Archive-name: sports/skating/welcome
Last updated: 1 September 1996
Version: 1.14
Posting-Frequency: Biweekly


                                   Welcome to

                              rec.sport.skating.*

    This document is maintained by and copyright 1995-1996 Robert B. Schmunk
    (rbs@skatecity.com). It may be freely distributed provided that this
    copyright notice is attached and that no fee is assessed except for the
    actual delivery cost (e.g., normal connect-time charges).

    Some portions of this document are based on material from an older
    document by George Robbins (grr@tharsis.com) and permission for their use
    is gratefully acknowledged. Thanks also to Sandra Loosemore and Karen
    Bryden for helpful comments.

    Corrections and additions should be e-mailed directly to rbs@skatecity.com
    if you want to guarantee that they are read and considered.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0. Recent changes

    Q4. Re-organized this section a bit.
    Q6a. Re-organized this one just a bit, too.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

                             Table of Contents

     0. Recent Changes
     1. Introduction
     2. What are the rec.sport.skating.* newsgroups?
     3. What other skating-related newsgroups are there?
  +  4. What skating mailing lists are there?
     5. What other skate FAQs are there?
     6. Where are the FAQs archived?
  +     a. Via the World-Wide Web?
        b. Via anonymous FTP
        c. Via mail server
     7. Where else can I look on the World-Wide Web for skate stuff?
     8. Is rec.sport.skating.misc for skateboarders?
     9. Anybody mind if I post an ad for my company?
    10. We need a newsgroup for my small genre of skating.


  + Minor modification to this entry
 ++ Significant modification to this entry
+++ New entry

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1. Introduction

    In the spring of 1995, the newsgroup rec.skate was split into several more
    specific newsgroups. The reason for this was that traffic in that
    newsgroup was high and growing, particularly since ice skating had become
    a popular spectator sport and inline skating was (and still is) enjoying
    tremendous growth as a participatory sport. The expansion of the newsgroup
    was, however, not without its downside, as various types of skaters or
    skating fans began to chafe at the opinions often expressed by the other
    types. Thus, after much discussion, the various FAQ maintainers for
    rec.skate proposed a split of the newsgroup, and in mid-April, all of the
    proposed newsgroups passed the official Usenet voting process. Because of
    the requirements of net.gods who oversee such things, rec.skate was also
    migrated into the rec.sport.* hierarchy, becoming rec.sport.skating.*.

    Many Usenet FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions answer lists) usually begin
    with several paragraphs on netiquette, i.e., proper behavior on posting
    to newsgroups. Rather than do that here, I will just recommend that if you
    have not already done so, you should *immediately* go to the newsgroup
    news.announce.newusers and read the posting entitled "A Primer on How to
    Work With the Usenet Community". After that, please read it again.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2. What are the rec.sport.skating.* newsgroups?

    In short, they are:

    rec.sport.skating.ice.figure        = Figure/artistic skating.
    rec.sport.skating.ice.recreational  = Recreational ice skating.
    rec.sport.skating.inline            = Inline skating, aka Rollerblading.
    rec.sport.skating.racing            = Racing and speed skating.
    rec.sport.skating.roller            = Conventional (quad) roller skating.
    rec.sport.skating.misc              = Miscellaneous skating topics.

    For those of you who want some more detail, the newsgroup charters are:

    rec.sport.skating.ice.figure

      This group provides a forum for discussion of amateur and professional
      figure/artistic skating, including figures, freestyle, pairs, dance,
      and precision team skating. Articles from both participant and
      spectator or fan perspectives are appropriate in this group.

      Appropriate topics for discussion in this group include: amateur and
      professional skating competitions and exhibitions; activities of
      competitive and professional skaters; rules and organizations
      governing the sport of figure skating; and equipment, technique,
      training, and instruction issues.

      While the primary focus is figure/artistic skating on ice, discussion
      of corresponding inline or roller skating topics is not precluded.

    rec.sport.skating.ice.recreational

      This group provides a forum for discussion of ice skating as a
      recreational activity.

      Appropriate topics for this group include public skating, social or
      dance sessions and outdoor skating; learning to skate and more advanced
      group or private instruction; equipment selection, use, maintenance, and
      troubleshooting; and stretching, training and fitness issues.

      Discussion of skating skills on both hockey and figure skates are
      welcome. The group is aimed specifically at skating from the participant
      perspective.

    rec.sport.skating.inline

      This group's focus is on discussion of all disciplines of skating on
      inline skates, also known as blading or Rollerblading(tm).

      Appropriate topics for this newsgroup include equipment selection, use,
      maintenance, and troubleshooting; learn-to-skate issues;
      recreational/fitness skating, street/extreme skating, and inline
      hockey skating.

    rec.sport.skating.racing

      This group provides a forum for discussion of skate racing and speed
      skating, including short-track, long-track, and distance/endurance
      events, whether on ice skates, inline skates, or conventional roller
      skates. Training and fitness topics relevant to racing are also
      appropriate for this newsgroup.

    rec.sport.skating.roller

      This group provides a forum for discussion of all forms of skating on
      conventional (quad) roller skates, including indoor rink skating,
      outdoor skating, figure/artistic and social roller skating.

    rec.sport.skating.misc

      This group is [the] place to discuss skating-related topics that either
      do not fit any of the other rec.sport.skating subgroups, or that are not
      specific to any mode or discipline of skating. Appropriate topics for
      discussion in this group include ice-hockey skating, cross-training, and
      skating-related injuries such as foot pain.

    You may have noticed that a) there is no skateboarding newsgroup, and
    b) rollerhockey is lumped into the *.inline newsgroup. The former is
    because skateboarders posted only rarely to rec.skate before the split
    and so creation of a newsgroup for them did not seem necessary. Further
    comments on this topic are provided in question 8. Likewise, rollerhockey
    traffic on rec.skate was fairly low level and so it seemed best to place
    it with the *.inline traffic. However, rollerhockey fans may wish to note
    that occasional rollerhockey traffic also appears in rec.sport.hockey.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 3. What other skating-related newsgroups are there?

    Skating newsgroups which are not part of this hierarchy are mostly alt.*
    groups related to ice hockey, although there are exceptions. The following
    groups are available at my site. Your site may not carry all of them, or
    it might carry some which mine does not.

      rec.sport.hockey
      rec.collecting.sport.hockey
      alt.skate                    // obsolete; see note 1
      alt.skate.figure
      alt.skate-board
      alt.sports.hockey.echl
      alt.sports.hockey.fantasy
      alt.sports.hockey.ihl
      alt.sports.hockey.nhl.(teamname)
      alt.sports.hockey.nhl.chat
      alt.sports.hockey.rhi
      alt.sports.hockey.whl
      alt.fan.(skatername)        // see note 2

    Note 1: alt.skate was the predecessor to rec.skate and is now obsolete.
    Although it was rmgrouped, it still persists on many systems and sees a
    very low level of traffic, but not enough to make it useful. If your site
    does not carry it, it's not worth bothering your newsadmin about it.

    Note 2: Many/most of the alt.fan groups are "bogus" and therefore useless.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 4. What skating mailing lists are there?

    SKATERS-L
    SKATEFANS-L
      The two daughters resulting from a split of the old Rutgers ice skating
      mailing list, respectively for people interesting in figure skating
      from a participant and spectator's perspective. To subscribe, send
      e-mail to majordomo@udel.edu stating one or both of

      subscribe skaters-l your-email-address-goes-here
      subscribe skatefans-l your-email-address-goes-here

      For further information about either of these list send e-mail to
      majordomo@udel.edu stating one or both of

      info skaters-l
      info skatefans-l

      A Web page which provides some info about these lists is SkateWeb's
      goodies page:

      http://haskell.cs.yale.edu/sjl/skate/skate-goodies.html

    SKATE
      A *speedskating* oriented mailing list. For info, send e-mail to
      skate-request@uni-koeln.de. To subscribe, send the message
      "subscribe skate" to majordomo@rrz.uni-koeln.de. For more info,
      visit the Web page:

      http://dutiosd.twi.tudelft.nl/~penninx/skate/subscribe.html

    ROLLER-HOCKEY-INTL
      For discussion of Roller Hockey International, the North American
      professional rollerhockey league. To subscribe, send the message

      subscribe roller-hockey-intl Your Full Name

      to listproc@plaidworks.com. For more info, check out

      http://hockey.plaidworks.com/ListAdmin/

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 5. What other skate FAQs are there?

    Most of the rec.sport.skating.* newsgroups have their own FAQs. Most of
    them are posted once a month, with an expiration date set so that they
    should remain on your news server until the next posting cycle.

    "Competitive Figure Skating FAQ" (five parts)
      Maintained by Sandra Loosemore (loosemore-sandra@cs.yale.edu);
      posted monthly to rec.sport.skating.ice.figure.

      This FAQ answers questions on points ranging from scoring systems to
      definitions of jump and spin names to info about upcoming events. While
      much of this will be useful to amateur figure skaters, it will
      particularly benefit skating spectators (i.e., fans) who want to learn
      more about what they're watching.

    "Recreational Figure Skating FAQ" (six parts)
      Maintained by Karen Bryden (ao071@freenet.carleton.ca);
      posted monthly to rec.sport.skating.ice.recreational.

      This FAQ concerns basic skating skills from the perspective of a
      figure skater, from the very basic levels through to the level of
      single jumps. It defines skating terms, discusses equipment selection
      and maintenance, talks about how to do various skills correctly, and
      deals with conditioning and injury. It also talks about social aspects
      of skating and instruction. The learn-to-skate skills such as stopping
      stroking and crosscuts are equally applicable for hockey skaters. As
      the recreational skating group develops, more topics of interest to the
      group will be added.

    "In-line Skating FAQ" (twenty parts)
      Maintained by Tony Chen (adchen@skatefaq.com);
      posted monthly to rec.sport.skating.inline.

      Besides introducing the reader to the newsgroup, this FAQ provides
      voluminous material in answer to some all-too-frequently questions.
      Topics covered include buying tips for newbies, methods for stopping,
      how to clean your bearings, places to skate around the globe, and
      reviews of numerous inline products.

    "Conventional (Quad) Roller Skating FAQ" (four parts)
      Maintained by George Robbins (grr@tharsis.com);
      posted monthly to rec.sport.skating.roller.

      Although traditional roller skating has its similarities to inline
      skating, there are important differences, and they are covered here.

    "Roller Skating Rinks XYZ Region List" (ten parts)
      Maintained by George Robbins (grr@tharsis.com);
      introduction posted monthly, other parts quarterly to
      rec.sport.skating.inline and rec.sport.skating.roller

      Data and mini-reviews about numerous rinks around the U.S., Canada, and
      the world.

    "Skate Book Bibliography / FAQ" (two parts)
      Maintained by George Robbins (grr@tharsis.com);
      posted monthly to the entire rec.sport.skating.* hierarchy.

      This FAQ provides an extensive bibliography of books relevant to all
      types of skating, including mini-reviews and tips on where to find some
      of the books.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 6. Where are the FAQs archived?

 a. Via the World-Wide Web

    All of the rec.sport.skating.* FAQ maintainers keep copies of their
    various FAQs on their local Web servers, often in HTML format. Thus, the
    rec.sport.skating.ice.figure FAQs may also be found at:

      http://haskell.cs.yale.edu/sjl/skate/skate-reference.html

    The rec.sport.skating.ice.recreational FAQs are at:

      http://www.crc.doc.ca/~kbryden/recreationalSkating/

    The rec.sport.skating.inline FAQs are also located at:

      http://www.skatefaq.com/

    The rec.sport.skating.roller FAQs and rinks and books list can be found at:

      http://www.netaxs.com/people/grr/Roller/

    An up-to-the-minute copy of this "Welcome to rec.sport.skating.*" FAQ can
    be found at:

      http://www.skatecity.com/FAQs/rssm.txt

    Web-browsable *text* copies of FAQs which have been cross-posted to
    news.answers are also available from a server at Ohio State University.
    The URL is:
 
    http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet-faqs/bygroup/rec/sport/skating/top.html

    (Note: Not all of the FAQs are cross-posted to news.answers, so the above
    address will not lead you too all of the documents listed in question 5.)

 b. Via anonymous FTP

    The master FAQ site is rtfm.mit.edu. When rtfm.mit.edu is overloaded with
    ftp sessions, attempting to connect to it will yield a brush-off message
    listing the primary mirror sites. Capture that message for future
    reference.

    Sample ftp session from a login shell:

      ftp rtfm.mit.edu
      login: anonymous
      password: foo@bar       // type your e-mail address here; it won't echo
      ftp> cd pub/usenet/rec.sport.skating.misc
      ftp> ls
      [...]                   // a directory listing is returned
      ftp> get filename
      [...]                   // info on how many bytes were received
      ftp> bye

    File names on rtfm can be long and perverse, being based on documents'
    subject lines. If your ftp client program doesn't know how to translate
    them to valid filenames on your system, you may have to issue individual
    "get fromname toname" commands.

 c. Via mail server

    If you do not have access to anonymous ftp, you can also send e-mail to
    mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu to get FAQs by e-mail.

    Initially, try a message with no Subject: and just the following line in
    the body:

      help

    One useful command is the index command. This returns a list of the
    contents of a particular directory. Some examples of how to use this
    command are:

      index usenet/rec.sport.skating.misc
      index usenet-by-group

    Be warned that the index has a *lot* of information in it. The directory
    listing that will be sent to you by e-mail can be *very* large.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 7. Where else can I look on the World-Wide Web for skate stuff?

    For ice skating, the best source of information and links is Sandra
    Loosemore's "SkateWeb":

    http://www.cs.yale.edu/homes/sjl/skate.html

    For inline skaters, the best Web index (IMHO) is my "Skating the
    Infobahn", which also includes numerous speedskating and rollerskating
    pointers, at:

    http://www.skatecity.com/Index/

    For *ice* speedskaters, probably the two best sites to start with are the
    Amateur Speedskating Union (ASU/USA) homepage and Wim Penninx's page,
    respectively at:

    http://web.mit.edu/jeffrey/speedskating/asu.html

    http://www.twi.tudelft.nl/~penninx/skate/

    Otherwise, your best bet for finding skating-related material on the
    World-Wide Web is to start at one of the many Web indices or Web robot
    databases. Perhaps the most popular of these is Yahoo. URLs for skating
    indices on that server are:

    http://www.yahoo.com/Recreation/Sports/Skating/
    http://www.yahoo.com/Recreation/Sports/Hockey/

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 8. Is rec.sport.skating.misc for skateboarders?

    Although the newsgroup charter (see above) does not say it is not, the
    following posting by Sandra Loosemore made on April 24, 1995, explains
    why it wasn't intended that way:

     Well, I can honestly answer that it wasn't intended that this newsgroup
     be used for discussion of skateboarding. During all of the discussion
     period that preceded the vote for the rec.sport.skating* groups, I don't
     think anybody ever suggested that we needed to include a place for
     skateboard discussion somewhere in the hierarchy.

     [...discussion re skateboarding vs. skating skills deleted...]

     Skateboarding is currently discussed in alt.skate-board, which was split
     off from the discussion of "real" skating long ago. If you skateboarders
     want to move out of the alt hierarchy and into the big 7, there's nothing
     to prevent you from going through the same kind of procedure that was
     used to create the new skating groups. Such a new newsgroup wouldn't
     necessarily have to go in the rec.sport.skating hierarchy.

   Thus, whether or not rec.sport.skating.misc was intended for skateboarding
   discussion, persons interested in the topic would be doing themselves a
   favor by going where such discussion is already taking place, to the tune
   of 30-40 postings per day: alt.skate-board.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 9. Anybody mind if I post an ad for my company?

    Persons or companies considering advertising in the skating newsgroups
    should note that there is historically an anti-advertising bias on
    Usenet, and posting of ads may lose you more potential customers than it
    gains. If you're thinking about posting an ad for your business, please
    go to the newsgroup news.announce.newusers and read the posting entitled:
    "Advertising on Usenet: How to Do It, How Not to Do it". You'll save
    yourself from a lot of flamage if you avoid some of the excesses described
    therein.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
10. We need a newsgroup for my small genre of skating.

    Periodically, discussion arises in one of the skating newsgroups that some
    sub-genre of that form of skating deserves its own newsgroup. In its
    first eight months of existence, this happened twice in r.s.s.inline due
    to the agitation of a handful of aggressive skaters, but there has also
    been a small bit of noise about a rollerhockey newsgroup and even the very
    quiet r.s.s.roller has seen requests for a separate skating music
    newsgroup.

    Putting aside any arguments about the amount of traffic in the source
    newsgroup and potential traffic in a new newsgroup, the persons who are
    making such requests/complaints need to realize a couple of things:

    1) r.s.s.misc was not created as a dumping point for dissatisified
       skaters. It is there to discuss skating which is not included in
       the charters of other newsgroups and to discuss topics of interest
       to *all* skaters.

    2) There is a procedure for creating new newsgroups. You lose the respect
       of other people (i.e., your postings on *any* topic may be ignored) if
       you complain that a new newsgroup is needed but are unwilling to start
       or assist in that process yourself. If you don't know what the process
       is but keep posting that it should be done, you are only displaying
       laziness.

    3) Proclamations that other forms of skating "suck" or that yours "kicks
       ass" will get you nowhere in the newsgroup creation process and may
       only provoke a negative reaction.

    All that said, if you *really* think a new newsgroup is needed and are
    willing to do something about it, look for the article "How to Create a
    New Usenet Newsgroup" in any of the following newsgroups: news.admin.misc,
    news.announce.newgroups, news.announce.newusers, news.answers, and
    news.groups. Since they are easier to create, you might consider an alt.*
    newsgroup instead, but realize that it will not be carried by as many
    sites. Look for the article "So You Want to Create an Alt Newsgroup", in
    alt.config, alt.answers, or news.answers.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

   Again, thanks to Karen Bryden, Sandra Loosemore, and George Robbins for
   assisting at the birth of this FAQ.

   Thanks also to Allen P. Abel, Mary Hiser and Joy Lynam for revised info
   regarding mailing lists.

rbs


-- 
Robert B. Schmunk
Editor, The Skate City Press - http://www.skatecity.com/press/
