Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)  Version 3.101
last updated August 25, 1999

 1. What is alt.music.lyrics?
 2. Where should I search before I request a song to the newsgroup?
 3. What should I know about posting REQUESTS to the newsgroup?
 4. What should I know about posting REPLIES to the newsgroup?
 5. I posted a request and no one has answered me. 
     a.) Why not?
     b.) How long will it take to get my lyrics?
 6. Can I ask for (sound files, sheet music, etc.)?
 7. What does it mean when someone accuses me of attaching a file?
 8. What does it mean to "post in HTML" and why is it discouraged?
 9. Other Resources
 10. Flaming
 11. Where can I find this FAQ?
 12. Acknowledgments
 13. Comments, suggestions and corrections
1. What is alt.music.lyrics?
     Ever wondered what on earth that song you were listening to meant? Ever 
     wondered what the singer was babbling about? Have you ever been 
     convinced that so and so was singing one thing, when in fact he/she was
     singing something completely different? Have you ever bought a CD and
     found out that the artist didn't bother to include the lyrics?  Well you've
     come to the right place. Alt.music.lyrics is an unmoderated newsgroup for
     people who want to find the lyrics to songs, chase down popular/obscure
     songs, look for songs with particular words in them, etc. 
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 2. Where should I search before I request a song to the newsgroup?
     (a) If you know the artist, title, or words of the song you're seeking, the
          best thing to do is type in the artist's name in a search engine.  The
          following sites have a good success rate: deja.com, Yahoo, Lycos, Alta
          Vista, Magellan, Infoseek, Hotbot and Metacrawler.
          (You should put quotations around the artist's name or the line from the
          song to get a better match.)
               EXAMPLE (you would place this sentence in your browser of choice): 
               "Tori Amos" lyrics
               "all the bad boys are standing in the shadows"
     (b) If you don't know who sang the song OR the title OR don't remember
          ANY of the words, check some of the below sites:
               Lyrics Library -
                    http://tinpan.fortunecity.com/blondie/313/
               Lyrics World - 
                    http://lyrics.natalnet.com.br/html/main_index/index.html
               Top3 -
                    http://www.top3.net/LYRICS/
               Leonie's Lyrics
                    http://fs.dai.net/ac/839985/N01.html
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 3. What should I know about posting REQUESTS to the newsgroup?
     If you don't follow certain steps, your answer may be ignored.
     Please take the time to follow basic guidelines.
          a.) Please try to limit yourself to one request per post.
          b.) Subject Line (on your outgoing post)
               If you know the title or the artist:
                    REQ: Song Title - Artist
                    REQ: Song Title
                    REQ: Artist
               If you don't know the title or the artist, enter a line from the song:
                    REQ ID/LYRICS: i am the son and the heir
                    REQ: Like Sting I’m Tantric
               If you don't remember anything about the song:
                    "REQ: ID" in the subject line
               Under no circumstances should the post include the words:
                    HEEELLLLPPPPPPP
                    I NEED THAT SONG THAT THEY PLAYED IN THAT MOVIE....
                    REQUIRED:
                    PLEASE HELP ME NOW 
                    (any text with more than one "!" entered after it.)
          c.) E-mail/Post text 
               Enter any information you know about the song.  Such as album title, 
               which movie, tv show or radio station you heard it on, which language
               the song is in, what year it may have been released, what musical
               genre it may be in (jazz, country, Christian, pop, etc.), and so on.
          d.) Please include the proper e-mail address to send replies.  This 
               means that if you have a no-spam add-on... please specify that in
               your request.
          e.) Refrain from using all capital letters.  They are hard to read and in
               any internet setting they are considered screaming.
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 4. What should I know about posting REPLIES to the newsgroup?
          a.) Please make sure that your lyrics are correct.
               This isn't always easy since there are many discrepancies around
               the internet.  Note where you found the lyrics (liner notes,
               magazine, book, website, etc.)  This way you will not be held
               responsible for any mondegreens.*
          b.) Please respond to the newsgroup rather than just replying to a
               request directly via e-mail.  ALL replies that are relevant to the
               newsgroup should be directed to the newsgroup so that everyone
               can benefit.  A COPY of the message can be sent to the requester
               as a courtesy but it should be IN ADDITION TO the message sent to
               the newsgroup, not INSTEAD OF it.
          c.) If your newsreader allows it, check to see whether someone else has
               posted the lyrics in question. This saves on effort and bandwidth.
               We don't need a dozen 'American Pies' posted to the group at once.
               There are plenty of lyrics websites out there that have that
               information.
          d.) Subject Line (in your reply post/e-mail)
               LYR:
               LINK:
               ID:
          e.) E-mail/Post body (text of the e-mail/post)
               The following don't need to be put in any specific order, but they
               should be included in your text:
                    SONG TITLE
                    Artist
                    Album (if known)
                    Year released (if known)
                    songwriters (if known)
                    Lyrics
          f.) Please don't post large collections of lyrics in the newsgroup.
               Instead, post a list of the titles/artists and offer to e-mail the
               lyrics directly to anyone who wants them. Better yet, upload your
               lyrics to the world wide web and post the URL of the web site. If you
               don't want to create your own web site, there are several existing
               lyrics archives on the web that will accept your lyrics submissions
               and add them to their online archive. For example, Lyrics World has
               a huge "wanted" list
               http://lyrics.natalnet.com.br/html/main_index/index.html
          g.) Trim irrelevant portions of quoted text before posting a reply.
                    (i) Some e-mail is set up to "quote" the first e-mail.  When there
                         have been many responses, the text in the e-mail grows.
                         Please trim any extra text before replying (this includes long
                         signatures, full song lyrics, other people's replies, etc.)
                    (ii) There is no need to reply to the whole group to post anything
                         that is irrelevant to the subject of lyrics.  
                         This includes the following phrases:
                              "thanks!"
                              "That's the song i was looking for!"
                              "This is spam!"
                              "you suck"
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 5. I posted a request and no one has answered me. 
     a.) Why not?
          Please don't post the same request ad nauseam.  Contributors are
          helping out of their interest in music, lyrics and helping others.  If no
          one has posted it, it is either because:
               (i) no one knows the answer
               (ii) it's already been posted many times in the past week.
          Just wait about a week and then try reposting your request.
     b.) How long will it take to get my lyrics?
          It depends on the song. Songs that at some point in their release
          history have been very well-known (or high on the American music
          charts) are generally the easiest to find. Many of the people who read
          and answer lyrics requests are very good at finding songs in a
          particular genre.  You may be answered within an hour, but many
          requests may take a week or longer to be fulfilled. Even if we can't 
          find your lyrics, we may be able to provide links to sites that may 
          have them in the future.
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 6. Can I ask for (sound files, sheet music, etc.)?
     Basically, no.  This is a lyrics newsgroup.  It should only involve lyrics.
     Midis, Mp3s, wavs, etc. take up too much bandwidth AND aren't like.. ya
     know ... legal.   If you must reply to these requests, please send only a link.
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 7. What does it mean when someone accuses me of attaching a file?
     Sometimes if you link to a URL with .txt at the end, it downloads instead of
     just reading as a normal website.
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8. What does it mean to "post in HTML" and why is it discouraged?
     (This question is credited to Rob Munda)
     HTML is the programming language that is used to make websites. Some
     newsreader programs and some e-mail programs are able to use this
     language to make e-mail and newsgroup posts look nicer. It might use
     fancier looking letters (letters of different colors, bold face type, italics,
     larger or smaller letters) in the print. It might put images into the body of
     the message. It might use "hyperlinks" to link to a web site.
     If you see a link on a newsgroup post or in an e-mail it might look like this:
     http://www/lyrics.ch/
     An HTML version might look like this:
     Click here to visit ILS
     If someone's program doesn't support HTML all they would see is something 
     like this: Click here to visit ILS
     and a bunch on other stuff that looks like junk to them. Or they might not
     see anything at all.  That's why we asked everyone, both posting and
     answering requests to post only in plain text so that it's readable by
     everyone.  Some newsreader programs only handle plain text and either
     get confused and either don't print the message or they print it as garbled
     code, so please be kind to everyone and post in plain text.
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9. Other Resources 
     Kathy came up with the wonderful idea of including e-mail addresses for
     people who would be willing to be 'experts' in certain areas.  When writing to
     these volunteers, please limit your requests to their stated area of
     interest. For example, people who specialize in lyrics of the 1940's
     obviously aren't going to be interested in requests for the lyrics of the
     latest Spice Girls song. Please don't waste the volunteers' time with
     questions and requests that are outside their area of interest.
     The current list of volunteers is at
     http://www.oocities.org/SunsetStrip/Balcony/9150/volunteers.html
     If you would like to volunteer your services, please drop a line to
     altmusiclyrics@hotmail.com. Just say what your area of specialty is and
     your e-mail address. Be sure to mention that you want to have your name
     added to the list of volunteers at the alt.music.lyrics web site.
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10. Flaming 
     Alt.music.lyrics is a great place to get help, give help or discuss lyrics. It
     is an unmoderated group, so there isn't much anyone can do about ßames
     or spamming. If someone has posted a request for a song which has been
     posted to death, it would be best for everyone to just ignore it.
     Hyper-critical/hyper-sensitive comments on the newsgroup don't add
     anything to the discourse. If someone has posted something which can be
     found on this FAQ, please just forward a copy of this FAQ to them, or refer
     them to one of the URLs listed at the bottom of this FAQ.
     More importantly, if you're being driven crazy by repetition, why not post
     to Erin at altmusiclyrics@hotmail.com and suggest that the song be
     included in the FAQ?
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11. Where can I find this FAQ?
     The OLD alt.music.lyrics site has the OLD FAQ:
     http://www.oocities.org/SunsetStrip/Palms/3431/aml-faq.txt
     The new alt.music.lyrics site WILL have this FAQ when it is finished:
     http://www.oocities.org/SunsetStrip/Balcony/9150/amlfaq.html
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 12. Acknowledgments 
     This is the alt.music.lyrics FAQ.  It was made by combining the lyrics.wanted
     FAQ from the old International Lyrics Server and the existing FAQ from
     alt.music.lyrics newsgroup.  The lyrics.ch FAQ was written by Melissa with
     input from Jan, Ma'ayan, Roger, Rob, Todd, Pascal, Stacy, Mark, and Erin. 
          You can see it here:
          http://www.fortunecity.com/campus/dramatic/517/faq.htm
     The original FAQ for alt.music.lyrics was written by Clara Duong in October
     1996, with occasional updates by Wayne Garvin.  It couldn't have been
     re-written without the help of: Mark, Ron, Bunty, Coyote, Czech4,
     Delfi4110, Harthaus, Koala_bear, Lybean, Mamu, Nancy G, SingleAct,
     Rhonda, TPeach, Childuf60s, SWallace2012, JohnnyOJr, and you... our
     viewing public (how cheesy is that?)
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 13. Comments, suggestions and corrections 
     Comments, suggestions and corrections should now be sent to Erin Wilson.
     Erin has taken over the task of compiling and maintaining this FAQ, and her
     e-mail address is: altmusiclyrics@hotmail.com. If you know of a web site
     which you think should be included, please e-mail her.
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