Please Note: These FAQs are no longer being updated (except that out-of-date web sites, contact info, and so forth are removed when I am notified of them - for notification address, see below).

FAQ for soc.support.fat-acceptance

This document contains information relevant to the newsgroup soc.support.fat-acceptance. If you don't find what you're looking for here, try one of the related FAQs (see question B1 for a complete list).

Updated August 99

Contents

SECTION A: FAQ about soc.support.fat-acceptance

SECTION B: Information about this FAQ

SECTION A: FAQ about soc.support.fat-acceptance

A1) What is s.s.f-a's charter?

The newsgroups line for s.s.f-a is:
soc.support.fat-acceptance
Self-acceptance for fat people. No diet talk.
The charter is:
soc.support.fat-acceptance provides a supportive forum for the discussion of the personal and political goals of fat-acceptance and other topics relevant to being fat.
Topics appropriate for soc.support.fat-acceptance include: Topics considered inappropriate for soc.support.fat-acceptance include:

A2) How to respond to trolls on s.s.f-a

A troll is a post intended to generate hostility and a never-ending thread of flaming responses. A troller is a person who makes a series of such posts.

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," s.s.f-a 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.

A3) How did s.s.f-a start?

This group developed from alt.support.big-folks. 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 soc.support.fat-acceptance. (The soc.support hierarchy was established since the last round of discussions.) A Call For Votes was issued on November 14, 1994, and the group passed 163:49. The group was newgrouped on December 22, 1994.

A4) What do the acronyms mean? 

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

A5) What are some related newsgroups?

alt.food.fat-free and alt.food.low-fat are groups for people who want to discuss eating low-fat or no-fat. These are good places to take discussion on low fat eating (as a means of weight loss or otherwise).

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 the issues involved in sex with very large people. It was formed in June '95 by Teighlor (plumpkind@aol.com) because she 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.big-folks is another group for discussing size-acceptance and issues affecting large people.

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.

SECTION B: Information about this FAQ

B1) Are there other related FAQs?

There is some overlap in the topics covered by the FAQs. If you don't find what you're looking for here, try the other FAQs.

The latest version of the following FAQs can be found at: http://cat-and-dragon.com/stef/fatfaqs/

The following FAQs can be found at: http://www.sover.net/~astarte/fa/faqs.html The latest versions of following FAQs can be found at the following locations:

You can also find (sometimes slightly older versions of) the above FAQs (except the plus-size pregnancy FAQs) at the following locations:

(Note: The big-folks FAQ is listed separately at these 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.

B2) Posting information

This document is posted bi-weekly to soc.support.fat-acceptance.

Stef Maruch (ff@cat-and-dragon.com) maintains this FAQ.

B3) Contributors

These are the people who contributed significant chunks to the FAQ:
Sasha Wood (Sasha.Wood@cs.cmu.edu)
Wendy Betts (web@armory.com)

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)
Permission is granted to copy and redistribute this article in its entirety for non-commercial, educational use only, provided that this copyright notice is not removed or altered. No portion of this work may be sold, either by itself or as part of a larger work, without the express written permission of the author. This restriction covers all publication media, including electronic media.