Archive-name: tv/british-comedy/general-faq/part2
URL: http://cathouse.org/BritishComedy/Info/a.c.b_FAQ/Part2.html
Posting-Frequency: every 14 days
Last-modified: 23 May 1995
Version: 2.01
alt.comedy.british FAQ
======================
Part 2: British Comedy on the Net
---------------------------------
Version 2.01
Compiled by James Kew, j.kew@ic.ac.uk.
Copyright 1994, 1995 James Kew.
Reproduction in unaltered form for non-profit use is encouraged. Any other
reproduction is prohibited without permission. Vendor details are for
information only. I have no connection with any companies listed in this
FAQ. Do not bend, fold, spindle or mutilate.
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Contents
--------
1. Netiquette? What's that?
2. What do all the abbreviations mean?
3. What's alt.comedy.british for?
4. What other newsgroups discuss British comedy?
5. Where can I find FAQs/scripts/episode guides?
6. Is any of this stuff available on the WWW?
7. What's FTP? What's WWW? What's a URL?
8. Could somebody mail me...?
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1. Netiquette? What's that?
---------------------------
If you're new to Usenet, may I humbly suggest you read the articles on
Netiquette in news.announce.newusers, which are also available by FTP from:
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.announce.newusers/
This group has a global readership of (very) approximately 40,000 people.
Your boss may be reading... or your next boss.
+ Proof-read your articles before posting. A neat, well-thought-out,
typo-free article is much more likely to attract a positive response.
+ Your article will be distributed world-wide. Consider your audience;
avoid being too parochial.
+ Don't be aggressive; this group is fairly gentle and flamewars are
frowned upon. Particularly the eternal "UK-vs-US" argument...
+ Tastes in comedy vary greatly; respect the opinions of others. If you
disagree with someone, explain why; "AYBS is crap!" isn't much of a
contribution.
+ Keep your signature small; 4 lines is sufficient.
+ Make sure your articles are properly broken into lines. About 76
characters on each line is a good maximum to stick to. Some text
editors can give you the impression that your paragraphs are broken
into lines when in fact they are not; check to make sure this is not
the case.
+ If you need to post a test message, please post it to a test
newsgroup; there's probably one in your local hierarchy (for example,
I'd post to ic.test). Postings to misc.test will generate automatic
responses from some sites.
A few notes on follow-ups:
+ Ask yourself whether a posted follow-up is needed: do you have
something new to add to the discussion?
+ Limit the amount of quoted text to only that which is necessary.
There's no need to quote an entire article just to add a brief
comment.
+ Consider changing the subject line if the thread is wandering away
from its original subject.
+ Reply by e-mail if appropriate or requested by the poster.
2. What do all the abbreviations mean?
--------------------------------------
A number of abbreviations have been absorbed into Usenet culture; here's a
few that are used in alt.comedy.british. Some people feel that overuse of
abbreviations can make a group seem unnecessarily cliquish and forbidding
to a newcomer; nevertheless, they're useful to know:
:-) "Smiley" or "emoticon"; commonly used to convey emotion or signal
sarcasm. Many variations -- :D :) :-O :-( etc.
AFAIK As Far As I Know
BTW By The Way
FAQ Frequently Asked Question; can refer either to an individual
question or to a list of questions and answers such as this one.
FYI For Your Information
IMHO In My Humble (or Honest) Opinion
ISTR I Seem To Remember
OTOH On The Other Hand
ROTFL Rolling On The Floor Laughing
YMMV Your Mileage May Vary; literally, "your experience may differ".
Some common abbreviations for British shows:
AbFab Absolutely Fabulous
AYBS? Are You Being Served?
BA Blackadder
HIGNFY Have I Got News For You
ISIRTA I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again
KMKY Knowing Me, Knowing You
MP Monty Python
OFITG One Foot In The Grave
RD Red Dwarf
TYO The Young Ones
WLIIA Whose Line Is It Anyway
3. What's alt.comedy.british for?
---------------------------------
The newsgroup was created in early 1992 as a place for discussion of
British comedy in all its forms: television, radio, written, live...
alt.comedy.british is not the place for binary postings -- gifs, jpegs,
wavs and the like. You should instead post them to the relevant
alt.binaries.* group and post a pointer here.
This FAQ concentrates mostly on TV comedy, because that's the largest
source of discussion and questions; you're welcome to suggest other topics.
4. What other newsgroups discuss British comedy?
------------------------------------------------
A few newsgroups that may be of interest to alt.comedy.british readers:
alt.comedy.british.blackadder
Discussion of the four Blackadder series.
alt.comedy.standup
Standup comedy; mostly with a US slant.
alt.fan.ben-elton
Ben Elton, scriptwriter, novelist, playwright and stand-up comic...
alt.fan.douglas-adams
Douglas Adams, writer of the Hitch-Hikers Guide To The Galaxy etc.
alt.fan.goons
The cult 50s/60s radio programme.
alt.fan.monty-python
Python-inspired silliness.
alt.fan.pratchett
The books of Terry Pratchett; unusual among such groups in that
Pratchett himself is a frequent poster.
alt.fan.rumpole
John Mortimer's "Rumpole of the Bailey" books and TV series.
alt.fan.wodehouse
The books of P. G. Wodehouse and their adaptations.
alt.tv.ab-fab,
Absolutely Fabulous.
alt.tv.red-dwarf
Red Dwarf.
rec.arts.tv.uk
UK television; some overlap with alt.comedy.british.
5. Where can I find FAQs/scripts/episode guides?
------------------------------------------------
In general, look first on these two archives:
Cathouse
ftp://cathouse.org/pub/cathouse/
The cathouse.org archives. Lots of stuff on TV and comedy; look in the
"television" and "humor" directories. Maintained by Jason R.
Heimbaugh, jrh@cathouse.org.
Tardis
ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/media/tv/collections/tardis/
Often referred to as "Tardis", after its previous home. All the TV
stuff you'd ever want is here. Files at this site are stored
compressed in gzip (.gz) format; they can be automatically
decompressed, check the README.ftp file for details. Maintained by
Dave Chapman, dave@cheers.demon.co.uk.
There are also a handful of archives devoted to specific subjects:
Douglas Adams
ftp://ftp.umd.umich.edu/people/nhughes/
Maintained by Nathan Hughes, nhughes@umich.edu.
The Goons
ftp://rahul.net/pub/davidj/goons/
Maintained by David Josephson, davidj@rahul.net.
Terry Pratchett
ftp://ftp.pavilion.co.uk/pub/pratchett/
Also at mirrors:
Europe: ftp://ftp.britain.eu.net/pub/misc/pratchett/
USA: ftp://theory.lcs.mit.edu/pub/pratchett/
Australia: ftp://death.socs.uts.edu.au/Mirror/Pratchett/
Maintained by Leo Breebart, leo@cp.tn.tudelft.nl.
Red Dwarf
ftp://toaster.ee.ubc.ca/pub/red-dwarf/
Maintained by Dave Gagne, daveg@ee.ubc.ca.
Detailed FAQs are produced for these subjects:
Absolutely Fabulous
Maintained by Ridge, afn03923@freenet.ufl.edu.
ftp://cathouse.org/pub/cathouse/british.humour/absolutely.fabulous/FAQ
Douglas Adams
Maintained by Nathan Hughes; FAQ-related correspondence to
douglas-adams-faq@tiamat.umd.umich.edu. Posted twice monthly to
alt.fan.douglas-adams, alt.answers and news.answers.
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/alt.fan.douglas-adams/
Blackadder
Maintained by Gwen Brophy, gbrophy@telerama.lm.com Posted monthly to
alt.comedy.british.blackadder.
ftp://cathouse.org/pub/cathouse/television/blackadder/FAQ
Bottom
Maintained by Melinda Casino, melinda@cathouse.org. Posted monthly to
alt.comedy.british, rec.arts.tv.uk, alt.answers and news.answers.
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/alt.comedy.british/
Carry On Films
Maintained by Andy Raffle, missus@raffle.demon.co.uk. Posted monthly
to alt.comedy.british and rec.arts.movies.
ftp://cathouse.org/pub/cathouse/british.humour/carry.on.films.faq
Adrian Edmondson
Maintained by Andrew Wong, achwong@bradford.ac.uk. Posted occasionally
to alt.comedy.british and rec.arts.tv.uk.
ftp://cathouse.org/pub/cathouse/british.humour/bio/adrian.edmondson.faq
ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/media/tv/collections/tardis/people/AdrianEdmondson
Ben Elton
Maintained by Andrew Wong, achwong@bradford.ac.uk. Posted occasionally
to alt.fan.ben-elton, alt.comedy.british,
alt.comedy.british.blackadder and rec.arts.tv.uk.
ftp://cathouse.org/pub/cathouse/british.humour/bio/ben.elton.faq
ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/media/tv/collections/tardis/people/BenElton
The Goons
YAQ ("Ying Tong Iddle I Po" Asked Questions) maintained by Russell
Street, r.street@auckland.ac.nz. Posted occasionally to alt.fan.goons.
Available by FTP from the Goons archive.
Rik Mayall
Maintained by Andrew Wong, achwong@bradford.ac.uk. Posted occasionally
to alt.comedy.british and rec.arts.tv.uk.
ftp://cathouse.org/pub/cathouse/british.humour/bio/rik.mayall.faq
ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/media/tv/collections/tardis/people/RikMayall
Terry Pratchett
Maintained by Nathan Torkington; FAQ-related correspondence to
pratchett-faq@vuw.ac.nz. Posted twice monthly to alt.fan.pratchett,
alt.answers and news.answers.
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/alt.fan.pratchett/
Monty Python
A number of FAQs and informational postings, posted occasionally to
alt.fan.monty-python: the Monty Python FAQ; the Monty Python FTP List,
a comprehensive list of FTP sites with Python material; the
Pythonography, a list of the Python crew's work; and the List of Monty
Python Fanclubs and Fanzines. "Sir Darkwolf", drkwlf@wam.umd.edu,
maintains an FAQ for alt.fan.monty-python, and will mail out copies of
the other files on request.
ftp://cathouse.org/pub/cathouse/humor/monty.python/
Red Dwarf
Maintained by Pat Berry, pat@berry.Cary.NC.US. Posted twice monthly to
alt.tv.red-dwarf, alt.answers and news.answers.
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/alt.tv.red-dwarf/
Rumpole of the Bailey
Maintained by Brenda J. Sharpe, aj471@freenet.carleton.ca. Posted
monthly to alt.fan.rumpole.
ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/media/tv/collections/tardis/uk/comedy/RumpoleOfTheBailey/
Standup Comedy
Maintained by Steve Silberberg, stevebo@onramp.net. Posted to
alt.comedy.standup.
P.G. Wodehouse
The Junior Ganymede Club Book, maintained by Susan Collicott,
susan@pmel.noaa.gov. Posted to alt.fan.wodehouse.
ftp://ickenham.isu.edu/pub/PGW-FAQ
The Young Ones
Maintained by Andrew Wong, achwong@bradford.ac.uk.
Posted occasionally to alt.comedy.british and rec.arts.tv.uk.
ftp://cathouse.org/pub/cathouse/television/young.ones/
ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/media/tv/collections/tardis/uk/comedy/YoungOnes/
Dave Budd, D.Budd@mcc.ac.uk, maintains "The Definitive UK Sitcom List",
listing the titles, writers, principal cast and year of transmission of
virtually every UK sitcom. Posted monthly to alt.comedy.british and
rec.arts.tv.uk.
ftp://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/media/tv/collections/tardis/uk/comedy/SitcomList/
Melinda Casino, melinda@cathouse.org, maintains "Books for the Avid
Britcomedy Fan", a comprehensive list of books covering all aspects of
British Comedy. Posted monthly to alt.comedy.british, alt.answers and
news.answers.
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/tv/british-comedy/books/
Melinda also publishes Britcomedy Digest, a monthly electronic newsletter
on British comedies. Posted monthly to alt.comedy.british and
rec.arts.tv.uk, or contact her directly to join the subscription list.
ftp://cathouse.org/pub/cathouse/british.humour/britcomedy.digest/
Finally, if you can't find what you're looking for: consider producing it
yourself! Feel free to contact me if you need any advice or help.
6. Is any of this stuff available on the WWW?
---------------------------------------------
Yes, some of it. The cathouse.org British Comedy Pages, maintained by yours
truly, are a good place to start:
http://cathouse.org/BritishComedy/
The Tardis TV Archives are also available via a more friendly WWW
front-end:
http://src.doc.ic.ac.uk/media/tv/collections/tardis/
Dave has also recently opened the Tardis TV Database, a collection of
interlinked episode guides searchable by actor:
http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~dave/guides/
7. What's FTP? What's WWW? What's a URL?
----------------------------------------
FTP stands for "File Transfer Protocol", a method of transferring files
between computers over the Internet. It usually refers to "anonymous FTP",
where access is granted to anyone who gives a username of "anonymous". For
more information see the Anonymous FTP FAQ, posted regularly to
news.newusers.questions, news.announce.newusers and news.answers, amongst
other groups. The latest version is archived at:
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/faq
It can also be retrieved by email by sending a message to
mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with a body of:
send usenet/news.answers/ftp-list/faq
WWW stands for "World Wide Web". WWW is a distributed hypermedia system, in
which documents residing on servers all over the world may be linked
together so you can move effortlessly from one document to another. For
more information see the WWW FAQ, posted frequently to, amogst others,
comp.infosystems.www.users and news.answers, and other groups, or fetch it
from:
ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/usenet/news.answers/www/faq/
A URL is a Universal Resource Locator -- an electronic street address that
describes exactly where a resource is and how to access it. URLs follow the
general form:
protocol://host.name/path/to/directory/or/file
8. Could somebody mail me...?
-----------------------------
If you want a file available by FTP, gopher or WWW, and you don't have
access to those particular services, please don't ask the group to fetch it
for you. There are a number of mail-based servers which can fetch files and
mail them back to you. Check out the document "Accessing The Internet By
E-Mail", by Bob Rankin, BobRankin@Delphi.com; it's posted monthly to
alt.internet.services, alt.online-service, alt.bbs.internet, alt.answers
and news.answers, and you can retrieve a copy by sending email to
mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu, with this text in the body of the note:
send usenet/news.answers/internet-services/access-via-email
------------------------------------------------------------------------
James Kew, j.kew@ic.ac.uk, May 1995
(
geocities.com/televisioncity/set) (
geocities.com/televisioncity)