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This is the Frequently Asked Questions for the USENET group alt.good.morning, aka AGM.
It is maintained by Alexis Rosoff < alexis@li.net>
and is posted biweekly to AGM and monthly to news.answers and alt.answers.
It is available via anonymous FTP from rtfm.mit.edu and its mirrors.
Last revision: 10 January 1998
Contents:
- Basics
- What is AGM?
- Rules :)
- Posting
- Newbies
- Subject headings
- Topics
- USPs
- Bricks and Shapes
- Follow-ups
- No replies
- Beyond USENET
- Talkers
- T-shirts
- Snail-mail list
- IRL meetings
- AGM Trivia
- Origins of nicknames
- Chris mL
- Phil Plasma
- Showa-koi
- Aouali
- Chris/NumberSix
- Chris43
- eM
- Number of AGMers
- AGM Library
- FATA
- AGM Challenge
- Noodles
- AGM Dictionary
- TLAs
- Slang
- Punctuation symbols
- History & Credits
- History of this FAQ
- FAQ Writers
- Editing and Commenting Credits
I. Basics
1. What is AGM?
- AGM, which stands for alt.good.morning, is a newsgroup (obviously).
Unlike many other USENET groups, however, we don't have a pre-defined topic.
Over time, AGM has come to represent a peculiarity on the net: a newsgroup
whose sole purpose is friendship and support, combined with a great deal
of silliness and a strong international presence. Furthermore, `AGM' is
not restricted to the particular forum of the news-net. We chat regularly
via E-mail and real-time chat facilities, snail-mail and telephone, and
increasingly frequent in-real-life meetings. AGM has resulted in friendships,
love, and even marriage, so you can see why we think it's special :)
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2. Our rules
- There aren't many and they're pretty easy to follow:
1) You must post in the morning (but it's always morning somewhere)
2) Post as often as you can (this can mean once a year or once an hour)
3) No flames, and don't flame flamers! It only perpetuates the problem.
4) No crossposting, with the exception of the FAQ (which only goes to *.answers).
II. Posting (its ins and outs!)
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1. Newbies
- Post once, and you're an AGM newbie (various people will send
you notes of welcome). Keep posting and you're an AGMer :-)
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2. Subject headings
- It's been said that nothing in the morning makes sense, so your
subject headers don't have to either! You'll probably see some
strange subject lines in AGM ....
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3. Topics
- Or, in other words, what the heck do we talk about? The answer
is, for the most part, `anything and everything'. Silly things,
good news, bad news, random tidbits ... many people develop a
sort of posting style that suits them. The only rule is that we
tend to avoid topics in posting that are likely to stir up controversy
or intense debate. Effectively, this means `no trolling'. In other
words, don't start spewing racism, for example. It's an extension
of the no-flame rule.
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4. USPs
- This stands for User Specific Posts, which are sometimes done
to avoid sending tonnes of little messages to AGM. Basically it
consists of a list of names, with a message for each one. If you
do USPs, put `USP's' in the Subject: line so people will know
to look :)
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5. Bricks
- A brick is a post (usually shortish) with each line exactly
the same length; Phil Plasma is the originator of this form, but
don't expect to understand most of his! Shapes are a variant of
the brick genre: they're posts designed to appear as a certain
shape. Note: you must be using a fixed-width font, such as Courier,
to view/compose bricks and shapes properly.
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6. Follow-ups
- Some time ago on AGM there was a debate about `excessive' follow
ups. That seems to have died now, but the general rule should
be this: if it's of general interest, post it. If it's more personal,
possibly controversial, or of interest only to the poster, use
E-mail reply instead.
The other points about follow-ups are more technical: first
of all, try and keep your line length reasonable; about 72 is
good for an original post. This allows room for several layers
of quoting (prefaced by something like > ) without resulting
in annoyingly wrapped text. Secondly, snip irrelevant portions
of the quote. Some people make a habit of including the full
text of the included article at the end for the benefit of those
who may not have seen the original, which is alright, but please
don't quote an entire post and just add a line at the end :-/
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7. I can't read or post!
- Occasionally people's news feeds or servers will go flaky...
here's some alternate ways of reading and posting:
Posting:
Via the DejaNews posting service http://www.dejanews.com
All the e-mail aliases for posting seem to have been died,
since they've become a favourite way for spammers to post their
junk all over the net.
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Reading:
via http (WWW):
http://www.ecnet.net/cgi-bin/gonnrp?-T+alt.good.morning
or DejaNews: http://www.dejanews.com
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Public newsservers:
Chris Johnson <6@agm.net> has a list of public newsservers
known to carry AGM.
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8. I'm not getting any replies
or follow-ups to my posts!
- If you don't get any to a given post, don't worry about it.
People don't always have the time to follow up; it's almost certainly
nothing against you personally. However if you never get ANY replies
or follow-ups in AGM, post a message with the word `Test' somewhere
in the subject and ask people to reply or follow-up if they see
it. If noone sees THIS post, it's likely that your newsserver
isn't sending your posts and you should try another posting method.
III. Beyond USENET
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1. What are talkers?How do I access them?
- Talkers are real time chat facilities, similar to IRC, but accesed
via Telnet. AGMers tend to gather at COLD (Castle Of Lost Dreams)
and at Prisoner. The pace is quick, the talk silly, and the atmosphere
similar to a group of people hanging around in somebody's living
room. Lots of AGMers pop into COLD or Pris a few times a day,
just to see if any friends are around.
Some technical information:
In order to access the talkers, you must have a real network
connection, either SLIP/ PPP or via a UNIX shell on your ISP
or university server. Some online services (that is, services
like America OnLine, rather than Internet Service Providers)
now provide telnet as well, I believe.
Firewalls, which are found at some corporate and university
sites,may interfere with your ability to telnet; it depends
on your local system configuration. Some firewalls are designed
primarily to limit incoming services; others for outgoing. If
you have a proxy set up in Netscape (under Network Preferences,
your proxies are set to manual or automatic), you may be firewalled.
Try switching the proxies to `none'. If the web still works,
then your proxy server may just be a cache server, which some
ISPs use to speed up access. If it doesn't, you're firewalled,
and you may or may not be able to reach outside sites. Contact
your systems administrator for details (but remember, if your
boss thinks you're playing games with your net connection, you
may not have a job for long).
Also, since it requires you to actually be online, you may
want to limit your talker use if you pay a timed rate for telephone
or Internet usage.
The addresses of the talkers we use are:
COLD: koksu.tcm.hut.fi 5678,
aliased to cold.agm.net 5678
Prisoner: linux2.cms.shu.ac.uk 5678,
aliased to prisoner.agm.net 5678.
Connecting: For COLD, your telnet MUST work in line mode. This
is true of UNIX and the default settings in NCSA Telnet for
the Macintosh. However many Windows telnets do not. There are
two possible solutions to this: One, download a copy of Winworlds,
which along with installation instructions, can be found at
http://www.li.net/~alexis/talkers/;
or two, use NetTerm, a shareware telnet client found at many
FTP sites. In order to make NetTerm work, you will have to force
line mode. After setting up a phonebook entry for COLD, and
having it open (the window title will read `morphine.tcm.hut.fi')
go to options -> settings -> desktop -> global, and
select `Use linemode for local input'. This will force NetTerm
to use line mode for COLD :) Neither client is better, but NetTerm
may be preferable if you're connecting from work, since a multipurpose
telnet client shouldn't raise any eyebrows, whereas a MUD client
might. There are also some other clients I've tried; MishTerm,
although still buggy, seems to work better than WinWorlds for
95 and NT and can be found at
http://www.tendril.force9.co.uk/mishterm.
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2. What are AGM T-shirts?
- Chris 43 Lansdowne has designed and produces shirts with the
AGM logo and motto on them. Contact him at
eh01@dial.pipex.com for details.
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3. What is the snail-mail list/AGM Address book?
- Laura Baker <bakers@frontiernet.net>
keeps a list of AGMers snail addresses. Any AGMer whose address
is on the list can obtain a copy. E-mail Laura for details.
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4. Where is AGM on the WWW?
- The AGM Web is growing by leaps and bounds :) Thanks to SDL
and Roderick there's now AGM.NET, which brings together lots of
the web stuff we've done and plan on doing. http://www.agm.net
to check it out.
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5. IRL meetings
- IRL stands for `in real life', and in a way it's a misnomer,
because the net certainly is real. However, in this context,
it means an in-person meeting of AGMers. IRL's usually include
lots of hugs, silliness, group photos, warm conversation and
little sleep. Small meets happen all over the world, whenever
a bunch of AGMers manage to get together.
They've grown ever larger and more frequent over the years,
and the past three summers we've had major world-wide gatherings
of AGMers. In 1995, about 40 of us spent a week near Prescott,
Arizona, and in 1996, almost 70 spent a week in St Briavels,
Gloucestershire (near the Welsh border). 1997 saw another
meeting at Camp Kinkora, near Montreal, Canada. The 1998 meet
has been set for Paignton, Devon, England, from 2-9 August.
Pete has a web page with details at
http://www.tcp.co.uk/~pete/agm98.
IV. AGM Trivia
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1. How did so-and-so get his/her nickname?
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- a. Chris mL
- mL has nothing to do with me, personally. It all started when I began
using CChris, short for Carleton Chris, which is the name Phil gave me
when I joined. Avra and Laura immediately decided that I was having trouble
spelling, so I shortened it to "CC" to avoid any further "flaming".
Anyway, as a joke, I signed myself as "mL" in one of Laura's
"flame" posts. (You may know that a cc, cubic centimetre, and
a mL, millilitre, are equivalent volumes...)
After that, I realised that mL was fairly distinct, and definitely easy
to use, so I started signing all my posts with just mL. A habit I haven't
completely discontinued yet. :)
With all the new faces, however, I figured it would be more polite to
revert to my name, so everyone would know who I am. Thus born "Chris
mL".
- b. Phil Plasma
- In high school, Phil was in a class with five other people who had
the same name as himself. So, in order to differentiate himself, he changed
his name to Fred Blood. However, once he graduated, Phil decided that because
the Fred Blood name was created in high school, it should also remain there.
Now being nameless again, his friends encouraged him to get a new name
thus came Phil Plasma. A natural evolution from the original.
- c. Showa-Koi
- Showa-koi is actually two words. Koi is the other name for Japanese
carp. Actually, the original koi were a black fish known as Mogoi. The
koi has been around for about 2500 years but breeding them and cross-breeding
has only been done around 200 years. Koi-keeping did not become a hobby
until the 20th century. Koi is associated with Japan, but the early koi
came from China.
A showa is one type of the koi family. There are several showas, by
the way. My favourite is the Taisho Sanke which is a white koi with red
and black markings.
You no doubt have seen koi at plant stores or in fancy ponds. They are
the fish that have barbels (whiskers like a catfish only shorter) that
are coloured such as solid yellow, showas, solid black, etc.
Sorry if this turned into a lecture, I get carried away explaining about
koi and showas. I raise koi as a hobby and for exhibits and judging. I
am the treasurer of the Tucson Koi Society; also the local representative
for the Associated Koi Clubs of America (I am on their delegate board);
also am the local coordinator of the Internet connection between American,
Canadian, and English Koi clubs.
Hope this explains a little. I love growing koi and especially showas,
hence the name showa-koi.
- d.Aouali
- Aouali is her real name, not a nickname... and since she's now married,
the question of her full name is now moot. However, I've included her name
so all can see the proper spelling :-) Alternate spellings for Aouali include
`Ms Silly', `the docteur', and her favourite, `Louisa'.
- e.NumberSix
- Here's a question I suppose many have privately asked but haven't....
"Why do I call myself NumberSix"
Well I can now exclusively reveal to AGM this name...
See if this is familiar to you.....
- Where am I
- In the village
- What do you want
- Information
- Whose side are you on
- That would be telling...we want information...information
- You won't get it
- By hook or by crook, we will
- Who are you?
- The new number 2
- Who is number 1 ?
- YOU are number 6
- I am not a number, I am a free man !
- (daft power crazed type laugh here)....we want information... information...
Yes? No? Couldn't care less? Well that is the conversation type thing
at the start of every episode of The Prisoner... (no...NOT Prisoner cell
block H - which comes under the heading of avoid like the plague).
The idea behind the prisoner is that Patrick McGoohan (who played Number
6) was in a high security job (MI5, MI6 maybe? we don't know) and for some
reason he resigned. He gets into his Caterham Super 7 (nice car :) shoots
home, starts packing his bags, and then suddenly turns to find gas coming
in through the keyhole. He passes out, and is kidnapped and taken to....The
Village (no not the talker ;) - it was actaully set in Portmieron, Noth
Wales, a village in an italinate design).
In the Village, he meets several people, the Rover security guard (in
reality a weather balloon), and several Number 2's...everyone is known
as a number.
He has two aims while in the village, to find out who Number 1 is, and
to escape from The Village, whilst Number 2 (they had a different one every
week) is trying to find out why he resigned.
Confused? No? Then watch it...then you will be very confused. It isn't
an average TV series - it tried a different approach, and succeeded (mind
you, there are lots of people, probably the vast majority, who thought
it was rubbish. You have to watch and make of it what you will....).
For more information:
http://itdsrv1.ul.ie/Entertainment/Prisoner/the-prisoner.html
http://www.scifi.com/prisoner/index.html
"Be seeing you!" Chris. "Number 6 - The Prisoner"
- f. Chris43
- I need to find this. :)
- g. eM
- When she started on talkers, all the usual variants of Margaret,
her real name, were taken. So she became `Emma'. This mutated into eM,
her usual signature for posts and e-mail.
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2. How many AGMers are there?
- No-one is sure. There are too many lurkers, people who pop in
and out, et cetera, for any accurate count to be made.
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3. What is the AGM Library?
- Originally, this was a book (Skallagrigg, not sure who the author is) that
Chris43 started circulating amongst AGMers. Emma later added a second volume
(Douglas Coupeland's Microserfs). Post on AGM asking about them, if you're interested.
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4. What is the FATA?
- `From AGMers to AGMers', written by Aouali.
If someone is happy, she/he is so excited to express to AGMers
If someone is sad, she/he tells about it to AGMers
If someone feels blue/pain, she/he returns to AGMers to seek
comfort
If someone is angry, she/he takes it out from her/his chest
in AGM
If someone needs a help, she/he asks it in AGM
If someone wants to confess, she/he finds AGM to do it
If someone feels left out, she/he asks why she/he has been left
out by AGMers
If someone is missed, AGMers ask about her/him
If someone is sick, AGMers worry about her/him
see, it is all from AGMers to AGMers.....
We are all in all such a big family in which each member does
care about the other A LOT..I haven't experienced this family
love in my own family, and I am happy (with tears in my eyes)
to feel it here in AGM....you are now all my family.....and
I for this will love you to eternity.....
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5. What was the AGM Challenge?
- The AGM Challenge was a post by NumberSix to see what we could
make alt.good.morning an acronym for; that is, to make a phrase
out of the letters in alt.good.morning, in that order.
Several people followed up, but Kari's (kari.hamnes@fou.telenor.no)
was so good we decided to put it in the FAQ. So here it is:
Always
loving,
this
group's
omnipresence
opens
dormant
minds.
Offers
renewal.
Nonpareil.
It
nourishes
goodness.
Klem fra Kari :)
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6. What is Calvinball?
- It's a sort of game... that seems to make no sense except possibly
to the people involved. It gets its name from the Calvin and Hobbes
comic strip.
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7. Noodles
- Prior to CAAGM, a bunch of AGMers were strolling through a mall.
They came upon a bunch of foam rubber sticks, aproximately 1.5
meters long, and 10 cm in diameter. These sticks, that came in
a variety of colours, were titled: `Noodles, the ultimate water
toy'. They were great floating devices, and starred in many water
fights at CAAGM.
V. AGM Dictionary
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1. TLA's
- TLA stands for three letter acronym, but not all of them are
three letters. Capitalisation varies depending on the person,
and different people may have different favourites.
| afk |
away from keyboard |
| asap |
as soon as possible |
| atm |
at the moment |
| bbfn |
bye bye for now |
| bbl |
be back later |
| brb |
be right back |
| btw |
by the way |
| IMO |
In my opinion |
| IMHO |
In my honest/humble opinion |
| irl |
in real life |
| LOL |
laughs out loud |
| nar |
no apparent reason |
| narw |
no apparent reason whatsoever |
| ppl |
people |
| ROFLH |
rolling on the floor laughing hysterically |
| ROFLHHAO |
rolling on the floor laughing his/her a** off |
| ROFLHMAO |
rolling on the floor laughing my a** off |
| ROTFL |
rolling on the floor laughing |
| syl |
see you later |
| ttfn |
ta-ta for now |
| ttyl |
talk to you later |
| w |
saying goodbye after someone has already left |
| wrt |
with regard to |
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2. Slang [brain is failing - any others?]
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| blee |
comes in various colours, and can be a noun, a verb
or an adjective. For example: Uvi is a red blee. |
| greebings |
Originally thought to be a typo, someone apparently
proved that greebings were created by frogs and that we
merely borrowed the term |
| grom |
Originally, a rather infamous typo of mine for `grin',
but SDL/Spud and Uvi liked it, and adopted the term |
| psot |
Another `typo' that has fallen into common usage |
| thwap |
A sort of playful hit, done in retaliation ... (it's
a joke, so if someone `thwaps' you, don't be really offended) |
| vamping |
DON'T ask about this one :-) |
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3. Punctuation
- Or our misuse thereof :-)
Aside from the usual smilies, we have a few extras:
| {{{{}}}} |
surrounding a person's name, means hugs |
| ; preceding an action: |
;grins means Alexis grins |
| ;thinks . o O ( ) |
makes something a thought |
| *action* |
a variant of ; |
VI. History and Credits
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1. History of this FAQ
- The original AGM FAQ predates my involvement with the group,
but as far as I can tell, it was written sometime in 1994 by
NBGary. Mark II of the FAQ was written by Roderick Parks, based
on NB's original.
In early 1995, convinced that the FAQ was a bit outdated,
JenZ and I updated the FAQ with Gary and I took over much
of the day to day maintaining; I numbered this version the
3.x series. When I lost net access that summer, Saucyjo took
it over and did a major rewrite, eliminating much of the trivia
that had been in the FAQ up to that point.
When I took back the FAQ in September of that year, I placed
all the trivia into a separate section, with additions made
by Nicole, and made this the AGM FAQ 4.x. It remained essentially
the same, with minor updating, until this version, November
1996.
Minor updates have since followed, with the number after
the decimal point following indicating the update within the
series. I am a bit of a geek ;)
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1. FAQ Writers
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2. Editing and Comments, current version
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- and everyone
who's contributed to this FAQ in the past.
Alexis Rosoff / alexis@li.net
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