From: vanes002@maroon.tc.umn.edu (RGCD Support Team) Subject: () POSTING GUIDELINES: No Binaries! Use Alt.Binaries.Doom Newsgroups: rec.games.computer.doom.announce,rec.games.computer.doom.help,rec.games.computer.doom.misc,rec.games.computer.doom.playing,rec.games.computer.doom.editing Followup-To: poster Organization: RGCD Support Team Approved: doom@mantis.co.uk Rec-games-computer-doom-announce-archive-name: pg-nobin Posting-Frequency: monthly [Mar 01 - Change URL for BinCancel FAQ] | The unmoderated rec.games.computer.doom newsgroups are first and foremost DISCUSSION forums and are not suitable for posting binaries. The vast majority of users can retrieve binaries through ftp or ftpmail servers and don't need binaries to be posted here. A single uuencoded binary easily takes up as much space as 20 or more discussion articles. Many sites have to support netnews with limited resources and can't afford to carry the binaries groups; these sites shouldn't have to cut themselves off from the information here or expire this group at a greater rate just because a few people don't have FTP access. Also, bear in mind that there are people with serial links or who PAY per minute or per kilobyte. They suffer when large posts appear here. The alt.binaries.doom newsgroup is available for posting binaries. If your news server carries the alt.binaries hierarchy, but does not carry alt.binaries.doom, send a polite request to the news administrator to carry the group. They are much more likely to carry groups that have demand (readers) - so make your wishes known. Unfortunately, some news servers won't carry alt.binaries.doom due to the large amount of disk space required - a fate WE would like to avoid! An alternative newsgroup for posting binaries is alt.binaries.misc, which probably gets wider distribution than alt.binaries.doom. Here are some guidelines for posting binaries to alt.binaries.doom: (*) ZIP BINARIES BEFORE UUENCODING - PKZIP v2.04g and R.E.M UUENCODE v6.51 are found at ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/simtelnet/msdos/arcers/pkz204g.exe and ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/simtelnet/msdos/decode/uuexe651.zip (*) USE A PART 0 TO DESCRIBE CONTENTS - A multi-part binary posting should be preceded by a "(Part 0 of N)" article that describes what your post contains to allow readers to decide whether or not to get any of the other parts. Part 0 of a WAD file should be a completed PWAD Authoring Template from section 14-2-3 of the DOOM FAQ v5.8 or section 14-2-2 of DOOM FAQ v6.666. (*) SET FOLLOWUPS TO POSTER - This prevents discussion from taking place in a binaries group, which is supposed to be only for posting encoded binaries. Put this line in the header(s): Followup-To: poster (*) ANNOUNCE IN REC.GAMES.COMPUTER.DOOM.PLAYING - Post a short article that describes what you've posted. For WADS, post the completed PWAD Authoring Template mentioned earlier. There exists at least one automated 'cancelbot' program that looks for and cancels binaries inappropriately posted to non-binary newsgroups. To learn more about this cancelbot and appropriate binary posting etiquette, please read the BinCancel FAQ (and its references) at: http://www.southcom.com.au/~geniac/binfaq.htm | Thank you for your co-operation. John Van Essen Author of R.G.C.D RFD