The primary reason for the creation of a.s.b-f is support. Flames and personal attacks are not allowed because they destroy the welcoming and supporting atmosphere that is desired in this newsgroup.
a.s.b-f is not a good place for the discussion of dieting or surgery for the purposes of weight loss or weight gain. As fat people, we deal all the time with the assumption that we should be dieting. We hope that a.s.b-f can be one place that is free of this pressure. That said, we often discuss diet and exercise, with the idea that all people (fat and thin) benefit from eating better and becoming fitter. We dispute the idea that one must be thin to be fit. We dispute the idea that the "right" food and exercise choices will necessarily lead to being thin.
We try to avoid generalizations and stereotyping of fat people. For the most part, the fact that a person is fat does not provide much information about that person's happiness, activity level, eating habits, and relationship with food.
Some people here are happy to be fat. Some people here are not happy to be fat. People at any stage of size acceptance -- even if they're trying to lose or gain weight -- are welcome in this group.
A spam is an off-topic post (often an advertisement) to a variety of newsgroups.
Because fatness is seen as an easy target to ridicule and fat people are seen as easy targets for "weight loss remedies," a.s.b-f gets a lot of such traffic.
*********************************************************** Please do not post responses to trolls, trollers, or spams. ***********************************************************
It's tempting to flame a troll, but if several people do so, the newsgroup becomes filled with flames and people who want a positive newsgroup may get discouraged and leave.
The best way to counter the effects of trolls is to ignore them and fill the group with on-topic, positive posts.
If you must respond to a troll, please do so by private email. If a troll or spam is repeated and/or is particularly offensive, you can complain to the system administrator of the original poster. For more information on trolls and spams, please see the news.admin.net-abuse newsgroups.
There was a brief suggestion, in early '94, that all the alt.support groups might move over to misc.support. (Then we'd be in the big seven, and have wider distribution and so forth.) At that time, the consensus on a.s.b-f was to change the group's name to misc.support.fat-acceptance. It was felt that this name would be less confusing and more descriptive. For reasons unknown, the move to misc fizzled. So we're still here.
In September '94, Wendy Betts (web@armory.com) began work on an RFD for moving alt.support.big-folks to soc.support.fat-acceptance. (The soc.support hierarchy was established since the last round of discussions.) A Call For Votes went out on November 14, and the group passed 163:49. soc.support.fat-acceptance will be newgrouped on December 22.
BBW Big Beautiful Woman BBM Big Beautiful Man bear a man who is cuddly, furry, stocky, and/or bearded; most often used by and about gay men FA Fat Admirer, person who prefers a fat sexual/romantic partner NAAFA National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance mid-size refers to people who are in the mid-range. For women, this means they wear U.S. dress size 16W-26W. super-size refers to people who are very large. For women, this means they wear U.S. dress size 28W and up. This division between mid-size and super-size for women seems to arise from the face that most retail clothing sizes for women stop at U.S. 26W. [proposed] FS Fat sympathizer, person who through personal growth relates to issues of Fat Acceptance and strives to correct abuses and discriminatory acts in day-to-day events
alt.recovery.compulsive-eat is a group for people who want to discuss ending their compulsive eating. I think they subscribe to an OA viewpoint.
alt.sex.fat is a group for people who want to discuss issues involved in sex with fat people. It was formed in early '94 so that a.s.b-f could stay more or less G (or PG) rated.
alt.sex.fetish.fa is a group for fat admirers. This group mostly carries encoded pictures of fat erotica, and discussions about them. (Note that the word "fetish" in the title rubs many FAs the wrong way, does nothing to promote a positive image of FAs, and implies a separation between sex and romance that doesn't exist for many FAs.)
alt.sex.super-size is a group for people who want to discuss issues involved in sex with very large people. It was formed in June '95 by Teighlor (plumpkind@aol.com) because it was felt that super-size folks needs weren't being adequately addressed in alt.sex.fat.
alt.sex.weight-gain is a group for people who want to discuss the erotic aspects of feeding, being fed, or weight gain.
alt.support.diet is a group for people who want support and discussion of dieting and other weight loss methods. Regular posters tend not to be very fat. This is a good place to take weight loss questions and discussions.
alt.support.eating-disord is a group for people who want support and discussion in dealing with eating disorders (their own and others).
alt.personals.big-folks and alt.personals.fat are groups for personal ads by big folks or looking for big folks. These groups were formed in July '94 to get personal ads out of a.s.b-f, to provide an easy way for fat people and fat admirers to get in touch with one another, and so that fat people would not have to wade through personal ads that specify that only slender people should respond.
alt.support.tall and alt.sigma2.height are groups for people who want support and discussion of issues relevant to tall people (who are big, but not in the way used on this group).
The latest version of the following FAQs can be found at: http://cat-and-dragon.com/stef/Fatfaqs/
You can also find (sometimes slightly older versions of) the above FAQs (except the plus-size pregnancy FAQs) at the following locations:
You can also get FAQs from rtfm.mit.edu via anonymous FTP or via the mail archive server. For information about the mail server, send email to mail-server@rtfm.mit.edu with the word "help" (without the quotes) in the body of the message.
Stef Maruch (ff@cat-and-dragon.com) maintains this FAQ.
Suggestions for additions/improvements are always welcome.
Send suggestions to Stef Maruch
(ff@cat-and-dragon.com)
Copyright 1995, 1996 by Stef Maruch (ff@cat-and-dragon.com)
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