How to do an RPD.INFO Breed FAQ

Who are the Authors? Who can write Breed FAQs?

The Breed FAQs in rec.pets.dogs.* (rpd.*) are written by readers of the group who volunteer to do so. I've written several on the breeds I'm most familiar with, but most of them were written by others with expertise in those breeds. If you want to write one, please do! If you're not sure whether one exists or not, check the regularly posted FAQ on rpd.info that lists the current FAQs for the group.

I maintain no monopoly here on RPD.* -- anyone is free to write & post a Breed FAQ here. In fact, what I outline below applies to all FAQs for RPD.*, not just breed FAQs, including my offer to take care of posting and archiving details for you.

What goes into the Breed FAQs?

As for the format and contents, you're pretty much free to do as you like. There are two restrictions:

Absolutely no use of copyrighted materials without permission. I have had FAQs sent to me that were nothing more than copies of brochures put out by local or national breed clubs -- you must have permission to do this. Other FAQs have copied information out of the AKC's The Complete Dog Book; this is unacceptable. I will (and have) rewrite a FAQ entirely if I discover this was done (in which case I become the author of the FAQ). The material in the FAQ must be original or used WITH PERMISSION. I may verify independently that you have in fact obtained the necessary permission. All the work remains copyrighted BY THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR. I'm very protective of this, and have contacted other people who tried copying portions of FAQs elsewhere.
In addition, I will not at present approve or store anything that contains the AKC Standard for that breed. There is currently something of a legal question over copyrights and at this point to avoid potential problems, I am staying away from them. This may change in the future.

You should look at other breed FAQs for examples of what to put in and how to organize it. In particular, I prefer a balanced FAQ. I do not want to see any that are nothing but praise for the breed. Shortcomings should be pointed out. For example, the Labrador FAQ stresses the fact that many Labradors have an extended adolescence period and often do not settle down until about three years of age. The Siberian Husky FAQ points out the independent temperament of these dogs. Medical conditions common to or peculiar to the breed should be noted. A good idea of the general temperament of the breed should be given. Finally, try to avoid duplicating general information in the breed specific FAQs; for example don't discuss how to find a puppy (covered in Getting A Dog), housetrain it (covered in Your New Puppy), etc. The exception is when it's very important for that particular breed. An example is the Chow FAQ which stresses early socialization because of the breed's temperament and offers a number of tips on socialization despite Your New Puppy's coverage of the same topic.

You can always contact me for editorial comment if you like; find other individuals with similar expertise (e.g., the Malamutes FAQ was team written), or call for participation from readers of the assorted rpd.* groups (the Akita FAQ got its start this way).

Items that I strongly suggest you include:

A revision or last updated list, to make it easy for folks to decide whether there is new information in the faq.
The FAQ must be a single page. This is due to the fact they are posted as one file to rec.pets.dogs.info. If you think it should be much larger and/or split up, then write up the faq as aimed at folks new to the breed, and put the rest of it for more "advanced" folks on other pages. These faqs are introductions to the breed, not encyclopedias. A great example of separating the essential "get-started" info can be found by comparing the Lurecoursing FAQ with the detailed information at the Lurecoursing Homepage.
Discussion of health issues. NO breed is free of problems!
No commercial promotions...which means no promotions of specific breeders, kennels, dogs or litters of puppies in commercial contexts.

OK, I have a FAQ, now what?

Once you are finished writing to it, you can turn it into a "real FAQ" as follows: have me do it, or do it yourself.

Have me do it

You can let me handle all the details. I've put out dozens of FAQs in four newsgroups, so I know what to do and can do it easily, and don't mind doing more. The way this works is that you email me a FAQ. I will do some formatting and proofreading and may make some suggestions. When we are both happy, I will install it at my Web site which is generously donated by K9 Web. Then, I will begin the procedures to have it approved by the *.answers moderation team, and then posted monthly to rec.pets.dogs.info and news.answers thereafter. It will be posted under your name, even though I am actually the one doing it; that way questions will go to you as the author. If you have updates to your FAQ, you email them to me and I take care of updating everything.

Because I maintain a Web site of all these FAQs as a public education service, I do convert your FAQ into HTML (which is why the formatting often changes). You can, of course, send me a FAQ written in HTML to begin with, which is very much appreciated, but not strictly necessary. (I'm more interested in making the information available than I am in turning people into computer whizzes :-). As far as I am concerned, the same person who holds the copyright to the document also holds the copyright to the HTML format, whether I did it or not (that keeps things simple).

At this point, because of K9 Web's generosity, I am able to accomodate one graphic illustration per FAQ stored at my site. To take advantage of this, you snail mail me a picture with the following criteria:

NO IDENTIFIABLE PEOPLE in the picture.
At least one adult dog must be clearly portrayed; other adults or puppies may also be in the picture.
On the back of the picture, you must list the photographer's name and address. You may optionally add other details such as who the dog is, its owner, etc.
The back should be signed by the photographer authorizing me to distribute a copy of it electronically and that the photographer understands there will be no monetary recompense.

If I use the picture I prefer to keep it, but will return it if you give me a SASE with it (in this case, write down the permission on another sheet of paper that I can keep). I will return any picture I do not use, provided I have been given a valid address to return them to. They should be sent to me at PO Box 4188, Irvine, CA 92616-4188. Please, no pictures larger than 8x10; 5x7 or 4x6 preferred. Pictures may be reduced in size and/or cropped for a consistent appearance on the FAQs. All relevant information about the picture will be available as a link from the picture (that will come up when you click on the picture). Neither the picture nor the photo information will appear in the text-only versions of the FAQ posted to Usenet.

Do it yourself

If you do it yourself, send the following two pieces of email out:

To: mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu
Subject: anything
send usenet/news.answers/news-answers/guidelines

and

To: faq-server@rtfm.mit.edu
Subject: help

The first will get you a document detailing how to get a FAQ approved for posting to news.answers. All articles posted to news.answers are automatically archived at rtfm.mit.edu, which supplies both ftp access and email retrieval for those who do not have ftp. But news.answers is moderated, which means you have to get your FAQ into a format they'll approve. They won't care about the contents, as long as it is a FAQ, but will have specific requirements about the header contents.

Do you have to do that? Strictly speaking, no. You could just post it to rec.pets.dogs.info, and if I approve it, you can post it regularly thereafter. However, this means it will NOT be stored in rtfm.mit.edu under pub/usenet/news.answers/dogs-faq/breeds/* as are those that are approved for posting to news.answers. Also, you cannot use the faq-server for articles not approved for news.answers. So there are several benefits.

The second will get you a document detailing how to use the automatic FAQ poster. This allows you to let the program take care of posting your FAQ to news.answers and the target group at the correct intervals automatically. (With 50+ FAQs, you better bet I make use of this ;-). If you do this yourself, I'd still appreciate knowing about it so that I can update the list of FAQs available to RPD.* readers.

I do have a few hybrid situations. For example, the author of the Dachshund FAQ did his own approval of his faq, and he takes care of posting it. However, since he does not have a web site, I keep an html version of it for him. Conversely, several FAQ authors have their FAQ at their site, and I take care of posting it to news.answers and rpd.info (this includes the Rhodesian Ridgeback FAQ, for example). However, I do prefer to host the faq here if at all possible. It simplifies many things for me.

What Happens Afterwards?

If you lose Internet access, I will take over your FAQ as the "editor" -- you are still credited as the author and retain the copyright, but I will make updates as I deem necessary: typically this involves updating breed club addresses, adding information about online resources for the breed, corrections sent in by others knowledgeable in the breed, and any significant changes to the breed (eg, recognition by a major kennel club, etc.). If you hosted the faq and that web site goes away, I will reconstruct the faq on my own website.

I may at my discretion replace a FAQ with another. The reasons vary: if the author goes off the net, if the faq is found to be plagiarized, if the author is convicted of animal cruelty, if the original faq mutates beyond being the scope of a faq an is no longer in a usable format, if a better FAQ comes along. I may also choose to drop a FAQ without replacing it. All of these things have happened at one point or another.

Talk to Me!

So if you want to do a FAQ, talk to me! I'm very interested in getting high quality information out there for public access.

Cindy Moore, cindy@k9web.com