rec autos welcome to to the new reader archive name rec autos part most recent changes march addition of alt autos karting rpw welcome to rec autos this article is sent out automatically each month and contains a general description of the purpose of each of the automotive newsgroups and some suggested guidelines for discussions the keywords monthly posting will always appear to make killing this article easy for users of newsreaders with kill facilities this article is posted to all autos groups but followups are directed only to rec autos if you don t understand what this means ask your system administrator for help or at least for copies of the newuser documentation failing that please subscribe to the newsgroup news announce newusers and read the documentation provided there introduction to the rec autos newsgroup hierarchy rec autos tech is intended for technical discussions of automobiles their design construction diagnosis and service other discussions are largely inappropriate especially for sale ads rec autos sport is intended for discussion of legal organized competition involving automobiles technical discussions are appropriate insofar as they apply to competition vehicles discussion from either of two viewpoints spectator and participant is encouraged arguments about sports cars are largely inappropriate as are most other discussions for sale ads are inappropriate unless they are for competition vehicles and or equipment discussions of illegal events are marginal one should probably avoid advocating breaking the law remember the fbi reads usenet rec autos driving is intended for discussions related to the driving of automobiles also if you must discuss vs or radar detectors or insert your pet driving peeve boneheads do it here rec autos vw is intended for discussion of issues related to the use and ownership of automobiles manufactured by volkswagen this includes vws audis seats etc it was created on the grounds that the info vw mailing list was very successful it should not be presumed from the existence of this group that it is appropriate to create many groups to cover many different marques groups specific to individual marques should only be created on demonstration of sufficient interest via some avenue such as a mailing list rec audio car is not properly part of the rec autos hierarchy it is however the correct place for discussion of automotive audio equipment and so is mentioned here rec autos antique is intended for the discussion of older cars usually more than years old although this is not a hard and fast rule alt hotrod is not part of the hierarchy but also of potential interest to the rec autos reader it is gatewayed to the moderated hotrod mailing list and is for serious discussion of modifying and developing performance vehicles alt autos rod n custom also not part of the official hierarchy devoted to that peculiar american hobby of customizing older cars alt autos karting for the discussion of the popular motorsport and hobby karting rec autos is intended to capture discussion on all other automotive topics crossposting crossposting occurs when more than one newsgroup name is included on the newsgroups line in the article header such articles will appear in all of the newsgroups listed crossposting is one of the most misunderstood and misused facilities on usenet you should only post to a group because you feel an article is appropriate you should never crosspost just to reach a particular audience this distinction is subtle but important radar detector articles for example are more or less appropriate in rec autos they are almost never appropriate in sci electronics or rec ham radio and the fact that you might want to reach the audience in sci electronics or rec ham radio is not adequate justification for posting to either group crossposting between any or all of the rec autos groups is usually inappropriate if you find yourself doing so consider whether or not it is truly advisable before sending your article consider setting followup to to point to only one newsgroup if you feel you must crosspost crossposting between rec autos and misc consumers is chancy at best in particular flame wars over the speed limit in the us and or the use of radar detectors should never be crossposted between any of these groups most readers of sci electronics and rec radio couldn t care less about the police radar and radar detector arguments that go on endlessly in rec autos it is an excellent idea to check the newsgroups and followup to lines of articles before posting a followup in particular be wary of posting to misc test rec arts startrek or talk bizarre or any combination of these three the life you save may be your own distribution there is a field in the header of any news article which allows you to partially control where the article goes it is called the distribution field it may be very useful for many reasons it should also serve as a reminder that news is a very large and widespread system the distribution of rec autos is fairly extensive as of this writing the automotive newsgroups are known to reach most of europe australia new zealand and some locations in japan with this in mind i offer the following hints about use of the distribution field in your article headers and on article content please take care not to send for sale ads about clapped out ford mavericks in new jersey to france or california i doubt that anyone in either place will care except for my girlfriend who for some strange reason likes mavericks but only door mavericks at that when posting technical questions please include the market for which your car was manufactured for example there are a number of differences between a european market ford escort and a us market escort likewise all cc and early cc alfa romeos reached the us with spica fuel injection european market cars usually got carbs often webers these differences can be important to your readers make your situation clear failure to do so can lead to pointless flame wars and a significant spread of misinformation be careful about your capacities and specifications when posting in the us we get a mix of metric and english system values whereas europe is almost entirely on the metric system a future edition of this monthly posting will contain a list of commonly used abbreviations that may not be known in some places that rec autos reaches this cuts both ways so let us not be parochial about it use the distribution field to limit where your article goes when possible within north america the values na north america can canada and usa may be used in addition the two letter state abbreviations of the us are supported in some cases e g if i wanted to send an article only to new york and new jersey i could put ny nj in a distribution field note that multiple comma separated values are legal these distribution fields vary widely however so you should check with your local sysadmin to find out what is likely to be supported in your area the dangers of overgeneralization to amplify a warning from the distribution section of this article be wary of making foolish assumptions about all cars tires etc what is true for a buick with a cid engine may be quite utterly wrong for a honda with a cc engine headlight laws in sweden are decidedly different from those in idaho the need for adequate specification when you ask a question please give a reasonable amount of information e g if you have a question about your honda please specify year model engine size etc otherwise most answers to your question may be quite useless concerning lemons at one time or another every auto manufacturer has manufactured a lemon or two even honda admits to this please don t waste everyone s time by announcing to the world that your brand x automobile is terrible so all brand x automobiles are terrible so no one should ever buy a car from the brand x company such articles are worse than useless because they cause substantial wasted bandwidth while carrying little or no useful information concerning flames as much as we might wish it a flame free newsgroup is something that most likely will never occur here are some guidelines for flames and how to deal with them a list of flame prone topics follows in the next section of this posting if you post something truly obnoxious and inflammatory don t imagine for a minute that including the words no flames will work it won t and you ll get exactly what you deserve if you re going to flame you re more likely to get away with it if you can cite a fact or maybe a well known reference no one is likely to believe bald unsupported assertions be careful about who you choose to insult consider not insulting anyone asking the question it is a bad idea to post a question and end it with a phrase like please send email i don t read this group it is a much better idea to end the question with please send email if there is sufficient interest i ll summarize the results in a later posting i may miss posted responses to this request answering the question if someone wants to hop up their yugo don t tell them to get a mustang either be silent or give them useful advice if someone wants advice on defending a speeding ticket don t tell them to obey the law next time it s offensive presumes guilt which is not proven and doesn t directly address the original question in general don t post in order to see your words in print and don t post in order to enjoy feeling smug and self righteous stale and or inflammatory topics certain topics are considered stale by old timers while discussion of them is certainly ok and new factual information is welcome ravings about them are extremely tiresome and may get the person who posts them ignored altogether some topics are naturally inflammatory it is difficult if not impossible to have meaningful discussion of them some of these topics include the following the mph speed limit in the us pro and con discussions about the morality and legality of the sale and usage of radar detectors discussions over which radar detector is best discussions over what is a sports car this is one reason why rec autos sport is not a sports car group everyone would argue about what constitutes a sports car disputes over whether or not us federal law protects the driver s right to own and operate a radar detector buy american discussions clever bumper stickers and personalized license plates insert nationality here cars are terrible what kind of car did maxwell smart drive when i have a complete accurate answer it will be added to the commonly asked questions article which is also posted monthly until then please don t waste bandwidth on this topic rpw please direct comments and suggestions about this article to welty cabot balltown cma com richard welty welty cabot balltown cma com nothing good has ever been reported about the full rotation of a race car about either its pitch or roll axis carroll smith
