🚀 go-pugleaf

                     REQUEST FOR DISCUSSION (RFD)
          moderated group rec.games.computer.quake.announce
          unmoderated group rec.games.computer.quake.editing
           unmoderated group rec.games.computer.quake.misc

Note: this is a Request For Discussion, not a Call For Votes.  Do not
send your votes now.  Instead, post your comments about this proposal
in news.groups.  Please read the whole RFD before posting a followup. ]

Newsgroup lines:
rec.games.computer.quake.announce	Info/FAQ/announcements about Quake. (Moderated)
rec.games.computer.quake.editing	Editing and hacking Quake-related files.
rec.games.computer.quake.misc		General discussion about Quake.

RATIONALE: all groups

The rec.games.computer.quake hierarchy is intended for discussing
various topics relating to the computer game Quake, written by id
Software (the makers of Doom) and its sequels and user-written
add-ons.  Quake is a highly customizable 3D first-person
action/adventure game scheduled for release in December 1995.  The
servers and clients will be available on many different types of
computers and platforms, as Doom was.

Although the game has not been released yet, it is expected to be very
successful, given the amount of discussion already present on several
newsgroups and mailing lists.  The alt.games.quake newsgroup alone
gets an average of more than 1300 messages per month and has received
more than 5000 messages since its creation.  Most of the Doom-related
or action games newsgroups and mailing lists get a large number of
messages about Quake.

The Usenet readership statistics for alt.games.quake are included
below.  They show that, despite the low propagation of the group, it is
already getting a lot of traffic.  The replacement of alt.games.quake
by new groups in the rec hierarchy would mean that more Quake players
will be able to take part in the discussion (for comparison purposes,
the average propagation of the rec.games.computer.doom.* newsgroups is
around 51%).

           Estimated total number of people who read the group, worldwide.
              |   Actual number of readers in sampled population
              |     | Propagation: how many sites receive this group at all
              |     |    |   Recent traffic (messages per month)
              |     |    |     |  Recent traffic (megabytes per month)
              |     |    |     |    |  Crossposting percentage
              |     |    |     |    |   |  Cost ratio: $US/month/rdr
              |     |    |     |    |   |     |   Share: % of newsrders
              |     |    |     |    |   |     |     |  who read this group.
Month  Rank   V     V    V     V    V   V     V     V
jul95  2506  4900  102  29%  1331  2.4  6%  0.13  0.2%  alt.games.quake
may95  2792  9000   91  28%   977  1.7  6%  0.05  0.2%  alt.games.quake
mar95  2547  7300  112  25%   507  0.8  5%  0.03  0.2%  alt.games.quake
jan95  3095  2600   68  16%   309  0.6  8%  0.05  0.1%  alt.games.quake

This first Request For Discussion proposes the creation of three
newsgroups.  Other newgroups such as .playing, .multiplayer or .help
will be added later and will be part of a separate proposal, which will
be posted in November when more information about Quake is available.
These first three groups are proposed now in order to have them created
by the time Quake is released, thus preventing a flood of off-topic
messages in other newsgroups.

WHY THREE GROUPS?

It is likely that Quake will be a very successful game and will require
more than three newsgroups.  Several other names have already been
discussed on the quake-proposal mailing list.  However, it is uncommon
in Usenet to create many groups about something which doesn't exist yet
(although the game will be released by the time the groups are created).
In order to limit the risks of having people voting against the creation
of a large number of newsgroups, we chose to limit the number of groups
to three.

The three names r.g.c.q.announce, r.g.c.q.misc and r.g.c.q.editing were
selected for the following reasons:
- A moderated group (.announce) is needed in order to avoid a great
  number of redundant messages when something new is available.  It will
  also be useful for the people who do not want to subscribe to the
  high-volume discussion groups but still want to be informed about
  Quake.
- The two most popular topics will certainly be playing and editing the
  game.  For comparison purposes, r.g.c.d.playing and r.g.c.d.editing
  are the two Doom newsgroups that get the highest traffic.
- It is better to have a .misc group in the new hierarchy which will
  provide a forum where other topics can be discussed.  Otherwise, there
  would be no place to discuss things that are not directly related to
  playing or editing the game, such as setup problems, FTP issues,
  discussions about the game engine, etc.  This is why .misc (for
  gameplay issues as well as other topics) and .editing are proposed
  first, instead of .playing and .editing.  The playing subjects will be
  discussed in .misc initially and will be moved to a more appropriate
  group later (probably r.g.c.q.playing).

See the "epilogue" section below for a list of the newsgroups that will
probably be included in a separate proposal, to be posted when more
information about Quake is available.

END RATIONALE.

CHARTER: all groups

In general, cross-posting among discussion groups is strongly
discouraged.  Articles posted to .announce can be cross-posted to
other relevant groups.

No binaries should be posted in these groups.  When relevant, short
excerpts of source code or configuration files may be included in
an article, but binaries and code in general should be posted in a
more appropriate alt.binaries group (like alt.binaries.quake if this
group is created).

END CHARTER.

CHARTER: rec.games.computer.quake.announce

This is the only moderated group in this hierarchy.  The sort of
postings likely to be approved by the moderator are general
announcements that are interesting to the broad spectrum of Quake
players.  Examples of these types of articles are: anything from
id Software, FAQs and other periodical informational postings,
announcement of new levels or utilities, announcements of new
servers, reviews, etc.

END CHARTER.

MODERATION: rec.games.computer.quake.announce

The current moderator of rec.games.computer.doom.announce, Tony
Lezard, says that he would be happy to moderate this newsgroup
using the following addresses:


Submit:  qu...@mantis.co.uk
Contact: quake-...@mantis.co.uk (Tony Lezard)

END MODERATION.

CHARTER: rec.games.computer.quake.editing

Discussion in this group covers all aspects of editing and modifying
the game.  Quake will be a highly customizable game and id Software
will release an editor which will allow people to create their own
universes and change the game in many ways.  Additionally, lots of
third-party editors and utilities are expected to be released (some
of them have already been developed but will not be released before
Quake is available).  Topics for this group will include: editors,
editing related questions and suggestions, playability issues, design
techniques, conversions of levels or objects to other formats.

Comments or questions about configuring a server or playing
user-written levels should not be posted here - post in .misc
instead (or in .playing when this group is created).

CHARTER: rec.games.computer.quake.misc

This group covers all topics that are not already covered by the
other groups in this hierachy.  The range of topics will be very
broad at first, but will be reduced as other groups are created.
Examples include: playing standard or user-written levels, help about
playing the game or setting up a server, FTP issues, comparisons with
other games, piracy, etc.

This newsgroup replaces alt.games.quake.

END CHARTER.

EPILOGUE:

This RFD proposes the creation of three newsgroups.  Many people would
like to see more groups about Quake; they will be included in a future
proposal for the reasons explained above.  Here are some suggested names
for the other newsgroups (to be discussed later):
  rec.games.computer.quake.help         Questions on Quake and add-ons
  rec.games.computer.quake.playing      Playing Quake and add-ons
  rec.games.computer.quake.multiplayer  Multiplayer games and Quake servers
  rec.games.computer.quake.programming  New game algorithms

The group r.g.c.q.misc will be a replacement for alt.games.quake, whose
poor propagation and now-redundant status make it no longer needed.
Therefore, alt.games.quake will be removed two weeks after the creation
of r.g.c.q.misc in order to prevent the sort of confusion and
duplication of resources that is found in alt.games.doom now that the
rec.games.computer.doom hierarchy exists.

PROCEDURE:

The discussion period lasts 21 days from the initial post of this RFD.
If there are no major objections to the naming or placement, then the
CFV (Call For Votes) will be issued, lasting for 22 days.  Following
the vote, there is a 5 day discussion period after which newsgroups that
passed will be newgrouped by the moderator of news.announce.newgroups.

Followups to this post are directed to news.groups, which is where
further discussion will take place.  Cross-posted followups are
discouraged.  Please read news.groups to participate.  Thank you!

DISTRIBUTION:

Posted To:

news.announce.newgroups, news.groups, alt.games.quake,
comp.sys.mac.games.action, comp.sys.sgi.misc,
comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action, comp.os.linux.misc,
rec.games.computer.doom.misc, comp.os.os2.games, comp.sys.next.misc

Copy mailed to:

quake-...@ftp.idsoftware.com
doom-e...@nvg.unit.no
do...@doomgate.cs.buffalo.edu