Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!aplcen!haven!uflorida!novavax!twwells!comparc
From: comparc@twwells.com (comp.archives)
Newsgroups: comp.archives
Subject: Welcome to comp.archives
Message-ID: <1990Feb5.084705.19025@twwells.com>
Date: 5 Feb 90 08:47:05 GMT
Organization: None, Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Lines: 97
Approved: bill@twwells.com (T. William Wells)

INTRODUCTION

Comp.archives is a place to look to find out where freely
distributable and electronically available software, databases,
documents, or what have you, can be had. "Freely distributable"
means that, if you have a copy of the item, you can (at least)
make exact copies and give them away, and you don't have to tell
the owner of the item (if any) that you have done so. "Available
electronically" means, for my purposes, that it is obtainable
through a publicly accessible network. Also included may be things
which can be had by other means, so long as this does not involve
paying a fee to the distributor. This information is provided as a
free service and there is *no one* guaranteeing that any of it is
accurate or useful. Use it your own risk.

Most things relating to archives are welcome here, including
articles from archive sites describing their archives, postings
describing how to use the networks for archive access, and
discussions relating to archives, archiving, and archive access.
Postings announcing the availability of new programs and data are
also welcome, so long as there is at least one archive site
mentioned in the posting.

Ed Vielmetti reposts messages from other newsgroups that contain
archive announcements and the like; I archive these and will be
making them available through my server sometime soon. These
repostings always come with his address (emv@math.lsa.umich.edu)
on the Approved: line.

E-MAIL ADDRESSES

There are a number of addresses that you can use for e-mailing. If
you want to post an article, and your newsreader doesn't
automatically forward postings to moderated groups, you can mail
the article to:

	Domain name: comp-archives@twwells.com
	       or    comp-archives%twwells.com@uunet.uu.net
	Uucp:        uunet!twwells!comp-archives

If you have comp.archives related mail and don't necessarily want
it posted, send it to:

	Domain name: comp-archives-request@twwells.com
	       or    comp-archives-request%twwells.com@uunet.uu.net
	Uucp:        uunet!twwells!comp-archives-request

I have been asked what the address comparc@twwells.com is. It is
the address from which I run comp.archives. Some of you may be
unable to use the longer addresses; if so, feel free to send to
this address. Replies to comp.archives postings which I am the
author of also get sent to this address. I will treat messages
sent to this address as if the were sent to comp-archives-request
unless you specifically ask me to post the message or ask me to
send it to the server.

I may summarize and post messages sent to comp-archives-request.
If you don't want your message posted, or don't want to have your
name posted, you must tell me so in your message.

Personal messages, not related to comp.archives, go to:

	Domain name: bill@twwells.com
	       or    bill%twwells.com@uunet.uu.net
	Uucp:        uunet!twwells!bill

Server requests go to:

	Domain name: comp-archives-server@twwells.com
	       or    comp-archives-server%twwells.com@uunet.uu.net
	Uucp:        uunet!twwells!comp-archives-server


THE COMP.ARCHIVES DATABASE

An additional purpose of comp.archives is to enable people to
maintain a database on archive sites and their contents. Postings
whose subject lines start with DB: may be used for that purpose.
These articles contain specially formatted text which is intended
to be interpreted by a program and may contain additional
descriptive text. Even if you are not interested in maintaining
the database, you might be interested in the description that is
sometimes contained in these messages.

I make this database available through my mail server, along with
other things relating to comp.archives. Among the other things
available from it are a form you can fill out and send me to get
your archive added to my database, a complete description of the
format of my archive database, and some archiving software.

---
Bill                    { uunet | novavax | ankh | sunvice } !twwells!bill
bill@twwells.com

send comp.archives postings to comp-archives@twwells.com
send comp.archives related mail to comp-archives-request@twwells.com
send comp.archives server requests to comp-archives-server@twwells.com