Smokers FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions about the newsgroup alt.smokers, including where to find more information. It should be read by anyone who wishes to post to the alt.smokers newsgroup.

This FAQ and alt.smokers described

This FAQ was organized and compiled by Cantiloper@aol.com, with help from and approval by the regular posters to alt.smokers listed at the end of the FAQ. Rev. 1.5 is available in the Archives.

This document is posted and maintained by jdawson@netcom.com.

Copyright © 1994-1999 by the alt.smokers editors and contributors, all rights reserved. Redistribution of this document is hereby freely granted so long as the document is redistributed in its entirety (here interpreted as all text which were not automated generated by software as part of the distribution process); in particular, with attributions and this copyright notice. We would appreciate hearing about any interesting redistributions.

The poster of this FAQ welcomes helpful comments and suggestions intended to correct errors and omissions. To facilitate feedback, followups to this article will be automatically mailed to the FAQ maintainer rather than being posted on the newsgroup. While the FAQ maintainer welcomes constructive criticism, s/he will not engage in debate via e-mail. Comments and opinions intended to reach the newsgroup as a whole should be posted as a new article and not as a response or followup to this one.

All information here has been contributed with good intentions, but none of it is guaranteed either by the editor(s), the maintainer(s) or the contributors to be accurate. The users of this information take all responsibility for any damage that may occur.

New readers of the newsgroup should be aware of the fact that our group is often "invaded" by Antismokers seeking to proselytize, disrupt, or generally just be obnoxious. Usually the best way to deal with these people is to put them in your killfile if you have one or at least ignore the baits that they throw out. Correcting some of the misinformation they sometimes disseminate is valid, but getting drawn into namecalling contests just aids their attempts at disruption.

The scope of alt.smokers is to discuss smoking and support smokers, who are being subjected to increased criticism, ostracism, and unreasonable taxes. Major topics include social relations with non-smokers, antismoking regulation and taxation, and medical effects of secondhand smoke (SHS). Other topics include personal experiences, opinions on brands, and general discussion about the enjoyment of smoking. This is NOT a stop-smoking group, nor a group for those who wish to spew hate at smokers. Those who consistently post such material will be considered in violation of the charter and their ISPs will be notified.