Welcome to ABMA my friend .. :-)

Here is a guide to help you through many of the
pitfalls that a lot of folks have experienced in this group.
Be welcome, have fun, and please be respectful... there is
a matt outside of our door, please wipe your feet before
entering our home.

the following is a composite of our best, it is also attached as
a sit file... have fun, be welcome and hey.. we all started
somewhere, let this be a very good beginning.. :-)


smoker



some very useful links:

http://www.voicenet.com/~edtyre
---> is our FAQ

http://www.skuz.net/macfaq/abma/abmasg.html
---> more good info


-------------------------------------------------
ABMA Survival Guide, version 9.4.4 (May 21, 2000)
(Derived from ABMA Survival Guide v007, July 8, 1999)

Mainly by LuvBunny, and also by (in alphabetical order):
Doctor, GriZzle, jet, Matt Black, smoker, t.v.c.1.5, xxx, Zapf,
and others...

This version of the Guide replaces all earlier versions, especially
007 and 008.*. Please give a copy of this text file to anyone who
needs help with downloading from or uploading to ABMA. If you have
suggestions for improving this Guide, please post them in ABMA.
If you edit or modify this Guide, then please be sure to change the
version number and date at the top of your modified copy of the file
before distributing it.

If you are using a Mac and you save this article as a text file from
your newsreader, then you will need a good text editor such as BBEdit
or Tex-Edit Plus to open that text file, since it will be too big
for SimpleText to handle. You can also open the text file in a
word-processing program like AppleWorks or WordPerfect. URLs for
downloading good freeware and shareware text editors are included
later in this file.

Thanks to NetGuru, this guide (or possibly a slightly earlier version
of it) is now available as a web page at:

http://www.skuz.net/macfaq/abma/abmasg.html

-------------------------------------------------


ABMA SURVIVAL GUIDE TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Quick-start summary [by jet]
General
Downloading
Posting
Anonymity

II. FAQ sites on the web

III. How do I upload, download, decode? [by LuvBunny and others]
Introduction
Downloading
Introduction
Setting up YA-Newswatcher
Getting all the pieces
Putting it together
Expanding and installing it
Troubleshooting your downloads
Making CRCs
Checking CRCs [by t.v.c.15]
An additional note on checking CRCs [by Zapf]
Creators and file types
Partial attachments
Downloading Mac binaries from ABMA to a PC [by Doctor]
Uploading
Introduction
Setting up YA-Newswatcher
Encoding the file for posting
Making a disk image
Naming the post
Segmenting the file
Information to include with your post
Upping the damn thing
How file corruption occurs [by xxx]
Resources
Toolkits
Links (URLs)
Tips, tricks, and shortcuts
Incomplete posts?
Hiding your server
Be good (sort of)
May the force be with you!

IV. XXX-rated "Do-be's for newbies" [by xxx]

V. Honor roll of recent ABMA uploaders

VI. Change log

-------------------------------------------------

[Part I] Quick-start summary

The first part of this guide is a summary kindly provided by jet.
Along with basic information, it addresses some of the more common
difficulties and misunderstandings that crop up in ABMA from time
to time.

* GENERAL
1. Be courteous and patient.
a. "Leave your ego at the door."
b. Avoid sarcasm. In Usenet, it's like quicksand.
2. Check
http://versiontracker.com
often for tools & information.
3. Check
http://www.voicenet.com/~edtyre/
to get a general idea
of how things work in Mac binaries groups (archiving, segmenting,
etc.).
4. Use YA-NewsWatcher as your news client, at least at first.
[Editor's note: Some people recommend MT-Newswatcher instead;
this is a matter of individual preference and opinion. Both
programs are very good. However, most of the step-by-step
instructions in this Guide assume that you are using
YA-Newswatcher.]
5. This group is for anything helpful that applies to the Mac. The
"binaries" in the name is to allow binaries, not to exclude other
posts.

* DOWNLOADING
1. In YA-NW Preferences, be sure that the "Number of Articles to
Fetch" is set high enough.
2. If you are having trouble finding parts, try:
a. Opening the group from the Full Group List.
b. Using the Search feature under the Special menu.
c. Getting a better news server. Most default ISP news servers
are unreliable for binaries.

* POSTING
1. Do your archiving and segmenting (2 MB to 5 MB segment size), and
test (recombine and expand) it all before you post.
2. Use these YA-NW settings:
a. News Part Size in kB: from 300 to 495
b. News Encoding: BinHex (NOT uuencode!)
3. Start small. Do your tests in ; if you
want feedback just drop a request here in a.b.m.a about the test
post.
4. Please do not feel obligated to post. If you are uncomfortable
about it, or if you don't have good anonymity, then don't do it.

* ANONYMITY
1. Important: Never, never assume that your anonymity is guaranteed.
If you are foolish enough to engage in repetitive, provocative
behavior, chances are good that someone will find you.
2. In the Preferences, in Personalities, make your anonymous
personality using a bogus email address.
3. In the Preferences in Extra Header Lines, or in a saved
personality file (depending on the version of the program you're
using), put the following line (but don't include any spaces at
the beginning):
x-no-archive: yes
4. Get a privacy-oriented news server. Ask some of the regular
posters for suggestions. Ask the service that you plan to use
about their privacy policy. [Editor's note: Also, look in the
group for more
information.]

-------------------------------------------------

[Part II] FAQ Sites on the Web

There are a few web pages that should be of interest to you as an ABMA
participant. Especially if you plan to upload, please read the
information contained in the ABMA FAQ. (The document that you are now
reading is, contrary to appearances, not the ABMA FAQ.) Here are some
URLs for you to feed to your web browser. If you are reading this on
a Mac, then you should be able to Command-click on any of the following
URLs to send it directly to whatever web browser you have selected in
Internet Config or in the Internet control panel.

The main ABMA FAQ, as of this writing, is at:
http://www.voicenet.com/~edtyre/

Other sites are as follows. These may be incomplete and under
construction at the moment (depending on when you read this), but
it's possible that one of them could at some point supersede the
above URL.
http://abma.dhs.org/
http://www.skuz.net/macfaq/

Thanks to NetGuru, this guide (or possibly a slightly earlier version
of it) is now available as a web page at:
http://www.skuz.net/macfaq/abma/abmasg.html
(Oh, I said that already. Never mind.)