The QRD FAQ Last-Modified: 3 May 1997 Unlike most FAQs, this list is not a collection of hearsay. _________________________________________________________________ Contents [1]. What is the QRD? [2]. Does the QRD have a vision or mission statement? What is it? [3]. How long has the QRD been around? [4]. Who operates and maintains the QRD? [5]. What host name should I use? [6]. How do I access the QRD? [7]. How do I find something in the QRD? [8]. How frequently do people use the QRD? [9]. Who pays for all of this? [10]. Sounds cool; how can I mirror the QRD? [11]. How often are the files updated, and what about accuracy? [12]. How do I add something to it? [13]. What file formats are allowed? [14]. How can I get a copy of this file whenever I want? _________________________________________________________________ 1. What is the QRD? The QRD (short for Queer Resources Directory) is an electronic library with news clippings, political contact information, newsletters, essays, images, hyperlinks, and every other kind of information resource of interest to the GLBO community. Information is stored for the use of casual network users and serious researchers alike. [Up to the Table of Contents] _________________________________________________________________ 2. Does the QRD have a vision or mission statement? What is it? Vision Statement, April 2, 1994 The Queer Resources Directory (QRD) is an electronic research library specifically dedicated to sexual minorities -- groups which have traditionally been labelled as "queer" and systematically discriminated against. As a library, our function is to provide as much information as possible on every facet and issue relating to sexual minorities. Our collection is open to anyone researching the issues peculiar to this population. You may find the QRD contains information and viewpoints that you did not anticipate, or that you did not consider. It is a goal for the QRD to contain every scrap of knowledge which has been used in or is part of the struggle for full equality. We hope you are able to use this information to broaden your horizons and enrich your experience in ways you had not expected. The QRD also specifically contains information which is produced by persons and organizations not sympathetic towards our struggles for equality. While this information is intended for use as counterintelligence, we have no ability or desire to control what you may do with information you have found in the QRD. It is our policy not to censor information on any issues related to sexual minorities unless absolutely necessary for the continued existence and availability of the QRD to as many persons as possible. Additionally, we do not endorse the goals or aims of any specific group or groups which have submitted material to our collection. Our electronic library is available to anyone who has access to the Internet or who has a modem and can call one of our BBS mirrors. In the United States, where the QRD is headquartered, there are broad protections for political expression of all kinds. But not all people in all times and all places have such protection. Because we impose no controls on who has access to our collection, you may find material in the QRD which is banned or otherwise illegal in the country you are accessing the QRD from. If you are contacting QRD from a part of the world where you do not have such protections, please be aware that by browsing our collection you may be putting yourself at risk for government surveillance, legal action, or political persecution. While we sympathize deeply with the plight of people struggling for freedom everywhere, we can not be held responsible for any consequences you may face for having visited our library. Also, due to the current negative political climate in the United States regarding encryption technology, people in the US may not send encrypted documents to sites outside the US. Fortunately, there are QRD staff members outside of the United States who can be of assistance in this matter. If you have need of encrypted QRD documents, please send us mail. At the current time, the QRD enjoys the ability to provide all information services free of charge. This situation is made possible by the generous private donations of our staff's time, our many hosts' equipment, and shared network connections. The QRD is not funded by any single person or organization, nor any public source. While it may not always be possible for all of our services to be available without charge, we realize this as an important goal, and an important part of the Internet tradition of public service. There is one exception to the broad collection guidelines. Although the QRD recognizes the importance of erotic artwork and writing to our community, we do not archive that type of information. Please look elsewhere for those resources. _________________________________________________________________ *3. How long has the QRD been around? The QRD started in 1991 as an electronic archive for Queer Nation. Ron Buckmire created the QRD after realizing that a more extensive resource than just an archive for QN would be useful for the queer Internet community. The oldest files in the QRD date from about February 1991, though the QRD did not really exist in its current form until around September 1991, when the QN archive was transformed into the broader Queer Resources Directory. In the past, the QRD has been kindly housed, without official sanction, on various hosts, including cambridge.apple.com, nifty.andrew.cmu.edu, vector.intercon.com, vector.casti.com, and qrd.tcp.com [Up to the Table of Contents] _________________________________________________________________ 4. Who operates and maintains the QRD? * Ron Buckmire is the executive director of the QRD and audits quality control and user services. * David Casti is the QRD's system administrator. * Alan Hamilton maintains and updates files of interest to our many bisexual users, including the Bisexual Resource List. * Roger Grauwmeijer assists with international issues and concerns. * Sean M. Burke manages the QRD's Web interface. * Alan Batie is associate systems manager, and helps with managing the QRD's Web interface. * Greg Broderick manages the "Radical Religious Right" section. * Former staff members include: Tina Wood, Kevyn Jacobs, Darci Chapman, and Thomas Holt. We are always on the lookout for more volunteers who can help us make the QRD a better resource. If you have skills and resources which you can volunteer to this end, please contact us. [Up to the Table of Contents] _________________________________________________________________ 5. What host name should I use? The QRD's content is carried on several servers simultaneously. Load is distributed among QRD co-servers based on the access method used. The following host names are supported to distribute load for users in North America: * www.qrd.org, for Web connections * ftp.qrd.org, for FTP connections We would like to be able to say that those address were all you'd ever need to find the QRD, and that it would always be the best way to obtain service. This would be true if the Internet links were equally strong in all parts of the world, but of course they aren't. If you are a user in Australia or New Zealand, you may receive faster service by using the co-server located in Cristchurch, New Zealand, at nz.qrd.org Users in Asia may find that to be the best mirror. [Up to the Table of Contents] _________________________________________________________________ 6. How do I access it? The QRD can be accessed via World-Wide Web (Netscape, lynx, Mosaic, etc.) electronic mail, BBS, and FTP. Details for each access method follow. WORLD-WIDE WEB The URL for the QRD's main page is: * http://www.qrd.org/qrd/ Simply point your WWW browser at that URL and you'll be connected to us immediately. The most common text-based browser is lynx. Graphic browsers include Netscape, tkWWW and Mosaic for XWindows, MSWindows, and Mac. Many online services, such as AOL, Compuserve, Microsoft Net, and Prodigy, also offer Web access. If you don't have a browser on your PC or on you your Internet host you do have access to telnet, don't despair. There are public-access telnet addresses where you can access ascii-based browers. Please note that while we have done our best to document the steps to be taken in order to access the QRD by Web Home Page from these public sites, the information below could be out of date before we know it. You can help us out by sending us updates as you discover them. Send email to wwwstaff@qrd.org with corrections and/or pointers. The sites are: telnet www.njit.edu or telnet 128.235.163.2 (USA [NJ]) telnet ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu or 129.237.1.30 (USA [KA]) telnet www.twi.tudelft.nl (Login: lynx) [NETHERLANDS] telnet millbrook.lib.rmit.edu.au (Login: lynx) [AUSSIE] telnet telnet.w3.org [SWITZERLAND] telnet www.huji.ac.il or telnet 128.139.4.3 [ISRAEL] telnet sun.uakom.sk or telnet 192.108.131.11 [SLOVAKIA] telnet www.edu.tw or telnet 192.83.166.10 [TAIWAN] See below for more details on how to get to the QRD Home Page from the US sites. The following requires a little work since most sites do not allow anonymous users to jump right a particular page. The overall approach is to 'get beyond' the local services/databases and access a global list or searching function and then find the Queer Resources Directory listed explicity. University of Kansas telnet ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu or telnet 129.237.1.30 Login: www (no password, start up takes a little while) You will start up at the University of Kansas Home Page; follow these steps: * Under "Information Sources About and For WWW", select "WWW Information By Subject" by using your arrow keys (or the tab key) and then hit return. * On this page, enter a "/" (no quotes) to search for a string; at the search prompt, enter "Queer" (no quotes) * Queer Resources Directory should now show up and can be selected. Press return and you will be at the QRD Home Page! New Jersey Institute of Technology telnet www.njit.edu or telnet 128.235.163.2 Login: www (no password) Select: 19 (Other Info Systems) 3 (By Service Type) 3 (Master List of WEB Sites) 25 (Other Subjects) 89 (Politics and Economics/QRD) If the numbers are out of sync, go by the text provided above. You may have to use 'N' to scroll down the page to view the appropriate choices. EMAIL The Queer Resources Directory can be accessed via email from any Internet-reaching system. This means you can extract files from the QRD even if you only have a CompuServe, AOL, FidoNet, or mail-only Internet BBS connection. To use this service, send electronic mail to ftpmail@qrd.org The subject line of your message will be ignored. Your message must begin with "open" on a line by itself and end with "quit" on a line by itself. Between those two delimiters, you may use the following commands: ls [pathname] short listing of pathname. Default pathname is current directory. dir [pathname] long listing of pathname. Default pathname is current directory. cd pathname Change directory. get pathname Get a file and email it back. You are strongly encouraged to use the following message on your first use of this service: open dir cd pub/QRD dir get 00README quit This script will cause the ftpmail program to send you 6 messages in response: 1. An acknowledgement that your request was received and is queued 2. A top-level directory of the FTP area 3. A directory of the QRD 4. The QRD readme file 5. A receipt that your request was successfully processed A few notes about this service: * Since any file you request will be emailed back to you, there is no need for concern about filename length. * Any file that ends in .Z is a binary file. It will be delivered to you as a uuencoded file. To make use of this file, you will have to uudecode it and then uncompress it. * If your mailer only supports small messages, you can use the command size #K where # is the largest size (in K) that your mailer supports. Files larger than this limit will be fragmented into as many pieces as necessary before they are transferred. For example, America Online has a maximum message size of 250K, so any AOL users would need to include the line size 250K if they were attempting to transfer large files via email. For more information about this service, send a message containing only "help" on a line by itself. BBS There is one known BBS mirror of the QRD: Central Park BBS +44 81 947 4411 Administered by: Kevin M FTP To access the QRD by FTP you must issue these commands if you are using a shell account (typically UNIX or VAX) version of ftp: ftp ftp.qrd.org Log in as "anonymous" or "ftp" and at the password prompt, enter your email address -- make sure it has an @ sign, or you will be denied access. Then enter: cd /pub/QRD Then before you start, you should look at the README file. The HIGHLIGHTS file is also useful to get a sense of what files are popular. To get these files, issue the commands: get 00README get 0HIGHLIGHTS If your system needs to have filenames of another type you can change the name that the file you are getting will have on your local system by simply giving it. So you would say: get 0QRD-BY-MAIL qrdmail.txt and then the file would appear on your local system as 'qrdmail.txt' and not 0QRD-BY-MAIL. You can look at these files by either leaving FTP by issuing "bye" or "quit" or "exit". Or, from a UNIX box, you could suspend FTP by sending a "^Z" [control-Z] then looking at the files README and HIGHLIGHTS on your system and then re-starting FTP by issuing a "fg" command. Then you can "cd" to whereever you want and get the desired file from that directory. Look at the GUIDE file to see the full directory structure of the QRD. FTP MIRROR LIST These are the current ftp mirrors of the QRD: ftp://abacus.oxy.edu/pub/QRD ftp://www.otago.ac.nz/pub/QRD ftp://ftp.uu.net/doc/political/etext-poli/QRD/ ftp://ftp.etext.org/pub/Politics/QRD [Up to the Table of Contents] _________________________________________________________________ 7. How do I find something in it? This is a tough one, but a question we get quite a bit at the QRD. Unfortunately, our staff is not large enough to provide research assistance, but here are some tips: * Use keyword searching. If you are accessing the QRD via the World Wide Web you can search the entire file structure of the QRD for the occurrence of whatever word you like. The URL for initiating a search of the QRD is http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/search.html * Look in the Browsing Room, the directory "/qrd/browse/". This directory contains timely information and files which are in the current or past HIGHLIGHTS files. * Read the highlights file. This file contains a quick synopsis of new and updated information that is of interest to most of our users. * Run a keyword search. The search database rebuilds itself every Sunday. [Up to the Table of Contents] _________________________________________________________________ 8. How frequently do people use the QRD? Since 1993 the size of the QRD's contents has grown exponentially. It only makes sense that the number of accesses has also increased dramatically; 150,000 hits per month per mirror are common. There are several mirror sites for the QRD, and while statistics are only available from one of them, any reasonable estimate makes the QRD one of the most frequently accessed libraries of its kind. Mirror sites are listed in each of the QRD-BY files, referenced in question 4. [Up to the Table of Contents] _________________________________________________________________ +9. Who pays for all this? The QRD is a project operated entirely by volunteers using donated equipment and network access. Although you may be charged for network access by your service provider, there are no additional surcharges for use of the QRD, and no one involved with the QRD realizes any financial benefit from this project. The QRD was established during the time when the Internet had a long-standing tradition of public service, and although the network has changed dramatically since then, we still consider providing free access to information our primary goal and function. Take another look at our Mission Statement. We are looking for assistance in becoming a 501c(3) non-profit organization so that we can facilitate the donation of goods and services to the QRD. Contact us if you can help us to do that. [Up to the Table of Contents] _________________________________________________________________ 10. Sounds cool; how can I mirror the QRD? If you'd like to volunteer, see question 4 above. If you have system and network resources, we'd be happy to have you on board as a co-server. You must have at least 100 megabytes of free disk space to store the 10,000-plus files in the QRD. We recommend the Perl program "mirror", written by Lee McLoughlin lmjm@doc.ic.ac.uk to automate the task of maintaining your copy of the QRD. This program can be found on various FTP sites and a version is available from ftp.casti.com in the directory /pub/unix/. Once you have it installed on your server, point it at ftp.qrd.org and turn it on. To be added to the list of co-servers and stay informed about changes in the QRD, you should contact staff@qrd.org after activating the mirror program. We especially are interested in having a USA mirror site in the East or Midwest. [Up to the Table of Contents] _________________________________________________________________ *11. How often are the files updated, and what about accuracy? The QRD staff does not maintain any files in the QRD. Members of the QRD staff may individually maintain well-known files (most notably the list of lgbt email lists known as the LGBT List of Lists). The QRD staff maintains the QRD itself, which is a near full-time job. This is why the staff does not process research assistance requests or the like. The QRD staff can make no warranty for the timeliness or accuracy of the information in the QRD. Since we draw on the net.public at large for most of our files, there is no way we could possibly verify each piece of information in our archives. Wherever possible, though, we include the name and email address of the person who submitted the file and you can of course contact that person for more information. If you find a file in the QRD which has out-of-date information, please bring it to our attention. As a general rule we will not remove files from the QRD without good reason, but in the case of obsolete data we will do our best to keep that kind of misinformation to a minimum. Here is a statement dealing with the QRD's legal liability for the data it archives: The information provided here is for background reference, historical, or personal interest use only. No resources found at the Queer Resource Directory are substitutes for professional legal advice. Neither QRD, the owners of the hardware supporting the Directory, QRD staff, nor volunteers adding or maintaining this information make any representations as to its accuracy. Do not use any information you find here to answer questions about your own or friends' legal questions. These documents present no law and confer no rights. [Up to the Table of Contents] _________________________________________________________________ *12. How do I add something to it? If you think you have something that would be of value to other GLBO folk as resource material -- for example an essay you've written or a set of fliers you've developed for a media campaign -- by all means, send the files our way. There are two convenient methods: 1. Send email to submissions@qrd.org with your submission. 2. Via FTP, upload your file(s) to pub/QRD/incoming. Please remember that the QRD will not archive copyrighted materials without written permission from the copyright holder. [Up to the Table of Contents] _________________________________________________________________ 13. What file formats are accepted? Most of the information in the QRD is ASCII text, and this is definitely our preferred format. ASCII text is easily accessible by all users, and is easy for our search engine to index. Since the start of 1995, we've been adding more and more hypertext to the QRD, some of it composed, and some of it automatically generated; these files are in HTML. FTP users finding "index.html" files in the text directories should ignore them. The QRD also stores a small number of files in other formats, including GIF, JPEG, and PDF. If you have questions or a special need for your submission, by all means write to us at staff@qrd.org and we'll work something out. [Up to the Table of Contents] _________________________________________________________________ 14. How can I get a copy of this file whenever I want? The most current version of this file is always on the Web at http://www.qrd.org/qrd/www/faq.html ASCII text version is in the QRD at pub/QRD/faq, and you can get a copy of it by email by sending any kind of message (presumably a blank one, since the contents are ignored) to our automatic responder, at info@qrd.org. _________________________________________________________________ Queer Resources Directory staff@qrd.org, 3 May 1997