Usenet 1994 January/usenetsourcesnewsgroupsinfomagicjanuary1994.iso/answers/motss/qrd-faq

Internet Message Format | 1993-12-14 | 10KB

Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!usc!howland.reston.ans.net!news.intercon.com!vector.intercon.com!disc
From: [e-mail] (David Casti)
Newsgroups: soc.motss,soc.answers,news.answers
Subject: Queer Resources Directory FAQ
Followup-To: poster
Date: 14 Dec 1993 14:26:42 GMT
Organization: InterCon Systems Corporation, Herndon, VA, USA
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Archive-name: motss/qrd-faq
Last-modified: 14 Dec 1993

Unlike most FAQs, this list is not a collection of hearsay.  :)

(A "+" indicates a new question, and a "*" indicates a change from
the last edition of this FAQ.  When you see a question number in
this list, you can probably use your newsreader to search the rest of this
article for that question number.)


 1. What is the QRD?
 2. How long has the QRD been around?
 3. (*) Who operates and maintains the QRD?
 4. How do I access it?
 5. (*) How do I find something in it?
 6. How frequently do people use it?
 7. What is a mirror, and why do I care?
 8. (*) Sounds cool; how can I mirror the QRD?
 9. How often are the files updated, and what about accuracy?
10. How do I add something to it?
11. What file formats are allowed?


1. What is the QRD?
   The QRD (short for Queer Resources Directory) is an electronic library
with news clippings, political contact information, newsletters, essays,
images, and every other kind of information resource of interest to the
GLBO community.  Information is stored both for the use of casual network
users and serious researchers alike.
   There is one exception to the broad collection guidelines.  Although
the QRD recognizes the imporance of erotic artwork and writing to our
community, we do not archive that type of information.  Please look
elsewhere for those resources.


2. How long has the QRD been around?
   The QRD started in 1991 as an electronic archive for Queer Nation. It
has been hosted -- although not officially supported -- at both
cambridge.apple.com, and nifty.andrew.cmu.edu.  In 1993 the QRD moved to
vector.intercon.com, a privately owned and maintained system.


3. (*) Who operates and maintains the QRD?
   In the early days, the QRD could be maintained by a single individual:
Ron Buckmire, a graduate student at RPI.  He will graduate in June '94
with a Ph.D. in Mathematics.  Ron is still involved as the primary manager
of the QRD, but the explosive growth the QRD experienced in 1993 demanded
a larger staff.
   On April 9, 1993, the QRD headquarters moved from nifty.andrew.cmu.edu
to vector.intercon.com due to some other (non-QRD related) problems which
had developed on nifty.  At that time, David Casti became the QRD system
administrator tasked with improving the access methods available for the
QRD and also providing general technical support.  David is currently
employed as a technical support engineer for InterCon Systems Corporation.
   September 1, 1993 was Thomas Holt Jr's first day as associate manager
for the QRD.  As Ron's school-related responsibilities had increased, a
new position was created and Tom was recruited mostly to handle the basic
maintenance of the QRD -- adding new files, deleting obsolete ones, etc.
Tom is a staff member at Indiana State University.
   As technology marched on, the QRD staff discussed the opportunities
hypertext provided for "information surfing", but no one had the time to
put together hypertext documents.  On October 5, Darci Chapman from
Nehalem River Software volunteered to create several hypertext files for
the QRD users, and on November 1, 1993 this new access method was opened
for business.
   On December 7, 1993, the QRD added its first liaison officer: Kevyn
Jacobs, the Electronic Organizer for Equality Kansas.  Kevyn's
responsibility is to act as a liaison to AOL and assist AOL users who want
access to QRD resources.
   The QRD staff can be reached at [e-mail].


 4. How do I access it?
    The QRD can be accessed via electronic mail, BBS, FTP, WAIS, gopher,
and Mosaic.  Below are abbreviated instructions for each method; more
thorough instructions are available in the QRD-BY files at the top of the
QRD directory structure.
    Mosaic: the URL is
        ftp://vector.intercon.com/pub/QRD/.html/QRD-home-page.html
    Gopher: Point your gopher client to vector.intercon.com
      WAIS: database "/wais/qrd" on port 210
       FTP: ftp to vector.intercon.com and log in as "anonymous".
       BBS: call:
        Central Park BBS                [phone]
        Outright                        [phone]
        The Underground BBS             [phone]
    E-mail: Send an email message containing "help" to
             [e-mail]


 5. (*) How do I find something in it?
    Hmmm...  This is a tough one, but a question we get quite a bit at
the QRD.  Unfortunately, our staff is not large enough to provide
research assistance, but here are some tips:

    * Read the HIGHLIGHTS file.  This is file contains a quick synopsys
of new and updated information that is of interest to most of our users.

    * Use WAIS.  Since we've gone to the trouble to create a WAISindex for
the database, use it!  You can be sure that WAIS is up-to-date, as the
entire QRD index is scrapped and rebuilt every morning at about 2 a.m.
This technique is by far the most powerful tool when you are looking for
specific information in the QRD.

    * Use Gopher and Mosaic.  Where possible, the QRD staff has created
very descriptive handles to files in both gopher and Mosaic.  These
methods may provide more information than just the filename, and it will
be much easier to surf the archive, reading only the first screen or two
of a potentially interesting file before moving on.  WAIS database
searches are available via both gopher and Mosaic.


 6. How frequently people use it?
    As 1993 has seen the QRD more than double in size, it only makes sense
that the number of accesses has also increased dramatically.  The QRD on
vector reported 52,000 hits in November, and we are estimating 55,000 hits
in December.  There are eight mirror sites for the QRD and while
statistics are not available from them, any reasonable estimate makes the
QRD one of the most frequently accessed libraries of its kind.  Mirror
sites are listed in each of the QRD-BY files, referenced in question 4.


 7. What is a mirror, and why do I care?
    A mirror is a site which keeps an up-to-date copy of another site's
files and makes those files available.  In many ways, it functions as a
backup which is updated daily or weekly -- usually automatically, but
sometimes manually.
    For most Internet users, there is little need or reason to use the
QRD's mirrors regularly.  Vector is on a highly stable segment of the
network with ample bandwidth for many, many simultaneous network
connections.  However, there are two cases when using a mirror makes sense:

    1. When vector.intercon.com goes down.  Over the last 12 months,
vector has had full network access 95% of the time.  Of course, we all
know that the QRD will only be out-of-reach during that 5% of the time you
really need it -- knowing a mirror site will prevent you from losing that 5%.

    2. If you are on a network segment with restricted access or no access
to the rest of the commercial US Internet.  A prime example is many of our
QRD users in New Zealand who do not have access outside their own country.
Fortunately, there is now a mirror in that country which now serves the
needs of New Zealand, Austrialia and asia.


 8. (*) Sounds cool; how can I mirror the QRD?
    If you have more than 30 megs of free disk space and want to run
either a public or private mirror of the QRD, there are a couple good
options.
    Using perl, the program "mirror" will check the QRD for changes and
only download the files you need to keep your site up to date.  It can be
found on various FTP sites and a version is available from vector in the
directory /pub/unix/mirror*
    If you can't do that for whatever reason, you can still download a
tarred copy of the QRD to your local site via FTP.  Be warned: FTP on
vector does not currently support automatically compressing tarfiles on
their way out, so you'll be downloading a VERY LARGE file.  If you want
to give that a try:
    1. Connect to vector
    2. cd /pub
    3. get QRD.tar


 9. How often are the files updated, and what about accuracy?
    With the exception of a few files which are also maintained by the
QRD staff (most notably the soc.motss FAQ and the LGBO list of email
lists), we can make no warranty for the timeliness or accuracy of the
information in the QRD.  Since we draw on the net.public at large for
most of our files, there is no way we could possibly verify each piece of
information in our archives.  Wherever possible, though, we include the
name and email address of the person who submitted the file and you can
of course contact that person for more information.
    If you find a file in the QRD which has out-of-date information,
please bring it to our attention.  As a general rule we will not remove
files from the QRD without ample reason, but in the case of obsolete data
we will do our best to keep that kind of misinformation to a minimum.


10. How do I add something to it?
    If you think you have something that would be of value to other GLBO
folk as resource material -- for example an essay you've written or a set of
fliers you've developed for a media campaign -- by all means, send the
files our way.  There are two convenient methods:
    1. Send email to [e-mail] with your submission.
    2. Via FTP, upload your file(s) to /pub/QRD/incoming.


11. What file formats are accepted?
    Most of the information in the QRD is ASCII text, and this is
definitely our preferred format.  ASCII can be easily indexed and
reindexed, moved from platform to platform, compressed, formatted, etc.
The only notable exception to this rule is the presence of a few GIF
files.  If you have questions or a special need for your submission, by
all means drop us a line and we'll work something out.