Subject: Alt.folklore.suburban Frequently Asked Questions
Supersedes: <folklore/afs-faq_827545503@rtfm.mit.edu>
Date: 6 Apr 1996 18:22:54 GMT
X-Last-Updated: 1995/02/07

Alt-folklore-suburban-archive-name: faq
Version: 1.0

Welcome to alt.folklore.suburban!

1) What is the charter of alt.folklore.suburban?

   Alt.folklore.suburban is a moderated newsgroup in the alt.* hierarchy
   dedicated to serious discussion of urban legends.  It is intended as a low-
   volume, high-signal repository for discussion of urban legends.  While many
   urban legends are collected, in detail, in the works of Professor Jan
   Harold Brunvand (see below), there are those who wish to discuss variants,
   local "spins", people who refuse to accept them as urban legends, and other
   aspects of the urban legend phenomenon.  Jokes, test postings, insults,
   attacks, ads, and other non-urban-legend-related material is off-charter.

2) Who is the moderator of alt.folklore.suburban?

   The moderator of alt.folklore.suburban is Joel Furr (jfurr@acpub.duke.edu). 
   You can submit articles to the group either by mailing them directly or by
   posting to the group and letting your site's news software forward the
   articles on to the moderator.  The latter is preferred as it preserves
   important header information.

3) Why is the group named alt.folklore.suburban?

   Alt.folklore.suburban was originally proposed as 'alt.folklore.urban.-
   moderated'... a moderated counterpart to alt.folklore.urban.  

   Alt.folklore.urban itself is often a very, very noisy group where actual
   discussion of urban legends sometimes seems to take a back seat to silly
   jokes, long posts about alt.folklore.urban common stock being floated on
   the New York Stock Exchange, taunts and attacks, and in general, noise.  

   However, the name alt.folklore.urban.moderated got a lot of flames from
   clueless people who confusedly thought that the proposal was for
   alt.folklore.urban itself to be _removed_ and replaced by the new alt.-
   folklore.urban.moderated newsgroup.  Since every iteration of proposals for
   a.f.u.m got more flames from people who didn't take the time to read the
   proposal in detail, the proposal was dropped for a while until a better
   name could be found.  

   On April Fool's Day, 1994, someone jokingly proposed that a newsgroup
   called 'alt.folklore.suburban' be created to discuss lawns, swimming pools,
   and so forth.  Joke though it was, a.f.s's creator, Joel Furr, thought the
   name had some charm and appropriated it in place of alt.folklore.urban.  

   If you want a rationale for the name, think of alt.folklore.-suburban as
   alt.folklore.SUB-urban, a subset of the scope and thrust of
   alt.folklore.urban.  Just the facts, ma'am, and none of that loud noise.

4) Why was a moderated counterpart to alt.folklore.urban necessary?

   Nothing is _necessary_.  But in actual point of fact, there are now two
   moderated counterparts to alt.folklore.urban:  alt.folklore.info, moderated
   by Terry Wood, and alt.folklore.suburban, moderated by Joel Furr.  Both
   were created by individuals who found that no matter how hard they tried,
   they could no longer keep up with more than a fraction of the traffic in
   alt.folklore.urban.  The volume of messages per day was simply too great. 
   By creating moderated counterparts, it was hoped that those people who had
   actual urban legends to post would go there or spend some time there. 
   Alt.folklore.info doesn't get many posts -- this is partly because its
   moderator, didn't do much to encourage subscribers to post, and partly
   because alt.folklore.suburban, which came along later, gets most of the
   submissions that go to a moderated urban legends group these days.

5) What's the moderation policy for alt.folklore.suburban?

   The moderator reserves the right to reject posts which contain no urban
   legend related content.  Insults, test postings, ads, attacks, and posts
   that are mainly jokes, among others, qualify for rejection.  In actual
   practice, however, very few posts are rejected, and for the most part,
   these are rejected because they are providing the same answer as an
   approved post.  Example: some guy asks a question, ten people follow up
   with the answer.  Only one of the replies is approved, since the other 9
   said the same answer.

   STUFF THAT WILL BE EDITED OUT BY THE MODERATOR (PLEASE READ):

   The moderator reserves the right to trim or eliminate .signatures, exces-
   sive quoting, and crossposted newsgroups.  Since the inhabitants of alt.-
   folklore.urban usually respond with incredible rage any time an article is
   crossposted to alt.folklore.suburban AND alt.folklore.urban (they see it as
   deliberate 'pollution' by the moderator of alt.folklore.suburban), from
   this point forward, all crossposting to groups other than alt.folklore.-
   suburban will be eliminated prior to posting.  If you do not like this
   policy, please submit your articles elsewhere or submit an article to
   alt.folklore.suburban without crossposting and submit another copy, with
   all the other newsgroups, to those newsgroups.  

   Repeat: Articles submitted to alt.folklore.suburban with crossposting to
   other newsgroups will have the other newsgroups removed by the moderator
   prior to posting.

6) Where should I go for a canonical list of urban legends? 

   As you'll have noted, this 'FAQ' does not list common urban legends.  This
   is partly because there are many excellent books on the subject (see below)
   and partly because the alt.folklore.urban FAQ, maintained by Terry Chan,
   lists almost all of the well-known legends and many of the not-so-well-
   known legends.

   For books on the subject, see Professor Jan Harold Brunvand's popular
   books, _The Vanishing Hitchhiker_, _The Choking Doberman_, _The Mexican
   Pet_, _Curses, Broiled Again_, and _The Baby Train_, which are available at
   most public libraries and at many bookstores.
