From: clough@texas.net   
      
   David wrote:   
   >   
   >      Hey ya'll I have a couple of questions for ya'll...first off I'm   
   > new here at this group...so do ya'll mind if i take off my spurs off and   
   > pop a squat around the chuck wagon.....damnest thing I ever learned in   
   > all my years cowboying never squat with your spurs on....anyway before I   
   > ramble on...what is allowed to post and what is not? Any help I an get   
   > would be gratefully appreciated.   
      
   Groups in the alt hierarchy are casually created with little formality.   
   Anyone can create one. Many, many also die with little formality,   
   rather, they just waste away. This group obviously conforms to the   
   interests of enough people to keep it low-volume but active enough to be   
   worth checking. Volume isn't everything. There are plenty of groups with   
   much higher volume that aren't worth the time.   
      
   Being an alt group, there's not much in the way of rules, other than the   
   normal good USENET practices. Some of those are to avoid cross-posting   
   unless it serve a real and necessary purpose, don't post images to   
   groups that don't have "binaries" in the group name, and stay reasonably   
   on-topic.   
      
   Around here, the topic is pretty obvious. It covers the myth and reality   
   of the old American west and it's image and effects today. We share   
   links to good web sites we find or know about. We ask and answer   
   questions about things we know or would like to know.   
      
   Some topics in the recent past have been discussions of whether or not   
   there really were hitching posts as depicted in film (the evidence of   
   old photos is that Hollywood invented the hitching post), the evolution   
   of revolvers, coffee in the old west, the virtues and foibles of various   
   Earp historians and storyteller, beer brewing in the old west, and of   
   course, books and movies. It's such a broad topic, both in topic and   
   geography, that there's always something coming up we can learn from and   
   a number of folks who have extensive knowledge in their own areas of   
   interest.   
      
   It was once a pretty firm rule to avoid HTML codings in you posts, since   
   some people see only the code. I suppose that will one day change, but   
   you'll find most people keep it to plain text and avoid the graphics.   
   But, being an alt. group, there's no Admin and no moderation, so that   
   sort of thing is usually by mutual agreement.   
      
   It's a "serious" group, in the sense that there's little flaming. That's   
   just a very welcome indication that there are mostly good folks using   
   this group.   
      
   And we're far from all westerners or even from the US. Some of us are   
   close to what is left of the old west. Some would hardly know which end   
   of the horse to stuff the hay into. But we all share an interest in   
   something unique that's passed away and is worth remembering.   
   --   
                          Gerald Clough   
                         clough@texas.net   
   "Nothing has any value, unless you know you can give it up."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)