Volkswagen Air-Cooled FAQ v0.03
rec.autos.makers.vw.aircooled
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This FAQ is considered general information and is owned
by its contributers, not by it's author. If you want to
own part of this FAQ, contribute. The author simply
orders, arranges, compares, and filters information.
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As you can see, this FAQ is very dry. I'll slowly try to
flesh this out, but I don't know much. If you see something
that is wrong or isn't there, let me know and I'll change
or add to the FAQ. Please send all submissions to the FAQ
to mojo@rps.net with the title `Air-Cooled FAQ'. With the
addition of Steven Johnson's incredible amount of information,
I will slowly be incorporating his information into this
FAQ as best I can. I'm not made of time, but I can slowly
get this all done.
07/14/98 - V0.04 - After a brief down time, my domain is
back up. Shew! Got a good blank filled
in as for what VaG meant.
05/27/98 - V0.03 - Made HTML formatted version.
05/26/98 - v0.02 - With a passing on of knowledge, the FAQ
grows. Thanks to Steven Johnson.
05/22/98 - v0.01 - Let there be knowledge.
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Purpose: The provision of knowledge and fact in an attempt
to eliminate ignorance in the newsgroup. To provide the
following in a comprehinsive manor.
o Answers to frequently asked questions about Air-Cooled VWs.
o Lists of resources available regarding Air-Cooled VWs.
o Anything else that needs to be put here (um yeah).
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Contents:
I. What is this newsgroup about?
A. The general focus.
B. Why a Usenet newsgroup?
C. Guidelines.
D. Common abbreviations.
II. What's an Air-Cooled VW?
A. Who made them?
B. Why were they made?
C. Where and when were they manufactured?
D. What are they?
i. Type I
ii. Type II
iii. Type III
iv. Type IV
v. Others
III. How do I find out more?
A. WWW Pages
B. Books
C. Misc.
I. What is this newsgroup about? (rec.autos.makers.vw.aircooled)
A. The General Focus.
This newsgroup is an open discussion concerning the care, collection,
restoration, modification, building, or anything else you ever wanted to
actually DO to an Air-Cooled Volkswagen. Anyone can post and anyone can
read those posts. By keeping the discussion to Air-Cooled VWs, people will
not be confused by the title of this newsgroup. A good thing I think.
B. Why a Usenet newsgroup?
There are a LOT of Air-Cooled enthusiasts out there. Each with a different
view of their ideal Air-Cooled VW. A mailing list would simply create a
huge glut of E-Mails. A digest would only consolidate these E-Mails into a
huge file every day to anyone who was subscribed. Since most news reading
programs allow the viewer to follow threads, people can follow topics they
are interested in without reading everything, and still be able to read
anything that they want. While a newsgroup may allow for SPAM and other
annoyances, it's the best compromise for the number of people who love
Air-Cooled VWs.
C. Guidelines. "To post, or not to post ... that is the question."
I've found two good lists of guidelines that seem to give a good feel for
what should and should not be post material in the Air-Cooled NG. These
are not rules, but more like good tips that you should follow until you
feel like you're at home and know the NG and your boundries.
-----8<-----BEGIN QUOTED TEXT----->8-----
From: Steven Johnson
Subject: Netiquette (FAQ)
NETIQUETTE:
Netiquette isn't etiquette.
It is the suggested set of behaviors for conduct specific to computer
networks. It differs several ways from ettiquette because of the nature of
computer communication (stored messages; unreliable, asynchonous delivery,
etc.), you will see examples below. Conventional ettiquette can actually
accentuate flame wars. It's very similar to a new inexperienced driver
coming to an intersection and yielding EVERY time (streets have precedence)
thinking they are being polite. Notable examples and exception abound.
No one ever said that life was simple.
READ news.announce.newusers. When in doubt, ask an experienced user
using email. Broadcast posts are "expensive." Read all of the
FAQs.
Send mail in preference to posting a followup.
Read all available postings on a subject before posting. Or send email.
When you attribute (>) news articles: minimize (cut down the attribution,
remove the previous poster's signature line. DON'T ATTRIBUTE 100 LINES OF TEXT,
THEN POST A TWO LINE COMMENT. That is a true stupid waste of bandwidth
and disk space. If you are serious about email replies, include a
signature. Mail can be flakey. Do not assume that your mail system
is the only one in the world. The world does not work that way.
This is called a "Me, too" post even if those aren't the exact words.
EDIT your SUBJECT: lines. Ask an experienced poster by mail about
a subject. Mail is far nicer than news: more care, less flamage, more
friends. Use this list sparingly or as a last resort. Read books on
the subject and/or reference the multitude of web sites with tech articles,
tips and archives. A little searching on the web can sift out a
multitude of answers to your questions. The knowledge base on air-cooled
VWs now is huge and has been hashed and re-hashed over many times.
Cyclic topics bore people, everyone after the 3rd round.
On your content: Remember the 5Ws: who, what, where, when, why, how.
where: I have bug for sale....... $2000
That's nice, but where is it? Be sure to give your
general location, your email or a phone number. (Include
the area code.)
when: If you have time dated material consider using the Expires:
field. Expires: day month year, day in digits, Month in
3 letters, four digit year.
The other Ws are left for you.
Suppose you post the file of the same article two or more times.
You should know how to use your news interface and cancel the additional
copies of your post. Don't apologize, that doesn't solve the problem.
You only add fuel to the fire. You should be testing in the test groups,
not the regular discussion groups. Learn and use the full capabilities
of your news reader. It can't cancel? Ask your service provider for one
which will. Be an intelligent customer, not just another net newbie.
GIFs (and binaries): Graphics Interchange Format: A popular thing for
people with bit-mapped graphics X-terms or workstations is to use outdoor
oriented backgrounds. Ignore this if you have a vt100 clone, an IBM 3270,
etc. These bit-maps are typically encoded in a variety of formats: under the
terms like GIFs, uuencoded, etc. DO NOT POST GIFS or any other binary file
to this (rec) newsgroup. Specialized groups exist (alt.binaries.pictures.*)
for posting pictures. Ignoring copyright problems, GIF files tend to be
rather large. If you post a large GIF, certain sites like hosts at some
one's home, fill their disks up fast, faster than flamage, pictures are large.
Many people do not appreciate this, and they will send nasty-grams to your
news system administrator. Second, depending on the size of the files
(e.g., UUCP has a default 100KB limit which most people don't change, or
lower [like 30KB]), you can create a situation which causes two computers
on the network to thrash: thus preventing other news and mail from between
between those machines. This is even more annoying. This happens on sites
connected via phone where incomplete transfers take place: the stupid computer
just tries again, and again, and again. [Definition of recursion: See
recursion.] GIF posters typically mean well but unintentionally cause problems
like the little old lady on the freeway. So don't post GIFs [IN THIS GROUP].
Pointers, okay, no images. Alt.pictures groups. If you don't have them,
that's your site's choice. Follow it. Then, get them to change it
SPECIFICALLY: pyramid schemes are reported to civil authorities;
these are clearly illegal. Doing them electronically does not change
their legality. These posts involve names like Dave Rhodes.
Do not post requests for cards for Craig Shergold. He got well.
An FAQ is available to describe his cancer's remission.
Yes, we know about Canter and Siegel. Do not spam spam spam. Attempts to
mail bomb a mail box merely get reflected with an alias. Instead submit
one (read ONE) letter of complaint to a site's postmaster. I am one of the
postmasters at this site. For instance, mail me.
Remember: Ask your news adminstrator.
17 United States Code
SECT107. Limitations on exclusive rights: fair use
Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the
fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in
copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that
section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting,
teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship,
or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining
whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use
the factors to be considered shall include-- (1) the purpose and
character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial
nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the
copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion
used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the
effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the
copyrighted work.
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq/usenet/Copyright-FAQ/top.html
http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright
1A. What about "I've got a school assignment...."
USENET policy about posting news articles requsting info for
a school assignment.
--------begin included text--------
From Michael Chui mchui@cs.indiana.edu
Excerpt from the Usenet Primer publised in the new.* groups
Please do not use Usenet as a resource for homework assignments
Usenet is not a resource for homework or class assignments. A common
new user reaction to learning of all these people out there holding
discussions is to view them as a great resource for gathering
information for reports and papers. Trouble is, after seeing a few
hundred such requests, most people get tired of them, and won't reply
anyway. Certainly not in the expected or hoped-for numbers. Posting
student questionnaires automatically brands you a "newbie" and does not
usually garner much more than a tiny number of replies. Further,
some of those replies are likely to be incorrect.
Instead, read the group of interest for a while, and find out what the
main "threads" are - what are people discussing? Are there any themes
you can discover? Are there different schools of thought?
Only post something after you've followed the group for a few weeks,
after you have read the Frequently Asked Questions posting if the group
has one, and if you still have a question or opinion that others will
probably find interesting. If you have something interesting to
contribute, you'll find that you gain almost instant acceptance, and
your posting will generate a large number of follow-up postings. Use
these in your research; it is a far more efficient (and accepted) way
to learn about the group than to follow that first instinct and post a
simple questionnaire.
Actually, I'm not completely opposed to using the Net as a
resource for academic research. Being still in academia, I *am*
irritated by people who want the Net to do their research for them
(and not just because the results are often inaccurate). Basically,
I'd reject queries of the form: "Does anyone have any references for
X or know anything about Y? I have an assignment to do." (Note that
sometimes the student will omit the part about this information being
for an assignment, but with practice, such queries become rather
easy to recognize.)
On the other hand, I'd accept queries like, "I'm researching
airship mine technology, and in General Napoleon SchwartzRommel's book
_Boom, Der It Is!_, he makes reference to the GedankenSweeper. I've
searched my University of Podunk library, but can't find any references
to the GedankenSweeper. Could someone give some pointers to references
about the propulsion system in the GedankenSweeper?" I'd like the
student to show that they've done some work themselves (like go to
a library) before they send a message to thousands of people.
It all basically comes down to the oft-repeated Net-reminder
that "the person on the other side of the message is human." Think of
the Net as being an expert on, in sci.military.moderated's case, military
technology. Would you walk into a military technology expert's
office and ask him/her, "Gee, I have this homework assignment to do
on X. Can you tell me everything you know about this topic?" Worse
yet, would you do this to thousands of people?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disclaimer: All views expressed are my own opinions, and not necessarily
those of Intel Corporation.
Steven email: sjohnson@pcocd2.intel.com
-----8<-----END QUOTED TEXT----->8-----
Here are some more pointers on what NOT to do.
-----8<-----BEGIN QUOTED TEXT----->8-----
From: John Henry
Subject: Re: Netiquette (FAQ)
Some of you may have seen my "Flame Form" (not actually mine, been
around and edited for years)
It made it easy to list some DON'Ts:
* DON'T Post any pictures. This is a TEXT ONLY newsgroup
* DON'T Reply to any post without checking the header and making sure
that your reply is relavent to ALL of the newsgroups in the header.
Many people reply to robot generated SPAM posts and unkowningly
propogate enormous amounts of text accross many news servers. This is
especially true if the rule following is overlooked. Delete newsgroups
that are not relevant.
* DON'T reply to a post and keep PAGES of quoted text in the reply that
are not needed. Keep RELEVANT posted text intact.
[This is a bit of a fuzzy, gray area. I tend to err on the side of
deleting too much text. I feel that if somebody comes in late to a
looonngg thread, they can go into deja and dig up the orginal post(s) if
needed. If I am replying to specific text in the post, I usually just
leave that text quoted]
* DON'T post an "ignore this/test" message. Use the alt.test newsgroup
to test your reader's ability.
* DON'T spaz out and keep sending your post because your reader/server
doesn't pick it up and show it to you. Wait and check later.
* DON'T "SCREAM" IN ALL CAPS. Please try to use some semblance of the
English language.
* DON'T offer something for sale without saying where it is, how much
you want for it and indicating your willingness to (or lack of) ship it.
* DON'T use profanity or hateful, slanderous language. A good rule is
don't post anything to anybody that you wouldn't say to their face.
* DON'T post promoting commercial businesses. On-topic, personal sales
are permitted, but don't post the same thing repeatedly for weeks and
months at a time.
* DON'T post without giving your post a quick read for correctness
first. A missing "not" can make a world of difference.
--
John Henry, the "Fweeminator"
"Yea, to roar is to have honor. But to Fweem, THAT is to be truly
noble"
- Unknown
Visit the "BugShop" at: http://www.geocities.com/motorcity/4000/
Learn about Fweem at: http://www.geocities.com/motorcity/Garage/5901
-----8<-----END QUOTED TEXT----->8-----
D. Common abbreviations.
ACVW - Air-Cooled Volkswagen
NG - Newsgroup
VW - Volkswagen
VoA - Volkswagen of America
VAG - Volkswagen-Audi Group
VaG (V. aG) - Volkswagen aktuelle Gesellschaft or "Volkswagen Limited"
II. What is an Air-Cooled VW?
There are two simple requirements.
1) The vehicle is Air-Cooled. It uses air primarily (and oil) to cool the
engine. Therefore Air-Cooled engines do not require a radiator or
anti-freeze.
2) The vehicle is a Volkswagen. It was manufactured by Volkswagen.
A. Who made them?
Volkswagen.
B. Why were they made?
Woah. Long story.
C. Where and when were they made?
D. What are they?
These are the major `branches' of Air-Cooled VWs. This section needs more
info. It's only v0.01 so be patient or help me out. ;)
i. Type I
Beetle (Bug, Kaefer), Super Beetle, Karman Ghia, Thing (Safari)
ii. Type II
Transporter (Bus, Kombi, Camper, Truck, Station Wagon), Vanagon
iii. Type III
Squareback (Variant), Fastback, Notchback
iv. Type IV
411/412 Station Wagon, Sedan
v. Others
All those other weird Air-Cooled cars we end up talking about.
III. How do I find out more?
A. WWW Pages
The BugShop
Type 3 Pages
B. Books
C. Misc.
-----Contributors-----
Sam Daly
Steven Johnson
John Henry
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Do you have a question/comment/complaint/correction?
Let me know by sending me some e-mail.
Bad Mojo