alt.games.baldurs-gate - Usage Guidelines
v0.9.4, 30/8/00
Hello and welcome to alt.games.baldurs-gate! Here you'll find a friendly forum to discuss not only Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 (and their associated expansion discs), but also other Bioware/Black Isle role playing games such as Planescape: Torment and Icewind Dale. To experienced Usenet posters, a lot of this post can be skipped. To those who are new to the group, or to the internet in general, please have a read through this message for a few simple "do's" and "don'ts". I would recommend especially the glossary, which should help to decipher some of the messages, and is invaluable for navigating the conversations in the group. Read on and enjoy your stay here!
1 - What we discuss, and what we don't discuss
2 - How to post to a.g.b-g
3 - A few simple "do's" and "don'ts"
Glossary of common abbreviations
Obviously, we talk about any issues relating to the games themselves. This includes help with fighting monsters, technical issues such as game crashes, and discussion of the rules system. As long as your query is related to any aspect of the game, it's more than welcome here.
As for topics which are not normally up for discussion here, adding the letters "OT" to the message subject line is considered good form, to let people know that the subject is a bit different from the usual topics of discussion. As a general rule, if a conversation appears to be drifting away from the original topic, it is again good practice to insert "OT" into your reply.
A few simple guidelines will make everyone's life easier, and luckily there aren't too many here to worry about.
Firstly, it's strongly recommended that you post in plain text format, rather than HTML. If you have Outlook Express, then go to Tools > Options > Send, and check the "plain text" box next to the news sending options. For those using Netscape, the procedure is as follows: Edit Menu > Select preferences > Mail and Newsgroups > Formatting > select "Use the plain text editor".
Before you actually rush in here and post, it is seen as good form to 'lurk', or read messages without replying to them, for a period of time. This allows people to get a feel for the tone of the group, although as long as you are polite while here, people will doubtless welcome you. Also, reading this document will give you a fairly good grounding in our general ethos here.
When you do post, remember that we discuss a wide range of games here, and a system of labeling is needed to avoid total confusion. The glossary at the end of this document lists the abbreviations used in the group, and you should put the appropriate abbreviation in the subject line of your message. Similarly, if you reply to a message and the original poster forgot to label his post, simply add the abbreviation to the subject line.
If you are posting a query to the group, please give us as much relevant information as possible. For example, if you are having problems with mysterious game crashes, then tell us your hardware setup, or if you are stuck with a particular battle, tell us whom is in your party. This way we can tailor advice for your particular problem.
Next, it is good practice to 'snip', or delete, unnecessary parts of the previous message when replying. This cuts down on having to read through other people's messages, and reduces the total amount of text to download. On this subject, it is recommended that if you have a signature, or .sig, file, it is best to keep this relatively short (between four and six lines is a good guideline). When replying, it is also accepted that .sigs should be snipped, as they are irrelevant to the discussion.
Please remember also that English is not necessarily the first language of everyone on this group, so it is best for those who speak English fluently to show consideration for people writing in a foreign language. To those who are not fluent in English, consider writing your message in your native tongue, as hopefully there will be someone else here who can help you.
Finally, there are two distinct methods of replying, known as 'top-posting' and 'bottom posting', depending if your reply is at the top or bottom of the previous message. There are arguments for both styles, but as a compromise measure, it makes it easier to read a conversation if people reply in the same manner as the previous poster. Therefore, if one person replies and bottom posts, all subsequent replies should be bottom posted. Another alternative measure is to cut and paste any relevant parts of previous messages so your reply reads in a coherent fashion. A mixture of top and bottom posted replies is what we wish to avoid, as this makes conversations extremely difficult to understand.
These are all just common etiquette, and can be skipped by people who've used Usenet before. However, obeying these simple requests will gain you a lot of respect in the group.
* Use of language - misuse of English is not approved of in this group. This includes excessive and unnecessary swearing, along with any form of racial/sexual abuse or any other display of bigotry. This is a multi-national group, open to all, and one can rightly expect to gain little respect from people if such insults are posted. Furthermore, use of phonetic spellings (i.e. "U r a k3wl dO0d") is greatly disliked, as it not only looks ridiculous, but makes messages more difficult to read.
* Spam - spam is unsolicited commercial postings, such as 'get-rich-quick' schemes, and the posting of such messages is not tolerated within the group. Common practice is to simply ignore such messages (as the original poster almost certainly does not subscribe to the group, it's pointless to reply in this forum). If you feel particularly offended, an e-mail to the individual or their ISP is the best way to tackle such posts. For further information on this topic, I suggest the FAQ to be found on the subject at http://www.faqs.org/faqs/usenet/spam-faq/.
* Trolls - not to be confused with the trolls in computer games, a Usenet troll is someone who posts a deliberately provocative topic, and often leaves the group afterwards. An example would be a post entitled "Baldur's Gate is really awful", followed by a groundless rant against the game. The best way to deal with this is "don't feed the trolls", in other words don't bother replying to them and let the issue pass. They are treated with the same contempt as spammers within the group.
* Binaries - a binary is a file attached to a posted message. This can include pictures, mp3 files or anything else. This is not a group for such posts - a good idea is to post them to alt.binaries.games (if your news server supports it), and direct people to the presence of the file there. Doing so frees up the bandwidth of the group, and prevents annoyance if people have to download large files with attachments. Alternatively, asking people to e-mail you if they want your files is equally effective.
* Spoilers - a spoiler is a message which gives away plot information or item locations which other gamers may prefer to find out on their own. Naturally, asking for help on a specific situation will almost invariably result in some form of spoiling information, but if you reply to a message, and your reply contains spoiling material, place the word "Spoiler" in the body of your message, and leave an appropriate 'spoiler space' (normally a dozen or so blank lines, to avoid people accidentally reading your spoiler), so as to warn people when they open the file.
* Flames - flaming is the art of posting messages designed to annoy or demean someone, who has normally done something to deserve it (commonly a practice reserved for trolls). Fortunately, there is almost no flaming on this group, and we urge you to either ignore those posts which seek to provoke a certain response from you, or to take the matter to private e-mail. We have no particular wish to read people's personal disputes.
AD&D = Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, the long running pen and paper role playing rules which are used in BG, and all other games discussed here. Bear in mind for experienced AD&D'ers that these games all use second edition rules, rather than the newly released third edition.
Infinity engine = developed by Bioware, this is the game engine on which all the games here are based, with slight modifications.
BG = Baldur's Gate, the game which started it all, set in the Forgotten Realms AD&D campaign setting.
TOTSC or TOSC or TSC = Tales of the Sword Coast, an official expansion pack for BG. This adds new maps, new items and some rule changes to the original game, as well as fixing some bugs from BG.
PS:T = Planescape:Torment, a game set in AD&D's Planescape universe, again built using the Infinity engine.
DSOTSC or DTOSC = Dark Side of the Sword Coast, an unofficial expansion for BG written by TeamBG (www.teambg.com), and available for free download. Please bear in mind that this requires the official BG expansion kit, Tales of the Sword Coast, in order to work.
IWD = Icewind Dale, another game using the same game engine as BG, set in the Forgotten Realms AD&D setting.
BG2 = Baldur's Gate 2: Shadows of Amn, the sequel to Baldur's Gate, due for release around September 2000.
Finally, there exists a culture of abbreviations on Usenet, which are commonly used to save people typing the full phrase repeatedly. If you require a further discussion on this, and a list of commonly used abbreviations, two links which make good reading are; http://www.path.cam.ac.uk/eegtti/eeg_271.html and http://foldoc.doc.ic.ac.uk/foldoc/index.html
Comments, ideas or suggestions to be sent to phil@gledson.fsnet.co.uk