Subject: [alt.usenet.manifestoes] Manifesto Mini-FAQ (v1.31)

Date: 09 Dec 1996 11:38:00 GMT
Organization: Alt.usenet.manifestoes

Archive-name: usenet/manifesto/faq
Posting-Frequency: monthly (every 16th)
Last-modified: 1996/12/08
Version: 1.31
URL: URL: http://www.emf.net/~estephen/manifesto.html

                    ===============================
                    A Manifesto Mini-FAQ (12/16/96)

11. "What is this group all about?"

    The purpose of alt.usenet.manifestoes is to present and discuss
    manifestoes on USENET.  Manifestoes can be for individuals,
    organizations, groups, companies, governments, nations or political
    parties.  Often they are from individuals, especially those who are
    frequent posters on USENET.


15. "Why?"

    Because it is interesting.  It can be amusing.  It appears to be
    worthwhile.  Posterity matters.  Some have found it useful.  Why
    not?

    Manifestoes are an important part of any undertaking.  A manifesto
    answers the question, "Why?"  Every group, individual, company,
    organization, project or government should have a mission
    statement; without stated goals, success can be elusive.

    In the long-run, alt.usenet.manifestoes and its archive can
    serve to be the official repository for the manifestoes of
    a wide range of organizations.

    It is sometimes difficult to find a mainstream outlet for the
    presentation of views or goals; alt.usenet.manifestoes is a
    viable outlet.

    In the tragic extreme, consider that FC (the Unabomber's
    organization) considered "Industrial Society and Its Future" (the
    Unabomber manifesto) to be so important that a bombing campaign was
    started in order to ensure the manifesto's publication.


19. "What is a manifesto?"

    1. man.i. fes.to \. man-*-' fes-(.)to-\ n
       pl.: manifestos or manifestoes
       [It, denunciation, manifest, fr. manifestare to manifest, fr. L]
       a public declaration of intentions, motives, or views

    A manifesto is your mission statement, your purpose: Why you do
    what you do, exactly what it is that you believe and intend to
    accomplish.

    Some well-known manifestoes include the Communist Manifesto,
    Richard Stallman's GNU Manifesto, and Kibo's HappyNet Manifesto
    (all of which have been posted to alt.usenet.manifestoes in the
    past and are available from the archive).


02. "Where do these manifestoes come from?"

    People and organizations write them and make them available,
    sometimes in other newsgroups, WWW pages or FTP archives.  They are
    submitted to alt.usenet.manifestoes for approval (see below).
    Sometimes the moderation team stumbles across them and posts them
    (we always try to get permission first).

    All are welcome to submit a manifesto for themselves or for an
    organization.


06. "How can I submit a manifesto?"

    For most newsreading software, you can just post to
    alt.usenet.manifestoes normally, and your news software will
    forward your article to the proper place for approval.

    If that method doesn't work, simply send the manifesto by e-mail to
    manifesto@emf.net instead.

    If you wish for a manifesto to be presented anonymously, please
    indicate by including the line:
       [Moderator: Please post this anonymously.]
    Alternately, you may send mail to manifesto-request@emf.net
    indicating that you wish to submit anonymously BEFORE you submit
    the manifesto.

    You should receive a reply to indicate that your manifesto was
    received.  You'll be notified of its approval, usually within 48
    hours.  Currently the moderation is not automated, so please be
    patient before resubmitting your articles; all submissions will
    receive a reply eventually.

    Please indicate as much as possible about the authorship of the
    manifesto (who wrote it, when, where it may be available [including
    URL if applicable], how authorative the manifesto is or if it is an
    organization's official manifesto) and its copyright status. 

    If you are writing a new manifesto, please consider including a
    statement declaring that the manifesto is in the public domain 
    or, if copyrighted, that it may be freely distributed without
    alteration.


10. "What gets approved?"

    Everything that is on charter, not 100% commercial, not
    cross-posted, and not full of obscure acronyms.  Discussion of
    previous manifestoes is welcome.  The newsgroup is not limited to
    serious manifestoes.  Anonymous contributions are also welcome.

    We do wish to encourage discussion, so please feel free to comment
    on any manifestoes, including those in the archive.


14. "Why is this newsgroup moderated?"

    To keep it on charter.  To keep the posts coming regularly.  The
    intention is to keep a.u.m. high-interest, low-traffic and
    high-quality.

    One advantage of moderation: alt.usenet.manifestoes is the only
    alt newsgroup GUARANTEED to be immune to spam (for example, make
    money fast advertisements posted to many non-relevant newsgroups).


18. "Does the moderator edit the manifestoes?"

    He is often very tempted.


01. "But you don't edit them really, right?"

    No, manifestoes are not edited.

    Okay, that's not true; the moderator has in the past reformatted
    e-text, such as the Communist Manifesto, to fit within 70 columns.
    No contributed manifestoes are altered.


05. "Do you write the manifestoes yourself?"

    The moderation team, including the author of this faq, does not
    write the manifestoes that appear.  Look at the "From:" line or the
    signature to find out who the author is.  If a manifesto is
    anonymous, it will be marked as such.


09. "So why does your name appear on each post?"

    Because I'm the moderator, my name automatically appears under the
    "Originator:" and "Approved:" header lines.  But that doesn't mean
    that I have anything to do with the manifesto.  In fact, I disclaim
    all opinions expressed by the authors of the manifestoes.


13. "Do you turn down manifestoes that you don't agree with?"

    Even though I personally do not agree with the politics or opinions
    expressed in many of the manifestoes, I do not turn away any
    manifesto that meets the charter, no matter how offensive, puerile,
    self-serving, indecent, unintelligible, racist or idiotic the
    manifesto may be.  Nor do I take credit for the reasonable,
    intelligent, interesting and insightful manifestoes.  I am simply
    the manager of a forum -- a common carrier.

    I have, however, rejected many duplicate postings, MAKE.MONEY.FAST
    articles, and advertisements for phone sex numbers and web sites,
    since they are off-charter.


17. "Isn't that censorship?"

    No more than any moderation is censorship.  All newspaper and
    magazine editors practice one form of censorship: they reject
    inappropriate articles.  Since the only thing this newsgroup is
    about is manifestoes, the only things that appear here are
    manifestoes.

    I abhor censorship of ideas, yet my duty [cue stirring music] as
    moderator is to eliminate off-topic postings.  If an article is
    rejected, it is because it is off-charter (perhaps because it is
    commercial).

    Even so, rejectees may still have a voice by posting to one of the
    other 34,000 newsgroups on USENET.  I wish them luck with their
    illegal pyramid schemes or whatever.

    I would welcome the publication of a MAKE.MONEY.FAST manifesto.


21. "Is there an archive?"

    Yes -- if you have access to the World Wide Web, point your browser
    to
       http://www.emf.net/~estephen/manifesto.html
    and enjoy.

    There is currently no ftp archive, but please let me know if you
    want one.  With sufficient demand, I can mirror the WWW archive at
    emf's FTP site.  Only two people have asked for an FTP archive.


04. "What articles have appeared so far?"

    Here's a list:

    Article 1: (05/16/95) Welcome to Alt Usenet Manifestoes
    Article 2: (05/17/95) The Origin Story
    Article 3: (05/19/95) Kibo's HappyNet Manifesto
    Article 4: (05/31/95) The Manifesto of David Guntner
    Article 5: (05/31/95) [Manifesto of Ellis L. Keyes] Life is a Party
    Article 6: (05/31/95) Electronic Rights & Responsibilities V0.13
    Article 7: (05/31/95) cyberfeminist manifesto
    Article 8: (05/31/95) the PERKYGOTH manifesto
    Article 9: (05/31/95) Manifesto of Negativity
    Article 10: (06/02/95) self-explanatory - rone
    Article 12: (06/06/95) The LAMA M A N I F E S T O
    Article 13: (06/06/95) A word from the moderator
    Article 14: (06/06/95) Manifesto of the Communist Party
    Article 15: (06/06/95) The PC Manifesto
    Article 16: (06/07/95) The Crypto Anarchist Manifesto - Timothy May
    Article 17: (06/07/95) Carbonist Manifesto
    Article 18: does not exist.
    Article 19: (06/09/95) The BOB(c)MANIFESTO
    Article 20: (06/09/95) A Psychopunk's Manifesto - T.C.Hughes
    Article 21: (06/13/95) NZMRA Manifesto - Peter Zohrab
    Article 22: (06/13/95) The Cancer of $cientology - henry
    Article 23: (06/14/95) The GNU Manifesto - Richard Stallman
    Article 24: (06/14/95) TRAV: The FAQ
    Article 25: (06/15/95) A Manifesto for Cyberspace
    Article 26: (06/16/95) Tele-Manifesto du jour
    Article 27: (06/21/95) Re: Tele-Manifesto du jour
    Article 28: (06/21/95) The ParaMetaExistentialist Manifesto
    Article 29: (06/26/95) --GAIA: THE QUIET REVOLUTION--
    Article 30: (06/27/95) Re: The ParaMetaExistentialist Manifesto
    Article 31: (06/28/95) Manifesto of Sexual Freedom
    Article 32: (06/28/95) Commentary on the Manifesto of Sexual Freedom
    Article 33: (06/28/95) the cyber-existentialist manifesto
    Article 34: (06/29/95) Re: the cyber-existentialist manifesto
    Article 35: (06/30/95) Party (Ellis L. Keyes)
    Article 36: (07/02/95) Panarchy: everyone voting on everything
    Article 37: (07/05/95) The Neo-Nihilist Manifesto
    Article 38: (07/05/95) The Cafe BOB(c) Manifesto
    Article 40: (07/06/95) Virtual Surrealist Manifesto
    Article 41: (07/12/95) Patarealist Manifesto
    Article 42: (07/14/95) Re: The Patarealist Manifesto (Tom Breton)
    Article 43: (07/17/95) Re: The Patarealist Manifesto (The BOB(c))
    Article 44: (07/18/95) Re: The Patarealist Manifesto (Wandering)
    Article 45: (07/18/95) CTTS and You
    Article 46: (07/18/95) Re: The Patarealist Manifesto (D Donahue)
    Article 47: (07/18/95) Re: The Patarealist Manifesto (D Donahue)
    Article 48: (07/20/95) The TSOTIC Manifesto
    Article 49: (07/21/95) THE IMPERIAL MANIFESTO OF USENET
    Article 50: (07/25/95) We at Obscure Research Labs
    Article 51: (07/25/95) THE INFERIOR MANIFESTO OF USENET
    Article 52: (07/25/95) Manifesto of the Elitism Mailing List
    Article 53: (07/28/95) unix makes my hack writing work harder
    Article 54: (08/03/95) Enterzone Statement of Purpose
    Article 55: (08/03/95) The First Manifesto of Virtuism
    Article 56: (08/04/95) Excerpts From UNABOM's Manifesto
    Article 57: (08/04/95) Professor Tyler's Letter To Unabomber
    Article 58: (08/05/95) Text of Unabomber Manifesto (excerpts)
    Article 59: (08/05/95) Unabomber and the New Left
    Article 60: (08/10/95) A More Complete Version of the UNABOMBER Manifesto
    Article 61: (08/16/95) The Tutorial Manifesto
    Article 63: (08/19/95) GLF: The Final Solution
    Article 64: (08/23/95) something like a manifesto (Beverley R. White)
    Article 65: (08/23/95) To Post (Ellis L. Keyes)
    Article 66: (08/24/95) FATHERS MANIFESTO
    Article 67: (08/24/95) Avant-Pop Interactive
    Article 70: (08/26/95) Re: The GLF: The Final Solution
    Article 71: (08/26/95) Re: FATHERS MANIFESTO
    Article 72: (08/29/95) The Post-Human Manifesto
    Article 73: (08/31/95) Manifesto (Ellis L. Keyes)
    Article 74: (09/08/95) FATHERS' MANIFESTO
    Article 75: (09/13/95) FATHERS' MANIFESTO - A rewrite
    Article 77: (09/20/95) Jack Graham's Hyperfiction Manifesto
    Article 78: (09/20/95) The McDonalds Manifesto
    Article 80: (09/20/95) Complete Text of the Unabomber Manifesto
                           [corrected]
    Article 81: (09/20/95) Manifesto of the Futurist Programmers
    Article 82: (09/20/95) Concertgoers' Manifesto
    Article 83: (10/04/95) FC's manifesto: sloppy versions circulating
    Article 84: (10/04/95) FC: Differences between a.u.m. and CoE version
    Article 85: (10/04/95) National Socialism Primer
    Article 86: (10/04/95) Universal Equality Primer
    Article 87: (10/04/95) Re: National Socialism Primer
    Article 88: (10/04/95) The Manifesto Of Nothing In Particular
    Article 90: (10/30/95) Revolution #9
    Article 91: (11/01/95) Tax The Rich
    Article 92: (11/06/95) THE ALT.MEGA-EGO.YONDERBOY MANIFESTO! GRRRRRRR!
                           1.0.0.0.0.0.A!
    Article 93: (11/02/95) Anti-Unabomber Manifesto
    Article 94: (11/15/95) THE GUARAPO REVOLUTION (MANIFESTO)
    Article 96: (11/17/95) Church of the Subgenius "manifesto"
    Article 97: (11/28/95) Industrial Workers of the World: Preamble to
                           Constitution
    Article 98: (11/29/95) The Wild Ranch Manifesto
    Article 101: (02/02/96) THE ADRIATIC LINE
    Article 102: (02/19/96) Freeman's Manifesto
    Article 103: (02/22/96) HYPOTHETICAL QUESTION!! (Father's Rights)
    Article 104: (02/28/96) Man's Subliminal God
    Article 106: (02/29/96) The CDA - A Declaration of the Independence of
                            Cyberspace
    Article 107: (03/07/96) Manifesto of the Front de Libération du Québec
                            (1970)
    Article 108: (03/07/96) Anarchy: Now and Forever!
    Article 109: (03/12/96) Egoist Manifesto #1
    Article 110: (05/23/96) Scum Manifesto
    Article 111: (05/23/96) What I Want From Usenet (Jaffo)
    Article 112: (08/14/96) Story Weavers' Manifesto
    Article 114: (08/23/96) Mana manifesto
    Article 115: (09/05/96) American Nihilist Underground Society Maniphisto
    Article 116: (12/08/96) LEGALIZE CRACK MANIFESTO
    Article 117: (12/08/96) QED manifesto
    Article 118: (12/08/96) The alt.life.itself FAQ
    Article 119: (12/08/96) charge.html

    Missing article numbers represent canceled, erroneous or
    superseded postings, or postings of the mini-faq.

    To see one of the above articles, turn the article number into
    a five digit number by prepending zeroes (i.e., Article 17 becomes
    00017) and then plug it into the following address, replacing XXXXX:
        http://www.emf.net/~estephen/manifesto/aumXXXXX.html

    For example, Article 88 becomes:
        http://www.emf.net/~estephen/manifesto/aum00088.html


08. "Can I subscribe by e-mail?"

    No.  Sorry.  Just read it as a newsgroup, or stop by the
    Manifesto Archive Home Page.

    There may be a Usenet-to-mail gateway at your site which can
    automatically send you all new articles from alt.usenet.manifestoes
    as they appear.  Please ask your local support people.

    You MAY request any of the above articles be hand-mailed to you
    by sending email to manifesto-request@emf.net.  Please do not
    abuse this resource, as I do not have a lot of free time.


12. "How come propagation is so low?"

    Almost every alt group has bad propagation.  This one is no
    exception.

    But it's getting better.  For the first month (April, 1995), it was
    so bad that I didn't even receive the newsgroup at my own site.
    Thanks to diligent newgrouping (from David Guntner, Andrew Stephen
    Damick, Partha S. Banerjee, and Alistair James Robert Young), it's
    now carried at most major sites, including Netcom, uunet, Prodigy
    and AOL.  If you can't receive it at your site, please ask your
    news administrator.

    If your news administrator cannot carry alt.usenet.manifestoes,
    you'll have to use an alternate NNTP server or use the archive
    instead.


16. "Why is the plural of manifesto 'manifestoes' and not 'manifestos'?
    Why is the name of this newsgroup plural, anyway?"

    Dictionaries in the U.S. say either is acceptable.  The moderator
    happens to prefer 'manifestoes.'  [Long story about why deleted.]

    In the debate on alt.config (the place where new alt groups are
    discussed), Melissa Anne Algeo recommended that the name be plural
    so that people don't think the purpose of this newsgroup is to come
    up with some unifying manifesto for all of USENET (which although a
    worthwhile project, is not the sole goal of this newsgroup).


20. "Who is on the moderation team?

    Many people have pointed me to existing manifestoes for
    publication.  I'd like to specially thank Thomas Dell
    (dell@goonsquad.spies.com), John Restrick, the Stanford NetNews
    Service (SIFT), tribe, the authors of "grep," and everyone who has
    contributed so far.

    You may join the moderation team:  Send me any manifesto you
    are aware of that has not been published, and I will be sure
    to give you credit (if you desire).  Please obey any copyright
    laws by not contributing copyrighted work.


03. "Who is the moderator?"

    No one important.  I've been reading news for a long, long time and
    try to contribute in my own little way.  My only hope is that you
    find this newsgroup an interesting place.  As Andy Damick points
    out, wanting to moderate is simply one of the signs that you are
    hopelessly, irreversably addicted to USENET.


07. "What e-mail addresses are relevant?"

    Contributions: manifesto@emf.net
    Requests:      manifesto-request@emf.net
    Human Being:   estephen@emf.net

__________________________________________________________________________
-- Zeigen (E. Stephen Mack)                               estephen@emf.net
            Zeigen's Dilemma: http://www.emf.net/~estephen/