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Questions &Answers

As FAQ-keeper and long-time contributor to the group, I have received many questions. Here is my attempt to answer the most common ones, to the best of my ability. Of course, my answers are my own opinion, but I have tried to incorporate what I perceive to be widely-held views of "regulars" in the group.

Q. What is the history of the group?

A. Alt.binaries.pictures.children is a newsgroup that has been in existence since the end of 1994. It was formed as a newgroup for pictures of children that were non-nude, non-erotic, and viewable by a general audience. At the time of formation, only child pornography groups existed, so this group was and is a very welcome alternative.

Q. Why does it seem that I'm not receiving all the posts to the group?

A. Unfortunately, this is a very widespread problem on the internet. Theoretically, every post made to a usenet group should find its way to every service provider (ISP) in the world. However, in practice, this does not happen.

Each ISP receives their usenet feed from at least one major usenet collection/distribution company, such as Sprintnet, MCI, etc. For some reason, all posts do not always find its way across the major feeds. Thus, if your ISP only uses one usenet feed, it may not receive everything posted to another one.

Of course, this is a very simplistic explanation. Some ISPs do use more than one usenet company and still do not receive everything. It usually takes a determined effort by the ISP managers to "solve" this problem. Unfortunately, not all ISPs are even willing to recognize this problem exists. I guess they don't read the news themselves.

Q. What can I do about not receiving all the posts?

A.One thing you should not do is complain to the person who posted the material. I know for a fact that all the regulars to ABPC do post complete series. If there are gaps in the series, it is not the fault of the poster,and complaining to them will not change anything. The poster has no control over the distribution of their posts.

Requesting reposts is of course one possible action, but be aware that if you didn't get some images the first time, there's nothing that says you'll get them with a repost. In fact, it's likely the repost won't make it, either.

One step you can take is to complain directly to your ISP about missing posts. If enough complaints are made by enough people, some ISPs are responsive and will try to work things out to improve their feed.

A more immediate and practical approach is to either change internet providers or add a second provider. If you do this, be sure you have a trial period so you can test out the service for awhile. All providers will claim to have complete feeds, but not all actually do. Note that there is a big difference between providing access to all the groups, and providing complete feeds to the groups. It is almost impossible to rely on statements made by the ISPs themselves to determine the completeness of their usenet feeds. Usually the only way to tell is to try them for awhile. Also, if you happen to have friends with other providers, you can often get an idea of how good an ISP is by word-of-mouth.

Q. Where can I find archives of the ABPC pictures?

A. A common misconception by newbies is that there is some large repository for all the images posted to the internet. Unfortunately, the sheer volume of posts to the internet makes such an archive impractical and too costly. However, as things have turned out, over 90% of the images posted to ABPC have been from a small group of dedicated posters. If you are missing specific images, you may try to politely request reposts of those images by e-mailing the original poster directly. While you're at it, thank them for the posts. I know from first hand experience that scanning, processing, and posting images is a very involved, time-consuming process. It doesn't hurt to give regular posters an occasional pat-on-the-back.

Q. I would like to contribute to the group. Where can I find material to post?

A. If you watch the group over time, you will note that there are many different types of pictures that are posted. Some people post family snapshots, others post clips from newspapers. Magazines, catalogs, books, etc. are all sources for material. Unfortunately, there are not many magazines, catalogs, or books that are dedicated to children.

Concerning snapshots: It is probably a good idea to get permission to post pictures of people you know. You would not want to start a family feud when someone finds their picture was posted (without their knowledge) for all the world to see.

Q. How about reposting things I've found somewhere else?

A. In general, if you've found it elsewhere on the internet, it's probably okay. However, if they came from an existing web page, it's probably better to simply post a text message announcing the URL of that page. Most people would rather get the images directly from the source. For instance, many current child and teen movie stars have web pages dedicated to them. It is better to post their location than to take images from those sites and repost them to the group. Besides, it is a courtesy to the web page author to direct traffic to his/her site.

If you know of a nice web page that would be of interest to other readers of ABPC, send the URL to me and I may include it in this FAQ.

Q. I just got an issue of the Swedish "Burda" catalog. It seems like it has some nice pictures. Should I scan and post them?

A. Good etiquette says to avoid "stepping on" established posters' series. For instance, Mary Jane has posted over 900 scans from a sewing magazine for her SB series. It would be impolite to take the latest issue and begin posting these. The "Burda" series has been posted by the regular poster ShyBoy, so posting from the Burda catalog would be impolite. It may be assumed that if these posters are still active that they are planning to post the most recent issues of these sources. If possible, it wouldn't hurt to e-mail these posters to discover their future plans for their series.

To be sure, none of us has a particular "right" to post these images, but common courtesy allows all of us to coexist in society, and the internet is a kind of society. We are all interested in obtaining new pictures. Getting along helps encourage this.

On a similar note - if you repost someone else's image, be sure to give them credit for the original post (if you have that information).

Of course, if you have a general collection of clips, it would be difficult to completely avoid duplication. And if you're new to the group, it would be difficult for you to really know what has come before. However, just try to be aware of this.

Q. What is the difference between GIF and JPEG files, and which is better?

A. GIF is an 8-bit format, which means it contains only 256 colors. It is a proprietary format originating from the Compuserve network as a "standard" for image transfer.

JPEG is a 24-bit format, which means it contains information on 16 million colors. This makes the images more "photo-realistic" on systems that can see more than 256-colors. It is a "lossy" format, which means that some image information is "thrown away" when writing a JPEG file, but when done properly, this loss will not be noticed visually. I regularly compare original scans with medium loss JPEGs, and rarely can notice the difference. Only if you load/save/load/save JPGs several times, or if you enlarge the JPEG by 2x or 3x, will you see the difference.

Of course, if your system only shows 256 colors, then the difference between the two formats is indistinguishable. In fact, with 256 color systems, GIFs will often *appear* better, but in the long run, it is better to accumulate 24-bit images. Almost everybody upgrades to 24-bit screens eventually, so even if you can't view them now, you may regret not having them later.

Q. Is there anything that can be done about posts that don't seem to belong in ABPC?

A. It has been a struggle, but so far, ABPC has remained relatively free of off-topic posts (compared to other binary groups). However, at times, posts will show up that seem to require some action.

This is a very sensitive subject to deal with. Part of me is against censorship and knows that the usenet is a public forum. However, another part of me feels that there are 30,000+ newsgroups out there for a reason. Posts should go to appropriate places, and people who force their posts into groups where they don't belong are selfish and unsympathetic to others' feelings.

In general, when given an e-mail return address, direct e-mail pleas often work. That is always my first line-of-defense. I am always polite in my letters, because anger and flames tend to breed resistance and arrogance. So far, every person who I've e-mailed who has a real address has been polite in return, and generally cooperative. If they receive a dozen *polite* letters from ABPC regulars, that is often enough to "persuade" them that they might wish to change.

Spamming (posting to multiple groups, with no regard to the purpose of the group), and advertising are *usually* against the rules of ISPs, so if direct e-mail does not get a result, the next step may be to directly mail the postmaster@domain.name to seek help (check the NNTP posting host header line for the domain name). If you do this, you must include the headers of the post so that the poster can be traced by the ISP.