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Board games ( rec.games.board.marketplace )

From: [email protected] Newsgroups: rec.games.board, rec.games.board.marketplace Subject: rec.games.board FAQ and intro Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2004 21:00:47 +0000 (UTC) Message-ID: <[email protected]> Reply-To: [email protected] Summary: useful information for readers of rec.games.board Keywords: faq, intro  Archive-name: games/board-games-faq Last-modified: 2004/01/19 Version: 7.22 Frequency: twice a month Archive-frequency: once a month  Revisions:  v7.22 : Das Motorsportspiel, Games Workshop links updated,                     railroad games URL updated. Revisions:  v7.21 : ASL links updated Revisions:  v7.20 : Risk link updated Revisions:  v7.19 : EiA URLs updated Revisions:  v7.18 : Microgames links updated, German-style boardgames                     URL added.   An HTML version of this FAQ can be had at :   	http://www.faqs.org/faqs/games/board-games-faq  Also, nearly all usenet FAQ's are archived for anonymous ftp at  rtfm.mit.edu.  		rec.games.board FAQ and introduction 		------------------------------------  Welcome to the rec.games.board newsgroup!  This is a group in which board games of all sorts are discussed (with the exceptions of certain popular games which have their own groups, see below).  This is a group with unusually large scope, given the huge number of different board games.  Games that have popped up in the past seem to come from a few distinct groups : 1) "Parlor" games like Scrabble, Monopoly, and Risk; 2) Military and Historic simulations of all kinds; and 3) games that don't fit into any of the above categories, but which are often played by the same folks as play #2.  Following are different sections of information of interest to those reading this group.  They are moderately long, but are separated by "=====" 's, so use the "g=====" command to skip to the next section if you like.  The topics are :  1) Specific game discussion areas (other newsgroups and mailing lists) 2) rec.games.board netiquitte 3) Network Resources of interest to readers of rec.games.board 4) Game FAQ's 5) Auctions 6) Where to get games and stuff? 7) The "Distribution: " line 8) Threaded News Readers 9) Killfiles and rec.games.board example killfile entries   1) Specific game discussion areas ======================================================================= There are several games which have their own dedicated discussion forums.  If you have a question or want to discuss these games, you'll get a much better response from the specific forum than you will from rec.games.board.  Also, in general, cross-posting is a waste of bandwidth - try to avoid it.  Here's a listing of games with their own home :  Games which have their own newsgroups : ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstract games		:	rec.games.abstract Backgammon              :       rec.games.backgammon Battletech et al	:	rec.games.mecha Chess                   :       rec.games.chess... Cosmic Encounter	:       rec.games.board.ce  Diplomacy               : 	rec.games.diplomacy Games For Sale		:	rec.games.board.marketplace General game design     : 	rec.games.design  Go                      :       rec.games.go Magic: The Gathering	:	rec.games.trading-card.... Miniatures		:	rec.games.miniatures.misc Historical Minis	:	rec.games.miniatures.historical Warhammer Minis		:	rec.games.miniatures.warhammer Play-by-Mail games      :       rec.games.pbm  Role-Playing Games	:       rec.games.frp....   Trivia games            :	rec.games.trivia  Mailing lists (and where to write to be included) : ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Note that many of these mailing lists are run by automated mailing list programs, or "listservs".  Those that are can sign you up with no need for human intervention.  Lists that can do this have a second line below, with the string that you need to send in the message body to  sign up.  For instance, if I was signing up for the Blood Bowl list, I'd send a message (subject irrelevant) with the message body  	subscribe bbowl-l Alec Habig  and everything would be taken care of.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 18xx games		:	http://groups.yahoo.com/group/18xx/join Advanced Squad Leader   :       http://asl-forums.net/mailman/listinfo/aslml_asl-forums.net Advanced Third Reich    :	[email protected] 				listserv, "subscribe A3R" AH Impulse games        :       [email protected] Air Power		:	[email protected] Project A-ko            :       [email protected] Ardennes battles	:	http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ardennes/join Babylon 5 Wars		:	[email protected] 				"subscribe babylon5-wars" Blood Bowl		:	[email protected] 				listserv, "subscribe bbowl-l YourName" 				or "subscribe bbowl-digest your name here" Britannia		:       http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eurobrit/join Car Wars		:	[email protected] Car Wars newsletter	:       http://www.serv.net/~owenmp/cwinhome.html Command Decision        :       [email protected]  Dune			:	http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DuneBoardGame/ Empires in Arms PBEM	:	[email protected] 				listserv, "subscribe eia" Europa			:	[email protected] Europa Universalis      :       http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EU/join Flat Top		:	[email protected] 				listserv, "subscribe YourName" Formula De		:	http://groups.yahoo.com/group/formula-de/ The Gamers		:	[email protected] 				listserv, "subscribe gamers-l" Harpoon (naval mins.)   :       [email protected] Magic Realm		:	[email protected] Manowar                 :       [email protected]                                 "subscribe" Mechwar			:	[email protected] 				listserv, "SUB MechWar YourAddress" Microgames		:	http://groups.yahoo.com/group/microgame Modern Era Wargames	:	[email protected] 				listserv, SUBSCRIBE MODMIL-L ModmiL-L                :       [email protected]                                 "subscribe modmiL-L yourname" Ogre/GEV		:	[email protected] Pax Britannica          :       [email protected]                                 "subscribe paxb-l" PBM List                :       [email protected]                                 send email message Pre-gunpowder mins.     :       [email protected]  Renju			:	[email protected] RoboRally		:	http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RoboRally/ Shogi			:	[email protected] 				listserv, "SUB SHOGI-L YourName" Settlersof Catan	:	http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Settlers/ Space Marine		:	[email protected] 				listserv, "subscribe space-marine YourName" Squad Leader		:	[email protected] 				listserv, Starfire		:	[email protected] 				"subscribe starfire" Star Fleet Battles      :	[email protected] (*) Strat-o-matic baseball	:	[email protected] 				listserv, "subscribe strat-bb" Strat-o-matic hockey    :	http://groups.yahoo.com/group/strat-hockey/ Supremacy		:	http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Supremacy/ Talisman (2nd Ed.)	:	http://groups.yahoo.com/group/talisman_2nd_ed/ Up Front		:	[email protected] 				listserv, "subscribe" WarChest		:     http://www.io.com/unigames/warchest/warchest.html Warhammer Fantasy Batt. :	[email protected] 				listserv, "subscribe WarHammerFB" World In Flames		:      http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wifdiscussion/join  (*) For the SFB mailing lists, put SUBSCRIBE "LISTNAME" in the        Subject: header, replacing "LISTNAME" with TACTICS, TOURNAMENT,     F+E, or PD for the list you want to subscribe to.  Web based discussion forums: -----------------------------------------------------------------------  Naval Wargames Forum :    http://www.mircx.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?forum=whites Many Miniatures Forums :  http://theminiaturespage.com/boards.html Slashdot-style gaming news & discussion : http://www.StrategicCastle.com Autoduelist's Haven Message Board: http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/carwars Dueling Debate Message Board:      http://www.delphi.com/carwars Pyramid Car Wars Message Board:    http://www.sjgames.com/pyramod Star Fleet Battles:	  http://www.starfleetgames.com/discus Motor Sports Games:       http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Motorsportspiel/ Games Workshop Games:	  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Fantasy_Vault/  Of the above games, many have a strong PBEM (play By E-Mail) following. Most notably Diplomacy, ASL, and EiA.  Scrabble even has an internet server for interactive games (telnet eel.st.usm.edu 7777, or look at the URL http://elf.udw.ac.za/scrabble/), as do Othello (telnet external.nj.nec.com 5000), Go (telnet imageek.york.cuny.edu 9696), Trax (mail [email protected] with a subject of help), and MahJong (http://newmath.princeton.edu:5555/mj.html).  Up Front can be played with the help of the server at http://www.ufpbw.com/ufpbw.cgi The pbmserv address also supports a wide range of other PBEM games - check out http://gamerz.net/ for the whole scoop!  You can even play against Chinook, the world champion checkers program,  at http://web.cs.ualberta.ca/~chinook.  If you are interested in joining  in in a PBEM game, try the respective group.  Also, Eric Pass, ([email protected]) maintains a PBEM Gamers Directory, to help in finding opponents.  Contact him if you want to be included in this directory,  and check out http://www.nyx.net/~epass/home.html#PBEMDIR to see who's already on it.  Also, http://www.irony.com/mailroll.html will roll dice for you, which is a very handy thing to have for PBEM games, and a shareware PBEM aid can be had from : http://Ourworld.Compuserve.Com/Homepages/GDickinson/ELECRD.HTM  Finally, http://www.fwtwr.com is a PBEM server for the games Acquire, Durch Die Wuste, Euphrat and Tigris, Ra, Samurai, Sopwith and Torres.   2) rec.games.board netiquitte ======================================================================= Due to the fact that there are so many different games to talk about, and few people are interested in every one of them, please keep a few items of netiquitte in mind to make reading this group easier for all.  1) Put the name of the game in the "Subject :" line of your post.  This allows uninterested people to quickly skip over your posting to get to the ones they want, and the interested parties to easily find your post.  Included below are quick introductions to kill files and threaded news readers, the use of which can make your usenet life much easier.  Here's a list of some common abbreviations for games or companies to  use in your subject lines :  18xx	=	18xx series of rail games (1830:,1856: for specific games) A&A:	=	Axis and Allies A3R:	=	Advanced Third Reich ANNOUNCE=	Announcement of a Con or new game ASL:	=	Advanced Squad Leader AUCTION:=	This is a game auction posting (should go to .marketplace) BB:	=	Blood Bowl EiA:	=	Empires in Arms SFB:	=	Star Fleet Battles WiF:	=	World in Flames GW:	=	Games Workshop GDW:	=	Game Designers Workshop (a very different company than GW) RR:	=	Robo Rally STRAT:	=	Strat-o-matic sports games Titan:	=	Titan  So, for example, an Axis and Allies post would have a subject line like "Subject: A&A: - Yahtzee or Craps?"  Note the colons.  Adding the colons makes searching for the strings  easier.  For instance, someone searching for Blood Bowl articles using  the string "BB" will pick up all threads containing two B's in the  subject - searching for "BB:" avoids this.  2) Make use of the "Distribution: " line with your posts. Announcements of conventions, games for sale, opponents wanted, or questions about directions to gaming stores are of only limited use to people outside of a certain geographical area.  The distribution line prevents, for instance, an announcement of "CAPCON XIX, a gaming convention at Ohio State University" from tantalizing those in Sweden who couldn't possibly attend.  See below for a quick description of how to use this feature.  3) If you make a dumb mistake in a posting, accidentally cross post it, or accidentally post two copies, cancel the bad/extraneous ones.  Do this by hitting "C" while reading your own post (in rn/trn - other news programs have different commands - read your manuals).   3) Network Resources of interest to readers of rec.games.board =======================================================================  ftp sites : ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ftp://ftp.indirect.com/pub/rpg/	- minis related stuff. ftp.cwi.com				- Command Decision archive ecn.purdue.edu:stuff/			- WH40k archives, painting tips sara.cc.utu.fi:A3R                      - Advanced Third Reich archive ftp://carlo.phys.uva.nl/pub/bas/		- Advanced Squad Leader archive ftp://ftp.pi.se/pub/pc/games/		- Renju, other 5-in-a-row games ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/misc/		- Bone Games (Public Domain games) ftp://tetrad.stanford.edu/pub/DBM_stuff/	- DBM stuff ftp://ftp.indirect.com/pub/rpg/   - Axis and Allies ftp://ftp.cs.colorado.edu/users/seidl/ - Starfire  WWW pages : ------------------------------------------------------------------------ http://ftp.cwi.com/cdmailer/.www/cdmailer.html 		(CD page) http://theminiaturespage.com/				(Miniatures Wargaming) http://www.erinet.com/bp/hist.html			(Historical Minis) http://tigertank.com/aslcrossroads/			(ASL links) http://theminiaturespage.com/rules/fan/bludbowl.html    (Blood Bowl) http://www.gamecabinet.com				(non-Wargames) http://www.gamesdomain.co.uk/				(FAQs) http://www.cis.ufl.edu/~thoth/magic/			(MtG) http://www.vt.edu:10021/cns/mage/ce.html		(Cosmic Encounter) http://www.teleport.com/~stevena/scrabble/faq.html	(Scrabble) http://www.nyx.net/~epass/home.html#PBEMDIR		(PBEM gamer's list) http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/org/gc00/gc00		(CMU Gaming Club) http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/~d2patrik/bb.html		(Blood Bowl) http://www.pi.se/renju/renhome.html			(Renju,Gomoku,Pente) http://www.student.gsu.edu/~pyang1/ejg/games/eia/eia.html(Empires in Arms) http://grognard.com/				        (Wargames) http://grognard.com/titlee.html				(Europa) http://www.shogi.net/shogi.html				(Shogi) http://www-e815.fnal.gov/~jhkim/fun/sfb.html		(Star Fleet Battles) http://world.std.com/~notelrac/sfb.dir/			(Star Fleet Battles) http://www.uwm.edu/~cthulhu/thrust.html			(Full Thrust) http://pease1.sr.unh.edu/1/bluemax			(Blue Max) http://advicom.net/~jwalbea/plateau.shtml		(Plateau) http://members.aol.com/chrmcd/aaclub/aahome.htm		(Axis and Allies) http://tetrad.stanford.edu/DBM.html			(DBM) http://members.home.net/upfront2000/			(Up Front) http://www.ufpbw.com/ufpbw.cgi				(Up Front PBEM) http://www.webspace.com/~tanker/			(Tank Games) http://www.netlink.co.uk/users/redshift/assist.html	(PBEM Gamers Aid) http://www.irony.com/mailroll.html			(Die rolling) http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bradb/silentdeath.html   (Silent Death) http://elf.udw.ac.za/scrabble				(On line Scrabble) http://www.virtual-cafe.com/~tdewey/diesiedler.html	(Die Siedler) http://newmath.princeton.edu:5555/mj.html		(Mahjong) http://web.cs.ualberta.ca/~chinook			(Checkers) http://trax.massey.ac.nz				(Trax) http://www.frontiernet.net/~crokinol			(Crokinole) http://www.cistron.nl/~amzweg/geneatw.htm		(Europe at War) http://SunSITE.Informatik.RWTH-Aachen.DE/luding/	(Luding games database) http://www.18xx.net/					(18xx Railroad games) http://members.aol.com/cgwalan/krieg-hp.htm		(Kreig!) http://www.manzana.com/webx				(Consim discussion) http://micro.brainiac.com				(Microgames) http://gamerz.net/					(Play-by-EMail games) http://www.cs.ruu.nl/~hansb/d.chessvar/index.html	(Chess variants) http://www.nyx.net/~epass/home.html#SLMAIL		(Squad Leader) http://members.aol.com/kulkmann/index.htm		(Game Reviews) http://www.siba.fi/~sboswell/evg/index.html		(The Evolution Game) http://www.insystem.com/rbp/				(Rail Baron) http://members.xoom.com/gameparts/			(Game parts search) http://www.sjgames.com/illuminati/			(Illuminati) http://www.StrategicCastle.com				(Slashdot for gamers) http://alanemrich.tripod.com/tk-hp.htm			(Totaler Kreig) http://www.diogenes.sacramento.ca.us/britannia.html     (Britannia series) http://www.kenware.com/Britannia/			(Britannia) http://www.diplom.org/					(Diplomacy) http://www.best.com/~heli/wargame/errata/hispania.txt	(Hispania) http://wolff.to/titan/					(Titan) http://www.coiinc.com/people/guerrero/			(Titan) http://www.cheewai.com/titan/				(Titan) http://dmoz.org/Games/Board_Games/C/Car_Wars		(Car Wars) http://www.serv.net/~fool				(World Autoduel Assoc.) http://www.serv.net/~owenmp/swathome.html		(Seattle Autoduelers) http://www.io.com/unigames/warchest/warchest.html	(WarChest) http://www.geocities.com/alvaworld/index.html		(Alva) http://www.geocities.com/twixtplayer			(TwixT) http://www.msoworld.com/				(Mind Sports Olympiad) http://www.thegamesjournal.com/				(A gaming magazine) http://www.boardgamegeek.com/				(Games DB) http://www.accessdenied.net/				(Gamer DB and 							challenge board) http://www.fwtwr.com/					(PBEM server) http://www.sportplanet.com/som/				(Strat-O-Matic) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spielfrieks		(German Boardgames)  A wais database of rec.games.miniatures - 	http://server.wais.com/directory-of-servers.html 		(type in "miniatures")  A mail server with ~100 game reviews (in German) : 	[email protected] 	Send the message HELP and/or DIR SPIELE:  More game reviews : http://www.wolfe.net/~peter/tgr/ (The Game Report)   4) Game FAQ's ======================================================================= There are too many games of really wide variety discussed here to try  to answer FAQ's about specific games in this document.  Some games  (notably Axis and Allies, Diplomacy, and Scrabble) have their own  regularly posted FAQ's.  These FAQs can be found in the same places as this FAQ (news.answers, rec.answers, and via ftp from rtfm.mit.edu).   Just spout out your questions, and they'll get answered!  Here's how to reach some other ones :  ASL:	        http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/mantis/ASLFAQ Axis & Allies : ftp://wais.com/pub/games/axis+allies/ Blood Bowl :	http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/~d2patrik/bb_faq.html Crokinole :	http://www.frontiernet.net/~crokinol/faq.htm Magic Realm :	http://home1.gte.net/danielt3/mr-faq.html Microgames :	http://micro.brainiac.com/faq.html Miniatures :    http://theminiaturespage.com/ref/index.html Pirateer :	http://www.mcn.org/mgc/piratenewsfaq.html Rec.games.* :	http://www.gamesdomain.co.uk/ Risk :		http://www.maths.nott.ac.uk/personal/odl/riskfaq.html Starfire :	http://www.task-force-games.com/stf_faq.html Scrabble :	http://www.teleport.com/~stevena/scrabble/faq.html Squares :	http://www.getnet.com/~dvgc/ Talisman, 3rd :	http://members.aol.com/kulkmann/t4.txt Talisman, 2nd :	http://www.frenzy.com/~jaebear/games/talisman/talisman.html WarChest :	http://www.io.com/unigames/warchest/WC-FAQ.html  A list of gaming companies who are reachable via email is maintained by Skip Franklin.  Look at: 	http://grognard.com/skip/twceal.html.    Another one, focused on miniatures companies (but of course there's  a lot of overlap, so be sure to check here) is: 	http://theminiaturespage.com/ref/man/index.html  A list of upcoming gaming conventions is kept by Coyt Watters.  Finger him at [email protected] to see a copy of this list.   5) Auctions ======================================================================= This is a popular forum for people who want to buy and sell old games. Please use the group "rec.games.board.marketplace" for this purpose. Some suggestions about good conventions for auction related posts :  	- Put AUCTION in the subject 	- Information on the game for sales version, condition, etc. 	  are useful to include. 	- the newsgroup rec.games.frp.marketplace may be more  	  appropriate for somethings, or a crosspost might be useful. 	- Please conduct as much of the auction as possible via email, 	  although a post once a week or so to r.g.b. is useful for 	  attracting new bidders, and informing the rest of us  	  about what games are worth what.   6) Where to get games and stuff? =======================================================================  Eric Pass has set up a 'Counter Exchange & Swap Shop', to make it easier for people to exchange game parts.  Email him at [email protected] or check out http://www.nyx.net/~epass/home.html for more info.  Fine Games (http://www.finegames.com) is a good place to look for new, used, and out-of-print games (they'll buy your old games, too).  A URL listing many web-based game shops is at:         	http://theminiaturespage.com/webshops/index.html  and the manufacturers directory at the same site (http://theminiaturespage.com/ref/man/index.html) lists helpful info about ordering games in foreign markets.  Speaking of Foreign Markets, here are some suggested vendors who can get  them to you in the US from our correspondent Brian Bankler ([email protected]) :  http://www.funagain.com/				(Funagain Games) http://www.riograndegames.com/				(Rio Grande Games) http://BoulderGames.com/				(Boulder Games)  You might also find leads at The Game Cabinet, http://www.gamecabinet.com/  In addition, translations of many German games' rules can also be found at this site.  Here's a place to order stuff direct from Germany, if you want to take that route :  Adam spielt OHG Konigsberger Str. 10 D-61169 Friedberg GERMANY tel: 06031-5029 FAX: 06031-63761 email: [email protected]  Or, email Abacus games at : [email protected], or Peter Wolfgang  at [email protected]  Both do german game orders via email.   Gaming company URLS :  http://grognard.com/skip/twceal.html		(A list of addresses) http://www.winning-moves.com				(Winning Moves) http://www.duke.edu/~kuhlmann/warhorse.html	(Warhorse Sims.) http://www.jumbo.com/					(Free/Shareware games) http://www.bonegames.com				(Bone Games) http://www.sjgames.com					(Steve Jackson Games) http://www.columbiagames.com				(Columbia Games) http://www.demon.co.uk/the-net-effect/tfg/	(Task Force Games) http://www.flyingbuffalo.com/				(Flying Buffalo) http://www.grdgames.com					(GRD - Europa) http://www.games-workshop.com/			(Games Workshop) http://www.frontiernet.net/~crokinol/cc_index.htm	(Filip&Carom Inc) http://www.getnet.com/~dvgc/				(Deer Valley G.C.) http://www.tru.com/					(Toys-R-Us) http://www.coolgames.com/				(Mayfair Games) http://www.io.com/~wasson/fmg.html			(Fat Messaih Games) http://BoulderGames.com/				(Boulder Games) http://www.finegames.com/			(Fine Games) http://www.wizards.com/					(Wizards of the Coast) http://users.aol.com/froggod				(Crunchy Frog) http://www.hooked.net/~wingnut			(Wingnut Games) http://Ourworld.Compuserve.Com/Homepages/GDickinson/ELECRD.HTM 							(Elec. Cardboard) http://www.gyugyi.com/wham/wham.html			(Tom Wham games) http://www.imaginet.fr/~faidutti/games.html		(Bruno Faidutti games) http://www.fyi.net/~winsome				(Winsome Games) http://www.uran.net/sgs					(Sports Games Shop, 							 Lambourne Games) http://www.fiendishgames.demon.co.uk			(Fiendish Games) http://www.funagain.com/				(Funagain Games) http://www.riograndegames.com/				(Rio Grande Games) http://www.starfleetgames.com/				(ADB, SFB) http://www.advancedsquadleader.com/			(ASL) http://www.nobleknight.com/				(out-of-print stuff) http://www.boingogames.com				(Boingo Games) http://www.DiscoverGames.com/				(for game inventors) http://www.lance-and-laser.com/				(Lance & Laser Models) http://www.prism-games.com/				(Prism Games) http://www.akchess.com/					(AK Chess) http://www.multimanpublishing.com/			(Multi-Man Pub.) http://www.theunderdogs.org				(old PC games)  7) How to use the "Distribution :" feature ======================================================================= From: [email protected] (Gene Spafford) Newsgroups: news.announce.newusers, news.answers Subject: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions  16.  How do I use the "Distribution" feature?       When your posting software (e.g., Pnews or postnews) prompts you      for a distribution, it's asking how widely distributed you want      your article.  The set of possible replies is different,      depending on where you are, but at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New      Jersey, possibilities include (for example): 	local	local to this machine 	mh	Bell Labs, Murray Hill Branch 	nj	all sites in New Jersey 	btl	All Bell Labs machines 	att	All AT&T machines 	usa	Everywhere in the USA 	na	Everywhere in North America 	world	Everywhere on USENET in the world       Many of the posting programs will provide a list of      distributions, if your site admin has kept the files up-to-date.       If you hit return, you'll get the default, which is usually      "world.".  This default is often not appropriate -- PLEASE take a      moment to think about how far away people are likely to be      interested in what you have to say.  Used car ads, housing wanted      ads, and things for sale other than specialized equipment like      computers certainly shouldn't be distributed to Europe and Korea,      or even to the next state.       It is generally not possible to post an article to a distribution      that your own machine does not receive.  For instance, if you      live in Indiana, you can't post an article for distribution only      in New Jersey or Germany unless your site happens to exchange      those particular distributions with another site.  Try mailing      the article to someone in the appropriate area and asking them to      post it for you.       If you cannot determine what distributions are valid for your      site, ask someone locally rather than posting a query to the      whole network!   8) Threaded News Readers ======================================================================= Threaded news readers are news readers which track down all articles that are part of the same discussion, making it easier to a) follow the logical flow of conversation; and b) kill a whole topic ("thread") which does not interest you.  Try to use and understand one, it makes life much easier!  An example of this kind of software is "trn" - see your man pages for more info.  Anyone who wants to write a blurb for this space describing these suckers please do so - I (the FAQ maintainer) don't have time at the moment.   9) How to use a Killfile ======================================================================= From: [email protected] (Leanne Phillips) (Trimmed down for brevity by Alec Habig, see news.answers for the full article). Subject: rn KILL file FAQ  Rn and trn, and other varieties of rn, have a very useful feature called the KILL file, which allows you to kill (skip over) articles that you don't want to see.  There is some support for killfiles in xrn, but the support is limited; nothing in here is guaranteed to work for xrn.  See the xrn man page.    KILL files come in two forms: 	Global: In your News directory, you will have the file KILL. 	Local: In your News directory, the killfile for group foo.bar 		will be foo/bar/KILL. The difference between the two is that there can be one killfile for each group (the local killfile), and that killfile affects only the particular newsgroup (foo/bar/KILL affects only foo.bar; baz/quex/KILL affects only baz.quex, etc).  The global killfile affects all newsgroups. (There's a way to change the default names of the killfiles, but it's more complicated than I want to get into here.  See the rn(1) man page.)  Killfiles allow you to kill articles based on a number of criteria: a subject line, a general subject, articles from one poster, articles from one site, articles cross-posted from any other group, or from one other group in particular, and articles that are follow-ups to anything at all (that is, anything with the Re: in the subject line).  You can also kill articles with a particular string anywhere in the article.  For a complete story on killfiles, look in the group news.answers.  For the purposes of this newsgroup, the most important thing to know is that if you don't want to hear about a particular game, you can put it in your kill file and not worry about it anymore.  In rn/trn, hit k to edit the killfile for the group you are reading, and add lines similar to those below. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Some example Rec.Games.Board killfile entries and what they kill : /1830/:=:j		/* 1830 railroad game */ /a3r/:=:j		/* Advanced 3rd Reich */ /civ/:=:j		/* Civilization */ /diplomacy/:=:j		/* Diplomacy */ /rec.games.strategic/:=:j/* the group split argument */ /space/:=:j		/* anything with "space" */ /wif/:=:j		/* World in Flames */  See where those handy-dandy standard game subject abbreviations listed above come in handy? --         Alec Habig, Boston University Particle Astrophysics Group 			   [email protected] 		       http://hep.bu.edu/~habig/