627 lines
25 KiB
Text
627 lines
25 KiB
Text
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD DocBook V4.1-Based Extension//EN" [
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<!ENTITY % articles.ent PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook FreeBSD Articles Entity Set//EN">
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%articles.ent;
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]>
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<article>
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<articleinfo>
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<title>How to get best results from the FreeBSD-questions mailing
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list</title>
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<author>
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<firstname>Greg</firstname>
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<surname>Lehey</surname>
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<affiliation>
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<address><email>grog@FreeBSD.org</email></address>
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</affiliation>
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</author>
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<pubdate>$FreeBSD$</pubdate>
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<legalnotice id="trademarks" role="trademarks">
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&tm-attrib.freebsd;
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&tm-attrib.microsoft;
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&tm-attrib.netscape;
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&tm-attrib.opengroup;
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&tm-attrib.qualcomm;
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&tm-attrib.general;
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</legalnotice>
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<abstract>
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<para>This document provides useful information for people looking to
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prepare an e-mail to the FreeBSD-questions mailing list. Advice and
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hints are given that will maximize the chance that the reader will
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receive useful replies.</para>
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<para>This document is regularly posted to the FreeBSD-questions mailing
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list.</para>
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</abstract>
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</articleinfo>
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<sect1>
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<title id="Introduction">Introduction</title>
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<para><literal>FreeBSD-questions</literal> is a mailing list maintained by
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the FreeBSD project to help people who have questions about the normal
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use of FreeBSD. Another group, <literal>FreeBSD-hackers</literal>,
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discusses more advanced questions such as future development
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work.</para>
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<note>
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<para>The term <quote>hacker</quote> has nothing to do with breaking
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into other people's computers. The correct term for the latter
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activity is <quote>cracker</quote>, but the popular press has not found
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out yet. The FreeBSD hackers disapprove strongly of cracking
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security, and have nothing to do with it. For a longer description of
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hackers, see Eric Raymond's <ulink
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url="http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html">How To Become
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A Hacker</ulink></para>
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</note>
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<para>This is a regular posting aimed to help both those seeking advice
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from FreeBSD-questions (the <quote>newcomers</quote>), and also those
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who answer the questions (the <quote>hackers</quote>).</para>
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<para>Inevitably there is some friction, which stems from the different
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viewpoints of the two groups. The newcomers accuse the hackers of being
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arrogant, stuck-up, and unhelpful, while the hackers accuse the
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newcomers of being stupid, unable to read plain English, and expecting
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everything to be handed to them on a silver platter. Of course, there is
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an element of truth in both these claims, but for the most part these
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viewpoints come from a sense of frustration.</para>
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<para>In this document, I would like to do something to relieve this
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frustration and help everybody get better results from
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FreeBSD-questions. In the following section, I recommend how to submit
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a question; after that, we will look at how to answer one.</para>
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</sect1>
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<sect1>
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<title id="subscribe">How to subscribe to FreeBSD-questions</title>
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<para>FreeBSD-questions is a mailing list, so you need mail access. Point
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your WWW browser to <ulink url="&a.questions.url;">FreeBSD-question Info Page</ulink>.
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In the section titled <quote>Subscribing to freebsd-questions</quote> fill
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in the <quote>Your email address</quote> field; the other fields are optional.
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</para>
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<note>
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<para>The password fields in the subscription form provide only mild
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security, but should prevent others from messing with your
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subscription. <emphasis>Do not use a valuable password</emphasis> as
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it will occasionally be emailed back to you in cleartext.</para>
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</note>
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<para>You will receive a confirmation message from
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<application>mailman</application>; follow the included instructions
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to complete your subscription.</para>
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<para>Finally, when you get the <quote>Welcome</quote> message from
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<application>mailman</application> telling you the details of the list
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and subscription area password, <emphasis>please save it</emphasis>.
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If you ever should want to leave the list, you will need the information
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there. See the next section for more details.</para>
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</sect1>
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<sect1>
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<title id="unsubscribe">How to unsubscribe from FreeBSD-questions</title>
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<para>When you subscribed to FreeBSD-questions, you got a welcome message
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from <application>mailman</application>. In this message, amongst
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other things, it told you how to unsubscribe. Here is a typical
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message:</para>
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<literallayout class="monospaced">Welcome to the freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list!
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To post to this list, send your email to:
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freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
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General information about the mailing list is at:
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http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
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If you ever want to unsubscribe or change your options (e.g., switch to
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or from digest mode, change your password, etc.), visit your
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subscription page at:
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http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/options/freebsd-questions/grog%40lemsi.de
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You can also make such adjustments via email by sending a message to:
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freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org
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with the word `help' in the subject or body (don't include the
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quotes), and you will get back a message with instructions.
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You must know your password to change your options (including changing
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the password, itself) or to unsubscribe. It is:
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12345
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Normally, Mailman will remind you of your freebsd.org mailing list
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passwords once every month, although you can disable this if you
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prefer. This reminder will also include instructions on how to
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unsubscribe or change your account options. There is also a button on
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your options page that will email your current password to you.</literallayout>
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<para>From the URL specified in your <quote>Welcome</quote> message you
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may visit the <quote>Account management page</quote> and enter a request
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to <quote>Unsubscribe</quote> you from FreeBSD-questions mailing
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list.</para>
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<para>A confirmation message will be sent to you from
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<application>mailman</application>; follow the included instructions
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to finish unsubscribing.</para>
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<para>If you have done this, and you still can not figure out what
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is going on, send a message to
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<email>freebsd-questions-request@FreeBSD.org</email>, and they will
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sort things out for you. <emphasis>Do not</emphasis> send a message to
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FreeBSD-questions: they can not help you.</para>
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</sect1>
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<sect1>
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<title id="askwho">Should I ask <literal>-questions</literal> or
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<literal>-hackers</literal>?</title>
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<para>Two mailing lists handle general questions about FreeBSD,
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<literal>FreeBSD-questions</literal> and
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<literal>FreeBSD-hackers</literal>. In some cases, it is not really
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clear which group you should ask. The following criteria should help
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for 99% of all questions, however:</para>
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<orderedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>If the question is of a general nature, ask
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<literal>FreeBSD-questions</literal>. Examples might be questions
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about installing FreeBSD or the use of a particular &unix;
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utility.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>If you think the question relates to a bug, but you are not sure,
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or you do not know how to look for it, send the message to
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<literal>FreeBSD-questions</literal>.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>If the question relates to a bug, and you are
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<emphasis>sure</emphasis> that it is a bug (for example, you can
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pinpoint the place in the code where it happens, and you maybe have
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a fix), then send the message to
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<literal>FreeBSD-hackers</literal>.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>If the question relates to enhancements to FreeBSD, and you
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can make suggestions about how to implement them, then send the
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message to <literal>FreeBSD-hackers</literal>.</para>
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</listitem>
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</orderedlist>
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<para>There are also a number of other specialized mailing lists, for
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example <literal>FreeBSD-isp</literal>, which caters to the interests of
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ISPs (Internet Service Providers) who run FreeBSD. If you happen to be
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an ISP, this does not mean you should automatically send your questions
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to <literal>FreeBSD-isp</literal>. The criteria above still apply, and
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it is in your interest to stick to them, since you are more likely to get
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good results that way.</para>
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</sect1>
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<sect1>
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<title id="before">Before submitting a question</title>
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<para>You can (and should) do some things yourself before asking a question
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on one of the mailing lists:</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>Try solving the problem on your own. If you post a question which
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shows that you have tried to solve the problem, your question will
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generally attract more positive attention from people reading it.
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Trying to solve the problem yourself will also enhance your understanding
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of FreeBSD, and will eventually let you use your knowledge to help others
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by answering questions posted to the mailing lists.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Read the manual pages, and the FreeBSD documentation (either
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installed in <filename>/usr/doc</filename> or accessible via WWW at
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<ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org"></ulink>), especially the
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<ulink url="&url.books.handbook;/index.html">handbook</ulink>
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and the <ulink url="&url.books.faq;/index.html">FAQ</ulink>.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Browse and/or search the archives for the mailing list, to see if your
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question or a similar one has been asked (and possibly answered) on the
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list. You can browse and/or search the mailing list archives
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at <ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/mail"></ulink>
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and <ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/search/search.html#mailinglists"></ulink>
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respectively. This can be done at other WWW sites as well, for example
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at <ulink url="http://marc.theaimsgroup.com"></ulink>.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Use a search engine such as <ulink url="http://www.google.com">Google</ulink>
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or <ulink url="http://www.yahoo.com">Yahoo</ulink> to find answers to your question.
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Google even has a <ulink
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url="http://www.google.com/bsd">BSD-specific search interface</ulink>.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</sect1>
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<sect1>
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<title id="submit">How to submit a question</title>
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<para>When submitting a question to FreeBSD-questions, consider the
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following points:</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>Remember that nobody gets paid for answering a FreeBSD
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question. They do it of their own free will. You can influence this
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free will positively by submitting a well-formulated question
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supplying as much relevant information as possible. You can
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influence this free will negatively by submitting an incomplete,
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illegible, or rude question. It is perfectly possible to send a
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message to FreeBSD-questions and not get an answer even if you
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follow these rules. It is much more possible to not get an answer if
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you do not. In the rest of this document, we will look at how to get
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the most out of your question to FreeBSD-questions.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Not everybody who answers FreeBSD questions reads every message:
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they look at the subject line and decide whether it interests them.
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Clearly, it is in your interest to specify a subject. <quote>FreeBSD
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problem</quote> or <quote>Help</quote> are not enough. If you provide no subject at
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all, many people will not bother reading it. If your subject is not
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specific enough, the people who can answer it may not read
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it.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Format your message so that it is legible, and
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PLEASE DO NOT SHOUT!!!!!. We appreciate that a lot of people do not
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speak English as their first language, and we try to make
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allowances for that, but it is really painful to try to read a
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message written full of typos or without any line breaks.</para>
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<para>Do not underestimate the effect that a poorly formatted mail
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message has, not just on the FreeBSD-questions mailing list.
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Your mail message is all people see of you, and if it is poorly
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formatted, one line per paragraph, badly spelt, or full of
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errors, it will give people a poor impression of you.</para>
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<para>A lot of badly formatted messages come from
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<ulink url="http://www.lemis.com/email.html">bad mailers or badly
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configured mailers</ulink>. The following mailers are known to
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send out badly formatted messages without you finding out about
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them:</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>cc:Mail</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>&eudora;</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>exmh</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>µsoft; Exchange</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>µsoft; Internet Mail</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>µsoft; &outlook;</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>&netscape;</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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<para>As you can see, the mailers in the Microsoft world are frequent
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offenders. If at all possible, use a &unix; mailer. If you must use a
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mailer under Microsoft environments, make sure it is set up
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correctly. Try not to use <acronym>MIME</acronym>: a lot of people
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use mailers which do not get on very well with
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<acronym>MIME</acronym>.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Make sure your time and time zone are set correctly. This may
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seem a little silly, since your message still gets there, but many
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of the people you are trying to reach get several hundred messages a
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day. They frequently sort the incoming messages by subject and by
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date, and if your message does not come before the first answer, they
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may assume they missed it and not bother to look.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Do not include unrelated questions in the same message. Firstly,
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a long message tends to scare people off, and secondly, it is more
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difficult to get all the people who can answer all the questions to
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read the message.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Specify as much information as possible. This is a difficult
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area, and we need to expand on what information you need to submit,
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but here is a start:</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>In nearly every case, it is important to know the version of
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FreeBSD you are running. This is particularly the case for
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FreeBSD-CURRENT, where you should also specify the date of the
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sources, though of course you should not be sending questions
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about -CURRENT to FreeBSD-questions.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem><para>With any problem which <emphasis>could</emphasis> be
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hardware related, tell us about your hardware. In case of
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doubt, assume it is possible that it is hardware. What kind of
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CPU are you using? How fast? What motherboard? How much
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memory? What peripherals?</para>
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<para>There is a judgement call here, of course, but the output of
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the &man.dmesg.8; command can frequently be very useful, since it
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tells not just what hardware you are running, but what version of
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FreeBSD as well.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>If you get error messages, do not say <quote>I get error
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messages</quote>, say (for example) <quote>I get the error
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message 'No route to host'</quote>.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>If your system panics, do not say <quote>My system
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panicked</quote>, say (for example) <quote>my system panicked
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with the message 'free vnode isn't'</quote>.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>If you have difficulty installing FreeBSD, please tell us
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what hardware you have. In particular, it is important to know
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the IRQs and I/O addresses of the boards installed in your
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machine.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>If you have difficulty getting PPP to run, describe the
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configuration. Which version of PPP do you use? What kind of
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authentication do you have? Do you have a static or dynamic IP
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address? What kind of messages do you get in the log
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file?</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>A lot of the information you need to supply is the output of
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programs, such as &man.dmesg.8;, or console messages, which usually
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appear in <filename>/var/log/messages</filename>. Do not try to copy
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this information by typing it in again; it is a real pain, and you are
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bound to make a mistake. To send log file contents, either make a
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copy of the file and use an editor to trim the information to what
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is relevant, or cut and paste into your message. For the output of
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programs like &man.dmesg.8;, redirect the output to a file and
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include that. For example,</para>
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<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>dmesg > /tmp/dmesg.out</userinput></screen>
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<para>This redirects the information to the file
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<filename>/tmp/dmesg.out</filename>.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>If you do all this, and you still do not get an answer, there
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could be other reasons. For example, the problem is so complicated
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that nobody knows the answer, or the person who does know the answer
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was offline. If you do not get an answer after, say, a week, it
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might help to re-send the message. If you do not get an answer to
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your second message, though, you are probably not going to get one
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from this forum. Resending the same message again and again will
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only make you unpopular.</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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<para>To summarize, let's assume you know the answer to the following
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question (yes, it is the same one in each case).
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You choose which of these two questions you would be more prepared to
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answer:</para>
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<example>
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<title>Message 1</title>
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<literallayout class="monospaced">Subject: HELP!!?!??
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I just can't get hits damn silly FereBSD system to
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workd, and Im really good at this tsuff, but I have never seen
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anythign sho difficult to install, it jst wont work whatever I try
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so why don't you guys tell me what I doing wrong.</literallayout>
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</example>
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<example>
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<title>Message 2</title>
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<literallayout class="monospaced">Subject: Problems installing FreeBSD
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I've just got the FreeBSD 2.1.5 CDROM from Walnut Creek, and I'm having a lot
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of difficulty installing it. I have a 66 MHz 486 with 16 MB of
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memory and an Adaptec 1540A SCSI board, a 1.2GB Quantum Fireball
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disk and a Toshiba 3501XA CDROM drive. The installation works just
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fine, but when I try to reboot the system, I get the message
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<quote>Missing Operating System</quote>.</literallayout>
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</example>
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</sect1>
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<sect1>
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<title id="followup">How to follow up to a question</title>
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|
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<para>Often you will want to send in additional information to a question
|
|
you have already sent. The best way to do this is to reply to your
|
|
original message. This has three advantages:</para>
|
|
|
|
<orderedlist>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>You include the original message text, so people will know what
|
|
you are talking about. Do not forget to trim unnecessary text out,
|
|
though.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>The text in the subject line stays the same (you did remember to
|
|
put one in, did you not?). Many mailers will sort messages by
|
|
subject. This helps group messages together.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>The message reference numbers in the header will refer to the
|
|
previous message. Some mailers, such as
|
|
<ulink url="http://www.mutt.org/">mutt</ulink>, can
|
|
<emphasis>thread</emphasis> messages, showing the exact
|
|
relationships between the messages.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
</orderedlist>
|
|
</sect1>
|
|
|
|
<sect1>
|
|
<title id="answer">How to answer a question</title>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<para>Before you answer a question to FreeBSD-questions, consider:</para>
|
|
|
|
<orderedlist>
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>A lot of the points on submitting questions also apply to
|
|
answering questions. Read them.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Has somebody already answered the question? The easiest way to
|
|
check this is to sort your incoming mail by subject: then
|
|
(hopefully) you will see the question followed by any answers, all
|
|
together.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>If somebody has already answered it, it does not automatically
|
|
mean that you should not send another answer. But it makes sense to
|
|
read all the other answers first.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Do you have something to contribute beyond what has already been
|
|
said? In general, <quote>Yeah, me too</quote> answers do not help
|
|
much, although there are exceptions, like when somebody is
|
|
describing a problem he is having, and he does not know whether it is
|
|
his fault or whether there is something wrong with the hardware or
|
|
software. If you do send a <quote>me too</quote> answer, you should
|
|
also include any further relevant information.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Are you sure you understand the question? Very frequently, the
|
|
person who asks the question is confused or does not express himself
|
|
very well. Even with the best understanding of the system, it is
|
|
easy to send a reply which does not answer the question. This
|
|
does not help: you will leave the person who submitted the question
|
|
more frustrated or confused than ever. If nobody else answers, and
|
|
you are not too sure either, you can always ask for more
|
|
information.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Are you sure your answer is correct?
|
|
If not, wait a day or so. If nobody else comes up with a
|
|
better answer, you can still reply and say, for example, <quote>I
|
|
do not know if this is correct, but since nobody else has
|
|
replied, why don't you try replacing your ATAPI CDROM with
|
|
a frog?</quote>.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Unless there is a good reason to do otherwise, reply to the
|
|
sender and to FreeBSD-questions. Many people on the
|
|
FreeBSD-questions are <quote>lurkers</quote>: they learn by reading
|
|
messages sent and replied to by others. If you take a message which
|
|
is of general interest off the list, you are depriving these people
|
|
of their information. Be careful with group replies; lots of people
|
|
send messages with hundreds of CCs. If this is the case, be sure to
|
|
trim the Cc: lines appropriately.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Include relevant text from the original message. Trim it to the
|
|
minimum, but do not overdo it. It should still be possible for
|
|
somebody who did not read the original message to understand what
|
|
you are talking about.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Use some technique to identify which text came from the original
|
|
message, and which text you add. I personally find that prepending
|
|
<quote><literal>> </literal></quote> to the original message
|
|
works best. Leaving white space after the
|
|
<quote><literal>> </literal></quote> and leave empty lines
|
|
between your text and the original text both make the result more
|
|
readable.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Put your response in the correct place (after the text to which
|
|
it replies). It is very difficult to read a thread of responses
|
|
where each reply comes before the text to which it replies.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>Most mailers change the subject line on a reply by prepending a
|
|
text such as <quote>Re: </quote>. If your mailer does not do it
|
|
automatically, you should do it manually.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
|
|
<listitem>
|
|
<para>If the submitter did not abide by format conventions (lines too
|
|
long, inappropriate subject line), <emphasis>please</emphasis> fix
|
|
it. In the case of an incorrect subject line (such as
|
|
<quote>HELP!!??</quote>), change the subject line to (say)
|
|
<quote>Re: Difficulties with sync PPP (was: HELP!!??)</quote>. That
|
|
way other people trying to follow the thread will have less
|
|
difficulty following it.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>In such cases, it is appropriate to say what you did and why you
|
|
did it, but try not to be rude. If you find you can not answer
|
|
without being rude, do not answer.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>If you just want to reply to a message because of its bad
|
|
format, just reply to the submitter, not to the list. You can just
|
|
send him this message in reply, if you like.</para>
|
|
</listitem>
|
|
</orderedlist>
|
|
</sect1>
|
|
</article>
|
|
|
|
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