Subject: () POSTING GUIDELINES: No Binaries! Use Alt.Binaries.Doom

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 v5.25
    are available via ftp://oak.oakland.edu/SimTel/msdos/zip/pkz204g.exe 
    and ftp://oak.oakland.edu/SimTel/msdos/decode/uuexe525.exe

(*) 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.

Thank you for your co-operation.

    John Van Essen  <vanes002@maroon.tc.umn.edu>  Author of R.G.C.D RFD

