SOUP == "Simple Offline USENET Packet" format.  It is intended as a
replacement for QWK in the netnews community.  The messages stored in
SOUP packets are completely RFC-compliant so that no critical
information is lost.  Software which supports SOUP on a variety of
platforms is available.  See "Where can I get the software?" later in
this FAQ for more information.

SOUP was originally called the "Helldiver Packet Format" or HDPF, and
was devised by Rhys Weatherley (meteor@sprintmail.com) near the end of 1992.
A variant of HDPF, called the "Simple Local News Packet" format or SLNP,
was devised by Philippe Goujard (ppg@oasis.icl.co.uk) soon afterwards.
SOUP now combines the features of both HDPF and SLNP.  Rhys Weatherley
currently maintains the "official copy" of the format document.

The SOUP format document may be found on any (old) SimTel FTP mirror as

    msdos/offline/soup12.zip

The latest copy may also be obtained by mailing Rhys Weatherley at the
above e-mail address.

SOUP also has the ability to download "summaries" of message
areas.  That is, downloading just the header information for the
user to peruse and then choose what messages they want to be
downloaded later.  This can be useful in very large newsgroups
where a user typically only reads a few messages and wishes to
avoid downloading the rest of the "noise".  This feature is not
currently widely implemented however.