Charter:
This newsgroup is for discussing all aspects of wedding planning, from engagement through the honeymoon. Discussions include, but are not limited to, topics such as: purchasing engagement/wedding jewelry and gifts, announcing the engagement, setting a wedding date, hiring professionals such as caterers and photographers, renting facilities such as churches and halls, planning the ceremony, wedding-related etiquette, registering for gifts, selecting wedding attire, and dealing with relationship/family problems associated with wedding planning.
soc.couples.wedding is not limited to discussions of weddings between one man and one woman. Same-sex couples and groups of more than 2 people who are planning a wedding are also welcome to participate.
Discussions of wedding traditions from around the world are welcomed.
There is an emphasis on politeness and tact when relating to other newsgroup participants.
The group should not be used for discussions of general relationship or marriage issues, for which soc.couples is more appropriate.
Soc.couples.wedding was created because the wedding-planning newsgroup alt.wedding was a member of the "alt." hierarchy. Many news administrators do not carry groups in the "alt." hierarchy, because alt newsgroups can be created fairly trivially without any kind of voting procedure, so there are many alt newsgroups of dubious merit. The "soc." hierarchy, on the other hand, is part of the "big 8" usenet hierarchies, and it is only possible to create a soc group by engaging in a 2-month-long process in which the newsgroup is proposed, discussed, and voted on by the usenet community. This leads to wider acceptance of a group by news administrators, so more sites carry soc groups and more people have access to them.
Ideally, people who are currently using alt.wedding will use soc.couples.wedding instead, to avoid splitting the discussion of identical topics between the two newsgroups.
Commercial advertising has not traditionally been acceptable in Usenet News. Usenet News is primarily a forum for discussion and information exchange, not advertising.
Your best policy, as a commercial advertiser, is to avoid making any postings that could be construed as advertisements to soc.couples.wedding.
The following guidelines illustrate a conservative approach which will serve you well. It is drawn from discussions in the newsgroup of what readers considered acceptable and unacceptable behavior. If you step outside the bounds of these guidelines, you will most likely make quite a number of readers of soc.couples.wedding very annoyed. This is not good for anyone. Not only does it make the newsgroup less friendly for everyone by spoiling the atmosphere of discussion and information exchange, but it also makes people feel negative about your business.
You will notice that if you follow these guidelines, you will become a member of the soc.couples.wedding community by being a regular participant in discussions in the group. It is true that this is more time consuming than simply posting an occasional advertisement. However, if people reading the group get the feeling that they know and trust you, you'll find that they'll respond more positively to your business than if you simply did the usenet/internet equivalent of cold-calling them.
It is, of course, in good form for everyone, whether or not they are a wedding professional, to avoid making blanket statements about an entire industry or way of doing things. Just as it is inappropriate for a caterer to deride the idea of holding a potluck wedding reception, so it is also inappropriate for someone who is not planning to have a professional photographer to insult the entire profession. It is one thing to discuss specific positive and negative experiences you have had with a particular approach, and quite another to make blanket derogatory remarks.
The contents of this document are copyright 2004 Sonja Kueppers. Do not use without permission.
Last Modified: May 15, 2004
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