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Question
#1: Are all commercial posts spam and subject to removal ? |
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No. Usenet and other forms of Internet
news contain newsgroups specifically designed for posts with commercial intent. In
addition, Usenet permits infrequent (once per month) posting of singular short commercial
messages that would reasonably be construed as being of interest to group participants.
When the first type begins to show up as off-topic messages, inappropriately placed in
non-commercial groups, Newsguy considers this spam and they are subject to removal.
On-topic, short commercial messages become spam when they
are cross posted, or individually posted to unrelated newsgroups, and when the frequency
exceeds once per month. "Everyone will want my product" is not an expression
meets the "post needs to be reasonably construed as being of interest to group
participants" test.
The right to advertise is not in the Constitution,
nor are commercial news services required to carry, convey, or support any speech. It is
not a reasonable expectation that news service operators would carry the huge cost of
carrying indiscriminant spam messages. Nor is it a reasonable expectation that newsgroup
participants will want to dig through a pile of garbage posts to find on-topic material in
a newsgroup.
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Question
#2: I think my posts were
eaten by the Spam Hippo, how do I correct this ? |
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| If you haven't been able to locate your
post within the newsgroups, please forward our tech
support staff a complete copy of the article's header (From, Subject, Newsgroup, etc.)
message body, and the decoded file (gif, jpg, avi, etc.) you were trying to post, and we'd
be glad to look into that for you. In addition, be sure to include your Newsguy UserIDs as
well as a brief summary of the posting problem you experienced. There are a few factors
outside of the Spam Hippo that could disrupt a post before it reaches the newsgroups, and
the above mentioned information will help our tech group pinpoint where the problem is
most likely taking place. |
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Question
#3: Is there a way to
promote a commercial site and not spam? |
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Yes, based on value contributed to the
newsgroup where the post is made, and the post being appropriate for the newsgroup. As an
example, a site offering short stories can post a short story to a newsgroup with similar
contents, and place the commercial site's URL in the subject line, or body of the post.
This would not be considered spam.
Posting the same story repeatedly, posting with only a
"come to my site" message, or posting to a newsgroup not directly related to the
content would be considered spam.
Binary image groups frequently attract commercial posts,
which is okay, as long as the posters keeps in mind, the group is for the benefit of
legitimate participants, and not a venue for advertising. So here's a shot at how we
normally review these posts.
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Images must meet all legal content requirement as
well as service policy.
Images must be applicable to the specific group
you are posting to.
Reasonable cross posting is encouraged. It saves on system
resources.
URL's may appear in the header subject line and/or the
body of the post.
Images should be a minimum of 320X240 in any aspect ratio.
No written message should obscure the image, however,
small logos or service ID may appear in an inactive portion of the image, or frame the
bottom or side of the image.
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Acceptable Post:
Uacceptable Post:
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Copyright notices are encouraged |
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Service banners, max 10 pixels
horizontal,
or 10 pixels vertical are acceptable. |
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Floods of single image posts made from contiguous video
frames, are spam. |
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Reposting of the same images is considered spamming. |
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Posting
images that have been harvested from the newgroups. |
What we are trying to do is accommodate quality services,
for the benefit of Usenet users, by giving them a way to promote and add value to a
newsgroup. If in doubt, ask - support.
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