- 1) What is a FAQ?
- A FAQ is a list of (F)requently (A)sked (Q)uestions with corresponding answers. It is usually created to help cut down the traffic in a Usenet group. The Civilization FAQ contains lots of questions that are usually asked in the comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.strategic group. By reading the FAQ you help to keep the postings down, and make for a less cluttered group.
- 2) What is a (Web/WWW) Browser?
- What you are using to view this page!
The browser is the application/program that you use to view the various areas of the World Wide Web. There are a number of different browsers such as Mosaic, Netscape, Lynx, Cello, WinWeb and more.
- 3) What is the purpose of the GamesDomain?
- The site is designed to be a central reference point for all things "games-related" on the Internet. It does not specialise in any areas other than FAQs and Walkthroughs. If you want information on PBMs, MUDs, MUSHes, Interactive games, or similar areas, then the Domain will help, but there are better areas if you want more precise information. The Domain will point you to these areas and also give you a taste of what they offer.
The site also actively encourages people to move their information onto the Web. A large number of FAQs, Walkthroughs, Home pages and information sites have been created due to encouragement from the Domain maintainer.
- 4) Why is the GamesDomain so fast?
- OK, so not everyone experiences fast access to the Domain, but the majority of people do. Part of the reason for this is the fact that the Domain is the only thing running on this machine. Also because I make a point of creating tidy pages without lots of useless pictures. Many sites seem to take pleasure in causing people to struggle on the Web by including 5-10 pointless pictures per page. What usually happens is that people turn off the "image-load" and view the sites as text only.
With the Domain, the only real picture is on the title page, and this has been compressed to just 16K. Most of the pages are sub-divided into sections so that people only load the area they are interested in. The less they have to load, the quicker everything feels.
- 5) Why do I get "Access errors" when trying to connect to FTP sites via WWW?
- When you make a normal FTP link, you hold the link as you navigate through the directories. When WWW makes an FTP link, it logs in; retrieves the requested data; logs out; displays data. This means that when connecting to a busy site, although you are already looking at the appropriate directory, you may get "Access..." problems because there are no links available for the browser to reconnect. The best advice for times like this is just to keep selecting the link.
The main advantage of FTP retrievals via WWW is that you do not
have to go through the LOGIN procedure. Also, the correct directory
will probably be part of the URL, so you will not have to navigate either.
- 6) How do I find..?
- The best way to find information on the Domain is by using the search facilities. Although they can only be used by browsers with "forms" capabilities, there are very few browsers that lack this ability.
The search works on a database of words that are gathered from the various documents held at the site. You can use "AND", "OR", or "NOT" in your seach, and it pays to think before you enter your request. For example: if you were looking for the Space Quest FAQ it would make sense to enter "space AND quest". If you only entered "space" your results list would contain every document that referenced "space". This would be a very long list!
Remember: Even "space AND quest" will find unrelated documents so check the results carefully.
- 7) Why doesn't the link to ******* work?
- A large number of the links on this site are to other machine around the world. Sometimes those machines will be offline for maintenance purposes, and you will be denied access. Although I try to keep a check on the other sites, I do occasionally miss some. Also, some sites are only down for a couple of hours!
If you find a site that is down for an extended period, then you can do a number of things. Where possible, contact the maintainer of the appropriate site direct. Mention your problem and hopefully they will be able to advise you on what's happening. Most remote sites have a description page that includes the email address of the maintainer.
The other option is to contact me direct. Tell me the problem and, where possible, I'll try to find out what's happening. Either way, it's better to tell someone than to just ignore it. If you ignore it it may never get fixed!
- 8) How can I contribute?
- There are many ways to contribute to the GamesDomain, some large and some small. The following is a brief list, but feel free to email me with other ideas.
- Start your own Games site!
- If you have an interest in an area of games playing that is not supported anywhere, why not start your own site. If you do not have access to a WWW server then contact me with the details. Providing your site is not too large I will allow you to place it here.
- Convert FAQs/Walkthroughs to HTML format.
- The main time consumer as maintainer of the Domain is converting FAQs and Walkthroughs to HTML format. I have converted hundreds of documents but there is always a backlog of files to do. If you know HTML, or would like to learn, then take a file that has not been converted and "go for it"...
- Amend the Home-Page descriptions
- Although a number of the descriptions came directly from the maintainers, I have had to enter a few myself. Some of these descriptions are very short, and could do with being enhanced by someone that knows the site a bit better. So if you don't like a description for a particular site, then feel free to send me a better one!
- Watch and report errors
- The simplest option but a great help anyway. Sometimes I create errors on the site and don't notice them. If you see them PLEASE report them as soon as possible. The site went a whole day once with the "Home Pages" link pointing to the "Site Stats" page. Thousands of people used the link but no-one thought to report it!
- 9) How do you get the number of accesses, calling
site and current connections, seen on the front page?
- I'm not going to go into extensive details but basically:
You need permission to have server-side includes.
- Many service providers do not allow this so I suggest you check
with them first. More information can be found on http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/docs/tutorials/.
You need to understand how various commands work on your
server.
- For my front page I use four different commands: ps, grep, echo
and count. The first three are standard UNIX commands but count needs
to be downloaded. Here is a
link to the source code. There are further instructions in the
code.
You need the commands.
- Take a look at the following code:
<DL>
<DD>Welcome <b><!--#exec cmd="echo $REMOTE_HOST"--></b>
<DD>There are currently <b><!--#exec cmd="ps auxw | grep -c \"^nobody.*httpd\""-->
active HTTP connections</b> to this site.
<DD>This front page has been accessed <B><!--#exec cmd="/u/djh/public_html/count"--></B>
since 1st January, 1995
</DL>
Obviously, once you understand the use of <!--#exec cmd="unix
command"--> you will be able to add lots of different messages to
your pages.
http://wcl-rs.bham.ac.uk/GamesDomain/gdfaq/gdfaq.html (World Wide Web Directory, ~04/1995)