Archive-name: backrubs/faq/part1
Last-modified: 17 October 1995

Section 1 -- General Questions

        This posting contains answers to the following questions:
    1.1)  What is alt.backrubs about?
    1.2)  I have a question not answered here.  Should I post?
    1.3)  What does this acronym stand for?
    1.4)  Help! I'm new to this whole Usenet/'net thing
    1.5)  What must I know about anonymous posts?
    1.6)  What should I do about 'net abuse (spams, scams & advertisements)?

        Each question begins with `Subject:' on a line of its own.  Users
with suitably equipped newsreaders can automatically skip to the start of
the next question, e.g. trn will display the start of the question when you
press ^G (control-G).  Of course if your newsreader doesn't do this
automatically, you can still use a search command to find the next question.
        To find the answer to question 1.2 search for a line beginning with
`Q1.2)', there will be only one.

------------------------------

        Your suggestions for changes to these articles are welcome.  Please
see section 0 (entitled Administrivia and Acknowledgements) in the earlier
posting for information about whom to contact and what changes are planned.

        The questions are divided into the following general sections.
Questions from each section are answered in articles of their own.  A list
of all questions appears in the first article (section 0).
        Section 0  Administrivia and Acknowledgements
        Section 1  General Questions
        Section 2  Basics of Massage
        Section 3  Novice Questions
        Section 4  Professional Massage
        Section 5  Other Sources of Information

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Section 1 -- General Questions

Subject:  What is the alt.backrubs newsgroup about?
Q1.1)   This newsgroup functions primarily as a place for discussion of
massage techniques and principles, and issues related to massage including
bodywork therapies, e.g. Rolfing.  Although you'd be wasting energy by
posting messages seeking sexual partners here, there have been some
interesting discussions about areas of overlap between massage and sex.
See the archive for collections of such postings.
        Details about the archive appear in question 5.1.2.  Question 5.2
has a list of other network resources, e.g. newsgroups, with related
material.

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Subject: I have a question not answered here.  Should I post?
Q1.2)   If you think your question is relevant to alt.backrubs (see
question 1.1 for a description of what alt.backrubs is about) and is not
answered in any of the six parts of this frequently asked questions list
then your question may have already have been answered and placed in the
archive. The archive contains over 3 Megabytes of postings along with some
indexes. Many of the answers in this document have been adapted from
postings in the archive, it usually provides more detailed answers to those
questions. Many questions that are answered in the archive do not appear
here.  You'll have to decide for yourself if the archive has the answer to
your question but you will usually benefit by exploring it.  
        If you're not sure where to look for an answer to your question
then check out the lists of related network resources in section 5.  There
is information there about what newsgroups to read, to post to, as well as
what essays and lists are available electronically to help answer your
health and body related questions.  Question 5.2.6 is the most general.
        If you do ask a question by posting please remember to request that
replies be sent to you by mail so that you can summarize them for the rest
of us.  Be sure to say something like `please reply by mail, I'll post as
summary,' or it is likely that someone will think that you want replies by
mail only because you are too lazy to read the group -- I kid you not.
When it comes time to post your summary take some time to actually
summarize the mail you received.  It isn't necessary to specify who gave
each answer or to quote them exactly.  Do not concatenate all the messages
into one posting!  By taking the time to make a proper summary you are
helping all the present and future readers of alt.backrubs.  That group
includes the people who took time to write to you.  Much more advice about
how to best work with the Usenet community can be found in question 1.4.
        The archive is the subject of question 5.1.2 (in section 5).  A
complete list of all the questions in this FAQL appears in section 0
(entitled Administrivia and Acknowledgements).

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Subject: Acronyms 
Q1.3)
        a) Acronyms peculiar to alt.backrubs:
         CMT    = Certified MT (see RMT)
         CTS    = Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
         LITA   = Look In The alt.backrubs Archive
         MT     = Massage Therapist (Massage Technician, in some places)
         RMT    = Registered MT (usually abbreviated to MT)
         RSI    = Repetitive Stress Injury
         TCM    = Traditional Chinese Medicine
         TMJ    = dysfunction of the jaw (temporomandibular joint
                                          pain-dysfunction syndrome)

------------------------------

        b) Organizations:
         ACCET  = USA Accrediting Council for Continuing Education and
                  Training  
         ABMP   = Associated Bodywork and Massage Professionals
         AMTA   = American Massage Therapy Association
         AOBTA  = American Oriental Body Therapy Association 
         AMR'TA = Alchemical Medicine Research and Teaching Association
         CCA    = USA Career College Association Accrediting Commission on
                  Trade and Technical Schools 
         COMTAA = USA Commission on Massage Training Accreditation/Approval 
         NCETMB = USA National Certification Exam for Therapeutic Massage
                  and Bodywork
         NCBTMB = USA National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage
                  and Bodywork

------------------------------

        c) Other acronyms and abbreviations you should be familiar with:
         ETLA  = Extended TLA, i.e. a four letter acronym
         FAQ   = Frequently Asked Question (this is also the traditional
                 acronym for a list of FAQs)
         FAQL  = Frequently Asked Question List
         FTP   = File Transfer Protocol 
         GMT   = Greenwich Mean Time
         ISBN  = International Standard Book Number
         TLA   = Three Letter Acronym
         TM    = Trademark
         URL   = Universal Resource Locator, a computer network address
                 standard developed in conjunction with the World Wide Web
         USA   = United States of America
         WAIS  = Wide Area Information Servers (a type of automated index
                 of documents available via the Internet)
         WWW   = World Wide Web (a global network of hypermedia documents
                 connected by links implemented using the Internet)
         :-)   = An emoticon often used to express humorous intent or
                 happiness, also used to abate a strong statement so as not
                 to offend
         :)    = ditto (but less formal)

------------------------------

        d) `Please, sir, I want some more.'
         For more definitions see `Frequently Asked Questions about Usenet'
which is regularly posted to news.announce.newusers and news.answers.
There is a list of resources to help you understand acronyms at URL
http://www.yahoo.com/Reference/Acronyms.

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Subject: Help! I'm new to this whole Usenet/'net thing
Q1.4)   The following two newsgroups contain some excellent introductory
postings: news.announce.newusers and news.newusers.questions.  
        Whoever is providing you with access to Usenet should be able to
give you some basic introduction or instruction.  This isn't because they
are necessarily nice, but because if they don't at least attempt to tell
you the basics then they can't blame you when you do something awful.  If
they haven't offered you any advice or instruction then ask someone
responsible for some pointers to useful information.  I advise you not to
ask another newcomer -- that is a great way to propagate misconceptions.
        There are many introductory books about the global Internet and
Usenet.  If you learn well from books then you might consider buying one or
borrowing it from a library.  Some books are available for free, others are
available for sampling online as an enticement to get you to buy them.  For
a fuller discussion of such books see a) the misc.books.technical
newsgroup, b) the Unofficial Internet Book List at the rtfm.mit.edu FTP
site (filename `book-list' in the directory
`pub/usenet/news.answers/internet-services').  See question 5.2.4 for more
information about the rtfm.mit.edu FTP site.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: Anonymous Posts
Q1.5)   There isn't a lot of tolerance for anonymous posting in
alt.backrubs.  This intolerance is often expressed by people not following
up or responding to anonymous posts.  If there is some reason you must post
using an anonymous service you will find people more co-operative if you
give your real name and e-mail address as well as explaining why you must
use the service.  In case you must remain anonymous you are advised to
mention the reason in your post.  There is some discussion of this in the
`anonymous.posts' file in the archive (see question 5.1.2).

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: What should I do about 'net abuse (spams, scams & ads)?
Q1.6)   You've just seen a chain letter, or spam, or an unsolicited and
apparently inappropriate advertisement, posted to alt.backrubs.  You are
enraged.  What should you do?  First, take a deep breath and exhale slowly;
Calm down, this is only Usenet! :)  Resolve *not* to post a message about
this to alt.backrubs -- you'll just annoy the rest of us more.  Next, read
the resources listed here and choose a moral and legal course of action (or
inaction) then carry it out.

        I don't like to duplicate information that is available in more
   general frequent postings.  Instead, I direct you to the following three
   documents.  This list was current as of 9 October 1995. 

   1) Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Usenet
      Posted to news.announce.newusers and news.answers 
      by Mark Moraes <netannounce@deshaw.com>.

   2) DRAFT FAQ: Advertising on Usenet: How To Do It, How Not To Do It
      Posted to news.announce.newusers, news.admin.misc,
                misc.entrepreneurs, news.admin.net-abuse.misc and
                news.misc 
      by Joel K. Furr <jfurr@acpub.duke.edu>.

   3) Help Prevent SPAM in Our Lifetime
      http://reality.sgi.com/employees/ghelms/adcomplain.html

   4) Blacklist of Internet Advertisers
      maintained by Axel Boldt <axel@uni-paderborn.de>.
      http://math-www.uni-paderborn.de/~axel/blacklist.html

------------------------------

        If you know what has become of the following short-lived frequent
   postings please tell me.

    news.admin.net-abuse FAQ (1/2) 
       and
    news.admin.net-abuse FAQ (2/2)
         The latest copy I have was posted to news.admin.net-abuse.misc,
      alt.current-events.net-abuse, alt.answers and news.answers by Scott
      Southwick <scotty@ancho.ucs.indiana.edu> at 23 Aug 1995 22:36:17 GMT
      and 23 Aug 1995 22:37:18 GMT (with Message-IDs
      <41gah1$m19@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu> and
      <41gaiu$m6s@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu>), respectively.
--
Jamie Blustein                                                    <jamie@uwo.ca>
                  No trees were destroyed to create this post.
                 The disclaimer is the subject of question 0.6
    This document is archived in ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/alt.backrubs/