Good Netkeeping Seal of Approval
Encyclopedia
The Good NetKeeping Seal of Approval or GNKSA is a designation that indicates a piece of Usenet
newsreader
(client) software meets a set of usability and formatting standards. The name is a play on the "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval", a set of consumer reports issued by Good Housekeeping
Magazine.
The original GNKSA author thought that many newbie
s to Usenet posted malformed or inappropriately-sent articles because their software did not encourage better netiquette
. For instance, software which made it easy to confuse replying to a sender by email with posting a followup to a newsgroup led to users mistakenly publishing what was intended to be a private response, or vice versa.
Some of the guidelines from GNKSA 2.0
Additional requirements concern accurate
formatting, and the ability to cancel and supersede articles.
Usenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
newsreader
News client
A newsreader is an application program that reads articles on Usenet . Newsreaders act as clients which connect to a news server, via the Network News Transfer Protocol , to download articles and post new articles...
(client) software meets a set of usability and formatting standards. The name is a play on the "Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval", a set of consumer reports issued by Good Housekeeping
Good Housekeeping
Good Housekeeping is a women's magazine owned by the Hearst Corporation, featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, health as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good Housekeeping Seal," popularly known as the...
Magazine.
The original GNKSA author thought that many newbie
Newbie
Newbie or noob is a slang term for a novice or newcomer, or somebody inexperienced in any profession or activity. Contemporary use can particularly refer to a beginner or new user of computers, often concerning Internet activity, such as online gaming or Linux use...
s to Usenet posted malformed or inappropriately-sent articles because their software did not encourage better netiquette
Netiquette
Netiquette is a set of social conventions that facilitate interaction over networks, ranging from Usenet and mailing lists to blogs and forums. These rules were described in IETF RFC 1855. However, like many Internet phenomena, the concept and its application remain in a state of flux, and vary...
. For instance, software which made it easy to confuse replying to a sender by email with posting a followup to a newsgroup led to users mistakenly publishing what was intended to be a private response, or vice versa.
Some of the guidelines from GNKSA 2.0
- The user can see the essential header fields, including "Newsgroups" and "Followup-ToFollowup-ToA Followup-to is made to specify on which forum, mailing list or newsgroup the replies to a crossposted message should be published.- Followup-to with crossposting :...
". - The user can edit all header fields when composing a follow up.
- There is a clear difference between 'followup' and 'reply'.
- Followups preserve the Subject and References of the original article, unless the user explicitly changes them.
- News software respects "Followup-To" and "Reply-To" specifications.
- What the user writes is what gets posted, as is.
Additional requirements concern accurate
From: headers, signature blockSignature block
A signature block is a block of text automatically appended at the bottom of an e-mail message, Usenet article, or forum post. This has the effect of "signing off" the message and in a reply message of indicating that no more response follows...
formatting, and the ability to cancel and supersede articles.