Last updated 28 Jan 2023 - See | marks in margin for changes ** READ THIS (AND OBEY) OR RISK HAVING YOUR ** ** UPLOADS TRASHED WITHOUT WARNING ** This file has been trimmed considerably in hopes that people will follow the instructions better. However, that also means that these instructions must be followed or your upload will be rejected. These policies only apply to the area accessible as /pub/idgames/ EMAIL VERIFICATION PROCESS: As of 1 September 2013, all uploads will be verified by email before being processed. Please pay attention to your email inbox if you upload something. It will have the following subject line: Idgames upload verification--please reply [123456] You will have 7 days to respond. If you do not respond within that timeframe, your files will be rejected. To speed up the process a bit, you may email us ahead of time at idgmaint@gamers.org (please start the subject with DOOM-FTP: so your message won't be nuked) to state which files you have uploaded. The email address you use to send your message must match an email address listed in the text file, or the files will be rejected. Once your upload is verified, we will remove the email addresses from your text file before publishing your upload. If you wish to leave them in the text file, let us know in your verification response, and they will be left in. FILE SIZE LIMIT: No uploaded files should typically be over 50MB. Please email us before you upload any file over 50MB so we can discuss options. PLEASE NOTE: Please use the upload template file UPLTEMPL.TXT for your text files. It is available in /pub/idgames/docs/editing in plain text and zipped format. Thank you. Alternately, you can use the text generator provided by Doomworld: http://www.doomworld.com/idgames/?textmaker Note that proper use of the template makes the auto-indexing database at Doomworld work better too, so that's another good reason to become one with the Borg. ------------ WHAT HAPPENS ------------ 1. You upload to incoming. Set your FTP client to 1 connection. Alternatively, use https://www.gamers.org/cgi/IdgamesUpload.html 2. We examine the files for compliance with the rules and nuke any that don't comply, immediately and without warning or email. Check the file /pub/idgames/REJECTS if your upload seems to have disappeared. We nuke junk (warez, etc.) without an entry in REJECTS. 3. We lowercase all the filenames and we'll make it unique if there's something in the archive with the same name in the same area. If you upload a file with a long filename it'll be REJECTed. (See Requirements #2.) 4. We examine ZIPs to see that they will unpack correctly. If they don't, we REJECT them. Remember that zip files are binary files and txt files aren't. 4a. The email verification process described above happens here. Once the files are verified, we strip email addresses from your text file, unless you have specified that you wish to leave them in. 5. We move things to /pub/idgames/newstuff and to their final home at the same time, once they're deemed OK. Look in the files /pub/idgames/LAST.24hours and LAST.7days to see where we put your upload, and whether or not it got renamed. 6. 10 days later, the file copies are erased from newstuff. ------------ REQUIREMENTS ------------ 1. All files must be ZIPped and have a same-named .TXT file uploaded with the ZIP, as well as a copy of the same .TXT inside of the ZIP. Use the template UPLTEMPL.TXT in this directory for your text files. We have automated processes that read that format, and if it doesn't match, we may end up REJECTing the file because we're not going to waste time deciding how the stuff you wrote correlates to our template. We will also REJECT your ZIP if it does not contain a copy of your text file under any name. 2. Your uploaded ZIP/TXT filename MUST be 12 characters in length or fewer, and can only include ASCII letters, numbers, dashes or underscores. No spaces and no accented characters. 3. All text files MUST include a valid email address. We will check addresses for actual validity when necessary. This may delay moving the files out of incoming, if we have to wait for a reply. 4. If this is a compilation of other things that are on the site already, the individual files cannot also remain in the archive. Tell us what files to delete. If we get something that looks like a compilation, and you don't send us an email or .msg file explaining what to do, the compilation will be REJECTed. 5. No demos or partially completed megawads. If it's not in a releasable state, it doesn't belong in the archives. ---------- ASSISTANCE ---------- 1. If you need to send us a message, upload another file with the extension .msg to explain the problem, or email us at idgmaint@gamers.org (start the subject with DOOM-FTP: or it'll probably get nuked as spam) (no, really, automatically even) 2. If your upload craps out, feel free to keep trying under slightly different names and put a .msg file up to tell us what to do with it. We'll be glad to rename files and delete upload droppings. 3. We will consider your suggestions of where in the idgames/ tree your file should go, if you put that in the appropriate area of the template file. Final decision is ours. 4. If you're not sure what to do, email us first and ask instead of wasting our time (all of us) uploading something that is going to cause problems or questions and rework. 5. If you have an idea of something you want to upload but aren't sure if it would be accepted here or not, email us before you do a bunch of work on it. Also remember that there are other web sites that may accept things we would not. 6. Don't email any wads to us unless we've asked for you to do so. It wastes time, disk space and electrons. --------- WAD RULES --------- 1. Don't upload anything that's based on or modifies versions of the original levels of any of the id Software games. |2. Don't include unmodified resources (sprites, patches, sounds, | music, etc.) from the commercial IWAD that your upload is | designed to work with. This includes, but is not necessarily | limited to, Doom/Doom 2/Final Doom, Heretic/Hexen, and Strife. | Using SLADE (slade.mancubus.net) to check this is recommended. | In SLADE, set up and select the IWAD as a "Base Resource", then | follow the menus to perform this action: Archive->Maintenance-> | Remove Entries Duplicated from IWAD. Do this even if you think | your file does not have unmodified IWAD resources, as they can | be accidentally included from things like texture packs. WAD | files embedded inside a PK3 must be opened and checked separately. | | One exception is for extensions to IWAD animated flats in files | created for the original (vanilla) engine; an example is restoring | the unused fourth frames for Doom's liquid animations. Because of | the way the engine reads the flat lumps from the WAD, any extension | to an animated IWAD flat must include every frame. 3. Consider that most commercial products and trademark symbols are not a good idea to use. If we get a complaint from lawyers (and we do) then we're not the ones in trouble, but your upload will be nuked. Specifically, no Disney, no Beavis & Butthead and no Ren & Stimpy under any circumstances, including sound clips. 4. Do not embed commercially available digitized music, including (but not limited to) MP3 and OGG files, into your WADs. If you have created your own digitized music, or if we can verify that it was made especially for your project by one of the folks in the community, we will accept it as part of your WAD. 5. Don't upload auto-generated files such as would be created with the programs SLIGE or OBLIGE. You really can't take credit for them anyway, and we don't have room for them. 6. In spite of the difficulty of doing so, you need to obtain permission from anyone whose works you use in your uploads if it's not all original work. If there is no statement in their text file that says you can use something in your own wads, then you can't. Permission will be considered denied if not specified. 7. Files created for the purpose of trolling or spamming the archive will be REJECTed (or nuked without a REJECTS entry) on sight. No exceptions. ----- OTHER ----- 1. Please read the file README.legal in /pub/idgames. 2. There is no active Quake upload area. Don't upload Quake files here--they will be deleted. 3. There is no active "LMP" (demos) area. Don't upload demo files here--they will be deleted. The archive maintainers thank you for making their lives easier. Direct comments to idgmaint@gamers.org (Bill Koch & Eric Baker). P.S. Sorry to make you read through 190+ lines of instructions, but we guess we're just pedantic :)