Acbosgd.2186
net.general,net.test
utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!ihnss!houxi!houxe!lime!vax135!harpo!cbosg!cbosgd!mark
Tue Mar 30 11:29:29 1982
newsgroup net.test (this is not a test message)
It has recently come to my attention that people are getting annoyed by
all the test messages on newsgroup net.test.  Part of this is because
of the high volume, and the somewhat frivolous sounding bodies of the
messages.  Some people have suggested abolishing the newsgroup net.test.
I'd like to urge that we keep this newsgroup, and suggest some guidelines
for using it.

First off, don't post test messages for fun.  Post them if you really
need to post a test message to find out if news is making it out, in
the case where there is some reason to suspect it isn't.

Second, post to the smallest circulation newsgroup that will meet your
needs.  Use newsgroup "test" if possible, otherwise use a limited local
group like osg.test, btl.test, etc, that only goes to a few machines.
Only use net.test if there isn't anything smaller that will do the job.

Third, don't just say "hi there, I'm testing" in the body.  Briefly state
the reason for the test.  This way, people will understand why you are
posting the message.

Finally, if you are annoyed by test messages, unsubscribe (personally)
to all.test.  Please DON'T unsubscribe your system to all.test.  If that
happens, people will start posting test messages to net.general, and we
don't want THAT to happen, do we?

By the way, yes, I know this was posted to two newsgroups.  Version 2.4
of news already has this B news problem fixed.  It will be out soon.

	Mark