GameNet Introduction, Rules and Instructions
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$Id: GameNet.txt,v 1.01 2018/09/09 17:56:14 aianson Exp $

*****************************************
* Answers to Frequently Asked Questions *
*****************************************

Q. What is GameNet?

A. GameNet is a message network connecting numerous BBSes and the users on
   those BBSes together through QWK and Fido networking technologies. GameNet
   is not limited to one specific BBS package and welcomes any QWK or Fido
   network compatible BBS to join as long as their software of choice does not
   interfere with the operation of the network in any way.


Q. What is the focus of GameNet?

A. GameNet is a BBS network that is all about Games. We are also intereted in
   connecting BBS sysops and users without a lot of politics and red tape.
   GameNet requires no "application processing time" or "node numbers" to
   be assigned (accept for FTN nodes). While the capabilities of GameNet rival
   those of more technically complex networks, it has none of the setup
   complexities as reflected by the fact that many of the systems on GameNet
   are managed by first-time sysops. GameNet allows (or rather encourages) the
   use of color codes in messages (preferably using the Synchronet Ctrl-A
   standard, but Wildcat, PCBoard, Celerity, Renegade, and WWIV color codes are
   also supported in Synchronet BBS software and may also be used). GameNet
   allows the use of aliases, ANSI encoded messages (when necessary for
   animation) and use of high-ASCII characters. There are no strict "hubbing"
   rules; pretty much anyone that's willing to feed anyone else is encouraged
   to do so. GameNet is moderated only by the founders of the network so there
   aren't different rules for different message areas that users need to
   remember. GameNet has very few rules, and the few that do exist are often
   bent.


*********
* Rules *
*********

GameNet has mostly been a self-moderated network. This means that the sysops
of GameNet have decided when a specific message, user, or thread is deemed
inappropriate. However, today, most of the users of GameNet are also the
sysops of GameNet. And when there are too many "kings", you can have chaos.
The ultimate "king/queen" of GameNet is me, Marisa. I don't claim this title
because I want to, but rather because I have to: someone has to be "queen" or
NC (Network Coordinator), or whatever-you-want-to-call-it.

If a sysop has a complaint or suggestion about GameNet, they usually e-mail
me.

GameNet has only a few common sense rules (adopted from DOVE-Net).

The following actions are not allowed:

        1. Excessive personal attacks
        2. Excessive use of profanity
        3. Excessive off-topic messages
        4. Excessive advertisements
        5. Excessive use of capital letters
        6. Excessive use of non-English text
        7. Encoded, encrypted, or otherwise indecipherable messages
        8. Fraudulent messages
        9. Impersonating someone you are not

How do you know if an action constitutes "excessive" behavior or not? Compare
your actions to those of other long-time GameNet sysops and users. If your
messages seem "out of place" it's probably because they are.

A violation of these rules may result in a warning, a reprimand, or in the
worst cases, temporary or permanent expulsion from GameNet. Or there may be
no consequences at all. There may be no warning at all. I give no guarantee
of consistent, fair, or impartial enforcement of these rules. But generally
speaking, if you use common sense and don't abuse the network or the sysops
or users in the network, you'll do just fine. I certainly gain no pleasure
from enforcing rules and would rather everyone "just get along" and the net
continue to self-rule as it has since King Drafus and I created it so many
years ago.

GameNet is not a democracy. You are not guaranteed "free speech" or
"equal opportunity". GameNet access is a privilege, not a right.


****************
* Instructions *
****************

Step 1: Choose a QWK-ID
=======================

If you're using Synchronet BBS Software, your BBS's QWK-ID is configured
in SCFG->Message Options->BBS ID for QWK Packets. SCFG is the Synchronet
Configuration Utility accessible by running exec/scfg or using the
BBS->Configure menu option in the Synchronet Control Panel (Win32 only).

Your QWK-ID should be an abbreviation of your BBS name or have some other
personal significance, and must be unique among others on GameNet.

QWK-IDs are limited to a maximum of eight characters in length, may only
contain valid DOS filename characters, and MUST begin with an alphabetic
character. QWK-IDs are not case sensitive.

At this point you probably should also set your QWKnet tagline to something
that represents (or advertises) your BBS.  In Synchronet this is done in
SCFG->Networks->QWK->Default Tagline.


Step 2: Create a QWKnet Account
===============================

Assuming you will be using The GameNet hub, you will need to logon as "New"
at telnet://gamenet.synchronetbbs.org and create your QWKnet account using
your BBS's QWK-ID as the user name (even if you already have a regular user
account there).

*** IMPORTANT ***
You must answer (Y)es to the following new user question:
"Is this account to be used for QWK Networking (GameNet)?"

Remember the password you used to create this account, you'll need it later.

When you get to the QWK: prompt, you need to (C)hange Packet Configuration
to match the following (if you're running Synchronet):

QWK Settings:

A) Ctrl-A Color Codes            : Leave in
T) Archive Type                  : ZIP
E) Include E-mail Messages       : Un-read Only
I) Include File Attachments      : Yes
D) Delete E-mail Automatically   : Yes
F) Include New Files List        : No
N) Include Index Files           : no
C) Include Control Files         : no
V) Include VOTING.DAT File       : Yes (Synchronet 3.17+)
V) Include HEADERS.DAT File      : Yes (Synchronet 3.15b+)
Y) Include Messages from You     : No
Z) Include Time Zone (TZ)        : Yes
V) Include Message Path (VIA)    : Yes
M) Include Message/Reply IDs     : Yes (Synchronet 3.10+)
X) Extended (QWKE) Packet Format : No

You may also want to take this opportunity to (S)elect Areas to Scan
from the QWK: prompt and set all the GameNet sub-boards to "On".

It is important that you do NOT use a regular user account for QWK packet
transfers.


Step 3: Adding GameNet Message Areas to your BBS
=================================================

If you're using Synchronet BBS Software, then you need to create the GameNet
message group and add the areas to your BBS.You can do this by going into SCFG
-> Message Areas and add a group called GameNet. Then go into the group and
choose Import areas. You have two choices to import the areas. You can import
the areas from subs.txt or backbone.na. If you choose the subs.txt enter the
path and filename to gn_subs.txt, if you choose backbone.na enter the path and
filename to gamenet.na.

Once you have imported the areas have a look and make sure the area settings
are what you want them to be. If you imported gn_subs.txt your areas will
inherit the same settings that I have on my BBS for QWK import export.

FTN nodes should not import the gn_subs.txt, use the gamenet.na instead and
add your FTN info.

Gateways
--------
You *must not* gate GameNet conferences to any other network without
explicit, prior permission.

All the GameNet conferences are already gated to zone 32 for FTN Systems.

Step 4: Configure your QWKnet Hub
=================================

Synchronet SCFG-> Networks-> QWK Packet Networks -> Network Hubs:

Add an entry for the GameNet hub.

Hub System ID              GAMENET

Pack Command Line          %@zip -jD %f %s
Unpack Command Line        %@unzip -Coj %f %s -d %g

Call-out Command Line      *qnet-ftp %s gamenet.synchronetbbs.org YOURPASS

Replace YOURPASS with the password you used when creating your QWKnet account.

Call-out Node              1
Call-out Days              All
Call-out Frequency         4 times a day (your choice on how frequently
                           you want to poll the hub)

Networked Sub-boards...

Conf#   Group           Sub-board
-----   -------         ---------
1001    GameNet         Amiga
1002    GameNet         Android
1003    GameNet         Apple
1004    GameNet         Nintendo
1005    GameNet         Retro
1006    GameNet         Sony
1007    GameNet         Windows
1008    GameNet         Other
1009    GameNet         Action
1010    GameNet         Adventure
1011    GameNet         Arcade
1012    GameNet         Board Games
1013    GameNet         Card Games
1014    GameNet         Casual
1015    GameNet         Door Games
1016    GameNet         First Person Shooters
1017    GameNet         Massively Multiplayer Online
1018    GameNet         Party
1019    GameNet         Platform
1020    GameNet         Puzzle Games
1021    GameNet         Role Playing Games
1022    GameNet         Shooter
1023    GameNet         Simulation
1024    GameNet         Sports
1025    GameNet         Strategy Games
1026    GameNet         Trivia Games
1027    GameNet         Testing!
1028    GameNet         Emulators
1029    GameNet         MUDs


Ctrl-A codes should be set to "Leave in" for all for Synchronet systems, and
(probably) expand to ansi for Mystic systems.


Step 5: Turn on the GameNet conferences on your QWKnet Hub
===========================================================

If you haven't already done so, either:

1. Logon to your Hub (e.g. the GameNet hub) via Telnet and (S)elect Areas to
   Scan from the QWK: prompt and set all GameNet sub-boards to "On".

or:

2. Logon to your BBS and post a message in each of the GameNet message areas
   to: SBBS with a subject of ADD (these are called "QWK control msgs").


Step 6: Force a Network Call-out
================================

If using the Synchronet-Win32 Control Panel, use the BBS->Force Network
Call-out menu option and select "GameNet".

If using Unix/Linux, use the following command-line (with correct path):
# touch /sbbs/data/qnet/gamenet.now

Watch your event log/window for QNET-FTP log messages.

NOTE: The GameNet hub limits the size of QWK packets, currently to 10,000
      messages per packet, so it might take several call-outs to get all
      the messages stored in the GameNet conferences on the hub.


Finished
========

You should now see messages in at least some of the GameNet sub-boards on
your BBS.  Remember, it may take several GameNet call-outs to get *all*
the GameNet messages from your hub (be patient).


**************
* File Areas *
**************

There are two file areas currently for new nodelists and info packs. More may
be added later if there is interest. Some BBS software (like Synchronet)
supports sending files to QWK nodes. If you would like files sent to your node
just let me know and I will put new files in your nodes out directory and you
should receive them in your in directory.

Just let me know in one of the echoes or netmail me, Al@TRMB


**********************
* Reference Material *
**********************

QWK Technical Notes
===================

Non-Synchronet systems importing GameNet messages may notice some things about
the messages which are different from other BBS packages. The first line of
each message may contain "@VIA:" and a list of GameNet BBS ID's the message
has passed through, each separated by a slash character. This line is used to
automatically create and maintain the Synchronet ROUTE.DAT "map" file as well 
as detect circular message paths (dupe loops). The first or second line of each
message may contain "@TZ:" and a four character hexadecimal number. This is the
time zone (as defined in the SMB specification) of the BBS that the message was
originally posted on. These Synchronet-specific QWK features can be disabled
from the online QWK: menu. Note, if Ctrl-A codes are enabled, the @VIA/@TZ
lines are automatically enabled for QWKnet nodes as well. So to disable the 
@VIA/@TZ lines, you must also disable (strip) Ctrl-A codes.

Messages exported from Synchronet may also contain Synchronet Ctrl-A color
codes. These can be disabled for any hubs you're calling in SCFG (Synchronet
Configuration Program) or if the other BBS is calling you, then they can
disable them by sending a message to "SBBS" with a title of "CTRL-A STRIP".

The following control messages are supported by Synchronet for QWK networking.
The message must be posted to SBBS from the node BBS:

Subj: DROP [conf#]
Note: Drop current conference (or specified conference #) from future packets

Subj: ADD [ptr | -msgs | mm/dd/yy]
Note: Add current conference to future packets and optionally set message ptr

Subj: RESET [ptr | -msgs | mm/dd/yy]
Note: Set message pointer for current conference, - indicates offset from last

Subj: RESETALL [ptr | -msgs | mm/dd/yy]
Note: Set message pointers for all conferences

Subj: FREQ <filename>
Note: File Request from file transfer database (not attachments)

Subj: FILES [ON | OFF | mm/dd/yy]
Note: Include files list in packet and/or specify new-scan date

Subj: ATTACH [ON | OFF]
Note: Include file attachments in packet automatically (e-mail only)

Subj: CTRL-A [KEEP | EXPAND | STRIP]
Note: Ctrl-A color/attribute codes - leave-in, expand to ANSI, or remove

Subj: TZ [ON | OFF]
Note: Include time-zone (@TZ) lines in exported messages

Subj: VIA [ON | OFF]
Note: Include path (@VIA) lines in exported messages

Subj: MSGID [ON | OFF]
Note: Include @MSGID and @REPLY lines in exported messages

Subj: NDX [ON | OFF]
Note: Include index (.NDX) files

Subj: CONTROL [ON | OFF]
Note: Include extraneous control files (CONTROL.DAT, DOOR.ID, NETFLAGS.DAT)


Terminology (as used in this document)
======================================

Hub:      A BBS that feeds another BBS messages for a message network
Node:     A BBS that calls another BBS to exchange messages for a network
          A BBS can be (and most often is) either "both a node and a hub"
          or "only a node", if you're joining GameNet for the first time,
          then your system will be "only a node".
QWK:      Message packet format used for off-line mail readers
QWKnet:   Message networking technology using QWK packets
Fido:     Message networking technology based on Fido BBS software
FidoNet:  The single largest amateur message network on Earth {tm}
Echo:     Message area that is connected to multiple BBSes via message
          network
NetMail:  Private message between one user and another not stored in a
          topical message area (echo), similar in princicple to Internet
          e-mail
SMB:      Synchronet Message Base format, download SMB_*.ZIP from
          Vertrauen for technical specification and C library


Contact Information
===================
Founder:

Marisag
Amiga City: telnet/rlogin/ssh/http/ftp/finger: amigacity.xyz
email: marisag [at] synchronetbbs [dot] org


Co-founder:

Alan Ianson, or Al
The Rusty MailBox: telnet/rlogin/ssh/http/ftp/gopher: trmb.synchro.net
email: Al [at] trmb [dot] synchro [dot] net
Netmail: Alan Ianson @ 1:153/757, 21:4/106 or 32:1/5


/* End of GameNet.txt */
