------------------------------------------------------------------------ Charter and Moderation Rules For the newsgroup uk.gay-lesbian-bi ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHARTER: uk.gay-lesbian-bi (Moderated) uk.gay-lesbian-bi provides a forum for the discussion of lesbian, gay and bisexual related issues from a UK viewpoint, but not the morality of such issues. uk.gay-lesbian-bi is intended as a safe space for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, their friends and those interested in matters of sexuality. All posters are requested to respect this. The newsgroup is moderated and operates under the moderation guidelines listed in the moderation policy statement contained within this charter. Announcements of relevant events are allowed. Long announcements belong in uk.announce. Personal advertisements must not be posted to uk.gay-lesbian-bi; use uk.adverts.personals.gay-lesbian-bi or one of the many other personal groups instead. Commercial advertising is forbidden. Pointers to commercial sites fall under the rule about commercial advertising other than statements in .sig files four lines or under in length. Test postings should be sent to appropriate test groups. Excessive cross-posting is inappropriate. Posters are requested to restrict cross-posting to no more than two other newsgroups and all such articles must meet the requirements of the charters of all groups involved. All cross-posts with other moderated groups, except those for uk.net.news.announce and signed by Control, may be rejected unless sequential approval rights have been established. Encoded binaries e.g. pictures, compressed files, etc. are forbidden. Such material belongs on a web or FTP site to which a pointer may be posted. Cryptographic signatures e.g. PGP may be used where authentication is important and should be as short as possible and under ten lines. All articles must be readable in plain text; no HTML, RTF, or similar, or attachments are allowed. To see how to make your newsreader comply with this, please read . Please do not top post; when quoting parts of a previous post please retain the author's name and quote only enough to give context and place your reply beneath the quoted section. Warning Anyone posting contrary to this charter may be reported to their 'postmaster' and, or, Service Provider. Moderation Policy Statement Method Moderation will be by a pre-approved system: a semi-automatic moderation bot running STUMP system or similar will receive all postings to the group. Individuals who have made one approved posting will automatically be added to the pre-approved posters list, unless posting using a shared non-individual generic 'From' address in which case all such articles shall be approved individually. All pre-approved posters will have their articles automatically accepted and forwarded on to the group unless contrary to the auto-reject software. Their pre-approved status can only be revoked by the moderators if they violate the moderation policy and this action must be supported by a two thirds majority of the moderation panel and reported immediately to the group. Withdrawal of pre-approved status will be for a period of one calendar month, during which the poster shall be removed from the pre-approved and added to the manual list and have articles manually moderated; upon expiry of the withdrawal period they shall be removed from the manual list and pre-approved status shall be restored on the same terms as first time posters i.e. following their next posting of an approved article. A record will be kept of all withdrawals of pre-approved status for a period of twelve months from the date of withdrawal. Pre-approved posters who have inadvertently breached the moderation rules can apply to the moderators to be restored to the pre-approved list sooner than one month and the moderators can do so if they are satisfied that the offending post was genuinely made in error. All encoded binaries, HTML and other non-plain posts identified by the moderation software will be rejected by the moderation bot. The remaining posts from people not on the pre-approved list will be sent to the moderators. The moderators will approve all postings regardless of content unless they are: 1. a personal ad. 2. a commercial article, including those aimed at overcoming the ban on commercials e.g. by generating commercial URLs or pop-up windows for the sole purpose of advertising or by including a time-delayed subscription requirement or silent dialler. 3. an encoded binary, HTML or non-plain text article that has escaped the automatic software, or any article not readable as plain text; no HTML, RTF or similarly formatted or word processor formats or any attachments are allowed. 4. an article cross-posted to more than four groups in total including uk.gay-lesbian-bi; or an article cross-posted to another moderated group unless a group where sequential approval rights have been established; or unless to uk.net.news.announce and signed by Control; cross-posted articles must meet the charter requirements of all the groups involved. 5. a test post, except from a moderator or one of their Admins; all zero content articles, random character or randomized text and incomprehensible articles shall be deemed to be test posts. 6. an identical debut article; or an article with identical content or an article with similar content but different headers which has been sent to the group more than twice in any 24 hour period; or an identical or similar article which has been sent to the group more than twice in any 24 hour period and which in the opinion of a moderator forms part of a mail-bomb attack on the group and a moderator's vote shall be obtained to ratify the action taken in the interests of accountability. 7. an article of spam or velveeta, defined as one which has been multi- posted across usenet and, or, posted simultaneously or separately to each of several other groups unless a request for help or advice when consideration will be given since uk.gay-lesbian-bi provides both and the article may be relevant to several other groups. 8. an article where the follow-up has been set by the author as part of a flood to another hierarchy or group. 9. an article intended for the moderators or their Admins including all automatic responder messages; or a repetitive robot generated reply to formal reject notifications and after 12 or more similar replies auto-reject software will be activated to drop any recurrences. 10. an article intended to scam or to acquire passwords or money, or to request money or donations unless by an appropriate registered community charity, or a robot or worm generated article. The moderators will return these rejected posts to the sender, if one can be identified, with an appropriate standard e-mail of explanation: - Personal ads, and suggest that future ads should be sent to uk.adverts.personals.gay-lesbian-bi or other personals newsgroups, mailing lists or websites. A personal ad is an article with no other content such as could be sent to a personals newsgroup or appear in a lonely hearts column, or one which is aimed at someone more or less unknown. Where the poster appears to need guidance or help a personal e-mail from a moderator will also be sent to offer appropriate advice. All personals sites will be rejected as personals (or, sometimes, as commercial and all subscription sites will be rejected as commercial). - A posting that exceeds the cross-posted limit of four groups; or a posting that includes another moderated group unless necessary sequential approval rights have been established. - Multiple or identical postings. - Test posts. - Commercial posts. - A posting in other than readable plain text. - Encoded binary posts, and scam, robot and worm articles will be rejected but not returned. If a moderator doubts that a post falls within one of these categories then they should seek clarification from the poster whenever possible, or guidance by simple majority from the moderation panel, before action is taken; the panel are also guided by FAQ3. If a reasonable doubt still exists then the moderators will approve the article. Unless on notified leave a moderator will have been deemed to have abstained from any website or e-mail discussion if no response is made within three days of the matter first being flagged or raised. A quorum for all panel decisions where a majority or two-thirds is required shall comprise at least four moderators. Openness The moderation software will make a monthly report to the group stating the number of articles received, approved and rejected by robot and human moderators, the total number of human moderator articles processed and the total of new posters pre-approved. Logs of the moderators' actions are available on a web page maintained on the moderation server. Rejected articles (other than binaries, for which only the headers will be kept) will be held on the server for public inspection for one month after they have been rejected. Excessively long articles may be truncated to 60 lines before storing them in the archive. Action to withdraw pre-approved status and commence manual moderation of an individual will immediately be communicated to the group. The moderators will be subject to annual election and recall as set out below. Housekeeping the pre-approved list After notice on the group, the contents of the pre-approved posters list shall be reviewed on a rolling monthly basis with any inactive address older than six months to be automatically dropped. A record of one year's worth of names shall be maintained and once a Votetaker has been requested all names added to the pre-approved list before close of voting shall be added to it, and this will used by the Votetaker to determine voting eligibility in matters regarding the moderators. The server Admins shall carry out appropriate housekeeping on the pre-approved list only in the interests of security and integrity and as and when necessary and agreed with the moderation panel. Requests for removal of pre-approved listing Anyone who wishes to have their name removed from the pre-approved list may e-mail their request direct to the moderators' list. Cancels The moderators or their Admins may issue cancels for any articles not authorized or approved by the moderation system, e.g. where forged headers or similarly non-approved articles have eluded the moderation process. Moderation Panel Composition 1. There shall be a panel of not less than 4 and not more than 12 moderators. Election 2. Initially moderators shall be the panel elected as part of the charter change process. 3. Then each year thereafter elections will be held for the posts of moderator. i. 11 months after moderation comes into effect (and every twelve months subsequently) the moderation panel will appoint a neutral party to conduct the election as Votetaker. The Votetaker will issue a call for nominations for a new moderation panel. ii. Nominations will be open for 10 days and to be valid each nominee will have to be proposed and seconded by pre-approved posters (self-nomination is permitted). All pre-approved posters shall have the right to vote, regardless as to whether they were pre-approved before or after the opening of nominations. iii. At the end of 10 days a list of candidates (including their proposers/seconders) will be published. iv. A five day period of hustings will be held during which the candidates will answer questions from posters to the group. v. The Votetaker will issue the first call for votes, to be followed by a second call for votes five days later, the voting period lasting in all for 10 days, votes shall only be valid if submitted on official ballot forms. vi. Voting will be by the Single Transferable Vote method, with a reopen nominations candidate (RON) added to the ballot. If RON passes the quota then all the then unfilled places are void requiring a new election for those vacancies. vii. Each voter shall receive an acknowledgement from the vote taker. They will be given a unique identification as part of their acknowledgement, this will enable them to verify their vote when the result is published while protecting their identity from other voters. viii.The Votetaker will publish the result and a voting list comprising voter identifiers and their vote. ix. In the event of less than 4 moderators being elected or RON passing quota the Votetaker will issue a second request for nominations no later than 1 month after the close of ballot and hold elections for the remaining vacancies. Those elected at this election shall serve until the annual round of elections are held. x. In the event of the resignation, removal or death of a moderator the next highest candidate (if they are still willing) from the previous election will be appointed for the remainder of the term. xi. If the number of moderators falls below 4 or if the moderators consider it necessary due to excessive workload, they will appoint such temporary moderators as are necessary (the total number of moderators not to exceed 12) to efficiently moderate uk.gay-lesbian-bi. Their appointment to be confirmed by a vote of the pre-approved posters within 21 days. They will serve until the annual round of elections are held. Leave of Absence and Removal 4. Moderators should inform the moderating team of periods when they will be inactive. The moderation panel may appoint a temporary moderator to stand in during this period, the position being offered first to the highest loser from the last election, or failing that a person of their choice. Other than such periods any moderator that does not take part in moderation activity for 21 consecutive days shall automatically be removed from the moderation team. 5. Moderators who either approve excluded posts or decline to approve non-excluded posts may be removed by a two thirds decision of the other moderators. 6. Any moderator may be removed by a vote of no confidence. i. Such a vote may be proposed by any pre-approved poster and will need to be supported by 9 other pre-approved posters. ii. People on the pre-approved list at the time when the vote of no confidence is tabled shall be eligible to vote on such a proposal i.e. people added to the pre-approved list after the formal request for a no confidence vote will not be permitted to vote on this occasion. iii. A ballot should be held within 10 days of a formal request for a vote of no confidence. A neutral person will be asked by the moderation panel to conduct the ballot. The question shall be:- "Do you have confidence in X as a moderator of uk.gay-lesbian-bi yes/no/abstain" iv. For the purposes of calculating a majority only votes yes or no will count. A simple majority of votes cast for no shall indicate that the group has no confidence in the moderator and s/he shall immediately be removed from the moderation panel. v. A vote of no confidence in the whole moderation panel will not be permitted, only a vote for each individual moderator. vi. The Votetaker shall use the same anonymising method as outlined for the annual election of moderators and shall publish the result with the anonymous identifiers and how they voted. vii. After the conclusion of a vote of no confidence which fails no such similar motion shall be brought against the same person for a period of three calendar months. Moderation Software and Location The moderation software shall be the STUMP system or similar, and shall be located on a server as agreed by the Admins and moderation team. STUMP (Secure Team-based Usenet Moderation Program) logs all decisions automatically on a website, and is fully described at: . The moderators will arrange a back up server and in the event of the loss of the moderation server will ensure the back up server provides continuity. Changes to Moderation Policy All changes to moderation policy will be treated as a formal charter change requiring a full RFD and CFV in uk.net.news.announce cross-posted to uk.net.news.config and uk.gay-lesbian-bi. Moderators Bryan Dale Gregoire Kretz Kate West Paul Anderson PaulG Stephen M Baines Yaz The names of current moderators are published regularly on the newsgroup and on the newsgroup's web page. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ General FAQ For the newsgroup uk.gay-lesbian-bi ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FAQ : Frequently Asked Questions for uk.gay-lesbian-bi Version 6.06 From: Lyn David Thomas Date: 17th September 2001 ------------------------------------------------------- Notes from the FAQ maintainer: Posting frequency - Weekly *What's New* Updated web and other resources, adding chaos and removing oaktree. Tidied up and corrected various bits. 0 - Contents -------------- 1. Introduction 2. About uk.gay-lesbian-bi 3. Frequently asked questions 1 - Introduction ------------------ 1.a. This FAQ This is the sixth version of the FAQ for the newsgroup uk.gay-lesbian-bi. This FAQ tries to do two things: answer some questions about the group itself, to answer some of the more often asked questions on the group. A second Resources FAQ will to offer more information on gay, lesbian and bisexual resources on the net and a third FAQ will provide information on the moderation system and guidelines for posting. 1.b FAQ Maintenance The maintainer of this FAQ is Lyn David Thomas If you have any comments or questions, please mail me and I'll do my best to answer questions or include any suggestions in a future revision of this FAQ. 2 - About uk.gay-lesbian-bi -------------------------------- 2.a. When was uk.gay-lesbian-bi created? Uk.gay-lesbian-bi was created on the 28th of February 1995 and its charter updated, modified and published on Tue, 18 March 1997 at 21:01:03 GMT. The group subsequently opted to become moderated after a vote which closed on 16th May 1998 after a substantial delay this became a reality in April 1999! 2.b. What is uk.gay-lesbian-bi for? The purpose of the uk.gay-lesbian-bi newsgroup is laid out in its charter. The charter is as follows: ONE LINE GROUP DESCRIPTION uk.gay-lesbian-bi moderated For bisexuals, lesbians and gays in the UK CHARTER: uk.gay-lesbian-bi provides a forum for the discussion of lesbian, gay and bisexual related issues from a UK viewpoint. uk.gay-lesbian-bi is intended as a safe space for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, their friends and those interested in matters of sexuality. All posters are requested to respect this. The newsgroup is moderated and operates under the moderation guidelines as outlined in the moderation policy statement contained within this charter. Moderators: The following moderators were elected in May 2004 Bryan Dale Greg Kate West Paul Anderson PaulG Stephen M Baines Yaz Commercial advertising is forbidden. Announcements of relevant events are allowed. Long announcements belong in uk.announce.events. Test postings should be sent to appropriate test groups and not to uk.gay-lesbian-bi Binaries are not permitted other than pgp encryption blocks under 10 lines, directions as to where binaries may be found are permitted. All articles must be submitted in plain ASCII text, no html, mime or word processor files please. Pointers to commercial sites fall under the rule about commercial advertising (other than statements in .sig files 4 lines or under in length). Excessive cross-posting is inappropriate. Posters are requested to restrict their cross-posting to no more than two other newsgroups. Personal advertisements should not be posted to uk.gay-lesbian-bi, use uk.adverts.personals.gay-lesbian-bi or one of the many other personal groups instead. MODERATION POLICY STATEMENT Method Moderation will be by a pre-approved or white list system. A semiautomatic moderation bot running STUMP system (or similar) will receive all postings to the group. Individuals who have made one approved posting will automatically be added to the pre-approved posters list. These posters will have their articles automatically accepted and forwarded on to the group. Their white list status can only be revoked by the moderators if they violate the moderation policy, this action must be supported by a two thirds majority of the moderation panel and reported immediately to the group. Suspension from the whitelist will be for a period of one calendar month after which the pre-approved status will be restored on the same terms as first time posters. White list posters who have inadvertently breached the moderation rules can apply to the moderators to be restored to the pre-approved list sooner than 1 month, the moderators can add them to the list if they are satisfied that the offending post was genuinely made in error. All binaries identified by the moderation software posted by non-whitelisted posters will be rejected by the moderation bot. The remaining posts from people not on the whitelist will be sent to the moderators. The moderators will approve all postings regardless of content unless they are: 1. a personal ad 2. a commercial article 3. a binary article that has escaped the automatic software. 4. an item cross posted to more than eight groups in total including uk.gay-lesbian-bi 5. a test post. 6. an identical article, or an article with identical content - ie articles which have the same content but different headers, sent more than four times in the same 24 hour period to the group and is in the opinion of at least two thirds of the moderators part of a "mail bomb" attack on the group. 7. An article that is not sent as plain text. The moderators will return personal ads to senders with a standard mail informing them of the action and suggesting that future ads should be sent to uk.adverts.personals.gay-lesbian-bi, soc.personals, or any of the other personals newsgroups, mailing lists or websites. A personal ad is an article with no other content such as could be sent to an personals newsgroup or appear in a lonely hearts column. Commercial postings will be returned to the sender (if one can be identified) together with a standard mail explaining the action. Any binary postings will be rejected, where the sender is identifiable a standard mail will be sent explaining the action. A posting that exceeds the cross posted limit of 8 groups will be returned to the sender (if one can be identified) with a standard mail explaining the rejection. Test posts will be returned to the poster (if one can be identified) with a standard mail explaining the action. Originators of multiple identical postings will be informed of the action of the moderators (if one can be identified). Submission in other than plain ASCII text will be returned to the sender (if one can be identified) with a standard mail explaining the action of the moderator. If any moderator doubts that a post falls within one of these categories then they should seek guidance from the moderation panel before rejecting/accepting the post. If a reasonable doubt still exists then the moderators will approve the article. Openess The moderation panel will make a weekly post detailing the number and type of articles rejected. Logs of the moderators' actions will be available on a web page maintained on the moderation software. Rejected articles will be held on the server for public inspection for one month after they have been rejected (other than binaries - only the headers of which will be kept). Action suspending the whitelist status of an individual will be immediately communicated to the group. The moderators will be subject to annual election and recall as set out below. Moderation Panel Composition 1. There shall be a panel of not less than 4 and not more than 12 moderators. Election 2. Initially moderators shall be the panel elected as part of the charter change process. 3. Then each year there after elections will be held for the posts of moderator. i. 11 months after moderation comes into effect (and every twelve months subsequently) the moderation panel will appoint a neutral party to conduct the election as vote taker. The vote taker will issue a call for nominations for a new moderation panel. ii. Nominations will be open for 10 days and to be valid each nominee will have to be proposed and seconded by white list posters (self-nomination is permitted). All white list posters shall have the right to vote, regardless as to whether they were white listed before or after the opening of nominations. iii. At the end of 10 days a list of candidates (including their proposers/seconders) will be published. iv. A five day period of hustings will be held during which the candidates will answer questions from posters to the group. v. The vote taker will issue the first call for votes, to be followed by a second call for votes five days later, the voting period lasting in all for 10 days. Votes shall only be valid if submitted on official ballot forms. vi. Voting will be by the Single Transferable Vote method, with a reopen nominations candidate (RON) added to the ballot. If RON passes the quota then all the then unfilled places are void requiring a new election for those vacancies. vii. Each voter shall receive an acknowledgement from the vote taker. They will be given a unique identification as part of their acknowledgement, this will enable them to verify their vote when the result is published while protecting their identity from other voters. viii. The vote taker will publish the result and a voting list comprising voter identifiers and their vote. xi. In the event of less than 4 moderators being elected or RON passing quota the vote taker will issue a second request for nominations no later than 1 month after the close of ballot and hold elections for the remaining vacancies. Those elected at this election shall serve until the annual round of elections are held. x. In the event of the resignation, removal or death of a moderator the next highest candidate (if they are still willing) from the previous election will be appointed for the remainder of the term. xi. If the number of moderators falls below 4 or if the moderators consider it necessary due to excessive workload, they will appoint such temporary moderators as are necessary (the total number of moderators not to exceed 12) to efficiently moderate uk.gay-lesbian-bi. Their appointment to be confirmed by a vote of the white list posters within 21 days. They will serve until the annual round of elections are held. Leave of Absence and Removal 4. Moderators should inform the moderating team of periods when they will be inactive. The moderation panel may appoint a temporary moderator to stand in during this period, the position being offered first to the highest loser from the last election, or failing that a person of their choice. Other than such periods any moderator that does not take part in moderation activity for 21 consecutive days shall automatically be removed from the moderation team. 5. Moderators who either approve excluded posts or decline to approve non-excluded posts may be removed by a two thirds decision of the other moderators. 6 Any moderator may be removed by a vote of no confidence. i. Such a vote may be proposed by any white list poster and will need to be supported by 9 other whitelist posters. ii. People on the white lists at the time when the vote of no confidence is tabled shall be eligible to vote on such a proposal ie people added to the whitelist after the formal request for a no confidence vote will not be permitted to vote on this occasion. iii. A ballot should be held within 10 days of a formal request for a vote of no confidence. A neutral person will be asked by the moderation panel to conduct the ballot. The question shall be:- "Do you have confidence in X as a moderator of uk.gay-lesbian-bi yes/no/abstain" iv. For the purposes of calculating a majority only votes yes or no will count. A simple majority of votes cast for no shall indicate that the group has no confidence in the moderator and s/he shall immediately be removed from the moderation panel. v. A vote of no confidence in the whole moderation panel will not be permitted, only a vote for each individual moderator. vi. The vote taker shall use the same anonymising method as outlined for the annual election of moderators and shall publish the result with the anonymous identifiers and how they voted. vii. After the conclusion of a vote of no confidence which falls no such similar motion shall be brought against the same person for a period of three calendar months. Moderation Software and Location The moderation software shall be the STUMP system (or similar), and will be located on a server provided by Jon Ribbens < jon@oaktree.co.uk>. [NOTE this has now been replaced with a server at www.chaos.org.uk] The STUMP moderation software (Secure Team-based Usenet Moderation Program) is fully described at: http://www.algebra.com/~ichudov/stump/ It enables a team of moderators to moderate the group, they require no special software and all the decisions of the moderators are logged on an automatically maintained website. Several features can be automated and it permits great flexibility that enables it to be customised for the group's needs. The moderators will arrange a back up server and in the event of the loss of the moderation server will ensure that the back up server takes over the process of administering the moderation software. Changes to Moderation Policy All changes to moderation policy will treated as a formal charter change requiring a full RFD/CFV in uk.net.news.announce cross posted to uk.net.news.config and uk.gay-lesbian-bi. 2.c. For further information on uk.gay-lesbian-bi, including both FAQs, links to other resources, a link to the Friends page (a group of people willing to give support to people by e-mail) and a little information on regular posters see the uk.gay-lesbian-bi home page at: http://www.chaos.org.uk/~ukglb/index.html 2.d. Further information about moderation and logs of moderator activity can be viewed at: http://www.chaos.org.uk/~ukglb/index.html If you wish to post an article direct to the moderators for inclusion on the newsgroup, the submission address is: uk-gay-lesbian-bi@usenet.org.uk If you wish to contact the moderators directly email can be sent to: uk-gay-lesbian-bi-request@usenet.org.uk 3. Frequently Asked Questions -------------------------------------- 3.a. What FAQs? This group is, as yet, quite young so the number of questions that occur frequently are few. I have tried to include them here. In the Resources FAQ I have included pointers to some sources of information that might pre-empt other questions. 3.b. Are heterosexuals welcome on uk.gay-lesbian-bi? Yes, provided that the newsgroup's ideals are respected - it is primarily a forum for gay/lesbian/bisexual/etc. issues and is intended as a "gay, lesbian and bi-friendly space" but everyone is welcome to read and contribute. 3.c. What subjects are/aren't legitimate on uk.gay-lesbian-bi? Anything gay, lesbian or bi-related that's on your mind is fair game, with a few major exceptions, primarily that condemnations of or "justifications" against homosexuality do not belong in uk.gay-lesbian-bi. They can go in alt.politics.homosexuality or alt.politics.misc. 3.d. What about cross-posting messages? Excessive crossposting should be avoided - restrict yourself to news announcements. Offenders are likely to get flamed by others on the group - it is recommended that cross posting should be restricted to no more than two other groups. Anything cross posted to more than eight groups will be automatically rejected by the moderation bot. 3.e. Why shouldn't I post personal ads to uk.gay-lesbian-bi? Because this is a discussion group - not a personals group. If you want to post a personal ad, then appropriate newsgroups would be : uk.adverts.personals.gay-lesbian-bi, uk.adverts.personals, alt.personals.motss or alt.personals.bi The charter also forbids personal ads. 3.f. Can I post uuencoded images? In a word NO, this is a discussion group. By all means post a pointer to binaries e.g. one of the binaries newsgroups or a web site. Binaries are by their nature large - often hundreds, even thousands of lines long. They take a time to download (and so incur cost to the person downloading), and take up large amounts of disk space. They are also specifically forbidden by the charter of the group. 3.g. This newsgroup's full of crap, where are the serious discussions? The newsgroup contains what ever people send to it. Anyone reading uk.gay-lesbian-bi can start a new discussion. Serious discussions do take place on the newsgroup, if you don't like what you see start one! 3.h. Is there a cabal on uk.gay-lesbian-bi? No, but there are a number of regular posters to the newsgroup. They no more own or control it than any other member of the uk gay, lesbian and bisexual net community. Some regular contributors have added profiles to the other uk.gay.lesbian.bi home page at: http://bi.org/uk-glb Though this is now very, very out of date! There is also a link from the main page at: http://www.chaos.org.uk/~ukglb/index.html 3.i. What does MOTSS mean? MOTSS - Member Of The Same Sex therefore, by derivation MOTAS - Member Of The Appropriate Sex MOTOS - Member Of The Opposite Sex For information on other commonly used acronyms see:- http://searchwebmanagement.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid27_gci211776,00.htm> and there's a look-up facility at: http://www.ucc.ie/cgi-bin/acronym that searches 15000 acronyms. 3.j. What does SIMCHAJGC mean? It's a more temperate version of LOL or ROTFL, and it stands for Sitting In My Chair Having A Jolly Good Chuckle 3.k. What are News Archive Systems and why should I know about them? Google is an example of an archive system. Because newsgroups are publicly viewable it is possible to archive anything sent to them automatically. So if you post to a newsgroup you may well find that a third party, by using one of these services, can find out what you have been posting. Some do not archive newsgroup posts if you put "x-no-archive" in the headers of the article, but I can not confirm this for any particular service. I am also told that X-no-archive also works in the first line of the body text if a reader cannot add extra header lines. One way to get round the problem if you are not happy with your name being attached to an article is to use one of the anonymous remailing services. An additional use for archive systems is that people with censored newsfeeds can also use this service to read those news groups that don't appear in their newsfeed. 3.l. What is an anonymous remailer? My thanks to Iain Bowen for supplying me with this info. An anonymous remailer (also called an "anonymous server") is a free computer service that privatises your e-mail. A remailer allows you to send electronic mail to a Usenet news group or to a person without the recipient knowing your real name or your e-mail address. Why would YOU use remailers? Maybe you're a computer engineer who wants to express opinions about computer products, opinions that your employer might hold against you. Possibly you live in a community that is violently intolerant of your social, political, or religious views. Perhaps you're seeking employment via the Internet and you don't want to jeopardise your present job. Possibly you want to place personal ads. Perchance you're a whistle-blower afraid of retaliation. Conceivably you feel that, if you criticise your government, Big Brother will monitor you. Maybe you don't want people "flaming" your corporate e-mail address. In short, there are many legitimate reasons why a law abiding person might use remailers. If you would like further information including: (1) Anonymous Remailer FAQ, (2) E-Mail Privacy FAQ, and (3) PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) Software FAQ. send this: To: abacard@well.sf.ca.us Subject: Send FAQs Info Message: [Ignored] For additional information on privacy and remailers try the following web site. http://www.stack.nl/~galactus/remailers/ or e-mail galactus@stack.nl This URL provides sterling information on privacy and remailers from an authoritative source, plus links to a number of other relevant sites (including Andre Bacard's). 3.m. Where are the best gay clubs/pubs/nightlife in..? Questions of where is the best place in crop up all the time. The resources FAQ will shortly have a list of guides to LGBi cities but at present I don't have a list of such sites in Europe. 3.n. Why do some threads content bear no relationship to the thread subject? This is know as "thread drift", and it can be very annoying to people. The reason for this is that many people only download the headers and then mark those topics of interest for future collection. This means that they may well miss interesting discussions or pick up lots of unwanted articles. Generally it is regarded as being good netiquette to change the subject heading if you are changing the topic ie "new subject(was: old subject)". 3.o. How is uk.* run, where can I find out how to create a group, what is an RFD or CFV? Documents explaining how the uk.* hierarchy is managed are published on a regular basis and are available on the Web or by e-mail. All readers of uk.* newsgroups would be advised to read the moderated, low- traffic , where any proposed changes to this charter (or for new groups) will be announced. Taken from the Welcome to UsenetUK document: Where can I find these documents? 1. Wait for the them to come around on 'uk.net.news.announce', or read them again from that newsgroup (they should still be around on your provider). 2. If you have Web Access, look at http://www.usenet.org.uk where you will find them all, plus much other useful information about Usenet, both in the UK and Worldwide. 3. If none of the above methods works for you, send email to infolist@pcserv.demon.co.uk with the following in the body of the message index help end and you will be rewarded with a long list of documents that you can summon. 3.p. What is all this talk of Radishes? From Rupert Thompson , The best Greek verb of all time is _rhaphanidoo:_ which Liddle, Scott and Jones' Greek-English lexicon glosses as "I thrust a radish up the fundament of (punishment for adulterers)". Catullus makes a reference to having one of his enemies with his feet tied together, bent over, with Catullus wielding a radish "carved for withdrawl". It seems the radish was carved to have the same properties as a bearded mullett. And these are Greek radishes, not those wee red things you get nowadays. Think mouli. Thus Iain Bowen has declared that the Radish is the official uk.glb vegetable. For said item see the picture at: The Radish! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Resources FAQ For the newsgroup uk.gay-lesbian-bi ------------------------------------------------------------------------ F.A.Q.2: Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Resources On The Net From: Lyn David Thomas Version: 2.22 Date: 10th April March 2001 Last Updated: 12/12/00 ----------------------------------------------------- Notes from the FAQ maintainer: Posting frequency - Weekly *What's New* ------------ 0 - Contents ------------ 1. Introduction 2. Help and Support 3. On Line Conferencing 4. Mailing Lists 5. Newsgroups 6. World Wide Web Pages 7. Web Magazines 8. Bulletin Boards 9. Dating On The Internet 10. City and Regional Guides 11. Switchboards and Helpline 1 - Introduction ---------------- 1.a. This FAQ This FAQ attempts to put together a listing of some of the resources that are available on the net that could be of use to readers of uk.gay-lesbian-bi. Much of the material is drawn from the original uk.gay-lesbian-bi FAQ as drawn up by Alan Fleming , and contains information suggested by a number of people. As ever though the responsibility for the contents of this FAQ are mine and mine alone. 1.b FAQ Maintenance The maintainer of this FAQ is Lyn David Thomas If you have any comments or questions, please mail me and I'll do my best to answer questions or include any suggestions in a future revision of this FAQ. 2 - Help and Support -------------------- 2.a This is a list of resources that may be useful to people coming out or in need of some form of help and support. 2.b EuroPoz mailing list, a support and information service for people in Europe who have been diagnosed as HIV positive. Digital Diversity is provides the technical and financial resources to run the service, all the administrative work will be done by positive people. To subscribe to EuroPoz, send an e-mail address to EuroPoz-REQUEST@diversity.org.uk People who aren't yet online can find out how to get connected by writing to EuroPoz, PO Box 7248, London E5 8UL. 2.c soc.support.youth.gay-lesbian-bi is a usenet newsgroup for the support of gay, lesbian or bisexual youth. It is moderated and is a safe and friendly place to discuss issues of importance to yourself. It also has a World Wide Web page at: http://www.youth.org/ssyglb/ For people without either access to newsgroups or to the World Wide Web it can be accessed by way of a e-mail list. To subscribe, mail: listserv@netcom.com with subscribe glb-youth-l Your.email.address in the body. 2.d GLAMS, the site for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals with multiple sclerosis, in the UK. The URL is: http://freedom.co.uk/glams/home.html 3. On line Conferencing ------------------------ 3.a Internet Relay Chat is a method of "talking" to people in real time, it is the internet equivalent of the chat line services provided by BT etc, most of this is by means of special software but you will also find chat areas on some World Wide Web pages. 3.b IRC operates on many different servers, linked up into several different networks. For UK based people, IRCNet has many UK and Europe based people on it. Servers for it located in the UK (which will be faster for UK based people) are run by Demon at ircnet.demon.co.uk, BT at chat.bt.net and Netcom at irc.netcom.net.uk, each of them using ports around 6667. A much smaller service is offered called GayChatUK, run at irc.gaychat-uk.co.uk on port 6667. 3.c Software to use IRC is easily available. Under Windows, a popular piece of software is mIRC, available at http://www.mirc.co.uk It is easy to use and set up. Under Unix (and similar, including Linux, FreeBSD etc.), software often comes with your distribution e.g. ircII and BitchX. 3.d IRC is divided into many different 'channels' (separate forums for discussion). On IRCNet, there are popular local channels e.g. #gaylondon, #gaymidlands, #gaymanchester and #gay-south-uk. Different channels exist also for different topics e.g. #gaychub, #gayteensex, #gaysmuk 3.e On CIX (Compulink Information Exchange) there are a number of different conferences for gay, lesbian and bi discussion: gaychat, gay, bi-o and bi-c. Gaychat and bi-o are open conference, subscribers to CIX can join these conferences at any time. Gay and bi-c are closed, to get access to those conferences you have to mail the conference moderators to ask for admission. To find out who are the current moderators use the command 'show gay' which will give up to date information. 3.f On Compuserve, there is a gay and lesbian section in HSX200 in which there are a number of UK members. Type GO HSX200 and follow the instructions. You need to sign a 'closed section agreement' for section 10. 3.g On Microsoft Network (MSN) there is a gay section called Planet Out. WISE (Wales, Ireland, Scotland, England) is the UK area. The go word is PNO; I think PNOWISE will take you straight to the UK stuff. 3.h AOL's forums contain some gay related offerings, which can only be accessed through AOL. Details of accessing the forums can be got from AOL themselves. 3.i Gay.com is a popular web-based chat forum, based at http://www.gay.com. Gay.com has had a dedicated UK site featuring dedicated content for the whole country - including news, features, personal ads, message boards and of course the chat. It's accessible either by going to: http://www.gay.com and selecting "UK" from the list of options when you first visit, or by going directly to: http://uk.gay.com It requires use of Java, but most modern web browsers will be compatible - follow the instructions on screen if you have problems with your browser. 4 - Mailing Lists ----------------- 4.a Mailing lists are a system of emails sent to all members on the mailing list. They have the advantage of being more private than newsgroups or IRC. 4.b uk-motss and uk-motss-women There are two UK lists run by Nigel Whitfield uk-motss and uk-motss-women. UK-motss is a discussion list with around 400 members participating in discussions on almost every topic imaginable. If you are interested in joining, send mail to: uk-motss-REQUEST@diversity.org.uk and ask to be added to the list. UK-motss-women was formed as a counterpart to the uk-motss mailing list, and is women-only. The contact address for this list is: ukmw-REQUEST@diversity.org.uk The uk-motss mail server is no longer running. The files that it provided are available by anonymous ftp to: uk-motss.diversity.org.uk Additional information, including frequently asked questions for uk-motss and terms of membership can be obtained on the web at: http://uk-motss.diversity.org.uk/ 4.b cam-motss - A regional Cambridge-based gay, lesbian and bi mailing list. Contact David Garner dmg@eng.cam.ac.uk to join or for more information. 4.c Digital Diversity (a non profit organisation that aims to encourage the use of the internet amongst LGBi people in the UK runs a number of mailing lists. For more info on Digital Diversity see: http://www.diversity.org.uk Nigel Whitfield's uk-motss and the uk-motss-women lists are also hosted by digital diversity. Other Digital Diversity lists include: via info@diversity.org.uk announce - for announcements and information about DD's activities. health - discussion and information about LGB health issues workplace - workplace issues via campaigns-REQUEST@diversity.org.uk The Campaigns List; for discussion of issues related to LGB campaigning via qtv-REQUEST@diversity.org.uk Queer TV is a new list specifically for distributing Paul Giaccone's weekly TV and Radio programme listings, which contain details of everything of gay, lesbian and bisexual interest. As well as making the listings available beyond their original audience of uk-motss members, the list provides a space for members who wish to comment about the listings and the programmes featured in them. For more details, or to subscribe, send e-mail to qtv-REQUEST@diversity.org.uk via EuroPoz-REQUEST@diversity.org.uk EuroPoz mailing list, a support and information service for people in Europe who have been diagnosed as HIV positive. Although Digital Diversity is providing the technical and financial resources to run the service, all the administrative work will be done by positive people. To subscribe to EuroPoz, send an e-mail address to EuroPoz-REQUEST@diversity.org.uk People who aren't yet online can find out how to get connected by writing to EuroPoz, PO Box 7248, London E5 8UL. 4.d There is also a mailing list for the users of the #uk-poofs IRC channel. Mail uk-poofs-request@quipu.com for admittance to the main list, if you are only interested in announcements of meetings etc. then mail uk-poofs-announce-request@quipu.com 4.e EURO-QUEER is a list devoted to communication among European l/b/g/t activists, organisations and individuals. It has a specific focus on queer EURO-NEWS and EURO-ACTIVISM, but it is also a forum for GENERAL L/B/G/T DISCUSSION. To find out how other European queer groups are working and how the situation for queers is in different European countries, all subscribers are encouraged to contribute with queer-related information from their regions. The list is not moderated, but the number of daily postings from each specific subscriber is limited to two messages. If needed this restriction may be suspended by contacting the list maintainer (euro-queer-approval@queernet.org). This list is available in a digest and a non-digest format (as a stream of individual mail messages). Subscription/unsubscribe requests are managed by an automated server called Majordomo. TO SUBSCRIBE: Send a mail message to majordomo@queernet.org The first (not subject) line of the message should be subscribe euro-queer-digest (for the digest format) subscribe euro-queer (for the separate-message format) (If you are subscribing a different address from the one you are using to send the request, you should use a line of the form subscribe euro-queer-digest myotheraddress@my.other.system (digest) subscribe euro-queer myotheraddress@my.other.system (non-digest) 4.f soc.support.youth.gay-lesbian-bi a moderated discussion group for support of gay, lesbian and bi youth can also be accessed by way of a mailing list. To subscribe, mail: listserv@netcom.com with subscribe glb-youth-l Your.email.address in the body. 4.g A current listing of all gay, lesbian and bi mailing lists is available in the Queer Resource Directory, in the pub/QRD/electronic/email directory at swish.qrd.org This listing is maintained by the QRD staff. To obtain a full listing of all the current gay, lesbian and bi lists, send an e-mail message to FTPMAIL@swish.qrd.org with the following four lines: open cd /pub/QRD/electronic/email get lbgt.list.of.lists quit 4.h uk-bi is a mailing list for bisexuals in the UK.to subscribe send an e-mail to listserver@ogham.org with the message subscribe uk-bi 4.i The Youth Lists - the internet's only youth only mailing lists for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, questioning, and supportive youth ages 21 and under - also has list for those 21-25 - their web page is at: http://www.youth-guard.org/youth/ The lists are orgainised into two age groups YOUTH13-17 and YOUTH17-21. In order to become a subscriber of the YOUTH13-17 list, you must be 17 years old or younger. Subscription requests from persons younger than 13 will be considered. To subscribe send mail to: listproc@youth-guard.org In the body of your message type: "subscribe youth13-17 YOURNAME" Replace the word YOURNAME with your real name, an alias name, or your email address. The subscription command MUST be in the BODY of your message and NOT the subject line! In order to become a subscriber of the YOUTH17-21 list, you must be between the ages of 17 and 21. No exceptions will be made. To subscribe send mail to: listproc@youth-guard.org In the body of your message type: "subscribe youth17-21 YOURNAME" Replace the word YOURNAME with your real name, an alias name, or your email address. The subscription command MUST be in the BODY of your message and NOT the subject line! There's also now a 21-25 list. To subscribe send mail to: listproc@youth-guard.org In the body of your message type: "subscribe youth21-25 YOURNAME" Replace the word YOURNAME with your real name, an alias name, or your email address. The subscription command MUST be in the BODY of your message and NOT the subject line! 4.j Hullmotss is a new, general-purpose mailing list for Lesbian, Gay & Bisexual people in, around, or otherwise connected with the glorious City and County of Kingston-Upon-Hull. It is unmoderated, and is fairly low-volume. Currently, hullmotss has no restrictive guidelines as to what is on-, or off-topic... general chat, serious discussion, calls for help, as well as (subtle) cruising are all equally valid. Homophobes are not welcome, however, and will be vaporised as soon as they surface! To join, please visit the following URL: http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/hullmotss or for further info, have a look at: http://www.tribune.demon.co.uk/hullmotss 4.k OneList has a wide range of mailing lists, many of which are LGBTF friendly - go to: http://www.onelist.com/ Its free and easy to use. From there use the search facility, search on "gay" or whatever will bring up scads of stuff and other keywords will refine the selection. Once signed up there's selection of web-reading, digest mail and individual mail so there's no need to use the browser if you don't wish to. There are similar lists available from: 4.l http://www.yahoo.co.uk/ 4.m http://www.excite.com/ 4.n http://www.msn.com/ 5 - News Groups --------------- 5.a News groups are discussion areas or forums where people post messages or discussions. Any one can subscribe to a newsgroup and there for they are less private than a mailing list. 5.b uk.gay-lesbian-bi. If you are reading this then you are already subscribed to this newsgroup :-) The charter is as follows: ONE LINE GROUP DESCRIPTION uk.gay-lesbian-bi moderated For bisexuals, lesbians and gays in the UK CHARTER: uk.gay-lesbian-bi provides a forum for the discussion of lesbian, gay and bisexual related issues from a UK viewpoint. uk.gay-lesbian-bi is intended as a safe space for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, their friends and those interested in matters of sexuality. All posters are requested to respect this. The newsgroup is moderated and operates under the moderation guidelines as outlined in the moderation policy statement contained within this charter. Moderators: The following moderators were elected in May 2004 Bryan Dale Greg Kate West Paul Anderson PaulG Stephen M Baines Yaz Commercial advertising is forbidden. Announcements of relevant events are allowed. Long announcements belong in uk.announce.events. Test postings should be sent to appropriate test groups and not to uk.gay-lesbian-bi Binaries are not permitted other than pgp encryption blocks under 10 lines, directions as to where binaries may be found are permitted. All articles must be submitted in plain ASCII text, no html, mime or word processor files please. Pointers to commercial sites fall under the rule about commercial advertising (other than statements in .sig files 4 lines or under in length). Excessive cross-posting is inappropriate. Posters are requested to restrict their cross-posting to no more than two other newsgroups. Personal advertisements should not be posted to uk.gay-lesbian-bi, use uk.adverts.personals.gay-lesbian-bi or one of the many other personal groups instead. MODERATION POLICY STATEMENT Method Moderation will be by a pre-approved or white list system. A semiautomatic moderation bot running STUMP system (or similar) will receive all postings to the group. Individuals who have made one approved posting will automatically be added to the pre-approved posters list. These posters will have their articles automatically accepted and forwarded on to the group. Their white list status can only be revoked by the moderators if they violate the moderation policy, this action must be supported by a two thirds majority of the moderation panel and reported immediately to the group. Suspension from the whitelist will be for a period of one calendar month after which the pre-approved status will be restored on the same terms as first time posters. White list posters who have inadvertently breached the moderation rules can apply to the moderators to be restored to the pre-approved list sooner than 1 month, the moderators can add them to the list if they are satisfied that the offending post was genuinely made in error. All binaries identified by the moderation software posted by non-whitelisted posters will be rejected by the moderation bot. The remaining posts from people not on the whitelist will be sent to the moderators. The moderators will approve all postings regardless of content unless they are: 1. a personal ad 2. a commercial article 3. a binary article that has escaped the automatic software. 4. an item cross posted to more than eight groups in total including uk.gay-lesbian-bi 5. a test post. 6. an identical article, or an article with identical content - ie articles which have the same content but different headers, sent more than four times in the same 24 hour period to the group and is in the opinion of at least two thirds of the moderators part of a "mail bomb" attack on the group. 7. An article that is not sent as plain text. 5.c uk.adverts.personals. This is the group for posting personal ads to for people in the UK. 5.d uk.adverts.personals.gay-lesbian-bi. For people who prefer posting to an exclusively LGBi group. Please note, ads should _not_ be crossposted to uk.gay-lesbian-bi. 5.e The largest USENET gay, lesbian and bi newsgroup is soc.motss. It covers many gay, lesbian and bi matters and issues, with a general American bias, though people from all over the world contribute to the group. 5.f alt.sex.bondage and rec.arts.bodyart carry topics of interest to some specific gay, lesbian and bi sub-communities. 5.g alt.sex.motss carries sexually explicit discussion for gay, lesbian and bi folks. 5.f alt.politics.homosexuality and talk.politics.misc tend to a higher level of flamage about gay, lesbian and bi issues. 5.h clari.news.gays: This is part of Clarinet, a commercial subscription service carried by some Usenet sites. Carries UPI newswire stories relating to lesbian/gay issues. 5.j sci.med.aids for AIDS issues. 5.k soc.bi: for discussions of bisexuality. FAQ at: http://bi.org/~jon/soc.bi/ 5.l alt.bisexual: also for discussions of bisexuality 5.m soc.support.youth.gay-lesbian-bi: a moderated discussion group for support of gay, lesbian and bi youth. 5.n There are also many groups containing binaries - encoded pictures - which may be interesting to some people. They generally fall under the alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.* and alt.sex.pictures.* hierarchies. 5.o This listing is by no means exhaustive, there are many LGBi groups out there! 6 - WWW Pages ------------- 6.a World Wide Web pages are files sitting on computers in different parts of the world, think of them as books in a library. If you have the appropriate software you can view them very much as you would view pages in a book. There are literally thousands of sites in the UK and millions in the world. This list is in no way comprehensive. 6.b The uk.gay-lesbian-bi home page is at http://www.ukglb.org.uk This contains the FAQs for the group, some information on regular posters and some general info for people including a link to the Friends page (a group of people willing to give support to people by e-mail). Further details - including information relating to the moderation of the group can be found at: http://www.chaos.org.uk/~ukglb/index.html 6.c Digital Diversity's web pages are at http://www.diversity.org.uk/ This is the site for the lgb on-line group; information includes details about the group, pointers to other resources and also material such as the text of Section 28, what to do when you're arrested and the GLC charter for gay rights. Site still under construction. A very useful resource. 6.d The Queer Resources Directory (QRD) is an online library with about 5000 files of interest to MOTSS folks. It started out as an archive site for ACT-UP in the late 1980s and has grown to encompass news clippings, media kits, resource lists, contact information, and everything else. currently, the QRD lives at swish.qrd.org, and is run as an all-volunteer operation on donated hardware and network access. All files are accessible via email, FTP, gopher, WAIS, and the WorldWideWeb http://swish.qrd.org/QRD/.html/QRD-home-page.html Send e-mail to qrdstaff@swish.qrd.org for more information. 6.e soc.support.youth.gay-lesbian-bi: a moderated discussion group for support of gay, lesbian and bi youth also has a webpage at: http://www.youth.org/ssyglb/ 6.f http://bi.org/ - WWW site for bisexuals 6.g The mailing list uk-bi has web pages at: http://bi.org/uk-bi/ UK mailing list 6.h The Other Queer Page at: http://www.im1ru12.org/toqp/ The site contains positively encyclopaedic links glb sites of interest with topics ranging from coming out to action/education and including an extensive section of personal homepages sorted by location (now over 550 listed!) - to which you can add your own. 6.i Coming Out and Staying Out: http://www.gmhp.demon.co.uk/coming-out/ A common sense guide to the process of coming out and living as a LGBi person. 6.j Pride Scotland Pages: http://www.pridescotland.org/ 6.k soc.bi FAQ at: http://serf.org/~jon/soc.bi/faq/ Lots of useful bi info. 6.l GLAMS, the site for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals with multiple sclerosis, in the UK. The URL is: http://freedom.co.uk/glams/home.html 6.m South Staffordshire MESMEN Project http://freespace.virgin.net/staffs.mesmen/newsite/ Web site for a local health project, useful local links. 6.n Youth Assistance Organization youth information web pages. YAO or YOUTH.ORG) is a service run by volunteers, created to help self-identifying gay, lesbian, bisexual and questioning youth. YAO exists to provide young people with a safe space online to be themselves. American orientated but still useful. Pages at: http://www.youth.org/ 6.o "The Site" has lots of links gay related links and information, including listings of helplines and organisations, look under health and sex at: http://www.thesite.org.uk 6.p Any lgb person interested in transport might like to have a look at: http://www.transportgroup.freeserve.co.uk It's an enthusiasts group that's been about for 25 years and still going strong. New members always welcome. 6.q http://www.gayyouthuk.co.uk Information for gay youth 6.r UK Out! is "The Guide to Boyz and Girlz on the net and is on: http://www.out.org.uk Arranged by region this guide has pictures of some of the regulars that you might bump into on the newsgroups, IRC or see their home pages. It is currently down for a major renovation - it's meant to be up again sometime soon. 7 - Web Magazines ----------------- 7.a These are magazines which are also produced in the form of WWW pages, they often have a higher readership on the Web than they do in their paper form! 7.b QX Magazine is available on the web at: http://www.qxmag.co.uk/ This is a weekly London mag otherwise found free at scene venues. 7.c Scotsgay Magazine on the web at: http://www.scotsgay.co.uk A very handy publication containing news and views from Scotland complete with listings and personals (including e-mail personals). 7.d Bi Community News, UK newsletter at: http://bi.org/~bcn/ 7.e Shout! Magazine at: http://www.shoutmag.demon.co.uk/ A community paper for the Yorkshire area. 7.f Capital Gay - an American based webnews site at: http://www.capitalgay.com/ 7.g Outcast magazine - a news and information with a more political edge can be found at: http://www.outcastmagazine.co.uk 8 - Bulletin Boards ------------------- 8.a These are, as the name suggests, dial up computer bulletin boards. A number offer limited internet connectivity. 8.b Ooh! Communications Bulletin Board The board is run on a group of hunt lines accessed on 0181 395 3108. There are five dial in nodes in all and standard ANSI or RIP terminal programs can access it. The BBS has over 1,300 conferences in all, with over 150 exclusively gay conferences, many of which are not available through internet. They have internet usenet and mail-lister areas for gay clients and offer e-mail access for all callers without charge. It also carries HIV-Net, a charity run group of conferences dedicated to keeping gay men informed about HIV. The board is connected to internet via dircon and gay/lesb/tv/ts/bi users can request more information by sending a blank email to QUEERY@ooh.dircon.co.uk They also have over 16gb of general files as well as male glamour shots. Clients can evaluated the board for 90 days unlimited access and after that they can either subscribe for 22 per year or use the free single line node on 0181 395 1028. 8.c Monochrome is a bulletin board with a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered section. More info can be found on: http://www.mono.org/~euroboy/equalops.htm 9 - Dating on the Internet --------------------------- 9.a For many people one of the most exciting aspects of the internet is its ability to put people in touch with each other. There exist a number of ways that people can look for new friends or partners. One is to join an e-mail list and take part in the discussions, most lists are also the starting point for social events. This is also true for most of the usenet newsgroups. However most e-mail lists and most newsgroups (except those set up specifically for personal ads) do not welcome personal ads. In addition to special newsgroups people also can add their details to a number of web pages, some of which are free and some of which are charge a fee. 9.b uk.adverts.personals. This is the group for posting personal ads to for people in the UK. 9.c uk.adverts.personals.gay-lesbian-bi. For people who prefer posting to an exclusively LGBi group. Please note, ads should _not_ be crossposted to uk.gay-lesbian-bi. 9.d alt.personals.motss. This is an international personals newsgroup. May have a lot of traffic and he heavily dominated by North America. 9.e UK Out! is a set of pages and is the UK "Guide to Boyz and Girlz on the net - it also has a personals section. For details go to http://www.out.org.uk Back up again now after a major revamp, and greatly improved. 9.f Gay Dating Co. Telephone dating reaches the Web! This is the first UK telephone dating service with a web presence that I have seen. They also offer "10 minutes Virtual Chat for free". Contact them at: http://www.gay-dating.co.uk/dating 10 - City and Regional LGBi Guides ---------------------------------- 10.a This section contains information about a locality, some will contain scene info and others will include support groups etc. In addition many of the web magazines (section 7) may well contain local guides - I have tried to put the towns in alphabetical order. 10.b Links to a guide to gay Birmingham at http://www.engage.demon.co.uk 10.c A guide to what's on and where in London - including some commercial resources. http://www.g-l-n.co.uk 11 - LGB Switchboard and Helpline websites ------------------------------------------ 11.a Bradford Lesbian & Gay Switchboard http://www.site44.com/blgsc/ 11.b Brighton Lesbian & Gay Switchboard http://www3.mistral.co.uk/brighton/ 11.c Gloucestershire Gay and Lesbian Friend Helpline http://www.dircon.co.uk/gay-lesbian-helpline-glos-uk/ 11.d Loathian Lesbian & Gay Switchboard http://www.lgls.org/ 11.f Lesbian & Gay Foundation (Manchester) http://www.lgfoundation.org.uk/ 11.g Nottingham Lesbian & Gay Switchboard http://www.nottscity.net/switchboard/ 11.h Lesbian & Gay Switchboard West Midlands http://www.zedweb.freeserve.co.uk/lgswm.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Moderation FAQ for the newsgroup uk.gay-lesbian-bi ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FAQ 3: About Moderation and Guidance on Compliance Version: 2.9g August 18th 2003 --------------------------------------------------- *What's New* List of moderators updated. *This FAQ* Aims to help posters understand and comply with the moderation criteria for the group. It is only guidance - the formal moderation criteria are contained in the group's Charter. *Other FAQs* These are published on the moderation website and archived on Google: "FAQ : Frequently Asked Questions for uk.gay-lesbian-bi" - this includes the full text of the Charter and Moderation Policy. "F.A.Q.2: Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Resources On The Net" details of other g-l-b resources on the net. A legal advice FAQ shall be published shortly. Contents -------- 1. Introduction & Background 2. What types of posts the Charter disallows, by Moderation 3. Guidance on Meeting the Moderation Criteria 4. Frequently Asked Questions on Moderation 1 Introduction ----------------- 1.a This FAQ This FAQ explains why uk.gay-lesbian-bi is a moderated newsgroup. The guidance in this FAQ is just that - it is guidance on how the group feels that the broad criteria in the Charter are normally interpreted. To quote the inimitable Gregoire: This FAQ exists because although "99% (or whatever the figure is) of messages posted go through automatically and without a fart, you have to plan for a few unpleasant posts." To give a bit of perspective, the group can get as many as 150 to 200 posts a day with no more than 1/2 dozen usually requiring some sort of action from the moderators. 1.b FAQ Maintenance The author of this FAQ (first published in September 2000) is Pete Denton (Pete-d). The current maintainer is Paul Anderson (paul); if you have any comments, questions or suggestions, please mail me and I'll do my best to answer them. 1.c What is Moderation & Why is uk.gay-lesbian-bi Moderated? Moderation is a system which filters posts to a newsgroup before they reach the group. When uk.gay-lesbian-bi started out it was an easy to use discussion forum for gay, lesbian and bisexual people. Over time, different types of articles started to appear which made the discussions difficult to follow - some of these were relevant to gay, lesbian and bisexual people but others were not. These included personal and sex ads, so the newsgroup uk.adverts.personals.gay- lesbian-bi was set up. During 1997 and 1998 there was a great deal of discussion on the group about the way that more and more 'spam' and other sex posts appeared in the newsgroup. It was felt they might be discouraging new posters and making the discussions more difficult to find. A vote was held and by a majority of 66 to 6 the group became moderated and the first moderators took office in 1999. It is NOT an aim of moderation to exclude viewpoints which the regular posters or moderators do not agree with. Uk.gay-lesbian-bi is intended as a safe space for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, their friends and those interested in matters of sexuality. All posters are requested to respect this. Further information about moderation and logs of moderator activity can be viewed at: http://utter.chaos.org.uk/~ukglb/ You should be able to post to uk.gay-lesbian-bi in the same way you post to any unmoderated newsgroup. However, you can also e-mail articles direct to the moderators for inclusion on the newsgroup, the submission address is: uk-gay-lesbian-bi@usenet.org.uk If you wish to contact the moderators directly, e-mail can be sent to: uk-gay-lesbian-bi-request@usenet.org.uk 2 What types of posts the Charter disallows, by Moderation ------------------------------------------------------------- The Charter containing the moderation criteria is posted on the moderation website: http://utter.chaos.org.uk/~ukglb/ and in "FAQ : Frequently Asked Questions for uk.gay-lesbian-bi" Here are the types of posts which moderation aims to stop: "The moderators will approve all postings regardless of content unless they are: 1. a personal ad 2. a commercial article 3. a binary article that has escaped the automatic software 4. an item cross posted to more than eight groups in total including uk.gay-lesbian-bi 5. a test post 6. an identical article, or an article with identical content 7. an article that is not sent as plain text." 3. Guidance on Meeting the Moderation Criteria ------------------------------------------------ During the first year of moderation it became clear that the criteria laid out in the charter were very broad and open to interpretation. This section of FAQ3 aims to assist in determining the types of post which would normally be expected to comply with the moderation criteria. The guidance here does not replace the criteria laid down in the charter. However, it may be used to help the moderators in determining whether to approve/reject posts or suspend posters. The majority of posts to uk.glb are automatically moderated. Articles which do not comply with the moderation criteria but which are posted by people who are automatically moderated can result in that poster having all their posts hand moderated for a month. **Guidance on the interpretation of the classes of banned posts** Note that the word 'normally' is used here in the examples given - this is to remind you that this is guidance only and that as such it cannot foresee every possible eventuality. The ultimate decision lies with the elected moderators who have to act within the Charter. i. a personal ad There is an appropriate personals newsgroup where personal ads should be posted: news://uk.adverts.personals.gay-lesbian-bi Articles which contain the following will normally be considered to be personal ads: * requests for life partners or sexual partners * requests for contact with another individual (remember this is about avoiding the group becoming a space for personal ads for people unknown to each other) - including posts like: "I saw someone at abc place on Wednesday, he had green hair and I thought it was great - I want his babies. Does anyone know who he is?" * responses to (but not discussion of) any of the above * URLs for websites whose main content is one or more personal ad Articles which contain the following will not normally be considered to be personal ads: * invitations to social group activities - e.g.: "I'm trying to arrange a group of people to go to xyz venue on DD/MM/YY"; "I'm doing a booze run to Calais and have n empty seats if anyone wants to share the fuel and ferry costs"; "I'm visiting NiceTown, do you fancy meeting for a chat and coffee, Mr Known Poster? Is anyone else in the area?" * requests for travel or other information ii. a commercial article Articles which contain the following will normally be considered to be commercial: * advertising or promotional information for products or services provided by profit making organizations and for which payment must be made (including room/flat/house to let type posts by absent landlords or letting agencies) * links to websites where membership fees are required, where a site contains a significant number of banner adverts or where a significant proportion of the content is only accessible through fee paying AVS or similar services * URLS for websites containing information on a single commercial venture (including joint marketing initiatives between more than one commercial organization) * posts either wholly or mainly dedicated to describing the contents of any publication from which an advertising income is generated (either online or in print) and/or providing details of (or linking to sites containing details of) subscriptions. Articles which contain the following will not normally be considered to be commercial: * local guides which contain information on more than one commercial venture (where there is only one local gay pub/club/ shop, the moderators should be made aware of this so that they can consider this when moderating the article) * information about events and activities by voluntary or amateur, non profit making groups * posts containing articles (or extracts from articles) published elsewhere, where the intention of the poster is clearly to stimulate debate and discussion (although the poster will need to be aware of the implications of the relevant Copyright Laws) * responses to requests for information about commercial organizations and activities * requests for people to join in a flat/house share in order that a glb friendly household may be created * links to sites which contain small banner ads placed there by the by the web hosting company * links to commercial websites given as part of a standard sig (see 4.12 in this FAQ about signatures and sig separators). There was a move a while ago to look at setting up a group specially for commercial ads but nothing came of these. If anyone thinks that this would be a good idea and is prepared to put in some work to see it happen, then please feel to discuss that in uk.glb. iii. a binary article that has escaped the automatic software Binary articles are not permitted in any newsgroups in the uk.* hierarchy. iv. an item cross posted to more than eight groups in total including uk.gay-lesbian-bi See also comments in section 4.3 of this FAQ about cross posts. v. a test post The group uk.test exists if you need to test whether your news software is correctly set up to post to uk.* groups. If you are concerned that your posts may not be getting through to the uk.gay-lesbian-bi moderation bot please contact the moderators at uk-gay-lesbian-bi-request@usenet.org.uk who will be able to help. A test post is normally a short post with either no content or no meaningful content. It may also have the word 'test' in its subject line or main body. vi. an identical article, or an article with identical content This means articles which have the same content but different headers, or sent more than four times in the same 24 hour period to the group and is in the opinion of at least two thirds of the moderators part of a "mail bomb" attack on the group. vii. an article that is not sent as plain text Articles should not be posted in HTML, RTF or any other non plain text format. This is a requirement of all newsgroups in the uk.* hierarchy. Your news software's help file will show you how to use the correct settings, and a web page 'how to post in plain text' is at: http://www.usenet.org.uk/ukpost.html 4. Frequently Asked Questions ------------------------------- 4.1 Who are the moderators? The following moderators were elected in May 2004 Bryan Dale Greg Kate West Paul Anderson PaulG Stephen M Baines Yaz 4.2 What subjects are/aren't legitimate on uk.gay-lesbian-bi? Anything gay, lesbian or bi-related that's on your mind is fair game (within the moderation criteria). Condemnations of, or "justifications" against, homosexuality are not welcome in uk.gay-lesbian-bi; they can go in alt.politics.homosexuality or alt.politics.misc. However, homophobic posts will not be stopped by the moderators as they are not banned by the moderation criteria. This does not mean the homophobic comments will receive a welcoming response on the group and individual posters may seek to take this issue up with the relevant ISPs. Moderation does not exclude posts which the moderators do not agree with or which criticize the moderators. When it was voted for, posters were adamant that moderation must not allow censorship of unpopular views and opinions. 4.3 What about cross posting messages? Excessive cross posting should be avoided - it is recommended that cross posting should be restricted to no more than two other groups. Anything cross posted to more than eight groups will be automatically rejected by the moderation bot. Due to the way moderation operates it is not possible to approve posts which are cross posted to another moderated group. If you feel that your post is on topic for more than one moderated group you should post it separately to each. If a cross posted message is rejected it will not appear anywhere - this again is down to the way that moderation operates. If you wish your post to go to the other groups you should remove uk.gay-lesbian-bi from the newsgroup line and try again. 4.4 What happens if my posts are manually moderated for a month? If you post something in breach of the moderation criteria the moderators may vote to manually moderate your posts for a month. You are still welcome to post - all that happens is that there may be a delay in your messages reaching the group as they have to be moderated next time one of the moderators is online. At the end of this period you will automatically return to being treated as if you are a first time poster to the group. 4.5 Why does it take a long time for my posts to appear? There are three main reasons for this: - The moderation system requires some (and all new) posters to have their articles moderated by hand. This is done by volunteer moderators who are not always online. They try to do things as quickly as they can, but there may be a delay of a few hours until the next person logs on. If it is unclear whether or not your post should be approved there may be a longer delay but this should not normally be more than 24-48 hours. - The mail relays that send your post to the moderation server may experience problems, this may cause delays outside the moderators' control - please be patient as most posts do eventually turn up. - Sometimes usenet propagation is slow: whilst your post may have been approved by the mod server, it may have been held up on its way back to your news server - such posts do usually appear, eventually. If your posts are being manually moderated, you will receive an e-mailed notification when your post arrives in the queue. If your post has not turned up you can always e-mail the moderators for more information (uk-gay-lesbian-bi-request@usenet.org.uk) but please do not post your articles there. If your newsreader won't post directly to the newsgroup the correct address for posting articles to is: uk-gay-lesbian-bi@usenet.org.uk 4.6 What if I wish to challenge the moderators' decision? If you have a message rejected or you are changed to having your posts manually moderated and you feel that the moderators' decision is unfair, or if you feel that the moderators have rejected someone else's post or changed their moderation status unfairly, or if you are unhappy with the actions of an individual moderator who you feel has acted beyond his/her powers, then, you should try first to e-mail them at: uk-gay-lesbian-bi-request@usenet.org.uk Your e-mail should make it clear why you feel that the decision was unfair. The moderators have the power to change your moderation status or to ask you to resubmit the article so that it may be approved. They may need a short time to consider things and may also need to get back to you for more information. They will normally act within a week of receipt of your e-mail. If you feel that there is an issue which needs to be discussed on the main newsgroup you can post there. The moderators have the power to remove an individual moderator who they believe has acted beyond their powers. At any point you have the right to propose a motion of no confidence against individual moderators. See the Charter and question 4.9 (in this FAQ) for recommendations. 4.7 How do I see which posts have been rejected? A rolling 30 day archive of rejected posts can be accessed on the moderation website: http://utter.chaos.org.uk/~ukglb/ 4.8 How does someone become a moderator? Moderators are elected on an annual basis - roundabout April/May time. Details of how to nominate and vote are included in the Charter and posted to the group at the appropriate time. If the number of elected moderators is insufficient, the moderators may co-opt additional ones to serve until the next election, such action subject to confirmation by the group in an open vote. 4.9 How do I propose a vote of no confidence in a moderator? To propose a vote of no confidence you need to be a poster whose articles are automatically moderated and to have an additional 9 such posters to act as seconders. How you get these seconders is largely up to you. You might wish to post to the newsgroup stating what your intentions are and inviting people to e-mail you if they are willing to support you. You might choose to e-mail people directly who you think are likely to support you. You may have other ideas of your own. People who have previously had articles automatically moderated but who are currently subject to manual moderation may also propose, second and vote in motions of no confidence. Once you have your 9 seconders, you should e-mail your motion to the moderators (uk-gay-lesbian-bi-request@usenet.org.uk) who will then contact an independent vote taker. A ballot will be held within 10 days of a formal request for a vote of no confidence. The question in the ballot will be "Do you have confidence in X as a moderator of uk.gay-lesbian-bi: yes/no/abstain." You may choose to post a copy of your motion to the newsgroup at the same time that you send it to the moderators - this way there will be a chance for voters to discuss the issue involved, for you to put your case and for the moderator concerned to put theirs. You should note that a vote of no confidence in the whole moderation panel is not permitted, only a vote for each individual moderator. If a vote of no confidence fails, no similar motion of no confidence can be brought against the same person for three months. 4.10 Can I post rejected articles to the newsgroup? Reposts of rejected posts to the newsgroup where the clear purpose is discussion in the newsgroup are permitted. Repeated reposts of articles for no other reason than to bypass moderation will be deemed to be in breach of the moderation criteria. As a first step though, you should consider raising your concerns directly with the moderators: uk-gay-lesbian-bi-request@usenet.org.uk If someone can not justify their reposting of an original article or if this happens more than once with a single post or once with many posts simultaneously they are normally in breach of the charter. If you want to post an apology to the group for something you posted which accidentally breached the moderation criteria, this is great. Do be careful not to re-post the offending article by accident as well though! Reposts of rejected posts (or posts which have resulted in a change in moderation status) with only short additional comments (e.g. "sorry for posting this" or "why was this rejected?") will normally be contrary to the moderation criteria. 4.11 How do I know who has been changed to having their posts manually moderated? Admin Notices are posted to the newsgroup as this happens. 4.12 What are signature files and sig separators? A personal signature or sig is a short closing text automatically added to the end of articles by some news readers. They can help to identify the poster, sometimes they contain links to the poster's personal or commercial web sites. If you append a signature to an article, it should be preceded with a delimiter line, known as a sig separator, containing only two hyphens (ASCII 45) followed by one space (ASCII 32) then a carriage return, using the keys: dash, dash, space, return (shown at the end of FAQ3). The signature is considered to extend from the last occurrence of the sig separator up to the end of the article. If you use anything else as a sig separator, for the purposes of moderation, your post will be treated as if there is no sig separator. The group's Charter and usenet convention states that signatures should not be more than 4 lines long. 4.13 What are the conventions on quoting text? It is standard Usenet practice to post your responses underneath the comments to which you are responding. It is normal to snip the previous article of the bits which do not relate to your comments - leaving just enough to give the context for your comments. Some software is badly written and does not follow this convention by default. Moderation does not have any bearing on this, but you may find that you get a better reaction from your fellow posters if you follow the convention. Also see: http://www.html-faq.com/etiquette/?toppost http://www.usenet.org.uk/ukpost.html http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855.txt 4.14 Is there anything else? Please tell me, just reply to this post. :) -- faq3 version: 2.9g August 18th 2003