Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!dreaderd!not-for-mail Message-ID: Supersedes: Expires: 1 Jun 2004 13:43:10 GMT X-Last-Updated: 2003/12/01 Organization: none From: rsingers@hotmail.com Newsgroups: rec.games.miniatures.warhammer,news.answers,rec.answers Subject: [FAQ] rec.games.miniatures.warhammer Monthly FAQ X-Disclaimer: Approval for *.answers is based on form, not content. Followup-To: rec.games.miniatures.warhammer Summary: Information for posters to rec.games.miniatures.warhammer Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU Originator: faqserv@penguin-lust.MIT.EDU Date: 20 Apr 2004 13:45:36 GMT Lines: 295 NNTP-Posting-Host: penguin-lust.mit.edu X-Trace: 1082468736 senator-bedfellow.mit.edu 576 18.181.0.29 Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu rec.games.miniatures.warhammer:852603 news.answers:270307 rec.answers:86735 Archive-name: games/miniatures/warhammer-faq Posting-Frequency: monthly Last-Modified: January 17th, 2003 Version: 3.1 URL: http://www.rgmw.org Copyright: (c) 2002 Robert Singers Maintainer: Robert Singers This article covers questions frequently asked by new comers to rec.games.miniatures.warhammer and those wishing to understand common practice and courtesy in the newsgroup. HTML versions of this FAQ can be found at http://www.rgmw.org The following topics are addressed. 1) What is RGMW? 1.1) What is the history of RGMW? 1.2) What topics are appropriate for RGMW? 1.3) What topics are inappropriate for RGMW? 2) Posting to RGMW 2.1) What should I do before posting? 2.2) What format should my post be in? 2.3) What can I include in a post.? 2.4) What are tags? 2.5) I want to ask a question, any tips? 2.6) I posted and no one has answered what do I do? 2.7) I want to sell or advertise something on the newsgroup. 3) Flame Wars 3.1) What do I do if I get flamed? 3.2) To kill file or not. 3.3) Who is Erik Setzer and what is 'the shunning'? Appendix One: Tags Game Systems - Fantasy and Historical Game Systems - SciFi General Topics Commercial Posts 1) What is RGMW? 1.1) What is the history of RGMW? Once upon a time there was a newsgroup called rec.games.miniatures. A request for discussion was called to split it into three groups rec.games.miniatures.historical, rec.games.miniatures.misc and rec.games.miniatures.warhammer. You can read the RFD here http://www.faqs.org/ftp/usenet/news.announce.newgroups/rec/rec.games. miniatures-reorg. The charter for rec.games.miniatures.warhammer is 'Rec.games.miniatures.warhammer shall be an unmoderated recreational newsgroup devoted to the discussion of various fantasy and science-fiction miniatures games set in the "Warhammer" universe, including but not limited to such games as Warhammer Fantasy Battles (WFB), Warhammer 40000 (40K) and Man o' War (MOW).' 1.2) What topics are appropriate for RGMW? The appropriate topics for RGMW are the games produced by Games Workshop and modelling or painting discussions related to said games. Discussions about other game systems are not appropriate unless they are comparisons to Games Workshop games. 1.3) What topics are inappropriate for RGMW? RGMW has a very high tolerance for off topic posts as long as they are properly tagged as such (see 2.4) What are tags?). However having said that there are a number of topics that spark long and nasty flame wars. These are - Splitting the newsgroup - Ethnicity or Race - Gender or Sexual Orientation - Copyright Infringement or Theft of Intellectual Property (leeching). - Telling people to stop complaining about the business practices of game and miniature companies. 2) Posting to RGMW 2.1) What should I do before posting? Before posting to RGMW you should read this FAQ in its entirety and bone up on your netiquette. RGMW as a whole has a low threshold for poor netiquette and top posting in general. For more information on Usenet and Netiquette, refer to news groups such as news.announce.newusers and news.newusers.question (http://members.fortunecity.com/nnqweb/) or search for "netiquette" with your favourite search engine. Netiquette may seem a trivial thing but RGMW is a truly international newsgroup and many of the posters do not have English as a first language. Add to this that discussing rules or army lists is made difficult by poor netiquette such as top posting, it is essential that you follow Usenet conventions if you wish to get any value out of RGMW. Another good idea before posting is to use a search engine before asking questions. Google (http://www.google.com) is a good search engine to use as it also allows you to search news group archives. 2.2) What format should my post be in? All posts to RGMW should be in text. None of the RFCs relating to newsgroups specify HTML as a valid message format. Not all newsreaders can read HTML posts and they display as garbage. Newsreaders and WebTVs that default to HTML are the misbehaved applications not those of us with properly configured newsreaders. You should also try to post in English as it is the primary language of the newsgroup. If your English is not good then by all means explain this and ask for help. Often there will be someone who speaks your language that can help. There are also various non english web forums and an Italian news group for Warhammer nttp://free.it.giochi.warhammer. 2.3) What can I include in a post.? You can include text in posts. RGMW is not a binary newsgroup so if you want to include a picture then you will need to place it on a web server and include a link. There are plenty of free web servers such as Tripod or Freewebz that you can use. Your ISP might also provide a certain amount of space free or at a low cost. 2.4) What are tags? Tags are an indicator of what subject or game system you are discussing. They are not mandatory but they definitely a good idea. Common netiquette does dictate however that anything not on the topic of the news groups should be tagged as Off Topic [OT]. Tags are simple to use. You simply include the appropriate abbreviation in your subject line. They should be enclosed in square brackets "[" and "]" and separated from the subject text by a space. Many people use tags to colour code the subject line based on games system. See Appendix One: Tags for a list of current tags. You can use multiple tags, just remember to include a space between the tags as many newsreader filters don't appear to work without it. 2.5) I want to ask a question, any tips? Chances are that any question that you may want to ask has been asked before. It's a good idea to use the Google newsgroup search facility to check. You can save yourself time and get more information by being able to expand on previous conversations. Make sure that you use the tag appropriate to the topic so you catch the attention of the right people. If you have a question about Chaos in Warhammer 40K then having Warhammer Fantasy Battle players respond is not likely to help much. Make sure your spelling, punctuation, and grammar are the best you can manage. Answering a question when you don't know what the questioner means is difficult. 2.6) I posted and no one has answered what do I do? RGMW runs on Usenet time. There is a propagation delay as your post travels between servers around the world. If no one has answered your post it's for one of two reasons. The first is that no one's interested and the second and more likely due to the promiscuous nature of RGMW is that no one has had a chance to. Give it at least twenty-four hours before posting the same thing again. If you do post the same or similar thing you will get flamed. Multiple posts equate to spam in most people's minds. 2.7) I want to sell or advertise something on the newsgroup. The newsgroup is not a commercial notice board. People don't read it with the aim of purchasing items. For selling your best option is to use Ebay or a national auction site, as most people who buy second hand miniatures and rules don't take notice of ads on RGMW. If you must make posts about buying, selling, or trading items then use the appropriate commercial tags (see Appendix One: Tags - Commercial Posts). If you have multiple items for sale them combine them into one post. RGMW is however a good place to discuss various online merchants and give feedback. If you are a commercial operation do not constantly spam the newsgroup with advertisements. The members of the newsgroups will take every opportunity to make complaints to your news provider and ISP and have you closed down. If you must advertise and it will only garner you poor will, then make sure you use a tag. 3) Flame Wars 3.1) What do I do if I get flamed? Flame wars are common in RGMW. They are part of it's charm. If you find yourself being flamed and are surprised the first thing to do is go back and read whatever it was that you wrote that caused you to be flamed. If you were in the wrong or may not have explained yourself well then apologise. It's amazing how much goodwill an honest apology will buy you. If you are in the right then stick up for yourself or let it go. Just be aware that anyone who has been around the newsgroup for a while is likely to have a thick skin and a certain amount of skill flaming, or is just obnoxious, be careful! 3.2) To kill file or not. At some stage you are bound to run into someone on the newsgroup that you just can't stand or won't cut you a break. Think about using a newsreader with a kill file. Check out http://www.hyphenologist.co.uk/killfile/killfilefaqhtm.htm for information on how to use kill files with various news readers. Kill filing people cuts down on pointless noise on newsgroups. 3.3) Who is Erik Setzer and what is 'the shunning'? Erik Setzer is RGMW's most persistent 'troublemaker'. Many new comers to RGMW complain about how unfairly he's being treated, until they experience his hypocrisy for themselves. The shunning is an attempt to teach Erik restraint by asking people not to encourage him. Any 'shunning' posts should include the [SHUN] tag so they can be filtered. If you want to know about Erik, use Google to look at his past exploits. The best option is to kill file Erik if you don't like what he posts. Appendix One: Tags Game Systems - Fantasy and Historical [WFB] Warhammer Fantasy Battles [MORD] Mordheim [WM] WarMaster [LOTR] Lord of the Rings [BB] Blood Bowl [MOW] Man o' War [AHQ] Advanced HeroQuest (MB/GW) [TAL] Talisman [WAB] Warhammer Ancient Battles (Warhammer Historical Wargames Ltd) [WFRP] Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play (Hogshead) [WQ] Warhammer Quest Game Systems - SciFi [40K] Warhammer 40,000. [40K2] can be used for comments specific to 2nd edition, and [RT] for comments about Rogue Trader (the original version of Warhammer 40K). [INQ] Inquisitor [BFG] Battlefleet Gothic [EPIC] Epic Warhammer 40,000 includes [SM] Space Marine and [TL] Titan Legions [SH] Space Hulk [NEC] Necromunda [GM] Gorka Morka General Topics [Paint] Questions regarding painting, non-system specific (you never know when a 40K player will have a good idea pertaining to your fantasy figures). [Model] Questions about modeling, non-system specific (you never know when a 40K player will have a good idea pertaining to your fantasy figures either) [WD] Questions or comments on White Dwarf [GW] Anything regarding Games Workshop, but not related to any of the above, such as prices. [FAQ] Questions or discussion regarding either the RGMW FAQ proper, or the RGMW MiniFAQ, including posting of said FAQs. [RGMW] For any group business. [OT] Anything that has nothing to do with Warhammer in all it's incarnations such as birthday announcements, season's greetings, etc. [Rant] This tag is to be used in conjunction with any of the above tags, and denotes the post as a rant (read: long, impassioned complaint, or whine). For example [40K] [Rant] denotes the post as rant directed at Warhammer 40,000. Commercial Posts [WTB] Want To Buy [WTS] Want To Sell [WTT] Want To Trade [FS] For Sale [FT] For Trade [AD] If you have to post an advert use one of these tags. [ADVERT] As above. [AUC] For posting or responding to auctions. [EBAY] For posting or respondin to EBay auctions. [SWP] Shameless Website Plug: If the topic at hand happens to relate to something you are involved in and you want mention this then you can use this self-depreciating tag.