I have read the rules of the forum first off, and wholeheartedly agree to them. The only issue I have is where do I start when it comes to contributing? In essence, I need to know a few things because (believe it or not) I have never posted/contributed to a forum anywhere before.

If I needed to, how would I contact an administrator of this site?

I understand that you will not be allowed into the FTP servers until you have contributed 10 "worthy" posts. What would define "acceptable" or "worthy"? Can it be a new topic, or must it be a reply? Very confused on this one. I know that it can't be something like "lol" or "thanks!"

If I had some betas that I wished to contribute (which I do!), how would I go about uploading them?

Again, I'm very new to this (and all types of forums in general), and if any new questions come to mind, I may ask them (in this thread)... If anything I just said/did in this first post of mine violated any rules / shouldn't be here, don't hesitate to let me know what I should do (instead) to have these questions answered.

Contributing posts means making posts that contributes to the site's goals of preserving and using beta and abandonware software. If you want to contribute beta software to us, take a look at this tutorial I wrote once you get Advanced Membership

If you want to contact the staff, there is a private message feature on the board which you can use after you get your initial 3 posts. Some of the staff also use various Instant Messaging services (Google Talk, MSN/Windows Live) or IRC.

You can use the PM system or other means of communication, as linuxlove said.

Once you are approved as an Advanced Member you get the access to the FTP Servers page and thus access to servers. There is a topic by mrpijey (server admin) somewhere that explains how to use proper formats and stuff.

Though contributing doesn't necesarily mean to share builds; you can also share your knowledge about betas, abandonware or computers in general. Just look around the forums you have access to ATM and see if there are any topics you feel you could contribute to.

Hope this helps, and of course welcome!

And if you want to go the IRC route for communicating with admins and such (hounsell and neko and I are regulars there), download an irc client such as XChat2 for Windows and connect to:

irc.alphachat.net
#nttalk

Note there are NO admins from BetaArchive in the IRC above and never will (do don't let any impersonators tell you they are one), only BA moderators are on there. If you want an answer from an administrator, e-mail us at webmaster@betaarchive.co.uk or PM us using the forum PM feature.

Just to note that #nttalk is not officially linked to betaarchive (meaning any forum/server issues cant really be diagnosed there)

It's not linked to BA in any way at all. Official answers should come from the e-mail above or directly on the forum. You are of course free to add my WLM as well.

just like to say welcome and am sure you get to grips when you get used to it

Thank you all so much for the replies! This helped a lot. One more question I have is how would I know when I have been accepted as an advanced member? Would I get an email or a message on here? And is it automatic, or should I submit an approval application?

First of all, Welcome to BetaArchive!

It can be both of them.

You will be able to upload them when you get Advanced Membership. When you got it, you will need to follow these guidelines.

You need to judge when you're ready to apply based on your posts and the contributions guidelines. When you think you're ready you can apply but you only get 3 changes, so beware.

You have to submit an approval application when you feel ready for Advanced Membership. You won't get a message when you get Advanced Membership (though maybe we should send them) but you'll know for sure when your username turns red.

They should get an e-mail saying they've been added to a group but I'm not sure.

Perfect. For me to make note of this and not have to ask about it in the future, where is this application located?

Right here: ucp.php?i=167

read here http://www.betaarchive.com/contributions.php and read here www.betaarchive.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4
this will help you understand BA also welcome

Hi All,
I'd like to submit some stuff too, but I'm not sure if these things get submitted to the ftp and if it does I keep thinking it'll be a duplicate considering the size of the current FTP server (~3.3+TB at the time of writing). Should I just go head and post them anyway as file sharing links instead? (I've seen some folk do that here)

Well, since you don't have FTP access yet, file sharing is your only option if you're so eager to share. Or you can wait for FTP access. And you can first tell us what you have so you won't waste time uploading it in case we already have it...

Mrpijey has previously suggested we produce a list for viewing and also allow the upload account to be open to new members. I think this is a good idea but we're working on how to implement it securely. For now though, just post it on the forum and someone will let you know if we have it or not.

As Andy said, we're looking into a safe way to share a listing and allow members to upload, but for now just ask. If you have plenty to upload you can always contact me and I can setup a private account for you for a quicker and safer upload (since I verify all uploads anyway it has to go through me either way). Just PM me if you want that or want to check if your stuff is viable for BA, otherwise follow regular protocols when uploading to BA (i.e make a "from [yourusername]" folder, pack up your stuff, upload and make "Finished" subfolder when you're done).

@all
Whoops! Totally forgot about this thread, Sorry guys!
I honestly don't have much, I only aim for source code of games and was just wondering if there was a pre-ftp system in place (but more importantly, I didn't want to add something that was already there on the FTP!). However yeah to all those who mentioned informing about what I had beforehand, I think that works best!
]
All of this was obtained from the internet, some were hard to find, others were ridiculously easy. I doubt this can make any major contribution but there you have it! Let me know if it helps.

that Jurassic Park 2 Sounds good , any chance you can upload that ?

I'm sure some of it would be valuable, though more proper names would help... :/