Subject: FAQ: replacement of a.g.q by rec.games.computer.quake.*
From: [email-masked]
Newsgroups: rec.games.computer.quake.misc,alt.games.quake

FAQ: replacement of a.g.q by rec.games.computer.quake.*
     =======================================================
	Last edited on:	 $Date: 1996/04/18 23:09:13 $
              Revision:  $Revision: 1.12 $

1) What is this FAQ?
--------------------

  This is a list of answers to some questions that have been posted
  several times in the Quake newsgroups about the purpose of these
  groups.  This is not a FAQ about the game itself.  If you want some
  info about Quake, you should read the Quake Mini-FAQ which is posted
  weekly in rec.games.computer.quake.announce.

  Many people have posted questions about the move from alt.games.quake
  to rec.games.computer.quake.{announce, editing, misc}.  Although the
  answers to these questions have been posted several times, they had
  never been summarised and they were often misunderstood.  This FAQ
  will hopefully provide these answers in a clear and consise way and
  will help you to get a better understanding of the situation.

  I will accept any additions or corrections to the answers provided in
  this FAQ.  Comments from those who support or are opposed to the move
  to the new groups are equally welcome.  They will be added to this FAQ
  as long as they provide accurate and helpful answers.  Send your
  suggestions to me at <[email-masked]>.  
 
  Several Quake players and news administrators have provided answers
  and suggestions for this FAQ.  Most of the answers have been written
  by Raphael Quinet, so blame him if you think that some of them are
  wrong.  :-)  If you contribute to this FAQ, you can choose to have
  your name added to this hall of flame.

2) Why did the Quake groups move to rec.games.computer.quake.*?
---------------------------------------------------------------

- Propagation.  Since there are no formal rules for creating and
  removing groups in the alt.* hierarchy, some sites only carry a
  limited set of alt.* groups, or do not carry any of them because of
  the additional workload they put on the administrator.  On the other
  hand, most sites carry groups in the rec.* hierarchy.  Last year, the
  readers of a.g.q chose to move to the rec.* hierarchy in order to
  reach a wider audience and make sure that nobody is deprived from the
  information about Quake.

- Better structure.  Three groups are available in the r.g.c.q.*
  hierarchy (.announce, .editing, .misc), each with its own set of
  topics, so that readers can easily choose the articles in which they
  are interested.  Two additional groups should be created soon in
  order to cover the new topics that appeared since the test version of
  Quake was released.

- Presence of a moderated r.g.c.q.announce group.  This is very useful
  for those who don't have the time to browse the discussion groups or
  who pay for their newsfeed and only want to read the important
  announcements in a low-traffic group.  Also, the articles are checked
  by the moderator before they are posted, so the information is more
  accurate.

- Room for expansion.  A proposal to create two additional groups
  (r.g.c.q.playing, r.g.c.q.servers) is currently under way and these
  groups will get the same propagation as the existing ones.  This would
  not be possible if the groups were created under alt.games.quake,
  because it is now very difficult to create a group in the alt.*
  hierarchy with a good propagation.  This is a consequence of the
  expansion of the Internet in the last year(s) and the increased number
  of people trying to abuse the freedom of creating alt.* groups by
  creating "joke" groups, thus causing some admins to ignore all future
  requests for groups.

3) Why was it necessary to replace a.g.q by r.g.c.q.misc instead of
   simply adding the new groups and keeping the old one?
-------------------------------------------------------------------

- Avoiding the duplication of resources.  Keeping groups in two
  hierarchies would lead to a large number of cross-postings or
  information posted twice.  This is a waste of resources and of
  reader's time.  Besides, cross-posts between a single group and a
  hierarchy of several groups (each with its own charter) would increase
  the number of articles that are posted in the wrong part of the new
  hierarchy and thus reduce the benefits of having a well-structured
  set of groups.

- Helping the newcomers.  It is unfortunately easier to find the old
  group than the new ones, because the groups are sorted in alphabetical
  order and r.g.c.q.* is located further down in the list of groups and
  deeper in the hierarchy (five levels instead of three).  Keeping the
  old group would imply that some newcomers would not find the new ones
  easily and would be lost for several days or weeks in a.g.q before
  they can find the FAQ and other useful documents in r.g.c.q.*, as well
  as getting help from more experienced readers.

- Ensuring that everybody can get the information about Quake.  Since
  a.g.q had a spotty propagation (this was already the case before it
  was replaced by r.g.c.q.misc), people who only read that group do not
  get all articles and would miss some information.  Also, because many
  people can get the r.g.c.q.* groups and cannot get a.g.q, they would
  be deprived from the information posted in the old group (unless all
  articles are cross-posted, but then we are back to the duplication of
  resources).

4) Who decided what, and when?
------------------------------

- The creation of new groups for Quake was discussed in
  alt.games.quake in August 1995.  A mailing list (quake-proposal) was
  created for this purpose and after a few weeks (on the 19th of
  September), a formal Request For Discussion (RFD) was posted to all
  related groups.  On the 20th of October, this was followed by a Call
  For Votes (CFV), asking the readers of alt.games.quake to vote for or
  against the move to the new groups.  The results were published on the
  10th of November and showed that a large majority of readers (199:43)
  voted for the new groups.  The full text of the RFD, CFV and results
  of the Usenet vote are available on ftp.uu.net, at the following URL:
  ftp://ftp.uu.net/usenet/news.announce.newgroups/rec/rec.games.computer.quake
  The three groups were officially created on the 8th of January by
  David C. Lawrence, the moderator of news.announce.newgroups.

- The replacement of a.g.q was part of the RFD for the new groups.
  The RFDs for rec.* groups have no direct power over the alt.*
  hierarchy, for which the creation and removal of groups should be
  discussed in alt.config.  But the results of the vote give useful
  indications (like an opinion poll would) and are usually appreciated
  by the Usenet administrators who read alt.config.  On the 31st of
  January, a double proposal was posted, including the creation of
  alt.games.upcoming-3d and the removal of alt.games.quake.  This
  proposal was discussed both in alt.games.quake and alt.config.  Two
  weeks later, a control message was sent, suggesting to alias a.g.q
  to r.g.c.q.misc, so that all messages would be directed to the new
  group automatically.  As is always the case with alt.* groups, the
  decision of removing, aliasing or keeping the old group at each site
  was left up to the administrator of that site.

- The way Usenet works, regarding the creation or removal of groups,
  is often confusing.  Several articles try to describe it and you
  should read them if you want more information about this.  Take a look
  in news.announce.newusers and news.answers, and read the following
  articles: "What is Usenet?", "What is Usenet?  A second opinion.",
  "How to Create a New Usenet Newsgroup", "Guidelines on Usenet
  Newsgroup Names".  Read them in that order if possible.  They will
  give you more information and explain things better than this FAQ.
  Once you have read these articles, you should also take a look at:
  http://www.tezcat.com/~haz1/alt/faqindex.html

5) I didn't know all that.  How was I supposed to know?
-------------------------------------------------------

  If you never saw an article discussing the move to the r.g.c.q.*
  groups or announcing the replacement of a.g.q by r.g.c.q.misc, you
  probably didn't read a.g.q between August 1995 and March 1996.  Or
  maybe you subscribed to the Quake groups after the release of the test
  version of Quake and you are wondering what is happening to the
  newsgroups (maybe you were lost in the noise that followed the
  release).  During the RFD and CFV period last year, a lot of articles
  were posted in a.g.q about the creation of the new groups.

  During January and February of this year, several threads of
  discussion were cross-posted in a.g.q and r.g.c.q.misc, proposing and
  then announcing the replacement of the old group by r.g.c.q.misc.  If
  these articles have expired on your server, you can use DejaNews,
  Alta-Vista or Excite and do a search on the following subjects:
  "PROPOSALS: alt.games.upcoming-3d, removal of alt.games.quake",
  "NOTICE: removal of alt.games.quake", "Please move to
  rec.games.computer.quake.misc or alt.games.upcoming-3d".  The move to
  the new groups was also announced several times in the Quake Mini-FAQ
  and in the "alt.games.quake FAQ", in order to make sure that all
  readers were aware of this.

  Between the 1st of February and the 11th of March, a total of 274
  articles about the move to r.g.c.q.* were posted in various groups and
  218 of them were posted or cross-posted in alt.games.quake (not
  counting the periodical postings of the FAQs).

6) Why do I still see alt.games.quake at my site?
-------------------------------------------------

- Some sites ignore all rmgroup control messages for alt.* groups and
  only remove a group if it had no traffic for three months or more.  On
  these servers, the only way to make sure that alt.games.quake is
  removed or aliased to rec.games.computer.quake.misc is to e-mail the
  news administrator (usually by sending a message to the address
  "news", "newsmaster" or "usenet" at your site) or wait until no more
  messages are posted in this group.

- A technical error in the second rmgroup message caused it to be
  ignored or rejected by most sites.  This will be fixed in the next
  booster message, which will be sent in a few days and will again
  suggest that a.g.q should be aliased to rec.games.computer.quake.misc.

7) Can I do something about this?  How can I help?
--------------------------------------------------

- 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".

- Stop posting in alt.games.quake and post only in the new r.g.c.q.*
  groups.  By posting in a.g.q, you are increasing the traffic and
  making it more difficult to remove the group.  The traffic is
  decreasing, but very slowly.  If you stop posting there, the traffic
  will drop down quickly and it will be easier for you and others to
  convince your news administrators that a.g.q should be replaced.  If
  you are replying to an article which is cross-posted, make sure that
  you remove alt.games.quake from the list of followups.

- If your site doesn't carry any alt.* groups or has removed a.g.q and
  you want to support the move to the r.g.c.q.* groups, reply to the
  people who encourage others to stay in the old group and tell them
  (politely) that by doing so they are preventing you from accessing
  the information that is posted there.  They cannot force you to switch
  to another provider if a better alternative is already available.

8) What other related groups exist?
-----------------------------------

- alt.games.upcoming-3d, for those who liked the atmosphere of the old
  alt.games.quake, with the rumours and speculation about Quake.  Since
  the release of the test version of Quake, this kind of discussion is
  less frequent.  However, other 3D games are under development or in
  project, and it can be fun to compare them or speculate about them in
  alt.games.upcoming-3d.

- alt.binaries.games.quake, for posting files which are related to
  Quake (new levels, patches, editors, etc.).  This is not a discussion
  group, so you should only post binaries there.  Discussion should take
  place in the other groups (use r.g.c.q.misc or r.g.c.q.editing, as
  appropriate).

          ... and remember: Quake is a game.  Just a game ...

          -------------------- End of FAQ --------------------