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│ │ Shareware Author Kit - Revision #9 │ Guidelines for Shareware Author's Participation │ │ SDN INTERNATIONAL(sm) │ Fidonet's Author-Direct Shareware Distribution Network │ │ Published from The SDN Project, January 1994 │ (c)Copyright 1994 The SDN Project │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ This document is (c)Copyright The SDN Project 1994 and the property │ of Ray L. Kaliss as The SDN Project. │ │ This document in not public domain. It is intended as an │ informational document for Shareware author's considering │ distribution via SDN International. This document may be copied │ whole and unmodified for that intent only. │ │ Official SDN International Policy is formulated by The SDN Project │ and published at The SDN Project Bulletin Board in Meriden, CT, │ U.S.A. 203-634-0370. Policy posted online at The SDN Project │ supersedes policy in circulation or of earlier date. Copyright SDN, The SDN Project, the service mark of SDN International (sm) and SDNet and the file extensions of .SDN/.SDA as used by The SDN Project are (c)Copyright 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994 by Ray L. Kaliss and can not be used with out express written permission. Contents Chapter -------- ------- SDN International....................................1 Because We Are International.........................2 Sysops and SDN.......................................3 Authors and SDN......................................4 User Supported SDN...................................5 How To Submit Your Programs..........................6 The SDA Control and Description File.................7 ┌──────────────────────┐ ─┘ 1. SDN INTERNATIONAL └─────────────────────────────────── The SDN Project stands for Fidonet's 'Shareware Distribution Network' for Intel based computers. It embodies a concept of author, sysop and user cooperation in the shareware concept through service to the electronic communications community. As such, SDN represents cooperation among the good people that make it effective. It is though of as a public trust with it's origin and processing center at The SDN Project BBS. It is the first and largest author-direct distribution of it's kind with the cooperation of authors and sysops, amateur and commercial services, it's extent is world wide. The shareware programs distributed by SDN are the copyrighted works of their respective authors submitted for distribution by the authors. Programs are compressed into downloadable format, security sealed twice for tamper-proofing and authentication, then posted for distribution to participating download sites. From it's beginning on January 1989 with only a few hundred sysops SDN's distribution extent has grown yearly to encompass not only over 800 Fidonet connected bulletin boards all over the world, but SDN also is pioneering distribution by satellite to computers and commercial online services. All the while remaining a gratis and amateur adventure. Through amateur and commercial cooperation, SDN reaches all of North America and Canada into Western Europe such as Switzerland, Denmark, Germany and further. SDN is brought into the United Kingdom, Australia, Israel, Puerto Rico and many other countries. "I sent you version 1.0 about 3 weeks ago. I already have responses from Australia and a vendor from Denmark. I'm quite impressed." Paul Dobin - USA "I would like to thank you for the opportunity to distribute JOSS through your network. It has made the task of getting our product into distribution considerably easier." Mike Henry - Australia SDN is without a doubt the most respected amateur distribution network and maintains periodic contact with shareware author associations such as the ASP and ASAD. SDN has received mentioned in issues of PC Computing, BYTE, Computer Craft and BoardWatch magazines. SDN charges no fee to anyone, is not for profit and is intended to join author's, sysops and users in a shareware cooperation benefiting to all. ┌─────────────────────────────────┐ ─┘ 2. BECAUSE WE ARE INTERNATIONAL └──────────────────────── Author's submitting programs to SDN for distribution must take into account our international network and free access. Do not submit programs or material that is restricted in distribution by the United States Government or restricted in distribution by copyright laws. By submitting your program to SDN you assume the responsibility of being distributed so widely and freely. NO - Pornography (pictures or text). NO - Government restricted encryption. NO - Marketing schemes for retail products or services masquerading as 'shareware'. NO - Shareware products that are retail in other countries. NO - Programs or information intended for illegal uses. To distribute specifically Christian items - please logon at The Preacher Online BBS, Ray Waldo, 504-878-3023 and arrange for distribution by CDN, an SDN cooperative affiliation. See the included information file named READ_ME.CDN for full CDN information. ┌───────────────────┐ ─┘ 3. SYSOPS AND SDN └────────────────────────────────────── If you were a sysop and your choices were to stock your BBS with user uploads or author-direct and security sealed shareware by automation - which would you choose? SDN distributions in Fidonet are automated. Through utilities readily available to Fidonet sysops - SDN distributions can be received, tested, posted, files listings updated with description, and the enclosed {SDA.ID} description posted as a message to users and other sysop to announce your programs arrival. More on the "SDA" later. ┌────────────────────┐ ─┘ 4. AUTHORS AND SDN └───────────────────────────────────── You want your products distributed complete, intact, secure and, widely. Hours of though and programming went into them. SDN's security and authenticity seals are trusted and have never been broken. SDN is synonymous in the online community with author-direct because of the extra steps we take to verify authors and in distribution. Wide distribution should do it's part to increase your registration rate. It's simple. Increase the number of people downloading and trying your program - and registrations should increase in proportion. Remove the risk that your program has been corrupted by some careless or problem uploader - and registrations should increase. No one can guarantee registrations, but SDN can help you reach your potential. ┌───────────────────────┐ ─┘ 5. USER SUPPORTED SDN └────────────────────────────────── SDN's service is gratis, a service provided at no charge. No fee, charge or commission to anyone. For author's to duplicate our distribution they would spend hundreds of dollars in time and uploading costs, or to 'professional' uploading services that do not have the reach or popularity of SDN. SDN is amateur and can not accept payments for services.. but we can accept support in appreciation from authors who stand to benefit from our distribution. At the founding of SDN, authors themselves suggested support as $35.00 this in most cases is less than one shareware registration which SDN distribution should provide for you a few times over. Appreciation checks received help cover costs in phone bills, author contact mailings, hardware, software and the overall logistics of managing such a vast effort. To those authors who have supported us and help make SDN possible, thank you, you are what 'user supported' is all about. Authors who have used SDN for distribution but have not yet supported us, consider it with your next disk. If you decide on appreciation support, include a check with your submission payable to - SDN International. ┌────────────────────────────────┐ ─┘ 6. HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR PROGRAMS └───────────────────────── You must mail your program(s) on disk to The SDN Project. You must follow a few simple guidelines so we can verify it's origin and process it for distribution. * Disks should be mailed with a professionally printed label if available. * We prefer 3.5 disks but any size is acceptable. Do not write protect the disks. * Do not compress your files. We use our own compression (ARJ 2.41) and security to accomplish uniformity in our distributions. If you must compress files for some reason (perhaps an install procedure) try to use a self-extractor (.exe). The only compression we can accept is if you compress all the files, including {SDA.ID} in one .ZIP or .ARJ and put it on disk. We will explode that to process. * Do not include another author's works. You might know you have permission to include such things as 'pkunzip.exe' with your package but commercial online services do not make that assumption.. you might not get posted. * Do not put multiple programs on one disk. Each disk we receive is archived as it is - and turned into one downloadable file. If you intend to release many small programs as one package then make them self-extractors and have the description lines of the {SDA.ID} tell downloaders the archive contains many programs. * Include one {SDA.ID} description and processing control file on the disk (described later in this guide). * Print out, sign and include our PROGRAM FORM for each program submitted or for each 'package'. * Include one self-addressed and stamped envelope (SASE). We use this to mail you a confirmation and news flyer. You also are assigned validation for messages and uploading at The SDN Project BBS. Uploading a quick bug fix to me is sometimes a life saver for you. Put it all in a mailer and mail it to the address given at the end of this guide. ┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐ ─┘ 7. THE SDA DESCRIPTION AND CONTROL FILE └──────────────── When we receive your disk, we must run it through a processing treatment that sets it up for our different pipelines of distribution. - Scanned for virus. - Compressed and security sealed. - Give it the .SDN extension. - Test the compression. - Build a one line description for files listings. - Places it in the proper distribution category channel. To process on such a scale.. we must automate.. but heck.. we got computers! What accomplishes this for you is what we call the SDA file. You must include one with every program (on the first disk of a set if your program is more than one disk). The SDA's file name is {SDA.ID}, the name includes the brackets. It is pure ASCII text (no hidden control codes) and is a format of which the first three lines serve double duty as processing control information. The SDA file itself serves many additional uses during distribution such as being posted in online message areas for users to be inclined by reading a full description of your program and it's features. You write the SDA yourself. Here is what the first few lines of an SDA look like and their explanations of purpose. For a better example examine the {SDA.ID} included with the files of this kit's own archive later. ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ X-Menu 2.1 fast GUI menu system for DOS uses popup menus and mouse │ │ 1-UTIL JAN93 MENU DOSSHELL GUI X-SOFTWARE {ASP} [ASAD] │ │ FILES: xmenu21a.SDN xmenu21b.sdn │ │ │ │ Author: X-Software Inc. │ │ Registration: $50.00 │ │ │ │ A superVGA menu system that uses icons you create. │ │ Fantastic for the novice or the advanced power user. Menu pages │ │ can be stacked 100 deep. Programmable using script langu... │ │ etc.. etc.. etc.. │ │ │ All lines of the first six lines must be left justified. The left margin should be no longer than 75 columns for any line. The top line or FIRST line is used as a one line description for online files listings when posted. You can make this description up to 75 charators long. Hints: Start off with your program name, then version, then a few words description. Do not use the word 'version' or v as in (v.2.1) but just the number to save space. (X-MENU 2.1 in our example). The SECOND line begins with the category your program fits into. (refer to this guides AREATAG.LST file). This is it's AreaTag for Fidonet's automation utilities, when received into inbound mail by a Fido BBS this will toss your program into the correct download directory. Next is a date in the form of the first three letters of the month and the last two digits of the year. The date and all words following it on the line are all used as keywords for searches by BBS utilities and online services such as BIX. This entire line should all be in caps. Use one space between keywords on this line. The THIRD line tell our processing software what to name the final downloadable archive. It serves an additional purpose of letting users know if your program comes in a set of downloadable files and what thier names are. The word "FILES:" should be in caps while the name or names of the downloadable files should be in small letters for easier reading inside the format. Of course whatever you choose as the eight character name of your file it should have the '.SDN' extension. Example: FILES: phbk200.sdn Hints: Do not list the names of all the files in your program here. Name your archive with a few letters to representing it's program name and then designate it's version number. The use of version numbers in archive names in the BBS community is important to sysops and users. It allows the users to look for and download the latest version. Always make your name unique (use version increments does this well), most BBS'es will not accept a file named BOOK.SDN if a file named BOOK.SDN already exists. When your program is a set of archives, follow the version number with an A,B,C, etc.. to designate the parts of the set. The FOURTH line is left blank for visual reasons. The FIFTH line begins with "Author:" (that's you!) and is used by those downloaders who download thier shareware by the quality or reputation of the author. The SIXTH line begins with 'Registration:' and then the amount. Skip one blank line, for visual reasons. The next lines can be from 15 to 80 lines of full description of your product and it's features. Go to town here because some users will download your program from being excited by what they read here. I use about the first 15 lines on some commercial services but all 80 lines (or less if you choose) can be read by potential downloaders on BBS'es. This content of this description may be similar to what you may be already using as an Introduction in your documentation. Name the file {SDA.ID} and place it on the first disk of your program. Example directory of your disk: MENU EXE 345266 12-10-93 1:03p MENU DOC 16354 12-10-93 10:10a MENU DAT 4562 10-12-93 11:01a -> {SDA ID} 1500 12-11-93 2:25p SORT EXE 34555 12-11-93 4:00p Print out the PROGRAM FORM (PROGRAM.FRM).. sign it, enclose the SASE and any support amount.. mail your disks to: ┌────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │ ┌──────┐ │ │ │######│ │ │ └──────┘ │ │ │ │ SDN International │ │ 13 Douglas Drive │ │ Meriden, CT, USA │ │ 06451 │ │ │ │ │ │ Magnetic Media! │ └────────────────────────────────────────────┘ Good Registrations! ┌───────────┐ ─┘ NOTES... └────────────────────────────────────────────── * Uploading to The SDN Project for distribution has to be phased out. If you really prefer to upload.. contact me for a blanket permission form. * FidoNet is a trade mark of Tom Jennings. * Boardwatch is a trade mark of Jack Rickard. * BIX is a trade mark of Delphi Internet Services. * Intel is a trade mark of Intel :) * ASP stands for The Association of Shareware Professionals. * ASAD stands for The Association of Shareware Authors and Distributors. /eof