HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: flan@starling.wustl.edu (Ian Flanigan)
Subject: Re: Hockey Night
Organization: Washington University, School of Engineering, St. Louis MO
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 22:25:30 GMT

In article <1992Aug27.194325.16344@wuecl.wustl.edu> flan@starling.wustl.edu  
(Ian Flanigan) writes:
> >  Though late, it's better than never!  Come to nova.ksu.ksu.edu around 9:00
> >  PM CDT and we'll try for some real hockey action!
>  
> My mistake: geo1s.mps.ohio-state.edu.
>  
> Caught not reading enough r.g.n. :-)  Too bad 'bout nova.

BAV just wrote and said that nova will be up for just a weee bit longer.  So,  
we can use nova one last time and give it a good sendoff.

See you all there!

--
Ian Flanigan		"You can never have too many napkins."

Project Zeus
Washington University in St. Louis
flan@starling.wustl.edu
From: hadley@thoth.ics.uci.edu (Tedd Hadley)
Subject: INL2.0 server problem
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Organization: UC Irvine Department of ICS
Keywords: noressurect
Date: 27 Aug 92 01:07:51 GMT
Distribution: rec

   The new INL server doesn't attempt to ressurect clients.  As soon as a
   network problem serious enough to set clientDead occurs, the ntserv process
   exits immediately.

   I discovered this while playing in a scrimmage today.  I was in a starbase
   with 25 armies on a rather flaky connection.  After about a 30 second
   interruption in the connection, my client was still not reconnecting to
   the server.  I reentered the game without trouble (the slot was free), the
   starbase was still available, but 25 armies were missing.  What had happened
   was exactly the same as if I had 'Q'ed out of the game.

   The reason for this is that 'noressurect' is set to 1 in data.c. This
   is not a good idea since it gives any player the ability to immediately
   exit the game at any point.  This could primarily be abused by starbases
   (not carrying armies) during oggs -- kill client when damaged, reenter fresh.

   While not doing client ressurections makes network problems a whole lot
   simpler to deal with, the two problems above shouldn't be overlooked.
   Unfortunately, I can't think of a solution at the moment.

   [ No, Spaceace!, I'm not some stupid newbie who blames the server for my
     own deficiencies :-) ]

++
   Tedd Hadley (hadley@uci.edu)
From: bav@hobbes.ksu.ksu.edu (Brick Verser)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: borg hours on b62150.student.cwru.edu
Date: 30 Aug 92 00:19:34 GMT
Article-I.D.: moe.17p46mINNc50
Organization: Kansas State University
NNTP-Posting-Host: hobbes.ksu.ksu.edu

fadden@uts.amdahl.com (Andy McFadden) writes:
>Unless my math is wrong, that's human hours from 6am to 10am on the west coast,
>making it effectively a borg-only server for us.
>
>Why not just make it 100% borg and dispense with the hours altogether?

Absolutely.  I've said it before in person to a server keeper or two, and
I may even have said it here.  But I'll say it again.  The best way to 
attract players to a server is for it to be consistent.  Make up your mind
what you want your server to be, and keep it that way.  A borgs-allowed
server is fine (sorta), a no-borgs chaos server is fine, or a hockey server 
is fine.  But one should not have to consult an astrologer to figure out
what personality a schizophrenic server thinks it is at a particular hour 
on a particular day.

--Brick
From: kb32+@andrew.cmu.edu (Kevin Michael Bernatz)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: UPENN is gonna RULE!!!
Date: 29 Aug 92 19:52:16 GMT
Organization: Senior, Chemical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA

Excerpts from netnews.rec.games.netrek: 29-Aug-92 UPENN is gonna RULE!!!
Mark Pearce@stipple.seas (345)


> I thought I should mention that UPENN is gonna destroy everybody this year,
> ESPECIALLY CMU!!!

> We have waited a LONG summer to avenge our lost to team Akira.  It will be SO
> fun to crush you!!!

> Now that we've gotten rid of our clueless members (Streaker and FreeKill), we
> will annihilate any opponent that even thinks of stopping us!

> Red Baron

When oh when are those clueless shits at upenn ever going to reallize
how TO FUCKING USE ' :)'  .    Since you fail to use them I could very
easily (if I chose to) interpret this as a very real "hostility" post. 
However, I'm assuming your just blowing shit out your ass, and really
don't expect anyone to get all worked up about it... :)

God I love Upenn.... :) :) :) :) :) :)

-KB
 Trying to teach net etiquete to all the nice, kind, blood-thirsty
oggers out there.... :)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: jiangwu@sickdog.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Jiang Wu)
Subject: Re: Bezier is back!?!?!
Organization: University of California, Berkeley
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 07:02:28 GMT

In article <18414pINNeqj@agate.berkeley.edu> kube@soda.berkeley.edu (Donald J. Kubasak) writes:
>Okay, so bezier is now on sickdog - with a few changes ...
			   ^^^^^^^

NO NO NO NO NO!!! NOT sickdog.  it is BIGDOG.
*sigh* I guess I still didn't make it clear to you guys after all these
postings.  Here I stress again:

	bigdog != sickdog
	
	bigdog = 128.32.240.123
	sickdog = 128.32.240.135

>
>What is the deal with the semi-wrapping walls?  It's kinda interesting
>once you get the hang of it, but ...
>

A feature for the soccer server, a bug for the vallina server.  Will be
fixed.

>Danger Mouse (ne' Fahrvergnuegen et al)

-- Jiang Wu
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: rwd@CS.CMU.EDU (Randall Dean)
Subject: At Large Teams
Originator: rwd@ERNST.MACH.CS.CMU.EDU
Reply-To: rwd+@CS.CMU.EDU
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 04:02:23 GMT


Seeing as I will be unlikely to be at CMU for the duration of
the school year (I don't measure things in school year, but
the INL does), I am looking to join a highly-tie-breaker-advantaged
at large team.  I will probably be playing from somewhere along
the west coast come 1993.

The much maligned

Crack Pot
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: rjones@itchy.dsd.es.com (Ray Jones - Perp)
Subject: Re: YAR.C
Organization: Design Systems Division, Evans & Sutherland, SLC, UT
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 92 16:17:11 GMT

In article <Btn97E.E98.2@cs.cmu.edu> jch+@cs.cmu.edu (Jonathan Hardwick) writes:
>rjones@itchy.dsd.es.com (Ray Jones - Perp) writes
>> Guess who just got permission to use, modify, and distribute RSAREF in the
>> netrek server/clients? :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) 
>
>Yay Ray!  And phphphhphpfffttt to all the doomsayers who said RSA
>would never allow it :-)

Ahem.... I *was* a doomsayer... I basically requested permission only
because it seemed that it couldn't hurt....

Maybe I should play Ensign FootInMouth.. or better yet, Ged.  (since he's
gone for a quarter or two...)

--
                                          rjones@dsd.es.com
Organization: Sophomore, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 03:27:53 -0400 
From: "Robert W. Hill" <rh3b+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: 3rd space guardian robots
	<1992Aug28.182548.26012@ils.nwu.edu>
	<JIVE.92Aug28150009@spanky.ssc.gov>

Jim Ivey Writes:

Don't_ _wait_ _until_ _they're_
_in_ _an_ _LPS_ _to_ _ogg_ _the_ _SB_. 

I agree with this somewhat, but it is really situation dependant.  You
should take most of the planets before ogging a good player out of the SB.
I agree that you should try to ogg the base before an LPS, but that is 
sometimes not going to happen, and the best thing to do is take the second
to last planet, and put it in a LPS.

If you ogg a good player out of the base before you take most of their planets,
you lose ease of getting those easy planets before you have another good player
to deal with.

Rob
aka the much despised Spaceace!
From: tom@soda.berkeley.edu (Tom Holub)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: Fall teams
Date: 30 Aug 1992 04:43:31 GMT
Organization: U.C. Berkeley, CS Undergraduate Association
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: soda.berkeley.edu

In article <17pjcnINNndp@agate.berkeley.edu> ken@haas.berkeley.edu (Kent) writes:
)
)	How many teams have signed up for the fall semester?

None.  Signups haven't started yet.  They will as soon as the Council gets 
a couple matters out of the way.

)	Also, does it look like a non-CMU team will win the championship?

Depends which side of the fence you're on.
 -Mojo
 Captain, Golden Bears
From: amrk@troi.cc.rochester.edu (Andrew Markiel)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: Hints for Beginners
Date: 2 Sep 92 23:31:46 GMT
Organization: University of Rochester (Rochester, NY)

As far as robots go, a good way for beginners to learn basic dogfighting skills
is to find a server where you can get iggy type robots (for example, by bombing
and getting defense robots out) and hack away for a few hours until you can
beat up the poor helpless things (although I will say that Iggy's tractor/
pressor ability makes him much more difficult than the standard defense robots)
It's also very good for practicing basics of ogging. After I did this for a
couple of hours (way back in those early days) I found I was much better at all
types of combat. I still practice occasionally when I find them in a game.

-Grey Elf
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: flan@starling.wustl.edu (Ian Flanigan)
Subject: Re: Hockey Night
Keywords: hockey, missing, fools, orions, klings, puck, my left elbow
Organization: Washington University, School of Engineering, St. Louis MO
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 08:26:50 GMT

An excellent game tonight!  We had some fresh meat as well as a Bloated Cow.   
Everyone played fairly cluefully, though for a while the Orions just stomped  
all over the Klingons.

The only ones that I caught not playing were the fiends from Reed, but as they  
had a lagfull link, I can't really blame them.

I have yet to see many of the regular netrek crowd yet.  We had a lengthy  
appearance by Red Shirt who, as always, was a great asset.  However, I have yet  
to see Eek, Spaceace!, DarkHorse, Space Ghost, Sun Tzu, MUCUS PIG, ZZnew guy,  
Yea Boy!!!!, Akira, or Balinor poke their heads in, just to name a few.  Do  
they not like Hockey?  Or can they just not handle it? :-)

--
Ian Flanigan		"Thumbtacks to not go well with any kind of wine."
(Spam Flinger)

Project Zeus
Washington University in St. Louis
flan@buffalo_bill.wustl.edu
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 17:48:08 -0400 
From: "Timothy C. Worsley" <tw1r+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: Fall INL rosters
Distribution: world

Excerpts from netnews.rec.games.netrek: 26-Aug-92 Fall INL rosters CS
60C Lab Assistant@web (139)

> When are the roster for all teams both
> at-large and school teams due??


> In other words when is CMU's draft thingy gonna
> be over..


> Duck


	We aren't really what's holding up the INL; are we?  There are a lot of
schools who haven't started yet, and we should really wait for them.

ZZnew guy

PS
Our draft is a MESS.  
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: sheldon@iastate.edu (Steve Sheldon)
Subject: Re: TBird
Organization: Iowa State University, Ames IA
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 14:02:34 GMT

In <1992Sep1.124520@IASTATE.EDU> haefner@IASTATE.EDU (Ralph I Haefner) writes:

>In article <u40cqB2w165w@heroes.UUCP>, yap@heroes.UUCP (Yap Yap Yap) writes:
>>      I think TBird is a very silly server.  With the jacked up scouts, I 
>> can't imagine anyone actually enjoy playing there.  The Galaxy class 
>> ships made it worse.  What a keen idea - give the high ranked players
>> the best ships...  It *is* kinda fun to go in and just ogg the GA's 
>> though.  Is it just a joke server or what??  An attempt at a chaos 
>> server??  Product of the mentally disturbed?  :-]

>As a former Tbird fanatic who learned to play the game there, i must say 
>the galaxy class and scout problems have made it one of the most worthless
>servers availible now.  I hate to say it, but it is true.  Another problem is
>severe server lag due to a wimpy machine.  

 
 What scout problems?  What galaxy ships?

 Since Tbird is the only server I ever play on, and then only for a couple
hours on friday nights...  I don't see any problems.

 There are times of netlag, true.

 It's still fun, and that's what games are for.

-- 
Steve Sheldon         sheldon@iastate.edu
Iowa Cooperative Soil Survey Resource Unit
2142 Agronomy, Iowa State University  (515) 294-5429

Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: flan@starling.wustl.edu (Ian Flanigan)
Subject: Re: Hockey Night
Organization: Washington University, School of Engineering, St. Louis MO
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 19:43:25 GMT

In article <1992Aug27.193348.16062@wuecl.wustl.edu> flan@starling.wustl.edu  
(Ian Flanigan) writes:
>  Though late, it's better than never!  Come to nova.ksu.ksu.edu around 9:00
>  PM CDT and we'll try for some real hockey action!

My mistake: geo1s.mps.ohio-state.edu.

Caught not reading enough r.g.n. :-)  Too bad 'bout nova.

--
Ian Flanigan		"You can never have too many napkins."

Project Zeus
Washington University in St. Louis
flan@starling.wustl.edu
From: leonard@mimsy.umd.edu (Leonard Dickens)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Fast message system ideas
Date: 31 Aug 92 19:39:29 GMT
Organization: Universal Export Ltd, Regent's Park, London

ladykilr@chester.ksu.ksu.edu writes:
>It was posted that NBR will have a quick-messaging system.
>How about letting the user define his own messages, say in .xtrekrc?

Not a new idea, but still good.  I suppose this could look something
like:

Message 1:		E
Message 2:		t
Message 3:		control-1
Message 4:		control-2
Message 5:		S
Message Text.1:		Help!  %a armies, %%d damage, %%f fuel
Message Text.2:		Help!  Going for %p
Message Text.3:		Ogg %n
Message Text.4:		Bomb %p
Message Text.5:		My team sucks..

where:

%<char> will be filled in with the number corresponding to the player's
	ship attribute that is hardwired to associate with <char>.
%%<char> gives the percentage of the range of the <char> attribute
	followed by a "%".
%n gives the player nearest to the cursor (i.e. R2)
%p given the nearest planet (i.e. Earth)


Now, there are still things that need to be worked out.  For one, we
need to decide which data values internal to the client are fair ones
to allow the player to easily talk about.  For instance, how about the
number of armies on a planet?  We could denote that as "%p.a" perhaps,
allowing messages like:
Message Text.4:		Bomb %p; it has %p.a armies.

Here is a list of variable specifiers I think would be useful/fair:
	%n	Player's mapchars (I.e, "R1")
	%N	Player's full name plus mapchars (i.e. "Wreck (R1)")
	%n.<ch> Subattribute of a player.  Must be one of the 10
		attributes below.  Note that for all players except
		yourself, most of this info is not sent from the
		server, and is therefore bogus.
		
	%n.a	number of armies
	%n.x,y	x and y location (kinda useless, but fair)
	%n.z	speed (again, fairly useless)
	%n.s	shield
	%n.d	damage
	%n.w	weapon temp
	%n.e	engine temp
	%n.k	kills
	%n.f	fuel

Any of the above will default to the client's player if the "n." part
of the specifier is not given.  Also, most of the above can be given in
%% form to get percentages.  (x and y are exceptions.)
	
	%p	Planet's three-letter prefix name (or "El" for El Nath)
	%P	Planet's full name
	%p.<ch> Subattribute, from the choices below:

	%p.a	Number of armies at p
	%p.x,y  X and y location of p

Finally, we need
	%%	print a single '%' char

Anyone have a better idea?

Now, here are some other things to consider.  Should we allow quick
messages to be sent to individuals, other teams, or ALL?  (My feeling
is no, because it is mostly useless and hard to implement.  Being able
to sent to specific team members might be useful, though.)

The system above is somewhat inflexible.  How might it be more
flexible?

The system above does not follow printf semantics mainly because that
would be difficult to implement.  Is this a worthwhile change to consider?

Are there any other variables that would be useful for messaging?  How
about nearest planet?  ("%n.p" or "%n.P") Cloaked status?  ("%n.c"?  it
should print "" or "cloaked")  Other status info?  (A message like
("R1->ROM I am cloaked near Klingus" could be useful.)

-Leonard
From: hunky@matt.ksu.ksu.edu (D U D L E Y)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: the endless quest for the perfect keymap
Date: 2 Sep 1992 22:39:03 -0500
Organization: Kansas State University
NNTP-Posting-Host: matt.ksu.ksu.edu
Keywords: keymap

moore@iguana.es.com (Michael Moore) writes:

>	Here's my keymap..  It's never steered me wrong.
>w = warp 4	a = togg. shds	z = beam up	spc = det own
                                                ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I noticed that alot of the keymap postings have the spacebar mapped to
something else. And usually with nothing remapped to replace spacebar.

The great Bav told me once that he found the spacebar most useful the
way it is. The spacebar will close most of the information windows. The
alternative is to hit the same key that you opened the window with, or
click on the 'done' bar with the mouse. But for the most part, it's nice
to have a big key there to close just about any pop-up window that's in
your way, as soon as the borders go red.

It sure would be nice if ALL pop-up windows (except the status graph)
would close at the beckoning of the spacebar. I think the UDP window
doesn't, and one other...(war declarations window?)

-- 
D U D L E Y   is hunky@matt.ksu.ksu.edu        "A little Dud'll do ya."  -nympho
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: mcn@cwru.edu (Michael C. Neuman)
Subject: borg hours on b62150.student.cwru.edu
Reply-To: mcn@b62103.student.cwru.edu
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, (USA)
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 92 15:53:00 GMT

  I finally came down with a decent set of borg hours for  
b62150.student.cwru.edu...

Human Only: Monday-Friday 9am->1pm
Borgs     : Monday-Friday 1pm->9am, All day Sat, Sun

  These hours will alternate with rwd4's, so whenever it's borg hours there,  
it's not here, and vice versa... Come try it out--ping times between here and  
CMU are in the mid 30 ms's, so there'll be no noticeable lag differential... 

-Mike Neuman (Guru)
mcn@b62103.student.cwru.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
From: cks@hawkwind.utcs.toronto.edu (Chris Siebenmann)
Subject: Re: NeXT software, new server, new rank scheme
Organization: Ziebmef home away from home
Date: 29 Aug 92 10:18:49 GMT

jecoleb@eos.ncsu.edu writes:
| This sounds like a lot of fun, really, although some may argue that
| the incentive for excellent play is diminished without rank to shoot 
| for.

 I find that I play better when no one knows who I am and the rank I
gain is ephemeral. Certainly I try more things out and learn more.
It's also a great way to work out frustrations and the like; no one
is hugely surprised if a guest spends half an hour ogging anything
that moves.

 It's also a good way to not play starbases until I figure I'm ready for
them; if I can make Commander and no one else is already flying one,
I'm probably qualified to try my hand on today's server.

[this post was written at 6am. can you tell?]
--
	When we get calls from faculty and staff regarding problematic
	software, we always ask if they have a backup.  We got this
	*classic* response today "Well, I thought I had a backup, but
	she refused to type it in again..."	- Lou Anschuetz
cks@hawkwind.utcs.toronto.edu	           ...!{utgpu,utzoo,watmath}!utgpu!cks
From: jch+@cs.cmu.edu (Jonathan Hardwick)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: sickdog metaserver down?
Date: 28 Aug 92 16:08:44 GMT
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon

aew@spitfire.unh.edu (Allan E. Wright Jr.) writes
> Hi netrekers! I've had trouble connecting to the sickdog metaserver lately
> (last two weeks) Below is a transcript of my problem. Is it down? Address
> changed? Am I clueless?

sickdog is, uhhh, sick :)

Try the alternate metaserver on bigdog.cs.berkeley.edu (128.32.240.123)

Or experience the future, and use Andy McFadden's megametaserver at
charon.amdahl.com, ports 3520-3524. 

Jonathan H., jch@cs.cmu.edu                        Spaceman Spiff, Flying Pig
I run a Netrek information archive.   Access: [1] WAIS (gourd.srv.cs.cmu.edu, 
port 6000, name netrek-ftp)  [2] AFS (try cd /afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/jch/netrek)  
[3] Anon FTP from gs69.sp.cs.cmu.edu   [4] e-mail from ftpmail@decwrl.dec.com
From: ladykilr@chester.ksu.ksu.edu ()
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: Official NBR proposals
Date: 31 Aug 1992 13:08:23 -0500
Organization: Kansas State University
Distribution: world
NNTP-Posting-Host: chester.ksu.ksu.edu


It was posted that NBR will have a quick-messaging system.
How about letting the user define his own messages, say in .xtrekrc?
From: yohan@shadow.ksu.ksu.edu (Jonathan W Newton)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: Hockey Night
Date: 3 Sep 1992 10:37:25 -0500
Organization: Kansas State University
Distribution: na
NNTP-Posting-Host: shadow.ksu.ksu.edu
Keywords: Hockey, Netrek, Grunk better show, Excellent


In article <1992Sep2.165921.15320@wuecl.wustl.edu>, flan@starling.wustl.edu (Ian Flanigan) writes:
>It's coming upon Thursday once again--Hockey Night!  So grab that terminal and  
>bop over to hockey.ksu.edu (2592) on Thursday, September 3, at 9:00 CDT for an  
>excellent game of hockey!
>
>Those who don't show will be publicly ridiculed.
>
>--
>Ian Flanigan		"You can never have too many napkins."
>
>Project Zeus
>Washington University in St. Louis
>flan@starling.wustl.edu

Hey, please leave some scrpas for those of us who can't play until 10:30.

Jon Newton aka Ender
Organization: Senior, Math/Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 12:38:28 -0400 
From: Nanci Ann Miller <nm0w+@andrew.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: 3rd space guardian robots
	<BtL9I3.uz@usenet.ucs.indiana.edu>

ahabig@bigbang.astro.indiana.edu (Alec Habig) writes:
> Oh well.  We've went over this in the past with no agreement, why start it up
> again?
> 
>         Alec

Because this is rgn.

Nanci

If addiction is judged by how long a dumb animal will sit pressing a lever
to get a "fix" of something, to its own detriment, then I would conclude
that netrek is far more addictive than cocaine.
From: amrk@troi.cc.rochester.edu (Andrew Markiel)
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Subject: Re: Fairly distressing happenings...
Date: 1 Sep 92 02:29:06 GMT
Organization: University of Rochester (Rochester, NY)

Hrm...I've played on tardis a couple of times. It gets less play than discovery
probably because more people know about discovery than tardis. But I've never
really had any problem with it. Sounds like the server just crashed.
I have noticed that msu seems to have a flaky connection lately. Sometimes, the
lag just goes through the roof, and people get ghostbusted like crazy. Most of
the time, though, it's perfectly fine. Weird.


Oh, that reminds me of something. A while back, I was playing on a European
server, and the lag was *really* bad (1000+ms). Anyway, on one of my ping
outputs, one of the packets got lost with this message:

ICMP Source Quench from 134.222.5.1 for callisto.pas.rochester.edu (128.151.144.141) to 192.33.149.2 port 60160

I've never seen this before...anyone else ever run into it? Sounds like the
packets are getting scrunched up somewhere. Anyone know where 134.222.5.1 is?

-Grey Elf
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek