Subject: [Draft] How to move to rec.games.computer.quake.*
From: [email-masked] (Raphael Quinet)

Here is a draft version of an article that I intend to post
periodically (maybe weekly, maybe monthly) in the Quake groups until
the cross-posted traffic in alt.games.quake drops down significantly.
It explains how and why all Quake players should move to the new
rec.games.computer.quake.* groups and stop posting in the old group.
Some people will probably object that some parts of this article are
biased, but I think that nothing is wrong as long as you keep in mind
that the best way to ensure that all Quake players can freely discuss
Quake and read each other's articles is to make sure that nobody is
lost in the old group.

Please send your comments and suggestions to me by e-mail.  I will try
to update this article as soon as possible and include the suggestions
that I will have received.

          How to move to rec.games.computer.quake.*
          =========================================
         Revision 0.2, by Raphael Quinet, 1996-04-17

1. Why Quake players should move to rec.games.computer.quake.*
--------------------------------------------------------------

   As you probably know, the "official" newsgroups for Quake are now
rec.games.computer.quake.announce, r.g.c.q.editing and r.g.c.q.misc,
the latter replacing the old Quake group (alt.games.quake).  They have
a better propagation, which means that more Quake players can read the
articles posted in these groups.  They also have a better structure,
with separate groups for distinct topics (two new groups should be
added soon: r.g.c.q.playing and r.g.c.q.servers) and a moderated
r.g.c.q.announce group from which everybody can get reliable
information.  Furthermore, id Software recommends that you use
r.g.c.q.misc for posting bug reports about the deathmatch test version
of Quake (QTEST1).

If you didn't know all that, I suggest that you read the article
titled "FAQ: replacement of a.g.q by rec.games.computer.quake.*",
which is posted weekly in these groups and is also available for
download from the main Quake ftp site:
   ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/idgames2/docs/agqr_faq
This FAQ will tell you much more than this article about how and why
the old group was replaced, and I urge you to read it if you haven't
done so yet.  In fact, you should read the FAQ before you continue
reading this, otherwise you could be confused by some parts of this
article.

Now that the r.g.c.q.* groups are available almost everywhere and most
Quake players have moved to these groups, we must ensure that the
newcomers are not lost in the old group.  Unfortunately, the large
number of cross-postings between the new and old Quake groups make
this difficult, because the articles cross-posted from other groups
increase the traffic in alt.games.quake and make it appear as a very
active group, although lots of Quake players cannot read it.

We should try to reduce the proportion of cross-postings (currently
80%) so that the traffic in the old group drops down; this will also
increase the visibility of the FAQs and pointers which are currently
lost among the other articles.  This will help the newcomers who will
see more easily that they should move to the r.g.c.q.* groups.  Some
Usenet sites do not replace or remove an old group unless its traffic
drops down or some local users request the change explicitely, so
reducing the cross-postings will also help the users of these sites.

2. What you can do
------------------

   Here are a few simple things that you can do if you want to help.
Usenet is cooperative by nature and the old group will be successfully
replaced by the new ones if and only if all readers of these groups
contribute.  This has worked very well for other newsgroups which have
moved from alt.* to another hierarchy and now it's up to you to make
sure that it works for the Quake groups too.

* Whenever you post a followup to an article which is cross-posted to
  alt.games.quake, include a "Followup-To:" line in the header of your
  article, directing future followups out of the old group.  If
  everybody does that, the long cross-posted threads will quickly move
  out of a.g.q.  The only thing you need to do is to include the same
  groups on the "Followup-To:" line as in the "Newsgroups:" line, except
  for alt.games.quake which should always be removed from the list.  For
  example:

    Newsgroups: rec.games.computer.quake.misc,alt.games.quake
    Followup-To: rec.games.computer.quake.misc

  Or if the article is cross-posted to other groups:

    Newsgroups: rec.games.computer.quake.misc,alt.games.quake,alt.games.apogee
    Followup-To: rec.games.computer.quake.misc,alt.games.apogee

  Note that using the "Followup-To:" line only gives an indication to
  other people, but they can always change the list of groups if they
  want to.  Moving groups is a cooperative effort and it will only work
  if the members of the Quake community help and inform each other.

* Inform people about the replacement of a.g.q by the new Quake groups
  and tell the other readers that they should stop posting in the old
  group in order to reduce the duplication of resources and make it
  easier for newcomers to move to the r.g.c.q.* groups.

  You can explain this in the body of your article or combine this with
  a short note informing readers about where followups to your article
  should go.  Here are two examples:

  [please post followups in r.g.c.q.misc only, because a.g.q is obsolete;
   see ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/idgames2/docs/agqr_faq for more information]

  [a.g.q removed from followups because it has been replaced by r.g.c.q.misc]

* If your site is still carrying alt.games.quake, you should get in
  touch with your news administrator and ask him/her to alias it to
  rec.games.computer.quake.misc, preparatory to removing it when the
  traffic dies down.  The address of your news administrator should be
  something like "news", "newsmaster" or "usenet".  You could also tell
  your news admin to disable local posting to alt.games.quake by setting
  its entry in the active file to "n".  This will help the other users
  at your site who do not know that a.g.q has been replaced.

* If necessary, explain to your news administrator (or other people)
  that there is nothing wrong about simply removing alt.games.quake even
  if it is not aliased to rec.games.computer.quake.misc (e.g. if your
  site doesn't use aliases).  As long as the three r.g.c.q.* groups
  exist at your site, nobody will be deprived from the information and
  discussions about Quake, so the old group can be safely removed.

* If you hear about some site which does not get the r.g.c.q.* groups
  yet (usually, these sites don't have a.g.q either), tell the users of
  this site to e-mail their news administrator and request the new Quake
  groups.  It is very likely that any site which does not have the
  r.g.c.q.* groups by now is a site whose news administrator does not
  create groups unless some local users request them, so it is important
  to tell the users of this site to get in touch with their news
  administrator.

  If you need more information, the official results of the Usenet vote
  and the charters of the three r.g.c.q.* groups are available in:

  ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/news.announce.newgroups/rec/rec.games.computer.quake

That's it.  Please send your comments to me directly by e-mail.  Do
not post a followup in the newsgroups, because the discussion about
this article would not be really on-topic.  Also, I will be able to
reply faster if you e-mail me than if I have to wait for your article
to appear on my news server.

-Raphael
-- 
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