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                   ³ THE PROGRAMMER'S MARK BBS FILE POLICY ³
                   ÔÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ;


    The  Sysop  makes  every  reasonable  effort  to  carry  quality  files.
    "Quality files" are defined as files that:

        Are legal

            þ All  files are,  to the best of my knowledge,  public  domain,
              freeware, or shareware.

            þ All files are as distributed by the author  (e.g.,  all  files
              are  included in the archive and no files have been  modified,
              added,  or deleted).  Although I put an archive comment at the
              beginning of ARJ and ZIP files,  I do NOT insert a BBS ad file
              in the archive itself.

       Are not crippled

            þ If  the archive contains a program,  the program is in a  form
              which  allows for evaluation under real  conditions.   A  good
              example of this type of crippling would be a mail reader which
              only allows one to read, say, 20 messages per conference.

            þ If the archive contains a BASIC library, that the .LIB or .OBJ
              file is included - not merely a .QLB.  As many of you know,  a
              .QLB merely allows one to run the program in the QuickBASIC or
              PDS IDE and does not allow one to create an executable.

        Are not excessively nagging

            An  example  of  this would be  a  communications  program  that
            displays  a  nagware  screen after every file  transfer,  or  an
            off-line  mail  reader  that has excessive  delays  upon  either
            startup or exit.

        Do what they're supposed to do and do it well

            I personally test the majority of the files available here and I
            don't carry programs,  libraries,  etc.  that I think are  buggy
            and/or trivial.


    Generally,  I don't make any judgement as to value.   That is,  I do not
    generally exclude shareware on the basis of price.  However, if either a
    less  expensive shareware alternative exists,  or a freeware  or  public
    domain   alternative  exists,   and  I  think  these  alternatives   are
    equivalent,  I will usually carry those alternatives and forgo  carrying
    the more expensive shareware program.

    Finally, all archives,  with the exception of archives with some kind of
    security  mechanism   (such  as  ARJ's  Security  Envelope  or   PKZIP's
    Authenticity Verification) are converted to the preferred archive format
    for this board, which is ARJ.

    To extract files archived with ARJ, you can download ARJ250A.EXE; it  is
    a  self-extracting file, including program and documentation,  and is  a
    free download.