Article 369 of comp.sys.amiga.reviews: Path: news.csos.orst.edu!flop.ENGR.ORST.EDU!ogicse!netnews.nwnet.net!news.clark.edu!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!menudo.uh.edu!usenet From: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews Subject: MONTHLY POSTING: Introduction to comp.sys.amiga.reviews Summary: How to write, submit, and request reviews Keywords: monthly posting Message-ID: <28q70f$a04@menudo.uh.edu> Date: 4 Oct 93 22:10:23 GMT Article-I.D.: menudo.28q70f$a04 Expires: Mon, 1 Nov 1993 05:00:00 GMT Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Reply-To: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.misc Distribution: world Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett Lines: 381 Approved: barrett@math.uh.edu NNTP-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu AN INTRODUCTION TO COMP.SYS.AMIGA.REVIEWS This document was last updated on: July 30, 1993 Welcome to comp.sys.amiga.reviews! This is a moderated newsgroup for reviews of products related to the Commodore Amiga computer. All reviews are written by YOU, the wonderful readers of USENET, and I invite you to send me your opinions of any Amiga hardware, software, books, or whatever else you believe is interesting and relevant to the Amiga. This document describes: I. How to write your review. II. How to submit your review. III. Special help for non-native English speakers. IV. How to get copies of previous reviews. V. Finding new reviews quickly ("mirrors" please note!). VI. Policy on vendor responses to reviews. VII. Disclaimer and legal stuff. I. HOW TO WRITE A REVIEW FOR COMP.SYS.AMIGA.REVIEWS You do not have to be a "great writer" in order to write a review. All you need is enthusiasm and some experience with the product you are reviewing. If English is not your best language, you can arrange to get special help with English grammar and style (see Part III). Everybody loves a good review; and by writing one, you are doing a great service for all your friends in the Amiga community! In addition, when your review is posted in c.s.a.reviews, its usefulness doesn't end there. Your review is archived (saved) on a publically accessible computer, so anybody on USENET can retrieve it and refer to it in the future. There are three kinds of reviews that you might write. They are the MINI-REVIEW, the FULL REVIEW, and the SURVEY. (1) The mini-review Did you just get a program that, on first impression, looks really good? Or really terrible? A mini-review is for exactly this: first impressions. Write down 2-4 organized paragraphs (or more, if you like) about the product, describing it briefly, and stating what you like and don't like about it. Later, when you know the product better, please consider writing a full review. After all, your impressions might change after you have used the product for more time. (2) The full review Just like in the magazines, only better... because YOU wrote it! You should feel familiar with the product before writing a full review. It can be in any format you like, and any length, as long as it is organized and readable. If you are having trouble organizing your thoughts, I encourage you to use the "comp.sys.amiga.reviews Full Review Template", which appears in a separate article posted every month. This is a "fill in the blanks" form with instructions and hints on how to organize your review. (You may request a copy from amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu any time.) Even if you don't use the Template, I encourage you to look at it because it might give you ideas about what to write. Most importantly, remember that your review is going to be read by thousands of people. Some of them will base their buying decisions on your review. So, be as careful and accurate as you can, and try to make your review interesting to read. (3) The survey Once in a while, a reader will ask USENET for opinions about an Amiga product. Sometimes, the reader even collects all the responses and posts a summary. This is a great idea... but a few months later, the summary is gone and forgotten. This does not have to happen! After you collect the responses and organize them, send the results to comp.sys.amiga.reviews, so they can be archived and made available to future readers. I have only a few guidelines for the survey article. First, make sure you inform everybody (in your original posting) that you will be making their responses public. Second, when you write your survey, don't just append everybody's responses and send it out. Try to summarize and organize the information in useful ways, perhaps using tables, or grouping similar pieces of information. Then, at the end of the survey, you can append everybody's responses if you like. If you would like to see an example of a finished survey, send a request to the "amiga-reviews-requests" address listed in section II. No matter what kind of review you write, always include the following information at the top of the review: o The name of the product. o The name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address (if applicable) of the author or manufacturer. If the telephone number is an "800" number (toll-free in the USA), please call it and ask for a non-800 number for our international friends. o The list price. Be sure to say what currency units (US dollars, francs, etc.) you mean, since USENET is international. o A short description (1 or 2 sentences) of the product. o Whether the product is copy-protected and/or installs on a hard drive. o Whether or not the product works with accelerated CPU's (68030, etc.) and the latest version of the Amiga operating system, if you know. In addition, please: o Proofread your review. Run it through a spelling checker and re-read the whole thing before submitting it. o Keep all your lines of text shorter than 80 characters. o Remember to use proper capitalization. For example, "RAM" and "ROM" are in all capitals because they are abbreviations; use "MB" for megabytes, not "Mb" nor "mb" which mean megaBITS (same for K=Kilobytes, k=kilobits); o Try to avoid abbreviations and slang that are unique to your country. Remember that people all over the world will read your review. o Make program names noticeable. For example, the sentences I did a list on devs. Double-click on edit to invoke se. are more clear if you write: I did a List on DEVS:. Double-click on "edit" to invoke "se". o Use tabs, not spaces, for consistent indenting. o Put 1 blank line between paragraphs. o Put two spaces, not just one, at the end of each sentence. A complete set of helpful writer's guidelines is available in the "Writer's Checklist" article posted every month. It is also available on our ftp site in the 0admin subdirectory. II. HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR REVIEW TO COMP.SYS.AMIGA.REVIEWS comp.sys.amiga.reviews is a "moderated" newsgroup. This means that you cannot post anything in the newsgroup directly. Instead, you send it to the moderator (me) who can accept or reject the review. When the review is accepted, the moderator posts it. Mail your completed review to: amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu In addition, if you want to discuss something with me about a review, send mail to: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu Do not worry whether your review will be accepted or not. As long as your review is accurate and clear, it will almost definitely be accepted. My job is really to help make the reviews look "standard" (in the Subject: line, for example) and readable, keep non-review material out of the newsgroup, and avoid biased commercial announcements. III. SPECIAL HELP FOR NON-NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKERS If English is not your first language, don't be afraid to write a review. Try it anyway. And when you submit your review, include an extra note to me at the top of the letter, asking for help. I will read your review, make suggestions and corrections, and send it back for you to check. IV. HOW TO GET COPIES OF PREVIOUS REVIEWS An index of all previous reviews is posted on the first day of every month in comp.sys.amiga.reviews. If you have ftp access, you can download reviews from the following machines: Location: USA (the "real" archives) Machine: math.uh.edu IP address: 129.7.128.1 Directory: pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews Location: Europe (a "mirror" site) Machine: nic.funet.fi IP address: 128.214.6.100 Directory: pub/amiga/misc/reviews Use the login name anonymous and use your own e-mail address as the password. The reviews are in the directory given above. Administrative information, such as this "Introduction" article, are in the subdirectory "0admin". As an example, to get a review from math.uh.edu after you are logged in, type at the "ftp>" prompt: ftp> cd pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews ftp> ls -C (a list of review files is shown) (pick the one you want and use the "get" command) ftp> get Name_Of_Review ftp> get Another_Review ftp> cd 0admin ftp> get Introduction ftp> cd .. ftp> get Yet_Another_Review ... ftp> quit If you need help using ftp, please ask a user consultant or systems administrator at your site. If you do not have ftp access, send mail to amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu ask for a copy of the review, and I will mail it to you. BE SURE TO INCLUDE YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS. For faster service (probably) by e-mail, you can use the mailserver at lists.funet.fi to request reviews by mail. Send the word "help" (no quotes) on a line by itself to mailserver@lists.funet.fi If you would like to see a review of a particular product that is not in the index, send a request to amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu. When any product receives 3 or more requests (from different people), I post a note in c.s.a.reviews asking for a volunteer to write one. There is no guarantee that anybody will do it, but at least I will provide the service. V. FINDING NEW REVIEWS QUICKLY ("MIRRORS" PLEASE NOTE!) The main ftp site, math.uh.edu, has files that contains the names of all reviews modified in the last 1, 7, and 30 days. They are called pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews/0admin/NewSince1Days pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews/0admin/NewSince7Days pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews/0admin/NewSince30Days and are updated automatically every day. If you set up a "mirror" site, it will save you lots of time if you transfer ONLY the reviews listed in these files. VI. POLICY ON VENDOR RESPONSES TO REVIEWS Sometimes, the author or company ("vendor") who created a product will submit comments about someone's review of their product. Here is my policy of what to do with these comments: (1) Factual corrections These include corrections in address, telephone number, list price, reports of bug fixes completed or in progress, and other matters that the vendor would know best. I post these corrections in c.s.a.reviews and insert them directly into the archived copy of the review. (2) Statements about the product's operation The review author says the product does something, but the vendor disagrees. Essentially, these are statements of fact that I, as moderator, cannot verify. If these statements are well-organized and non-commercial in nature, I post them in c.s.a.reviews. Then, if the reviewer has no objection, I may insert them into the archived copy of the review. They are CLEARLY MARKED that they were not part of the original review and came from the vendor. (3) Differences of opinion, and commercial information These include disagreements with the review author's opinions, advertisements, product "hype", announcements of products and services that are not yet on the market, and anything else that concerns opinions rather than facts. Essentially, I do nothing with these. The reviews newsgroup is not for discussion of products. The vendor is welcome to post opinions about the review in any other Amiga newsgroup. (Every review has an appropriate newsgroup listed in its "Followup-To:" line.) Under no circumstances will I act as an arbitrator between the reviewer and the vendor. VII. DISCLAIMER AND LEGAL STUFF In the following conditions, the "reviewer" is the person who wrote a particular review. The "moderator" is the moderator of the newsgroup comp.sys.amiga.reviews. (1) All opinions stated in a review are those of the reviewer, and not necessarily those of the comp.sys.amiga.review moderator, nor the organization whose computers are used to post the review. Neither the moderator, nor the organization whose computers are used to post the review, will be held liable for the accuracy or content of the review material, nor for any errors of omission the moderator may make when editing or posting the review. (2) All reviews remain the property of the reviewer. By submitting a review, the reviewer agrees that his/her review may be posted on USENET and included in: 1. Newsletters and other printed matter available freely with a copying and distribution fee of not more than $2.00 an issue; and, 2. Newsletters on magnetic media and other forms of magnetic distribution such as the USENET summary disks available freely with a copying and distribution fee of not more than $6.00. 3. Electronic network distributions, either by the standard USENET distribution or on a commercial information system (e.g., the Portal System) charging no more than $6.00 per hour of non-prime time 2400 baud connection not including local access charges (e.g., Telenet or Tymnet access charges). All currency units above are in US dollars. These monetary amounts may be changed slightly in the future by the moderator to reflect inflation and fluctuations in the price of paper, disk media, and connection charges. The above notwithstanding, articles appearing in the newsgroup comp.sys.amiga.reviews may NOT be included in any distribution over which a compilation copyright is enforced. Articles to be included cannot be edited nor modified in any way except to remove the standard news headers and the MODERATOR's network signature. The original AUTHOR's signature must not be removed. The original author is to be credited with authorship. Excerpts may be used according to the Fair Use Laws of the United States. If anyone wishes to use a review in any way that would violate the above conditions, he/she should contact the original author of the article. The moderator of comp.sys.amiga.reviews will not act as arbitrator in this situation. If you disagree with any of these conditions, you are welcome to discuss them by sending mail to amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu. If you are not willing to abide by these conditions, then do not submit a review. --- Dan Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews Send reviews to: amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu Request information: amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu Moderator mail: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu Anonymous ftp site: math.uh.edu, in /pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews Article 373 of comp.sys.amiga.reviews: Path: news.csos.orst.edu!flop.ENGR.ORST.EDU!ogicse!netnews.nwnet.net!news.clark.edu!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!math.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!pirates.cs.swt.edu!swrinde!menudo.uh.edu!usenet From: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews Subject: MONTHLY POSTING: Charter for comp.sys.amiga.reviews Summary: newsgroup charter Keywords: monthly posting Message-ID: <28q750$a43@menudo.uh.edu> Date: 4 Oct 93 22:12:48 GMT Article-I.D.: menudo.28q750$a43 Expires: Mon, 1 Nov 1993 05:00:00 GMT Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Reply-To: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.misc Distribution: world Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett Lines: 60 Approved: barrett@math.uh.edu NNTP-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu This is the charter for the USENET newsgroup comp.sys.amiga.reviews. This document was last revised: July 30, 1993 Name: comp.sys.amiga.reviews Moderated: Yes, by Daniel J. Barrett . Archived: Yes. Anonymous FTP from math.uh.edu (129.7.128.1) in /pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews Other sites may also "mirror" the math.uh.edu ftp site. See the monthly "Introduction" article for details. For people without FTP, requests can be emailed to amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu An index is posted monthly. Purpose: This is the "review column" of the Amiga computer newsgroups, featuring readers' reviews of hardware, software and other products for the Commodore Amiga family of computers. General comments: This is the group to read to find orderly, organized reviews of hardware, software, magazines, and other products related to the Commodore Amiga computer. Reviewed products may be commercial, shareware, public domain, or whatever. The number of articles will vary depending on the rate of submissions, but the moderator will insure that all postings are clear and readable. Conventions for ratings, and the Subject: and Keywords: lines, will be enforced in order to make information easy to locate and digest. This is not a forum for advertising, commercial or otherwise, nor is it a USENET echo for magazine columns. Review submissions must be original works by actual users of the subject program. Please get to know the program a bit before writing a review. And please, oh please, don't review a program that you or your company wrote. No discussion of reviews is permitted in this group. Please respect the Followup-To: line, which will be set appropriately by the moderator. Any discussion should be posted to the appropriate newsgroup as set by the Followup-To: line. Rejected review postings will be returned with a short explanation of the problems and suggestions for their correction. The moderator reserves the right to alter the article to correct errors in spelling and grammar, or to change formatting and indentation, but no corrections will be made that alter the meaning of the original text without the consent of the submitter. --- Dan Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews Send reviews to: amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu Request information: amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu Moderator mail: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu Anonymous ftp site: math.uh.edu, in /pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews