Xref: gwinnett rec.humor.funny:3325 news.answers:2878 Path: gwinnett!emory!europa.asd.contel.com!uunet!looking!funny-request From: funny-request@clarinet.com (Brad Templeton) Newsgroups: rec.humor.funny,news.answers Subject: Introduction to REC.HUMOR.FUNNY -- Monthly Posting Keywords: monthly administrivia Message-ID: Date: 2 Oct 92 10:35:06 GMT Followup-To: rec.humor.d Lines: 145 Approved: funny@clarinet.com Archive-name: rhf-intro Welcome to rec.humor.funny, USENET's daily on-line humour magazine of the netwaves. Rec.humor.funny (RHF) is a "moderated" newsgroup. This means that only one person, the editor/moderator, is allowed to post directly here. If you want to post here, you send electronic mail to funny@clarinet.com. If the editor (that's me) decides that you have sent in a new and funny joke that fits the submission guidelines, it gets sent out to the RHF audience. Anything that's not an actual joke submission goes to funny-request@clarinet.com. RHF is read (they say) by >200,000 people on USENET, Fidonet and GEnie, plus many more on peripheral networks and other systems. It is read in the USA, Canada, Australia, NZ, Japan, Indonesia, Chile, Israel, Brazil, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Africa, Iceland & Eastern and Western Europe and many other places. I hear somebody even forwards it down to the USA's South Pole research station. (Hi folks!) RHF works on a quality, not quantity basis. You'll usually see only 1 to 3 jokes per weekday in this group. These are culled from around 20 to 30 daily submissions. I hope that what you see gives you some amusement to start, or finish your newsreading day. Those submissions come via email, from other Usenet newsgroups like rec.humor, and other sources. RHF specializes in jokes, although anything funny can show up here. In particular, topical jokes on the latest news are particularly popular. RHF is, in fact, one of the ways these jokes spread around the world so fast. Original jokes by netters and computer jokes are also a specialty -- in fact, there are awards given every year for original jokes with cash prizes! If you wish to submit, read the posting after this, which gives the submission guidelines. Most RHF postings are categorized with "keywords." Some of these keywords give the editor's opinion of the joke's quality, on a scale that goes (doubt it, maybe, smirk, chuckle, funny, laugh, sidesplit). Of course, your sense of humour may vary. Check dealer for terms and conditions. Other keywords warn readers about potential offensive content in jokes, and can be used in kill files. I try to warn about sexual context, sick jokes, swearing, bathroom humour, the odd pun and the use of stereotypes, particularly racial or sexual ones. Other keywords give general information. Self-explanatory ones include "original" and "true." "Administrivia" is a keyword for postings like this, that aren't jokes, but administrative information. "heard it" means a joke is judged good but moderately well known. Why do I get to judge what's funny and what isn't? Well, it's a dirty job, but somebody's gotta do it. Seriously, not everybody will agree with my sense of humour, but then, nobody is forced to read the group. As long as the unmoderated groups rec.humor and talk.bizarre exist, I hold no power to censor or suppress anything anybody wants to say. As you'll read in the 2nd following posting on possibly offensive jokes, this is a no-holds-barred newsgroup. Like a letters to the editor column in a paper, I don't judge what a joke says, just how well (funny) it says it. Jokes that I suspect may go way beyond some people's thresholds of offense are actually encrypted with a simple letter- substitution cypher, so that you have to go out of your way to read them. I WILL NOT EXPLAIN THIS TO YOU. If you dare to read these jokes, ask a neighbour (not the net) how to do it. Bitnet readers: RHF is forwarded to the NUTWORKS list. This is not done by me, and I don't control it. PLEASE DON'T SEND ADD/DROP REQUESTS TO ME. Send to listserv@TCSVM.bitnet. I do not handle any mailing lists of this newsgroup. If you see an error, or have a comment on an RHF posting, MAIL TO THE POSTER, not to me. Doing a "reply" in your newsreader does this for you. Ask the poster to forward the comment to me if it's a question of attribution etc. This avoids my getting duplicates on these. System Admins: If you can, please extend the expiration date of RHF to something nice and long. At 2-3 msgs/day, you can keep a month of it without consuming significant disk space. This cuts down on back joke requests. (Which I reject due to my I'm-not-a-joke-server policy.) Back jokes from RHF are collected into the RHF "TeleJokeBooks." Rather than repeat them on the net, (or waste $10 posting a message asking, "does anybody have...") you can get these jokes in book form. The 1990 annual (Volume III) is $9.95 USD. + S/H. Volume II (1989) is the same price. Volume I (1987 & 1988) is $13 USD + S/H. All three are $29.95 + S/H. Send mail to jokebook@clarinet.com for details on how to order. Credit card orders can call 1-800-USE-NETS (800-873-6387) or 1-408-296-0366. (I would give more details here, but people go overboard if anything involving money is mentioned too much on the net, even if it helps the net.) (Gene Spafford suggested that if I put it on magtape and charged a $45 "distribution fee," I wouldn't get any complaints!) Back jokes are also available on GEnie, which allows unlimited non-prime access to the Joke area and a hundred other areas for $5/month. About the rec.humor.funny original comedy awards: Each year I select the best *original* submissions. Prizes are awarded to the winners, including $100 cash and more for first place. Other prizes include software, GEnie online time, TeleJokeBooks and E-mail subscriptions to Dave Barry's column. Submissions must be clearly marked as original. Winners appear in the jokebooks. Judging is done in November. Now, a few special administrative notes: Rec.humor.funny newsgroup joke stream & collection Compilation Copyright 1987 ... '92 by Brad Templeton You can copy and distribute the rec.humor.funny stream/collection in whole or in part in electronic form, as long as you don't try to make money off it, or pretend that you are the one who put it together. (A "compilation copyright," by the way, is a special form of copyright that covers editing and compiling the work of other people -- i.e. exactly what a moderator or editor does. There is NO claim on the copyright of the individual works. These are either public domain or still owned by their authors or authors' assignees. A compilation copyright means you can't distribute most or all of the compilation, or use it as a significant source for your own compilation.) This newsgroup sometimes contains material some consider offensive, and material that may not be suitable for some minors. As such, all redistributors should make sure that nobody reads the group other than by personally requesting it, and all redistributors must take whatever precautions they feel are necessary with regards to newsgroup access by minors. The warnings and keywords placed on jokes are for the reader's convenience only. The editor makes no assurances that such warnings are complete or correct. It is up to each reader to decide whether to be guided by these keywords and/or warnings. Submitters to RHF grant the editor the right to unlimited electronic distribution of their submission to USENET and other networks including GEnie and Delphi, and unless explicitly stated otherwise, rights are also granted for the inclusion of the submitted joke into the Rec.Humor.Funny Computer Network Humour Annual book series. The moderator also has the right to make edits which, in the moderator's sole opinion, improve the joke. The moderator will note whenever substantial editing has taken place. (Sorry, but it turns out all this legal schmazola is necessary. I want this group protected if it ever comes under attack again.)