The alt.sculpture FAQ—What is alt.sculpture? What can be posted?
Alt.sculpture is an internet newsgroup for discussion of: works of sculpture, including reviews of shows, web sites, books, and installations; techniques of sculpture, including (but not limited to) carving, casting, modeling, and assemblage in all three-dimensional media; theories of art as they relate to sculpture, and opportunities for creating, showing, and commissioning sculpture. The group is not restricted to the discussion of fine art sculpture. Modelmakers, prototypers, moldmakers, patternmakers, special-effects people, and others involved in making 3D objects are welcome to participate.
Commercial posts dealing with sculpture-related products are welcome occasionally, if the poster doesn’t overdo it by posting too frequently (once a week is maximum). “Sculpture for sale” announcements are more appropriate in alt.art.marketplace. The posting of binary files is (regretfully) inappropriate, since the limited bandwidth alloted to our group means that these displace text messages before many of us have a chance to read them. If you have images of sculpture to show the world, put them on a website and post the URL. Website space is available for free, especially for art. Nobody whose opinion matters is going to tell you, for free, what the obscure sculpture you found in your attic is “worth”. Take it to an appraiser, or put it up on e-Bay to find out. And off-topic “spam” is of course unacceptable—ads for get-rich-quick schemes, chain letters, sex sites, and commercial products unrelated to sculpture will be met with the contempt (and possible retaliation) they deserve.
Alt.sculpture has been up and running since 1998. Please feel free to post any sculpture-related thoughts or enquiries. It should be accessible through your Internet Service Provider’s newsgroup feed. If it doesn’t show up on your news server’s list of available newsgroups, ask your internet service provider to add it; often they will not update their lists until a request is made.
If you have an especially uncooperative service provider, or the intricacies of setting up newsreader software are too daunting, you can also read the articles and post messages through usenet archiving services like Google Groups.