231 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
231 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
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Last updated: 07 Jan 1993
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Unlike most FAQs, this list is not a collection of hearsay :-)
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(A "+" indicates a new question, and a "*" indicates a change from the last edition of
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this FAQ.)
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Summary of Questions
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1. What is the QRD?
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2. How long has the QRD been around?
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3. Who operates and maintains the QRD?
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4. How do I access it?
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5. How do I find something in it?
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6. How frequently do people use it?
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7. (*) What is a mirror, and why do I care?
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8. Sounds cool; how can I mirror the QRD?
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9. How often are the files updated, and what about accuracy?
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10. How do I add something to it?
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11. What file formats are allowed?
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And Now for the Answers...
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1. What is the QRD?
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The QRD (short for Queer Resources Directory) is an electronic library with
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news clippings, political contact information, newsletters, essays, images, and
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every other kind of information resource of interest to the GLBO community.
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Information is stored both for the use of casual network users and serious
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researchers alike.
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There is one exception to the broad collection guidelines. Although the QRD
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recognizes the imporance of erotic artwork and writing to our community, we
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do not archive that type of information. Please look elsewhere for those
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resources.
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2. How long has the QRD been around?
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The QRD started in 1991 as an electronic archive for Queer Nation. It has
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been hosted -- although not officially supported -- at both
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cambridge.apple.com, and nifty.andrew.cmu.edu. In 1993 the QRD moved to
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vector.casti.com, a privately owned and maintained system. On January 1,
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1994, vector's name changed to vector.casti.com, although the QRD did not
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have to move again.
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3. Who operates and maintains the QRD?
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In the early days, the QRD could be maintained by a single individual: Ron
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Buckmire, a graduate student at RPI. He will graduate in June '94 with a
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Ph.D. in Mathematics. Ron is still involved as the primary manager of the
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QRD, but the explosive growth the QRD experienced in 1993 demanded a
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larger staff.
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On April 9, 1993, the QRD headquarters moved from nifty.andrew.cmu.edu
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to vector.casti.com due to some other (non-QRD related) problems which had
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developed on nifty. At that time, David Casti became the QRD system
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administrator tasked with improving the access methods available for the
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QRD and also providing general technical support. David is currently
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employed as a technical support engineer for InterCon Systems Corporation.
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While Ron is in the "home stretch" of finishing his degree and has little time
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to spend attending to the QRD, David has also assumed the role of Acting
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Manager.
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September 1, 1993 was Thomas Holt Jr.'s first day as associate manager for
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the QRD. As Ron's school-related responsibilities had increased, a new
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position was created and Tom was recruited mostly to handle the basic
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maintenance of the QRD -- adding new files, deleting obsolete ones, etc.
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Tom is a staff member at Indiana State University.
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As technology marched on, the QRD staff discussed the opportunities
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hypertext provided for "information surfing", but no one had the time to put
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together hypertext documents. On October 5, Darci Chapman from Nehalem
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River Software volunteered to create several hypertext files for the QRD
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users, and on November 1, 1993 this new access method was opened for
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business.
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On December 7, 1993, the QRD added its first liaison officer: Kevyn Jacobs,
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the Electronic Organizer for Equality Kansas. Kevyn's responsibility is to act
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as a liaison to AOL and assist AOL users who want access to QRD resources.
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On January 3, 1994, Alan Hamilton joined the QRD Staff as the Bisexual
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Resource Center Administrator. Alan is also responsible for maintaining the
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Bisexual Resource List.
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On February 8, 1994, Roger Grauwmeijer joined the QRD Staff to lend a
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helping hand with the hypertext documents. Roger has been mirroring the
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QRD in New Zealand since mid-1993.
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The QRD staff can be reached at QRDstaff@vector.casti.com.
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4. How do I access it?
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The QRD can be accessed via electronic mail, BBS, FTP, WAIS, gopher, and
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WWW. Below are abbreviated instructions for each method; more thorough
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instructions are available in the QRD-BY files at the top of the QRD
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directory structure.
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WWW: the URL is
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ftp://vector.casti.com/pub/QRD/.html/QRD-home-page.html
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or click here. A New Zealand server is available now.
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Gopher: Point your gopher client to vector.casti.com or click
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here.
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WAIS: database "/wais/qrd" on port 210 or click here.
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FTP: ftp to vector.casti.com and log in as "anonymous".
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BBS: call:
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Central Park BBS: +44 81 947 4411
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Outright: +1 510 568 9461
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The Underground BBS: +1 908 262 9666
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E-mail: Send an email message containing "help" to
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ftpmail@vector.casti.com
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Telnet: Please only use this method as a last resort.
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5. (*) How do I find something in it?
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Hmmm... This is a tough one, but a question we get quite a bit at the QRD.
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Unfortunately, our staff is not large enough to provide research assistance, but
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here are some tips:
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Read the HIGHLIGHTS file.
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This is file contains a quick synopsis of new and updated information
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that is of interest to most of our users.
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Use WAIS.
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Since we've gone to the trouble to create a WAISindex for the
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database, use it! You can be sure that WAIS is up-to-date, as the
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entire QRD index is scrapped and rebuilt every morning at about 2
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a.m. This technique is by far the most powerful tool when you are
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looking for specific information in the QRD.
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Use Gopher and WWW/Mosaic.
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Where possible, the QRD staff has created very descriptive handles to
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files in both gopher and hypertext format. These methods may provide
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more information than just the filename, and it will be much easier to
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surf the archive, reading only the first screen or two of a potentially
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interesting file before moving on. WAIS database searches are
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available via both gopher and WWW/Mosaic.
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6. (*) How frequently people use it?
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As 1993 has seen the QRD more than double in size, it only makes sense that
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the number of accesses has also increased dramatically. The QRD on vector
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reported 70,000 hits in December 1993, and more than 100,000 in January.
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There are eight mirror sites for the QRD and while statistics are not available
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from them, any reasonable estimate makes the QRD one of the most
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frequently accessed libraries of its kind. Mirror sites are listed in each of the
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QRD-BY files, referenced in question 4.
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7. What is a mirror, and why do I care?
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A mirror is a site which keeps an up-to-date copy of another site's files and
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makes those files available. In many ways, it functions as a backup which is
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updated daily or weekly -- usually automatically, but sometimes manually.
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For most Internet users, there is little need or reason to use the QRD's mirrors
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regularly. Vector is on a highly stable segment of the network with ample
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bandwidth for many, many simultaneous network connections. However,
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there are two cases when using a mirror makes sense:
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1. When vector.casti.com goes down:
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Over the last 12 months, vector has had full network access 95% of the
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time. Of course, we all know that the QRD will only be out-of-reach
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during that 5% of the time we really need it -- knowing a mirror site
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will prevent you from losing that 5%.
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2. If you are on a restricted network:
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A prime example is many of our QRD users in New Zealand who do
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not have access outside their own country. Fortunately, there is now a
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mirror in that country which now serves the needs of New Zealand,
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Austrialia and Asia.
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8. (*) Sounds cool; how can I mirror the QRD?
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If you have more than 30 megs of free disk space and want to run either a
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public or private mirror of the QRD, there are a couple good options.
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Using perl, the program "mirror" will check the QRD for changes and only
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download the files you need to keep your site up to date. It can be found on
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various FTP sites and a version is available from vector in the directory
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/pub/unix/mirror*
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If you can't do that for whatever reason, you can still download a tarred copy
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of the QRD to your local site via FTP. Be warned: FTP on vector does not
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currently support automatically compressing tarfiles on their way out, so
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you'll be downloading a VERY LARGE file. If you want to give that a try:
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1. Connect to vector
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2. cd /pub
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3. get QRD.tar
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9. How often are the files updated, and what about accuracy?
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With the exception of a few files which are also maintained by the QRD staff
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(most notably the soc.motss FAQ and the LGBO list of email lists), we can
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make no warranty for the timeliness or accuracy of the information in the
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QRD. Since we draw on the net.public at large for most of our files, there is
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no way we could possibly verify each piece of information in our archives.
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Wherever possible, though, we include the name and email address of the
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person who submitted the file and you can of course contact that person for
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more information.
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If you find a file in the QRD which has out-of-date information, please bring
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it to our attention. As a general rule we will not remove files from the QRD
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without ample reason, but in the case of obsolete data we will do our best to
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keep that kind of misinformation to a minimum.
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10. How do I add something to it?
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If you think you have something that would be of value to other GLBO folk
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as resource material -- for example an essay you've written or a set of fliers
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you've developed for a media campaign -- by all means, send the files our
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way. There are two convenient methods:
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1. Send email to QRD@vector.casti.com with your submission.
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2. Via FTP, upload your file(s) to /pub/QRD/incoming.
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11. What file formats are accepted?
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Most of the information in the QRD is ASCII text, and this is definitely our
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preferred format. ASCII can be easily indexed and reindexed, moved from
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platform to platform, compressed, formatted, etc. The only notable exception
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to this rule is the presence of a few GIF files. If you have questions or a
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special need for your submission, by all means drop us a line and we'll work
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something out.
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Queer Resources Directory / QRDstaff@vector.casti.com / 07 Jan 1993
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