhere.

I also plan on doing some very elaborate things with this list via  the WWW.
I plan on creating a searchable version of the bible and heritage style
browseable version.  I even plan on a special service that will create a 
CUSTOM version of the bible to your specks!  Because I am using perl this
shouldn't be as compacted a task as some may thing.