A quick-n-dirty conversion until a pretty/functional update can be prepared.
URL: http://www.tigerden.com/infopage/furry/furrynet.html
Last-Modified: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 11:02:56 -0700
INTRODUCTION TO THE FURRYNET (fur.*) NEWSGROUPS
This is a periodic posting with the details on "Furrynet", a net-news
hierarchy of specific interest to Furry Fandom. For an
introduction/explanation of "Furry", please browse the FAQs at
http://www.tigerden.com/infopage/furry/
A hypertext version of this document is now available from
http://www.tigerden.com/infopage/furry/furrynet.html
- Contents -
SECTION 1: Everything you wanted to know about Furrynet but where too much
of a nervous prey species to ask.
1.1 What is Furrynet?
1.2 Furrynet's posting guidelines
1.3 How do I join Furrynet?
1.4 How do I read Furrynet newsgroups?
1.5 How do I post to it?
1.5.1 How do I post a binary file?
SECTION 2: About the fur.* newsgroups
2.1 An overview of the Furrynet newsgroups
2.2 What else do I need to know about these newsgroups?
2.3 Where can I get the canonical list of newsgroups?
2.4 How can I create a fur.* newsgroup?
SECTION 3: Supporting Services
3.1 Furrynet NNTP servers
3.1.1 Notes for posting to news.critter.net
3.1.2 Notes for posting to news.chameleon.net and news.lightbearer.com
3.1.3 Notes for posting to news.fur.com
3.1.4 Notes for posting to furry.ao.net
3.1.5 Reporting problems or getting assistance for public servers
3.2 Configuring NNTP-able newsreaders
3.2.1 Configuring web browsers as newsreaders
3.2.2 Configuring NN or TIN
3.2.3 Configuring SLRN
3.2.4 Configuring PINE
3.3 Other Furrynet services and archives
SECTION 4: Credits and Thank Yous
==============================================================================
SECTION 1: Everything you wanted to know about Furrynet ...
1.1 What is Furrynet?
The fur.* (furrynet) hierarchy is a set of newsgroups intended to provide
Furry Fandom with message areas that have established policies to
severely reduce the amount of inappropriate traffic that has become an
endemic problem on the larger Usenet.
All going well, it's hoped that the new hierarchy will be able to keep
the attention of all the diverse interests in Furry Fandom.
(NB: Net-news' "Furrynet" shouldn't be confused with the Fido-net "FurNet"
forums.)
1.2 Furrynet's posting guidelines
If you are new to net-news, it is strongly recommended before posting to
any newsgroup that you learn the basics in using it effectively. There's
a good collection of informational documents you can retrieve from
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/usenet/ (Or if
you prefer, ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.announce.newusers/)
What makes Furrynet special from most other newsgroup hierarchies is the
"fur-monitor" ("FurBot"), a computer moderator, that will automatically
and impartially cancel any message that fits the profile of unacceptable
traffic, such as, but not limited to, spamming and trolling.
1. Messages should have their distribution set to "fur".
(That is, include the article header line "Distribution: fur")
Note that fur _must_ be all lowercase.
2. For those using newsreaders that do not possess the ability to
insert distribution headers, the word "fur" can be put in the
Subject line instead.
Omitting either of these 'tags' will generate an "Improperly tagged"
response from the fur-monitor.
3. Furrynet messages _cannot_ be cross-posted outside of the fur.*
hierarchy.
4. The _only_ exception to part 3. above is that cross-posting _is_
permitted between fur.* and other furry-related newsgroups in
Usenet proper. These groups mainly are alt.fan.furry (and related
subgroups) and alt.lifestyle.furry.
5. Messages posted to Furrynet _cannot_ be cross-posted to more than
3 groups.
6. The fur-monitor also checks the number of groups set in the
Followup-To header also. Again, this should be no more than 3.
7. The newsgroup fur.announce is for announcements only. Any post to
this newsgroup _should_ have the Followup-To header set
appropriately. If in doubt, use fur.misc as a default group to
set in this header. fur.announce is _not_ intended to be a
discussion newsgroup.
There are several amendments to the guidelines, pending their acceptance
by the Furrynet Cabal and training of the fur-monitor:
a. Regard reposts of the same message ("multi-posts") as having the
same limitations as cross-posts. (See Guideline 3.)
b. Disallow cross-posting between the erotica and non-erotica
newsgroups (artwork and stories)
c. Additional guidelines to ensure the purpose of fur.announce --
either through moderation, and/or disallowing any reposts or
cross-posts of a message to the other fur.* newsgroups. The
guidelines for fur.announce are listed in part 7. above.
Anything the fur-monitor doesn't notice may still be canceled manually if
it's abusive in other ways, such as velveeta ("slow spam"), illegal
("MAKE MONEY FAST" fraud, copyright violations), a binary posting to a
discussion- only newsgroup, or for grossly inappropriate discussion (like
erotica in the wrong place).
If you notice a posting that violates the guidelines but your site has
yet to receive the fur-monitor's cancel message, please don't compound
the problem by writing a follow-up pointing it out. The physics of
net-news being what it is, it may take a little while for fur-monitor
messages to arrive. If the problem persists, your site would seem to
have a problem receiving control messages and this needs to be looked at
by your net-news administrator. Non-evil Newsadmins are welcome to run
their own copy of the fur-monitor. Sites not on the Furrynet proper
(those receiving "leaked" articles) have no guarantee to a spam-free
feed.
Furrynet is _not_ part of Usenet and not subject to its guidelines. Sites
that are unwilling to respect its rules will be blocked from
participating.
1.3 How do I join Furrynet?
This section is for those people who run and administer newsservers and
are interested in setting up a peering arrangement to exchange articles
on Furrynet. For many people, this section will not apply.
The preferred method is for the net-news administrator at your site to
send mail to fur-config@news.furry.net. The current moderator at that
address will then forward the request to the newsgroup fur.config for
debate/approval. The nearest Furrynet newsadmin to your area should then
help arrange a feed.
It is expected all member systems in Furrynet have a good anti-spam/abuse
policy. Not only would this help keep the fur.* newsgroups usable, but
it is one more way customers can be made aware of the consequences in
dealing with an abuse-tolerant provider, and hopefully encourage the
provider itself to be more responsible.
Several problems have arisen from fur.* articles making it outside into
the regular net-news newsfeeds, so any newsservers carrying Furrynet
should take precautions to plug any leaks.
1.4 How do I read Furrynet newsgroups?
If your net-news administrator can arrange for a Furrynet 'feed, just
continue using your favorite news-reading program.
Unfortunately, in many cases, the preferred method above is not an option
for users for a lot of reasons. The next best thing then is to configure
your newsreader (that is, if you're using a `modern' one: Netscape, GNUS,
what others?) to browse one of Furrynet's public NNTP sites; see section
3.1 of this FAQ for a list of systems you can use.
1.5 How do I post to it?
Again, if you're on a Furrynet site, it's business as usual, BUT PLEASE
MAKE CERTAIN YOU'RE SPEC TO THE ABOVE POSTING GUIDELINES (Section 1.2 of
this FAQ). A good newsreader will allow you to set the "Distribution:
fur" header line, or if you're stuck with a crappy one, stick the word
"fur" somewhere in the subject line.
Any discussion of the fur-monitor service should be confined to
fur.config.
Test messages should be posted ONLY to fur.test.
1.5.1 How do I post a binary file?
If the particular newsgroup permits it... (See section 2.2)
MIME encapsulation using BASE64 encoding is the preferred method for
beaming binary files around Furrynet. If your software cannot yet handle
MIME, a good collection of encode/decode utilities for most popular (and
otherwise) systems is available from ftp://ftp.andrew.cmu.edu/pub/mpack/.
Using MIME with BINHEX encoding (the Mac format for forked files) is not
recommended because a lot of software doesn't support it.
"uuencoding" of binary files is the lowest common denominator and will
certainly be accepted. It's not known if any Furrynet sites are using
ancient net-news software that puts limitations on message size, and
multiple-part postings are terribly unreliable, so post it as one part--
knock yourself out.
The practice of "megaposting", where someone collects a bunch of files
into a single ZIP file and then does a multiple-part posting, is
considered a Bad Thing: (i) Images are already compressed and you won't
be saving any real space, (ii) these megaposts usually end up missing
parts, making the entire thing useless, and (iii) it is rather antisocial
to push the limits of people's disks and phone lines. They _will_ be
canceled by hand.
==============================================================================
SECTION 2: About the fur.* newsgroups
2.1 An overview of the Furrynet newsgroups
The several important `top level' newsgroups that all of Furrynet depends
on:
fur.announce ......... Something worth howling to the world
fur.answers .......... Frequently asked questions and answers
fur.config ........... Discussions about Furrynet
fur.control .......... For Furrynet monitor control messages only
fur.test ............. For testing posts and Furrynet propagation
The following parallel existing Usenet newsgroups:
fur.artwork.misc ..... Furry art with inoffensive content
fur.artwork.erotica .. Furry art with an erotic/sexual content
fur.artwork.adult .... Furry art with adult themes/situations
fur.lifestyle ........ Being furry in your own life
fur.mucks ............ For discussing all of the furry multi-user
role-playing environments
fur.misc ............. Random furry discussion not fitting elsewhere
fur.toons ............ Animation and cartoon discussions
....and now some others, just for fun:
fur.artwork.artists .. Art techniques, materials, and media
fur.artwork.discuss .. Criticism, praise, raving fanboys
fur.comics ........... Publications from 'Albedo' to the 'Zoo Crew'
fur.conventions ...... Discussing/Announcing Furfen gatherings
fur.stories.discuss .. Criticism, praise, raving fanfic-fans
fur.stories.erotica .. Furry stories with adult content
fur.stories.misc ..... Furry fictions you could show to your mother
fur.stories.storyboard Online collaborations
fur.stories.writers .. About writing
Note that the _only_ binary newsgroups on Furrynet are:
fur.artwork.misc
fur.artwork.erotica
fur.artwork.adult
Binary postings to any other newsgroups _will_ be canceled by hand.
2.2 What else do I need to know about the newsgroups?
fur.announce is intended only for messages of relative importance, and
directing followups to another newsgroup (with the "Followup-To:" header
line or doing so manually) is encouraged.
Currently the only newsgroups where files approaching infinite size may
be posted to are fur.artwork.misc and fur.artwork.erotica. (Please note
that fur.artwork.artists is not on that list!) Binary postings (this
includes "attachments") to the discussion newsgroups will be canceled.
Go easy with excessive `flooding' of the fur.artwork.* newsgroups while
there are still just a few public NNTP servers-- it will make a lot of
difference to the load on these systems and their availability to other
Furrynet users.
Requests to identify the artist of an image by posting it turns out to be
a bad thing a lot of the time; you'll never hear the end of it when the
artist shows up and cries copyright violation. "If you don't know, don't
post." is the wisdom. The best compromise seems to be posting just the
signature.
2.3 Where can I get the canonical list of Furrynet newsgroups?
A "checkgroups" message is now posted regularly with this FAQ to
fur.answers. If you really can't wait for the fortnightly posting, it is
available from
http://www.tigerden.com/infopage/furry/furrynet.checkgroups
2.4 How can I create a fur.* newsgroup?
No formal policies exist yet, but the accepted modus operandi is much the
same as in other net-news hierarchies where the interested should bring
the matter to fur.config and present a good case to the lurking Furrynet
Cabal.
For the moment, the final authority to write the "newgroup" message
belongs to Peter, Francisco, or Brian -- Furrynet's original proponents.
==============================================================================
SECTION 3: Supporting Services
3.1 Furrynet NNTP servers
Known Public Furrynet NNTP servers as of 16-Oct-2001:
System IP Address Port Comments
-------------------- --------------- ---- --------------
news.critter.net 66.80.12.166 119 see note 3.1.1
news.chameleon.net 204.152.186.145 119 see note 3.1.2
news.fur.com 66.80.7.254 119 see note 3.1.3
news.lightbearer.com 216.150.202.134 119 see note 3.1.2
furry.ao.net 65.82.108.146 119 see note 3.1.4
-------------------- --------------- ---- --------------
3.1.1 Notes for posting to news.critter.net
All users from AOL.com must authenticate to the server for posting. The
authentication details are:
User : fur
Password : net
3.1.2 Notes for posting to news.chameleon.net & news.lightbearer.com
_All_ users must authenticate to the server for posting. The
authentication details are:
User : fur
Password : net
3.1.3 Notes for posting to news.fur.com
_All_ users must authenticate to the server for posting. The
authentication details are:
User : furry
Password : furry
3.1.4 Notes for posting to furry.ao.net
_All_ users must authenticate to the server for posting _and_ reading.
The authentication details are:
User : furry
Password : furry
3.1.5 Reporting problems or getting assistance for public servers
In general, should you require assistance or need to report a problem
with one of the newsservers, your first point of contact should be
newsmaster@. For example, the contact address for
news.critter.net would be newsmaster@critter.net.
3.2 Configuring NNTP-able newsreaders
3.2.1 Configuring news-savvy web browsers (eg, Netscape)
The following URLs will direct a capable Web browser to the servers:
news://news.critter.net/
news://news.fur.com/
news://news.chameleon.net/
news://news.lightbearer.com/
news://furry.ao.net/
Alternatively choose "Open News Host" (or the equivalent for your
software) and enter the name of the server there. (Don't forget the name
of your regular server for when you want to return to Usenet.)
For Netscape users who need their hands held:
- Click on "options", go to "News Preferences", change the default news
server to "news.critter.net", open the newsreader, click
"news.critter.net", click "options", click "show all newsgroups", and
then click "fur*". Everything should now be loaded up.
3.2.2 Configuring NN and TIN
If you're using a version of tin compiled with the NNTP options from a
UNIX shell account, try one of these:
$ NNTPSERVER=news.critter.net \
tin -r -f .furryrc I .furrynet/.index (ksh or bash)
% setenv NNTPSERVER news.critter.net; \
tin -r -f .furryrc I .furrynet/.index (csh/tcsh)
Similarly for nn:
$ NNTPSERVER=news.chameleon.net nn newsrc=~/.furryrc (ksh/bash)
% setenv NNTPSERVER news.chameleon.net nn newsrc=~/.furryrc (csh/tcsh)
If that works, you can make it into an alias in your .profile or .cshrc
3.2.3 Configuring SLRN
SLRN needs to have the following line added into ~/.slrnrc first
server "" ""
So, for example, to add news.critter.net, the line to add would be:
server "news.critter.net" ".jnewsrc-critter"
3.2.4 Configuring PINE
Pine users will find joy by entering S(etup) and C(onfig), then editing
the line "news collections" to read:
*{news.critter.net/NNTP}[]
You should Exit and restart, then use option L and go down to the news
folders, then option A to subscribe to the newsgroups you want.
3.3 Other Furrynet services and archives
ftp://ftp.critter.net/pub/furry/images/usenet/
Contains the last ten days worth of postings to the Furrynet and furry
Usenet image newsgroups-- very useful for people who missed an
interesting file or have any difficulty decoding the images posted to
fur.artwork.misc, fur.artwork.erotica, and fur.artwork.adult.
==============================================================================
SECTION 4: Credits and Thank Yous
Contributions to this document have been received from Peter da Silva,
TigerWolf, Ixbalam, Joe Ekaitis, Bill Marcum, Gary Breuckman,
, Francisco Azinsan, and PeterCat. The rest was written
and prepared by Chris Baird .
This document can be freely distributed for non-commercial use, but
contact Francisco if you would like to try
something else. All additions, corrections, and comments should be beamed
in his direction too.
--
Automatic posting done by -- notice of posting
problems (headers, etc.) should be sent there.
The Furry IntroPage! http://www.tigerden.com/infopage/furry/intro.html
Just The FAQs: http://www.tigerden.com/infopage/furry/faqs.html
This FAQ: http://www.tigerden.com/infopage/furry/furrynet.html