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Archive-name: jobs/welcome-faq
Posting-Frequency: monthly Last-modified: 1997-09-01 See reader questions & answers on this topic! - Help others by sharing your knowledge Welcome! This is the introductory posting for misc.jobs.offered, misc.jobs.resumes, misc.jobs.misc, and misc.jobs.contract. It answers frequently asked questions about these newsgroups including the posting guidelines. Contents: Q-1 What is (and isn't) misc.jobs.offered? Q-2 Why have posting guidelines? Q-3 What are the posting guidelines? Q-3.1 The Subject: line must have a specific format. Q-3.2 All postings must be for actual positions. Q-3.3 The organization posting must be identified. Q-3.4 Do not post to inappropriate newsgroups. Q-3.5 Job offerings must be verifiable. Q-3.6 Location of the position must be provided. Q-3.7 A salary or salary range must be provided. Q-3.8 A word about skill and legal requirements. Q-3.9 Is there a time cut-off? Q-3.10 A word about abbreviations and terms. Q-3.11 How to redirect followups. Q-3.12 Should I combine multiple openings into one posting? Q-3.13 What about character sets? Q-3.14 Do I need to respond to every resume I receive? Q-3.15 Anything else I should include? Q-4 What is misc.jobs.resumes? Q-5 What is misc.jobs.misc? Q-6 What is misc.jobs.contract? Q-7 How many people will see my posting? Q-8 How often can I re-post an article? Q-9 How do I update an article with new information, correct a mistake, or otherwise improve it? Q-10 What do I do once the job is filled (or I find a job)? Q-11 How do I cancel an article? Q-12 What is a "Keywords:" line, and how do I make one? Q-13 I have this great idea to make money. Q-14 What about multi-level marketing? Q-15 How do I find out the cost of living in another city? Q-16 Where can I get more information about this network? Q-17 Is misc.jobs archived anywhere? Q-18 Is there a mailing list? Q-19 What are the country codes? (for subject lines) Q-20 Codes for US states and Canadian provinces. (for subject lines) Q-1 What is misc.jobs.offered? It is a news group for the posting of job offerings by individuals, companies, or other organizations with positions to offer. Job offers may be made by any organization with a job opening, or by a professional third party recruiting firm which has been hired to fill the opening. Third party recruiters, however, should note that their being allowed to do business via Usenet is an unusual exception to the general rule which forbids using Usenet for commercial profit. They should therefore be especially careful to adhere to the guidelines for posting. Violations and abuses upset readers, who may call for prohibiting these commercial postings. Readers may note that postings are mostly computer related. This is due to Usenet being a computer-based medium. (You have to use a computer to use Usenet, and computer users are more likely to have computer related jobs to offer.) Offers of non-computer jobs are appropriate here. What isn't misc.jobs.offered? It is not a discussion group or a group for posting resumes. General discussions concerning jobs should be held in misc.jobs.misc. Resumes should be posted in misc.jobs.resumes. Your co-operation is greatly appreciated. If you feel you must followup an article posted here, please edit the "Newsgroups:" line: Newsgroups: misc.jobs.misc Misc.jobs.offered is for offering jobs, not business opportunities. The posting must meet all legal requirements of the country where the work will be done. Before complaining about alleged illegalities in a posting, readers should remember that Usenet is an international network, and that what is illegal in their country may be legal in the poster's country. If a posting is illegal, readers should inform the poster via mail. For more serious problems, contacting the news administrator of the poster's site and/or posting a followup article to misc.jobs.misc may be appropriate. Q-2 Why have posting guidelines? Given the very high number of postings in these groups, it is no longer reasonable to attempt to read all the postings manually. According to stats from uunet, misc.jobs.offered had 8824 articles totaling 11062.9 kB during a two week period in December 1994. Misc.jobs.resumes had 4286 articles totaling 18282.0 kB. With this amount of information to examine, it is now essential to be able to use the computer to quickly screen articles. As in buying a house, for many people the three most important things about a job are: location, location, and location. Someone in New York City may not be interested in relocating to Berlin, and visa-versa. Brief job descriptions are also useful as a first-level screen. Thus, it is important that the location and brief job description appear in the Subject line. In order to allow computerized searches, it is important to use the syntax provided in section Q-3.1 below. If you follow the guidelines when posting, it is easier for a reader to find your article. The reader will have enough information to know whether or not they are interested in the position. Conversely, many readers will ignore articles that do not follow the guidelines. Many readers will give up attempting to find a position through Usenet if they cannot use the computer to search for the articles they are interested in, or if the articles do not have enough information to tell if it is worth contacting you. Following the guidelines will get you more good leads, and fewer poor leads. Thus, it is to your benefit, as well as the reader's, to follow these guidelines. The same logic applies to misc.jobs.resumes. You need to use a good subject line to allow prospective employers to easily find the articles they are interested in reading. These guidelines embody the consensus of opinion as to the proper form for postings of job offers. The guidelines are based on what the readers want. They are not the opinion of the FAQ maintainer. Q-3 What are the posting guidelines? Q-3.1 The Subject: line must have a specific format. Three pieces of information belong in the Subject: line. In order: the location, a brief job description, and the hiring organization. The location and job description are required, the hiring organization may be left out of the Subject: line by third party recruiters, or to make room for a better job description. Format: Subject: COUNTRY-STATE/PROVINCE-City Job_Description Company Examples: Subject: US-IL-Chicago Foobar Developer, Acme Widget Inc Subject: US-NY-NYC Foobar Developer, Acme Widget Inc Subject: US-DC-Washington Foobar Developer, Acme Widget Inc Subject: DE-Munich Foobar Developer, Acme Widget Ag Subject: UK-London Foobar Developer, Acme Widget Ltd Subject: offsite Foobar Developer, Acme Widget Use, in order, the country code, state or province code (if applicable), and the city. Do not leave out the country code. If the country is US or CA, then do not leave out the state/province code. (The state/ province code is optional for countries other than US and CA.) Do not leave out the city. Use the dash ('-') character to separate the portions of the location. Use one or more blank space characters (' ') between the location and the job description, and between the job description and the company. In order to allow computerized searches, it is important that everyone use the same standardized syntax shown above. Do not invent your own unique format. If the job is in a small town or suburb near a larger, better known, city, you may choose to use the larger city in the Subject line. (Providing that the larger city is not in a different country, state, or province than the smaller city.) If there is enough room on the Subject line, you may choose to include both the large city and the suburb on the Subject line by thinking of the suburb as a further division of the metropolition area. For example: Subject: US-IL-Chicago-Lisle Foobar Developer, Acme Widget Inc The same idea can be used to include some other subdivision of a large city: Subject: US-NY-NYC-Midtown Foobar Developer, Acme Widget Inc The standard format shown above allows both humans and the computer to tell whether, for example, "CA" means "California" or "Canada": Subject: CA- means Canada Subject: US-CA- means California ...and to distinguish between cities with the same name: Subject: CA-BC-Vancouver Subject: US-WA-Vancouver If you need to know what the country code for a particular country is, I have included a list of them in section Q-19. Section Q-20 contains a list of US state codes and Canadian province codes. See also section Q-3.6. The job description is not currently standardized, although there has been some discussion of this in misc.jobs.misc. Note that most newsposting software will provide the string "Subject: " for you. If you actually type "Subject: US-GA-At..." your posting will look like: Subject: Subject: US-GA-Atlanta Peach Pickers ... ...which is not what you want. Q-3.2 All postings must be for actual positions. Any job which is offered or alluded to must actually exist, and be "approved", if applicable. Do not submit postings for positions which do not exist. Do not submit vague postings in order to receive a supply of resumes. If you want a source of resumes, read the newsgroup misc.jobs.resumes. Q-3.3 The organization posting must be identified. The name of the company making the offer must be present in the posting. Professional recruiters must place the string "3rd party recruiter" on the "Keywords:" (see Q-12) line. (Recruiters do not need to identify themselves as such on the subject line. The Keywords: line is sufficient. Third party recruiters are not required to name the hiring organization (client) in their postings, although they are welcome to if they choose.) Many universities are legally restricted from handling commercial traffic. This will enable universities to comply with the law. This is especially true if there is a placement fee required of the person accepting the position. Other posters should use the "Organization:" line to indicate the name of the company making the offer, and also include the name of the company in the body of the posting. Examples: Subject: US-TX-Dallas Foobar Developer, Acme Widget Inc Organization: Foobar division, Acme Widget Inc Subject: US-TX-Dallas Foobar Developer Keywords: 3rd party recruiter Organization: Matchmaker Personnel Inc Q-3.4 Do not post to inappropriate newsgroups. All job offers should be restricted to misc.jobs.offered. (Except for contract jobs which go to misc.jobs.contract instead.) Discussions of job offers, and resumes requesting positions, should likewise be limited to the appropriate groups. Followup articles to postings in .offered or .resumes should go to misc.jobs.misc, or to the poster via email. Again, judicious use of the Followup-To: is heartily encouraged. The exception is a job which can be filled by either an "employee" or a "contractor". In this case, it is correct to cross-post the article to both misc.jobs.offered and misc.jobs.contract. For the case of a job which will begin as a "contract" job, but may become a "direct employee" (aka "permanent") position later, the majority of readers want it to be posted to misc.jobs.contract, and *not* cross-posted to misc.jobs.offered. Readers want the split between .offered and .contract to be based on the tax status. In the US, form W-2 jobs go to .offered, form 1099 jobs go to .contract. It is also acceptable to cross-post to a dedicated jobs newsgroup in the local heirarchy serving the area where the job will be performed. Do not, however, cross-post to random local heirarchies, or to newsgroups that are not dedicated to jobs. Your posting may be the first time a potential employee has heard of you. Posting to the wrong group does not make a good first impression. Q-3.5 Job offerings must be verifiable. The name and phone number or address of the person responsible for the position must be given. Provide information that is usable from anywhere in the world; e.g. a *complete* mailing address, and a phone number usable from anywhere. (1-800 phone numbers are often only callable from specific geographic areas, and some readers may need the country code.) Further information should be available upon request. The more information which you provide in your posting, the better the response will be. The poster must be willing to receive electronic mail at least for administrative purposes. The "From" or "Reply-To" header lines will be used for this purpose. It is very strongly recommended that you provide an electronic mail address in the body of the article, and allow resumes to be sent via electronic mail. It is recommended that you list the formats you are able to deal with, e.g. ASCII, PostScript, etc. Q-3.6 Location of the position must be provided. The location of the job must be clearly stated both in the "Subject:" line of the header and in the article. In the Subject line, use the format shown in section Q-3.1. In the article, provide more detail if necessary to provide the reader with the job location to within commuting distance resolution. In many cities, this would mean a specific section of the city or a specific suburb. The street address of the company is usually sufficient. Providing the county and/or the longitude and latitude may be helpful. If the position is not of sufficient interest to the entire world, please use the Distribution: line to limit the distribution of the article appropriately. Limiting the distribution is especially encouraged in cases where a government regulation makes it difficult to hire someone from outside that government's boundary. (If your posting software does not provide a list of distributions, see the news administrator for your site.) Furthermore, you may wish to consider using a local or intracompany newsgroup as a source of candidates. An example would be triangle.jobs for jobs within the Research Triangle Park area. If where the worker lives is not significant, use "offsite" as the location in the "Subject:" line. For example, a job consisting mostly of work that can be done at home or some other location of the worker's choosing, or a job that is mostly travel would use "offsite" as the location. The details would be provided in the body of the article. Note that not requiring a worker to show up on site will give you a larger pool of workers to select from. If some work can be done offsite, but the worker is required to report onsite on a frequent basis, put the onsite location in the "Subject:" line and explain the telecommuting details in the body of the article. Third party recruiters sometimes claim that they cannot provide the location without "giving away" the identity of the employer. This is not a sufficient reason. The location MUST be provided. Job seekers who do manage to figure out who the employer is are reminded that employers choose to use third party recruiters for a reason, and may not be receptive to applicants attempting to bypass the recruiter. Q-3.7 A salary or salary range must be provided. Salary is a useful screen for matching jobs with workers. Simply saying "competitive" or "commensurate with experience" is not helpful. Give a specific salary or range. Again, remember that this is an international network and provide the monetary units (Dollars (US? Canadian?), Pounds, Deutschmarks, etc.) involved. Is the opening salaried or hourly? If the position is likely to require overtime, state how your organization handles it. Overtime pay? Time off later? Is the position full-time? part time? temporary? summer? intern/co-op? Example: Salary: US$70-90k This is a full-time position with paid overtime. Q-3.8 A word about skill and legal requirements. It is usually helpful to list both ideal or desired requirements and the minimum you will accept. There is a lack of uniformity in how people map academic experience into commercial experience. If this is important to you, it may be helpful to explicitly state how they map at your organization. If you wish entry-level persons to apply, (or not apply) say so explicitly. Note that people sometimes go back to school for a Masters or Phd after working for a few years. Therefore, the phrase "No entry level positions at this time." is probably more accurate than "Recent graduates need not apply." The definition of "entry-level" varies, but usually means 0-2 years of experience. If there are requirements such as being a citizen or "permanent resident" of a particular country, say so. If your organization has a dress code or standard working hours, say so. If your organization has unusual requirements, such as handwriting analysis, drug testing, polygraph tests, loyality oaths, etc. say so up front. Many people find such requirements offensive, (guilty until proven innocent) and will refuse to work for organizations which require them, despite being able to pass them. Stating these requirements up front will save both of you time and effort. All requirements must be legal in the country where the work will be done. If the position requires travel, tell the reader how much and where, for example, "20% travel, US west coast", or "70% travel, Europe". Add more detail if appropriate. Example: Desired Required MSEE/MSCS BSEE/BSCS 5 years doing foo 2 years doing foo 3 years doing bar 1 year doing bar 1 year doing baz knows what a baz is 2 years commercial experience 2 years commercial experience We have no entry level positions available at this time. Q-3.9 Is there a time cut-off? If there is a particular date which applications must be received by, state what it is. Arrange for your posting to disappear at this time. (See section Q-11 for one method.) If the worker must begin work by a particular date (or cannot begin until a particular date) provide this information as well. Q-3.10 A word about abbreviations and terms. Abbreviations can be useful in the Subject line, but there is far less need for them in the body of your article. If you use abbreviations, make sure that they are commonly used ones. Do not make up your own. To quote from an article by Igor Chudov: f u cn rd ths, u cn gt a gd jb n cmptr prgrmmng. Do not shorten terms so much that information is lost. For example, there are many computer programs with "DOS" in their name. If you mean MS-DOS, say "MS-DOS", not "DOS". If you are referring to a particular computer display windowing system, tell the reader which one. Say "X-Windows" or "MS-Windows", or whatever, not just "windows". The term "PC" can mean "generic personal computer, including IBM-PCs, MacIntoshes, Ataris, etc.", it can mean "Intel based personal computer hardware platform running any of a wide variety of software", or it can mean "Intel based personal computer running MS-DOS". In electronics it may mean "printed circuit". In non-computer contexts it may mean "politically correct". If you use the term "PC" be sure it is clear what you mean. Q-3.11 How to redirect followups. From time to time it is necessary to remove a conversation from a particular newsgroup for one reason or another. Two of the most common reasons are that discussions are not permitted in the newsgroup which the posting originated in and another is that the topic of discussion has strayed from the original sufficiently to warrant a change in newsgroups. Misc.jobs.offered and misc.jobs.resumes are for the posting of job offers and resumes only. This means that all postings should include a Followup-To: line. This can be done by adding the line Followup-To: misc.jobs.misc or Followup-To: poster to the article header. The rn newsreader provides an empty space which you can use to put the appropriate groups in. Other newsreaders do not and you should add one by hand. This line should be added after the Newsgroups: line. Q-3.12 Should I combine multiple openings into one posting? The main issue here is allowing the user to do automated searches among the thousands of openings available. The majority of computer searching is done using the Subject line. If the jobs have the same location, general description, and company, then they can share the same Subject: line, and thus can be combined into one posting. Otherwise they will need separate postings. For example, if your company needs 2 senior wine tasters, 3 intermediate wine tasters, and 2 junior wine tasters, you could post Subject: FR-Paris wine tasters Acme Grapery and then in the body of the posting explain that you need various skill levels. Conversely, if you were to combine two unrelated jobs into a single posting, such as this bad example: Subject: FR-Paris wine taster, COBOL programmer Acme Grapery A wine taster might have their KILL file set up to throw away postings looking for COBOL programmers, and a COBOL programmer might have their KILL file set up to throw away postings looking for wine tasters. Thus you wouldn't get any resumes. Q-3.13 What about character sets? This is a problem. Usenet is an international network, but there are many limitations which prevent displaying arbitrary images to the reader. Limit your posting to 7 bit ASCII. Do not use fancy escape sequences that do "nice" things on your screen, since they may put someone else's terminal into an unusable mode. Keep lines shorter than 80 characters. Do not assume that your software does this for you. Also remember that the reader's display probably shows a different number of lines than yours does. Do not include a "control-m" at the end of lines. Avoid using large quantities of ALL CAPS. Normal usage of upper and lower case text is easier to read and is perceived as "friendlier" by most people. Using all upper case is perceived as unfriendly shouting. If you need to display images that ASCII cannot handle, I recommend a page description language such as PostScript, which can describe any image by encoding it into ASCII (which can be transmitted over the net and will not confuse terminals). Realize that the reader will need a suitable previewer (e.g. Ghostscript, available at many ftp sites) or printer to read your posting, and that it is more trouble for them, tempting them to skip your article unread. Q-3.14 Do I need to respond to every resume I receive? Is it not required that you respond to every resume you receive, but it is recommended that you send at least a simple "We got your resume and will consider it." acknowledgement. This lets the job hunter know that you received their resume. Some job hunters may send another copy if they think you didn't get the first copy. In addition, it is a common courtesy that your competitors are probably doing. You are competing for the best workers just as you compete for customers. You don't want to be viewed as "Brand X." Q-3.15 Anything else I should include? Try to anticipate the questions prospective employees will have and answer them. If your organization is not well-known, job seekers may want to know how large it is, something about corporate culture, dress code, and so on. Most people know that Los Angeles is warm and sunny, Seattle is rainy, and Chicago is cold and snowy. But if the local climate is not what most people would expect it would be useful to point that out. Acme Widgets is a 6-person progressive company that specializes in writing X Windows widgets for entering hexadecimal quantities. Dress code: blue jeans required. National Gossip Agency is the world's largest employer of historians. It has 100,000 employees all of whom wear business suits. Q-4 What is misc.jobs.resumes? Misc.jobs.resumes is a place for individuals seeking employment to post their resumes (or curriculum vitae, aka "cv"). If you feel you need to post a followup article to an article in misc.jobs.resumes, it should go to misc.jobs.misc. Discussion of misc.jobs.resumes belongs in misc.jobs.misc. Many of the suggestions made above apply here as well. Be concise, limit distribution, and most of all, remember you only get to make one first impression. Provide a useful Subject line. A Subject line of "resume" will not help potential employers find your article. Employers will judge you based on the effort you make when constructing and posting your resume. Posting your resume to misc.jobs.misc or misc.jobs.offered will not make a good impression. Howver, if you want to receive comments/review/critique regarding your resume, then post it instead to misc.jobs.misc with a clear statement that you are seeking comments rather than employment. If you post a resume to misc.jobs.misc without such a statement, readers may assume that you are seeking employment, but cannot be troubled to find the correct newsgroup to post to. Also, not everyone has the latest text formatting software. Try to limit your resume to simple ASCII format, or provide a separate companion posting if you wish to post your resume in troff, LaTeX or PostScript. Q-5 What is misc.jobs.misc? This group exists for job related discussion. Do not look for a job by posting resumes to misc.jobs.misc. Do not look for workers by posting job offers to misc.jobs.misc. Do not post ads of any sort in misc.jobs.misc. If you are seeking comments/review/critique regarding your resume (or job offer), you may post it to misc.jobs.misc with a clear statement that you are seeking comments. Without this statement, readers may assume that you cannot find the correct newsgroup to post to, and judge you accordingly. Most topics relevant to seeking employment, seeking workers, or the workplace are appropriate here. For example: which items should/shouldn't be included on a resume, appropriate dress for an interview, salaries, references, degree vs. experience, working from home, corporate culture, cubicles vs offices, dating coworkers, layoffs, giving notice, and so on. Also, followup articles from the .offered and .resumes groups go here. Discussion regarding the misc.jobs groups goes here as well. Some topics can easily turn into flamefests, for example drug testing and affirmative action policies. Please note that other people have had different experiences than you, and that there is more than one valid opinion on many of these topics. Even if there is only one valid opinion, chances are that you will not convince your opponent. Sometimes you may need to agree to disagree. Also consider that potential employers and employees may be reading your article. Do they see a reasonable person? Or do they see someone they would never consider hiring or working for? Q-6 What is misc.jobs.contract? This group is for discussion of contract work, as opposed to an "employee" full or part-time position. Currently it serves for offers of contract work, offers of availability of contract workers, and general discussion. Job offers in misc.jobs.contract should follow the same guidelines as offers in misc.jobs.offered. Q-7 How many people will see my posting? According to the December 1990 statistics compiled by Brian Reid, misc.jobs.offered is the third-most read newsgroup, read by an estimated 140,000 readers worldwide. Misc.jobs.resumes is read by an estimated 50,000 people worldwide, misc.jobs.misc is read by 71,000 people, and misc.jobs.contract is read by 37,000. See the newsgroup "news.lists" for the latest estimates. Q-8 How often can I re-post an article? If you do not get any (or any interesting) responses from your job posting or resume, you may want to post it again. But first, be patient. It can take 15 days for an article to reach uunet, which is a *very* well connected site. Presumably it can take even longer for an article to reach less well connected sites. Then, even once an article arrives, not everyone reads every group every day. If you need to re-post an article, wait until 30 days have passed from the previous posting. Frequent repostings waste resources and annoy readers. Q-9 How do I update an article with new information, correct a mistake, or otherwise improve it? Once your article has been posted, you cannot go back and edit it. However, Usenet allows articles to be "canceled". If you have posted an article and later decide you need to correct a mistake, update the information, or otherwise improve it, you can cancel the original article and then post a new, improved article. (Or use a "Supersedes:" header line.) See also: Q-11. Q-10 What do I do once the job is filled (or I find a job)? Once the position is filed (or you find a job), you should cancel your job posting (or resume/cv). This will save people time responding to your posting, and will save you time responding to them. See also: Q-11. Q-11 How do I cancel an article? The usual way to cancel an article is to bring it up in your newsreader, and then issue a cancel command. In the "rn" newsreader, the cancel command is "C". If you are using another newsreader, see the documentation for the newsreader, or contact the news administrator or technical support staff for your site. I cannot assist you with other software. In "rn", you can search for an article with the following commands: /search-pattern/ searches Subject: lines forward from current article /search-pattern/h searches all header lines forward from current article /search-pattern/a searches entire articles forward from current article ?search-pattern? searches Subject: lines backward from current article ?search-pattern?h searches all header lines backward from current article ?search-pattern?a searches entire articles backward from current article You may add an 'r' to also search articles you have already read. Examples: /mylogin@mycomputer/hr ?mylogin@mycomputer?hr For newsreader software other than "rn" please see the documentation or contact technical support. Q-12 What is a "Keywords:" line, and how do I make one? Usenet articles have two sections: a header and a body. The header contains lines used by the news system itself, like which newsgroups an article is posted to. The header comes first, then comes a blank line, then the body of the article. The Subject: line and the Keywords: line are both header lines. Most/all news posting software will provide you with a Subject: line, but not all will provide you with a Keywords: line, a Followup-To: line, or a Reply-To: line. The Keywords: line can hold important words or phrases that a reader might want to search for, but which don't fit in the Subject: line. Your software should allow you to change header lines, and to add additional header lines to your article before posting it. The "rn" newsreader allows you to edit the entire article, including both the header and the body, using your favorite text editor, such as emacs. Other news software may have other methods. I cannot assist you with other software. Read the documentation and/or contact technical support. If your software does not allow adding and editing header lines, you need better software. You can obtain a variety of Usenet news software free of charge from a number of anonymous uucp and anonymous ftp sites. Example: Newsgroups: misc.jobs.offered Followup-To: poster From: jane@matchmaker.com Reply-To: hr@acme.com Subject: US-FL-Tampa Orange Juice Tasters Acme Juice Inc. Keywords: 3rd party recruiter Organization: Matchmaker Personnel Inc Our client, the Acme Juice Corporation, needs additional orange juice tasters. There are 7 open positions. No experience necessary. Salary: US$100,000 /year Contact: Human Resources Dept. Acme Juice Inc. PO Box 123 Tampa, Florida, US 1-800-555-1212 hr@acme.com Jane Doe Matchmaker Personnel PO Box 456 St. Petersburg, Florida, US jane@matchmaker.com Q-13 I have this great idea to make money. The following guideline is borrowed from Gene Spafford's article "Answers to Frequently Asked Questions", in news.announce.newusers. I have this great idea to make money. Alternatively, wouldn't an electronic chain letter be an nifty idea? In a few words: don't even think about it. Trying to use the net to make vast sums of money or send chain letters is a very bad idea. First of all, it is an inappropriate use of resources (arguably, so are most of the newsgroups), and tends to use up vast amounts of net bandwidth. Second, such usage of the net tends to produce extremely negative reactions by people on the net, adding even more to the volume -- most of it directed to you. Users, particular system admins, do not like that kind of activity, and they will flood your mailbox with notices to that effect. Third, it's just stupid -- even more so than the other stupidity on the net. And last, and perhaps most important, some of this activity is against the law in many places. In the US, you can (and will) be reported by hacked-off system administrators for suspicion of wire fraud or mail fraud (if you are asking people to mail something to you or others). In one incident, at *least* a half dozen people reported the person to the Postal Service inspectors; I'm not sure what the outcome was, but it probably was not a nice experience. Bottom line: don't try schemes to sell things, solicit donations, or run any kind of pyramid or Ponzi scheme. Also, don't start or support electronic chain letters. And if the preceeding didn't convince you: Newsgroups: news.announce.important Subject: 'Make Money Fast' Scam Sender: usenet@nntp.fbi.gov [Moderator's note: this posting is approved on behalf of the FBI, which has stepped in to investigate the massive spree of fraud being committed by the MAKE.MONEY.FAST posters.] To the USENET Community: You may be familiar with a rash of postings to various newsgroups by various entities purporting to describe a scheme by Mr. David Rhodes of Oxford, Kentucky on the subject of "Make Money Fast." These schemes have as their theme a list of people to whom you, the mark, should send money -- followed by reposting of the article with your name added to the list. In this wise, the scam purports, everyone who participates will become fabulously rich. The FBI wishes to inform you that under no circumstances should you: 1) Believe that this scam will work. It won't. It's a classic con principle to promise massive returns on your meager investment. 2) Participate in the re-posting of the article. If you do so, you are guilty of a Class IV felony. 3) Propagate this scam further in any way. We wish to further inform you that cases are pending in the federal courts against several individuals who disregarded U.S. statutes and attempted to defraud their fellow citizens. Finally, we wish to inform you that David Rhodes himself is in a Federal Correctional Institution for his part in the origination of this scam and will not see the light of day until the year 1997, barring parole or pardon from higher authority. Thank you for doing everything you can to stamp out this scam. Confidence men benefit no one but themselves. Don't fall victim to schemes like this. <end> Q-14 What about multi-level marketing? Discussion of multi-level marketing belongs in the newsgroup alt.business.multi-level. It does not belong in misc.jobs. Q-15 How do I find out the cost of living in another city? [ These two sources are useful for the USA. Pointers to similar info for cities in other countries welcome. -Snoopy ] Rand McNally's _Places_Rated_Almanac_, by Richard Boyer and David Savageau is very helpful. Try the library or your local bookstore. Mark Linimon forwarded the following info from Mike Mattox: A very good source that lists the cost of living for over 225 cities is: "Inter-City Cost of Living Index" It is produced by the American Chamber of Commerce Researchers Association. According to the 1987 edition(the latest copy the Texas A&M library has) it is published quarterly(since 1968) and cost $75/year to subscribe. Subscription information is available from: Louisville Area Chamber of Commerce One Riverfront Plaza Louisville, KY 40202 Q-16 Where can I get more information about this network? The misc.jobs groups are part of Usenet. Usenet is not the same as the Internet, although many sites use the Internet to transport news between sites. There are other methods of transport used, UUCP is popular. Read the articles in the newgroup news.announce.newusers. If you still have questions, ask the news administrator, technical support person, or other knowledgeable person at your site. Q-17 Is misc.jobs archived anywhere? I am not aware of any sites which archive misc.jobs, or any sites which make misc.jobs available via anonymous uucp or anonymous ftp. If someone knows of such a site, please let me know and I will add the information to this posting. The following resource is probably not an archive, but may be useful to job searchers. This information provided by Ruth Shipley, ix.netcom.com!rshipley. In an article titled, "Top U.S. sources for an online job search." in DATABASE (Oct/Nov, 1994, p. 34), the authors say the misc.jobs.newsgroups are "searchable/displayable at Gopher gopher.unt.edu or try lynx gopher://gopher.denet.dk:4320/1nntp." (p. 40) I gophered to the UNT (University of Northern Texas) site and found misc.jobs.offered through the following menu choices: Employment Opportunities (UNT & remote) Opportunities Outside UNT Employment Opportunities Postings in Usenet Search MISC.JOBS.OFFERED Article Titles I didn't find any jobs under the string I searched on, so I can't tell you what the final output looks like. Q-18 Is there a mailing list? The misc.jobs groups are Usenet newsgroups, they are not mailing lists. While it should be possible to gateway them into a mailing list, I am not aware of anyone who has done so. Q-19 What are the country codes? (for subject lines) The following is a list of country codes. This information has been extracted from the 1994-10-24 version of a document called "FAQ: International E-mail accessibility", compiled by Olivier M.J. Crepin-Leblond, ocl@ic.ac.uk. For more info, please see that document, or ISO 3166. The latest version of the country code FAQ is retrievable by sending an E-mail to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu , blank subject line and the command: send usenet/news.answers/mail/country-codes The country codes have been derived from the International Organization for Standardization standard ISO 3166. Code Country +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ AD Andorra AE United Arab Emirates AF Afghanistan (Islamic St.) AG Antigua and Barbuda AI Anguilla AL Albania AM Armenia AN Netherland Antilles AO Angola (Republic of) AQ Antarctica AR Argentina AS American Samoa AT Austria AU Australia AW Aruba AZ Azerbaijan BA Bosnia-Herzegovina BB Barbados BD Bangladesh BE Belgium BF Burkina Faso BG Bulgaria BH Bahrain BI Burundi BJ Benin BM Bermuda BN Brunei Darussalam BO Bolivia BR Brazil BS Bahamas BT Bhutan BV Bouvet Island BW Botswana BY Belarus BZ Belize CA Canada CC Cocos (Keeling) Isl. CF Central African Rep. CG Congo CH Switzerland CI Ivory Coast CK Cook Islands CL Chile CM Cameroon CN China CO Colombia CR Costa Rica CS Czechoslovakia CU Cuba CV Cape Verde CX Christmas Island CY Cyprus CZ Czech Republic DE Germany DJ Djibouti DK Denmark DM Dominica DO Dominican Republic DZ Algeria EC Ecuador EE Estonia EG Egypt EH Western Sahara ER Eritrea ES Spain ET Ethiopia FI Finland FJ Fiji FK Falkland Isl. (Malvinas) FM Micronesia FO Faroe Islands FR France FX France (European Ter.) GA Gabon GB Great Britain (UK) GD Grenada GE Georgia GF Guyana (Fr.) GH Ghana GI Gibraltar GL Greenland GM Gambia GN Guinea GP Guadeloupe (Fr.) GQ Equatorial Guinea GR Greece GS South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands GT Guatemala GU Guam (US) GW Guinea Bissau GY Guyana HK Hong Kong HM Heard & McDonald Isl. HN Honduras HR Croatia HT Haiti HU Hungary ID Indonesia IE Ireland IL Israel IN India IO British Indian O. Terr. IQ Iraq IR Iran IS Iceland IT Italy JM Jamaica JO Jordan JP Japan KE Kenya KG Kyrgyz Republic KH Cambodia KI Kiribati KM Comoros KN St.Kitts Nevis Anguilla KP Korea (North) KR Korea (South) KW Kuwait KY Cayman Islands KZ Kazachstan LA Laos LB Lebanon LC Saint Lucia LI Liechtenstein LK Sri Lanka LR Liberia LS Lesotho LT Lithuania LU Luxembourg LV Latvia LY Libya MA Morocco MC Monaco MD Moldova MG Madagascar (Republic of) MH Marshall Islands MK Macedonia (former Yugo.) ML Mali MM Myanmar MN Mongolia MO Macau MP Northern Mariana Isl. MQ Martinique (Fr.) MR Mauritania MS Montserrat MT Malta MU Mauritius MV Maldives MW Malawi MX Mexico MY Malaysia MZ Mozambique NA Namibia NC New Caledonia (Fr.) NE Niger NF Norfolk Island NG Nigeria NI Nicaragua NL Netherlands NO Norway NP Nepal NR Nauru NU Niue NZ New Zealand OM Oman PA Panama PE Peru PF Polynesia (Fr.) PG Papua New Guinea PH Philippines PK Pakistan PL Poland PM St. Pierre & Miquelon PN Pitcairn PR Puerto Rico (US) PT Portugal PW Palau PY Paraguay QA Qatar RE Reunion (Fr.) RO Romania RU Russian Federation RW Rwanda SA Saudi Arabia SB Solomon Islands SC Seychelles SD Sudan SE Sweden SG Singapore SH St. Helena SI Slovenia SJ Svalbard & Jan Mayen Is SK Slovakia (Slovak Rep) SL Sierra Leone SM San Marino SN Senegal SO Somalia SR Suriname ST St. Tome and Principe SU Soviet Union SV El Salvador SY Syria SZ Swaziland TC Turks & Caicos Islands TD Chad TF French Southern Terr. TG Togo TH Thailand TJ Tadjikistan TK Tokelau TM Turkmenistan TN Tunisia TO Tonga TP East Timor TR Turkey TT Trinidad & Tobago TV Tuvalu TW Taiwan TZ Tanzania UA Ukraine UG Uganda UK United Kingdom UM US Minor outlying Isl. US United States UY Uruguay UZ Uzbekistan VA Vatican City State VC St.Vincent & Grenadines VE Venezuela VG Virgin Islands (British) VI Virgin Islands (US) VN Vietnam VU Vanuatu WF Wallis & Futuna Islands WS Samoa YE Yemen YT Mayotte YU Yugoslavia ZA South Africa ZM Zambia ZR Zaire ZW Zimbabwe Q-20 Codes for US states and Canadian provinces. (for subject lines) AK Alaska AL Alabama AR Arkansas AZ Arizona CA California CO Colorado CT Connecticut DC District of Columbia DE Delaware FL Florida GA Georgia HI Hawaii IA Iowa ID Idaho IL Illinois IN Indiana KS Kansas KY Kentucky LA Louisiana MA Massachusetts MD Maryland ME Maine MI Michigan MN Minnesota MO Missouri MS Mississippi MT Montana NC North Carolina ND North Dakota NE Nebraska NH New Hampshire NJ New Jersey NM New Mexico NV Nevada NY New York OH Ohio OK Oklahoma OR Oregon PA Pennsylvania RI Rhode Island SC South Carolina SD South Dakota TN Tennessee TX Texas UT Utah VA Virginia VT Vermont WA Washington WI Wisconsin WV West Virginia WY Wyoming AB Alberta BC British Columbia MB Manitoba NB New Brunswick NF Newfoundland NS Nova Scotia NT Northwest Territories ON Ontario PE Prince Edward Island PQ Quebec SK Saskatchewan YT Yukon Territory Thank-you for your time and adherence to these guidelines. If a poster should fail to comply, readers are encouraged to first reply to the poster by mail. You may wish to include a copy of this FAQ since they probably haven't seen it. Send a Cc to the news administrator for the poster's site if needed. With your help, we can keep the quality of postings high, the unemployment rate low, and most importantly, the peace. Posters should reread the FAQ from time to time, as posting guidelines are added or modified from time to time to correct problems as they come up or in response to user suggestions. If after reading this FAQ, you still have questions, post them to misc.jobs.misc. Helpful people hang out there and someone should be able to help you. If you have suggestions concerning ways in which this posting may be improved, please send mail to me directly. Note that the headers have been modified to discourage spammers. My userid is "snoopy", my machine is "sopwith.uucp", given this info you should be able to compile a mail address. _____ /_____\ /_______\ |___| Snoopy |___| Copyright (C) 1995-97 All rights reserved. Distribution for profit requires a license. The Microsoft Network does not hold a license. User Contributions:
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