One of Gophers strengths in comparison to HTTP is also one of its 
weaknesses; namely, the inability to embed hyperlinks into documents.  
As such, each object/document in a Gopher directory stands on its own. 

In the case, for example, of documents that require associated 
illustrations, or even in the case of a directory filled with 
downloadable files, there must be some consistant place where a surfer 
can go to glean further information.  Bulletin Boards were once faced 
with this same problem, and to help them, file creators of archived 
(ZIPed) files incorporated a standardized description file called 
"file_id.diz" that the BBS sysop could use to label the file.  
(See: http://www.pcmicro.com/getdiz/file_id.html).

Unlike a BBS software, a Gopher server unfortunately cannot associate a 
freeform label directly with a file (the Informational [i] Type can be 
used for this purpose, but it falls short of being satisfactory).  
A practical solution then would be to designate certain files that when 
encountered will always contain a specific kind of amplifying 
information (just like a file in a piece of software called "README" 
if encountered always indicates it is a text file that should be read 
prior to installing the software).  To this end, I propose the following
standard file names:

CONTACT.TXT = only one instance, and always in the Root directory.  
	This file should contain information about the Server such as:
	1) a way to contact the server operator/owner
	2) information about the connection (such as DNS name and Port)
	3) information about the servers configuration quirks

CHANGES.TXT = only one instance, and always in the Root directory.
	This is a "whats new" file, listing noteable modifications to
	the server (i.e., new files, removed files, server software 
	configuration changes, etc.).  It usually does NOT comment on 
	changes made to ABOUT.TXT, BLURB.TXT, or SCREENSHOT files.  

ABOUT.TXT = Always in the Root directory, and in any other directory.
	These files tell something about the directory where the file 
	is encountered.  It may describe what is in the entire 
	directory (and possibly the associated subdirectories) in a 
	general way, or it may just focus on describing one particualar 
	file in detail.  The ABOUT.TXT file in the Root directory is 
	special in that it can be used to tell about the purpose and 
	general structure of your entire Gopher server.

BLURB.TXT = In any directory with an associated program file.
	Similar to ABOUT.TXT, but more tightly focussed in that it ONLY 
	describes a downloadable program, and not anything else about 
	the directory (ABOUT.TXT and BLURB.TXT may appear together). 

SNAP.GIF/SNAP.JPG = In any directory with an associated program file. 
	This file contains a photograph of the associated program, so 
	you can possibly identify the software before downloading it 
	(i.e., a picture is worth a thousand words).