NAME:	   news.answers

MODERATOR: Jonathan Kamens (jik@athena.mit.edu)

PURPOSE:   The news.answers newsgroup will serve as a repository in
	   which periodic informational postings (a.k.a "Frequently
	   Asked Questions" postings, or "FAQs") from other newsgroups
	   will be posted.

	   Although it's difficult to say exactly what qualifies as an
	   FAQ that belongs in news.answers, the basic description is,
	   "any posting which answers common questions and is meant to
	   be read by humans belongs."  Furthermore, FAQs cross-posted
	   in news.answers should have meaningful subject lines.  For
	   example, an FAQ for rec.chess should have a subject line
	   saying something like "Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
	   about chess," rather than just "Frequently Asked Questions
	   (FAQ)."

	   For example, the comp.unix.questions "Frequently Asked
	   Questions about Unix - with Answers [Monthly posting]" and
	   the news.announce.newusers "Emily Postnews Answers Your
	   Questions on Netiquette" would belong, as would the README
	   file from comp.mail.maps.  However, the comp.mail.maps map
	   postings and the readership statistics from news.lists
	   would not.

	   Where there is an ambiguity, the moderator will decide
	   whether or not a posting belongs in the newsgroup.

	   There are several reasons for this newsgroup to exist.
	   They include:

	   * It will be easier for site administrators to keep FAQs
	     around for a long time if they are all cross-posted to
	     one newsgroup.... Administrators can make the maximum
	     expire time for news.answers very long, instead of making
	     every newsgroup with FAQs in it have a long maximum
	     expire time.

	   * It will be easier for sites that archive FAQs to generate
	     their archives, since they will need to watch just one
	     newsgroup rather than scanning the entire news spool.

	   * It will provide an "quick reference" for users, in
	     several different respects.  Users who want to browse
	     through the various FAQs that the USENET has to offer
	     will be able to do so in just one newsgroup.  Users who
	     want to find an FAQ from a particular newsgroup but don't
	     know its subject can search for that newsgroup in the
	     headers of the articles in news.answers.

	   * Software for retrieving FAQs can also be simplified to
	     use news.answers as the basis for FAQ searches.

MECHANISM: The FAQ maintainers who want their FAQs to appear in
	   news.answers will mail the moderator a copy of the FAQ.
	   The moderator will then respond either (in most cases)
	   agreeing that the FAQ belongs in news.answers, possibly
	   with minor modifications (e.g. a more detailed subject
	   line), or (in a few cases) rejecting it as inappropriate
	   for news.answers.

	   FAQs that are approved will be assigned a unique (to
	   news.answers) archive name, which the FAQ maintainer should
	   put in an "Archive-Name:" line at the top of the FAQ.  For
	   example, the comp.unix.questions FAQ might be given the
	   archive name "unix-faq", in which case "Archive-Name:
	   unix-faq" would be added to the top of the FAQ.  Multi-part
	   postings will be so labeled in the "Archive-Name:" line,
	   for example, "Archive-Name: X-faq/part1".

	   Maintainers of approved FAQs will be reminded to make sure
	   to put appropriate Followup-To: (and possibly Reply-To:)
	   headers in their postings to prevent users from trying to
	   followup into a moderated newsgroup.

	   Once an FAQ has been approved or news.answers, its
	   maintainer can post it directly to the group himself, by
	   indicating in the header of the message that it was
	   approved by the news.answers moderator.  FAQ maintainers
	   who don't know how to do that can contact the news.answers
	   moderator to find out.

	   This should be emphasized: The moderator of news.answers
	   will not actually be posting copies of FAQs in the
	   newsgroup.  Instead, the moderator's job will be to approve
	   FAQs, which will then be cross-posted by their maintainers
	   to the newsgroup, and to watch the newsgroup to make sure
	   unapproved postings do not appear in it.  However, the
	   moderator should be willing to assist those FAQ maintainers
	   who would like the moderator to post their FAQs for them,
	   and/or who would like help in figuring out how to properly
	   go about posting a periodic FAQ.
