REC.GAMES.MECHA FAQ Version 1.1

By Toni Taia & the famous Lunatic

What IS REC.GAMES.MECHA?

REC.GAMES.MECHA was created on Dec 8, 1992, for the discussion of "mecha" and "anime" style combat type games. Or, for the uninformed, giant robot games. This is an unmoderated newsgroup that has discussions of various games in the genres of board, fantasy role-play, individual computer, multi-computer/player, coin-op arcade, and large scale real-time gaming centers that are oriented towards the combat of large humanoid robotic or piloted war machines -- i.e. "Mecha."

What Doesn't Belong In REC.GAMES.MECHA?

Anything that isn't directly connected to the subject of "mecha." Discussions such as "the USS Enterprise vs the SDF-1" are not welcome here and should be taken to a more appropriate newsgroup. Though there are warships in the various "universes"/backgrounds of RoboTech, BattleTech or any "anime" game, comparsions between them across gaming systems or non-mecha fiction are not wanted.

Suggestions For Posting

The following suggestions are intended to SUPPLEMENT the general guidelines for posting to the net. You should already be familiar with the guidelines contained in "Rules for posting to Usenet," "A Primer on How to Work With the Usenet Community," and "Hints on writing style for Usenet," which can be found in the newsgroup NEWS.ANNOUNCE.NEWUSERS.

The most relevant parts of these postings, or rather the parts of these postings most often ignored on these newsgroups, are:

  1. Don't post anything that is intended for only one other person, send flames and arguments through E-mail

  2. Read threads through to the end before adding to them, often other people make your point first (M or m is a very useful keystroke in rn)

  3. Don't post "yeah, me too" articles. Mail the person involved. That way the original poster can reply or post the item/article/facts to everybody that wants it and it wastes less precious bandwidth.

  4. Don't quote excessively, especially don't quote the entirety of another person's posting and then add two lines at the bottom, if someone wants to read the entire first posting they can go back and read it for themselves.

    It also means that for some who have to pay for lines that they have already read. So huge posts with a 2 line followup are extremely annoying and make you very unpopular!

  5. Though you may not be the world's greatest speller. A tidy post can make a huge difference. Followups can mess up the previous post and make other readers scroll through screens of garbage. Consideration of others will make you someone worth reading.

  6. Don't be frightened to delete sections of a post. Most readers have be following the "thread" (discussion) and know what people are talking about. A line informing the reader of base points in a previous post is often sufficient. If your newsreader doesn't include the script make a mention at the start as to what you are replying to so people can understand your post.

When posting messages to a large newsgroup there are several things you can do to help readers cope with the volume. First and foremost is to use the right newsgroup, and avoid cross-posting. Remember that this is why we got REC.GAMES.MECHA in the first place.

Second, no matter what newsgroup you post to, please use descriptive titles. Whenever you post an article which is specific to a particular game system, please include SOMETHING in the Subject line of your post that identifies what system you're posting about. Subjects lines like "ROBOTECH: Mecha designs" or "Mekton Weapon Analysis" are much more informative than just "Mecha" or "Weapons." Since most of REC.GAMES.MECHA has a heavy BattleTech bias, usually all that's needed to identify a BattleTech post is the use of something that is unique to the BattleTech universe, such as "Arrow IV," "Endo Steel," "Inner Sphere," the name of one of the Inner Sphere houses, etc.

There are a set of abbreviations that are common on the USENET and that are often unique for computing in general. They are:

In addition, there are some abbreviations specific to this newsgroup:

Plus there are a few words and expressions that are exclusive to r.g.m.:

If you're posting a story, you are urged to include the word STORY in the subject, and to use a consistent title for your work.

Before Posting The First Time:

Please read for a little while before posting. Get a feel for the style and tone of the conversation. Wait a second before responding, think if you are going to post the same thing as a thousand others. Case in Point: Last Year when Gene Roddenberry (creator of StarTrek) died, the ST newsgroups were flooded with "I just heard Gene is dead" postings for 5 days!

NEVER NEVER N-E-V-E-R post just to correct someone's spelling: the Internet is an International Community, and not everyone has the same level of familiarity with the most common language on the net. Which is English and then some of us born to it can't spell either :)

Always remember that there is a live human being at the other end of the wires. In other words, please write your replies with the same courtesy you would use in talking to someone face-to-face.

Try to recognize humor and irony in postings. Tone of voice does not carry in ASCII text, and new posts are often snapped off quickly, so humorous intent may not be obvious. More destructive and vicious arguments have been caused by this one fact of net existence than any other. It will help if satiric/ironic/humorous comments are marked with the "smiley face," :-). There are other forms of "smilies" such as :), (-: and the trademark Lunatic smiley (:.

This is the FAQ I made several months ago, lost in the great disk crash, it is only general and explains just a few things and of course is biased towards Battletech, but what do you expect from me? :)


This has been.... (: Copyright Toni Taia 1993, the ideas are all mine :)

Toni Taia, Teyasu_Ashora, Tai-shu of the Pesht Military District

TAIA_A@kosmos.wcc.govt.nz (Chu-sa of the Second Genyosha, raiding Irece)

Battletech MUSE 3056, Draconis Combine. Want in? Recruiting NOW! MAIL ME!

3056-3067:So little time, so many Clan meks to kill! Pandas&Cats 1/2 price :)