Everything you ever wanted to know about anonymous posting
			(but didn't know who to ask)

	First and foremost, there is really no such thing as a 100% anonymous
    post;  it is always possible to track down who made a certain posting.
    There are network experts out there that can eventually find the source of 
    any posting, given enough ambition, perseverance, and cooperation from 
    system administrators.  Most of the time, however, it's simply not worth the
    effort to go to such lengths.  Just so you know you won't be able to plot
    the overthrow of the free world using UseNet postings and get away with 
    your evil plan...
	Now then, knowing that little ditty, on to the specifics.  The real
    essence of anonymous posting boils down to this:  whatever you don't 
    explicitely tell "inews" (the low-level UNIX posting program - below "Pnews"
    and "rn"), it will fill in for itself with defaults (as configured by your
    system administrator).  The trick is just to know what to tell "inews"!
	There are a couple levels of anonymous posting, and depending upon the
    level, you may not need to go to as much effort to remain anonymous.  First
    of all, whenever you use "inews", you will need to set the "Distribution:",
    "Newsgroups:", and "Subject:" fields (it's often a good idea to set the
    "Followup-to:" field as well).  If you don't care if people know what site 
    the posting came from, then posting (semi-)anonymously is especially easy:
    all you have to do is to set the "From:", "Sender:", and "Path:" fields.  
    If, on the other hand, you don't want people to even know that the posting 
    came from your site (maximum anonymity), you will additionally need to set 
    "Organization:", "Message-ID:" (make sure this one is unique for each 
    article!), and "Nntp-Posting-Host:".  There are also a few other fields you 
    might want to have fun with, but don't have anything to do with anonymity.  
    These fields are: "Keywords:" and "Approved:".  And lastly, don't let your 
    .signature file blow your cover!
	So, now that you have all the necessary fields specified (and have the
    contents of the article filled in - and don't forget to leave a blank line
    between the last field specification and the first line of the article!), 
    all you have to do is to execute:

	inews -h < postingText

    (where "postingText" is the name of the file containing the posting).  For
    example, if I want to post with maximum anonymity, I start by creating the 
    following file (anon.post):

=== begin file anon.post ===
Subject: A confidential post (shhh!!)
Newsgroups: alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.d
Distribution: world
From: guess@whoKnows.com
Sender: guess@whoKnows.com
Path: somewhere!unknown!whoKnows.com!guess
Organization: Posters Anonymous Association (PAA)
Message-ID: <1991Dec2509:00:00>
Nntp-Posting-Host: idunno.whoKnows.com
Approved: BECAUSE I SAID SO!
Keywords: anonymous secret on_the_q.t.

	Hi!  I'm interested in seeing pictures of fully nude hamsters or
    gerbils (preferrably with BIG whiskers!).  Please post them!

=== end file anon.post ===

	Then, after modifying my .signature file, I just type in:

inews -h < anon.post

    ...and in just a short time, my anonymous article has been posted!
	That's really all there is to it.  To make my life easier, I've written
    a script to automatically set "Message-ID:" and to move a .signature link
    from "anonymous mode" to "normal mode".  It also always sets the other 
    fields that are necessary (and uuencodes, splits, etc.), so it's easier not
    to forget to set something.  This is the method I recommend, but this level
    of complexity (simplicity?) is obviously not required...
	Now that you know how to post anonymously, you should also know the
    disadvantage - it becomes impossible for anyone to contact you via e-mail 
    should a posting be screwed up or whatever.  It requires somewhat more 
    responsibility, since you'll have to monitor the newsgroup you posted to
    (and the one you directed follow-ups to) in order to make sure that your
    posting went OK.  It DOES protect you from flames, but you still should
    not put yourself into a "flammable" position.  Keep your ethics even when
    posting anonymously (if you don't have any, please get some before you
    even start)!
	Good luck, and post with responsibility!
--
	"Aw Bullwinkle, that trick never works!!" --- me
Rocket J. Squirrel			|    Go! Go! Wossamatta U.!
No buck tooth or tail jokes, please...	|  Rocky@WossamattaU.EDU