SD's Utterly Unofficial Tips for Getting Along on ASB

5) There is one exception to #4: Real Life nonconsensual behavior, aka abuse, is not OK with us. Many of us embrace the motto: "safe, sane, consensual". Many others reject "sane" as too judgemental, and some reject "safe" because they feel, accurately, that all of wiitwd (what it is that we do) has risks (each of us must determine what level of risk is acceptable to hir ("him or her")). But almost all of the highly contentious bunch that frequent ASB believe in the criticality of consent.

6) Certain things are best not posted to ASB, which is a noncommercial discussion group:

• Please do not post personals to ASB. A personals hierarchy exists for that purpose, and people who are interested will be reading those groups. Personals should be posted to alt.personals.bondage (or whichever a.p.* group suits you). Posts to ASB aimed at initiating a personal correspondence with persons as yet unknown count as personals.
• DO NOT post binaries to ASB. Use an appropriate alt.binaries.* group, such as a.b.pictures.erotica.bondage (or a.b.sounds.* for .wav files). Many sites cannot carry binaries groups because binaries require so much memory, and if ASB has too many binaries some sites will drop it.
• Please do not post copyrighted material to ASB without permission of the copyright holder. There is no place on the net where that is permissable. Please show the respect for other people's intellectual property, for if we do not respect it we will all be the poorer. To check on U.S copyright law, go to copyrights .
• Please do not post "Make Money Fast" or any other chain letter to ASB. We've all seen them many times, they are off-topic, and the MMF variants are scams that are illegal in many places where your article will be read. For more information on these frauds, check out the Postal Inspectors web page at: http://www.usps.gov/websites/depart/inspect/[ Connect to "Consumer Fraud", then Sweepstakes and Lotteries", then "Chain Letters"].
• Please do not post articles that are primarily commercial to ASB. A discreet plug in a signature block is permissable, as are reasonable answers to requests for information about products and vendors. But purely commercial articles - when at all on-topic - are more welcome on such groups as: alt.sex.erotica.marketplace, alt.sex.wanted, alt.sex.telephone, alt.bbs.ads, or alt.sex.magazines
• Please be careful about crossposts. There are very few subjects of interest to more than a couple groups. Please do not crosspost to an alt.personals.* or alt.binaries.* group, and take care in crossposting to any kind of recovery group. When responding, try to remember to check what groups the article was posted to, and delete inappropriate groups from your followup.
• Please spare us mindless attacks on people because of the site from which they post. There are valued posters and clueless idiots every site and in every domain. If you must attack a particular site, try an alt.online-service.* group for that waste of net resources.
• One site that often comes under attack is anon.penet.fi Please do not engage in such attacks. There are excellent reasons for some people to use anonymous remailers, and the penet remailer offers identifiable accounts, valid reply-to: addresses, and a reasonably responsive sysadmin, which is more than you get from a lot of .com and .org sites. Some people who post from that remailer are among ASB's most respected posters.

7) Please do not send rude "wannas" (short for "wannafuck"). Polite notes of appreciation for posts are welcome, and polite notes of introduction with a restrained expression of interest are acceptable, unless sie (he or she) has indicated that they are unwelcome. If the message receives a note of refusal - polite or otherwise -please accept it graciously. If the message receives no reply, please accept that as a tacit refusal, and remember that no one is obliged to answer an email.

8) Please do not gratuitously attack (flame) other posters. Most errors are from ignorance rather than malice, and a polite note in email is both appropriate and usually sufficient. We are all ignorant about some things, and we can all make better use of instruction than abuse. However, malicious misconduct or misconduct that continues in the face of instruction opens one to flamage.

9) Though ASB can be quite contentious, it can also be a friendly and supportive community, and it's quite willing to welcome newcomers. When you've taken a look at the documents and lurked long enough to feel comfortable, please do join in the discussion. Many people formally "de-lurk" and introduce themselves, but if you'd prefer not to talk about yourself, just join in with a contribution to one of of the many discussions ("threads") that are going on at any time. Also, feel free to ask questions. There are no stupid questions, and almost any question will get an answer. Often several contradictory answers, but almost always an answer.

10) If you don't want to de-lurk just yet, many of us are quite willing to receive unsolicted mail, and will be glad to exchange email with you. Email is private, so please be careful that when you reply to email you don't inadvertently send it to the newsgroup. Some people, for their own reasons, do not want email, and if they ask that no email be sent, or ask that you stop mailing them, please respect that. Also, while many of us are happy to correspond, remember that some people are very busy, and may not be able to respond to all the mail they receive.

11) Please have respect for privacy and confidentiality. Many people are in vulnerable positions, and could be harmed if some information were too widely disseminated. Some things to consider: don't use real names given in confidence, don't tell the net what a person did in scene w/o hir permission (save, in rare cases, as a warning), and don't give out personal data about a person - even if it could be easily found with a little research - unless you *know* it's OK with hir.

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