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540 lines
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<!-- $FreeBSD$ -->
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<!-- The FreeBSD Documentation Project -->
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<!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>Frequently Asked Questions About The &os; Mailing Lists</title>
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<authorgroup>
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<author>
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<surname>The &os; Documentation Project</surname>
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</author>
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</authorgroup>
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<pubdate>$FreeBSD$</pubdate>
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<copyright>
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<year>2004</year>
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<year>2005</year>
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<holder>The &os; Documentation Project</holder>
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</copyright>
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<abstract>
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<para>This is the FAQ for the &os; mailing lists. If you are
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interested in helping with this project, send email to the &a.doc;.
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The latest version of this document is always available from the
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<ulink
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url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/mailing-list-faq/index.html">&os;
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World Wide Web server</ulink>. It may also be downloaded as
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one large <ulink url="article.html">HTML</ulink> file with HTTP
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or as plain text, PostScript, PDF, etc. from the <ulink
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url="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/doc/">&os; FTP
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server</ulink>. You may also want to <ulink
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url="&url.base;/search/index.html">Search the
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FAQ</ulink>.</para>
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</abstract>
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</articleinfo>
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<sect1 id="introduction">
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<title>Introduction</title>
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<para>As is usual with FAQs, this document aims to cover the
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most frequently asked questions concerning the &os; mailing
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lists (and of course answer them!). Although originally intended
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to reduce bandwidth and avoid the same old questions being asked
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over and over again, FAQs have become recognized as valuable
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information resources.</para>
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<para>This document attempts to represent a community consensus, and
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as such it can never really be <emphasis>authoritative</emphasis>.
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However, if you find technical errors within this document, or
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have suggestions about items that should be added, please either
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submit a PR, or email the &a.doc;. Thanks.</para>
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<qandaset>
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<qandaentry>
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<question id="purpose">
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<para>What is the purpose of the &os; mailing lists?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>The &os; mailing lists serve as the primary
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communication channels for the &os; community, covering many
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different topic areas and communities of interest.</para>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question id="audience">
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<para>Who is the audience for the &os; mailing lists?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>This depends on charter of each individual list. Some
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lists are more oriented to developers; some are more oriented
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towards the &os; community as a whole. Please see <ulink
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url="http://lists.FreeBSD.org/mailman/listinfo">this list</ulink>
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for the current summary.</para>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question id="participation-who">
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<para>Are the &os; mailing lists open for anyone to participate?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>Again, this depends on charter of each individual list.
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Please read the charter of a mailing list before you post to it,
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and respect it when you post. This will help everyone to have
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a better experience with the lists.</para>
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<para>If after reading the above lists, you still do not know
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which mailing list to post a question to, you will probably
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want to post to freebsd-questions (but see below, first).</para>
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<para>Also note that the mailing lists have traditionally
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been open to postings from non-subscribers. This has
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been a deliberate choice, to help make joining the &os;
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community an easier process, and to encourage open sharing
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of ideas. However, due to past abuse by some individuals,
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certain lists now have a policy where postings from
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non-subscribers must be manually screened to ensure that
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they are appropriate.</para>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question id="subscribe">
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<para>How can I subscribe?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>You can use <ulink
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url="http://lists.FreeBSD.org/mailman/listinfo">
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the Mailman web interface</ulink> to subscribe to any
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of the public lists.</para>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question id="unsubscribe">
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<para>How can I unsubscribe?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>You can use the same interface as above; or,
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you can follow the instructions that are at the
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bottom of every mailing list message that is sent.</para>
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<para>Please do not send unsubscribe messages directly
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to the public lists themselves. First, this will not
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accomplish your goal, and second, it will irritate the
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existing subscribers, and you will probably get flamed.
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This is a classical mistake when using mailing lists;
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please try to avoid it.</para>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question id="archives">
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<para>Are archives available?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>Yes. Threaded archives are available
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<ulink url="http://docs.FreeBSD.org/mail/">here</ulink>.</para>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question id="digest">
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<para>Are mailing lists available in a digest format?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>Yes. See <ulink
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url="http://lists.FreeBSD.org/mailman/listinfo">
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the Mailman web interface</ulink>.</para>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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</qandaset>
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</sect1>
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<sect1 id="etiquette">
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<title>Mailing List Etiquette</title>
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<para>Participation in the mailing lists, like participation
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in any community, requires a common basis for communication.
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Please make only appropriate postings, and follow common
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rules of etiquette.</para>
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<qandaset>
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<qandaentry>
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<question id="before-posting">
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<para>What should I do before I post?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>You have already taken the most important step by
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reading this document. However, if you are new to &os;,
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you may first need to familiarize yourself with the
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software, and all the social history around it, by
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reading the numerous
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<ulink url="&url.base;/docs.html#books">books</ulink>
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and
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<ulink url="&url.base;/docs.html#articles">articles</ulink>
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that are available. Items of particular interest
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include the <ulink
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url="&url.books.faq;/index.html">
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&os; Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)</ulink> document,
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the <ulink
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url="&url.books.handbook;/index.html">
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&os; Handbook</ulink>,
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and the articles <ulink
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url="&url.articles.freebsd-questions;/article.html">
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How to get best results from the FreeBSD-questions mailing list</ulink>,
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<ulink
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url="&url.articles.explaining-bsd;/article.html">
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Explaining BSD</ulink>,
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and <ulink
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url="&url.articles.new-users;/article.html">
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&os; First Steps</ulink>.</para>
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<para>It is always considered bad form to ask a question that is
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already answered in the above documents. This is not because
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the volunteers who work on this project are particularly mean
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people, but after a certain number of times answering the same
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questions over and over again, frustration begins to set in.
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This is particularly true if there is an existing answer to the
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question that is already available. Always keep in mind that
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almost all of the work done on &os; is done by volunteers,
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and that we are only human.</para>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question id="inappropriate">
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<para>What constitutes an inappropriate posting?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>Postings must be in accordance with the charter
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of the mailing list.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Personal attacks are discouraged. As good
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net-citizens, we should try to hold ourselves to high
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standards of behavior.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Spam is not allowed, ever. The mailing lists are
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actively processed to ban offenders to this rule.</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question id="etiquette-posting">
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<para>What is considered proper etiquette when posting
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to the mailing lists?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>Please wrap lines at 75 characters, since not
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everyone uses fancy GUI mail reading programs.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Please respect the fact that bandwidth is not
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infinite. Not everyone reads email through high-speed
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connections, so if your posting involves something like
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the content of <filename>config.log</filename> or an
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extensive stack trace, please consider putting that
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information up on a website somewhere and just provide
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a URL to it. Remember, too, that these postings will
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be archived indefinitely, so huge postings will simply
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inflate the size of the archives long after their
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purpose has expired.</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!!!!!. Do not underestimate the
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effect that a poorly formatted mail message has, and not
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just on the &os; mailing lists. Your mail message is
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all that people see of you, and if it is poorly formatted,
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badly spelled, full of errors, and/or has lots of exclamation
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points, it will give people a poor impression of you.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Please use an appropriate human language for a
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particular mailing list. Many non-English mailing
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lists are
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<ulink url="&url.base;/support.html#mailing-list-languages">
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available</ulink>.</para>
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<para>For the ones that are not, we do appreciate that many
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people do not speak English as their first language,
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and we try to make allowances for that. It is considered
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particularly poor form to criticize non-native speakers
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for spelling or grammatical errors. &os; has an
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excellent track record in this regard; please, help us
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to uphold that tradition.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Please use a standards-compliant Mail User Agent (MUA).
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A lot of badly formatted messages come from
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<ulink url="http://www.lemis.com/email.html">bad mailers
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or badly configured mailers</ulink>. The following mailers
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are known to send out badly formatted messages without you
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finding out about 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; (older versions)</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; (older versions)</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
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are frequent offenders. If at all possible, use a &unix;
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mailer. If you must use a mailer under Microsoft
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environments, make sure it is set up correctly. Try not
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to use <acronym>MIME</acronym>: a lot of people use mailers
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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.
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This may seem a little silly, since your message still
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gets there, but many of the people on these mailing lists
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get several hundred messages a day. They frequently sort
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the incoming messages by subject and by date, and if your
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message does not come before the first answer, they may
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assume that they missed it and not bother to look.</para>
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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
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output of programs, such as &man.dmesg.8;, or console
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messages, which usually appear in
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<filename>/var/log/messages</filename>. Do not try to copy
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this information by typing it in again; not only it is a
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real pain, but you are bound to make a mistake. To send log
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file contents, either make a copy of the file and use an
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editor to trim the information to what is relevant, or cut
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and paste into your message. For the output of programs
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like <command>dmesg</command>, redirect the output to a
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file and 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>When using cut-and-paste, please be aware that some
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such operations badly mangle their messages. This is of
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particular concern when posting contents of
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<filename>Makefiles</filename>, where <literal>tab</literal>
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is a significant character. This is a very common,
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and very annoying, problem with submissions to the
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<ulink url="&url.base;/support.html#gnats">
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GNATS Problem Reports database</ulink>.
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<filename>Makefiles</filename> with tabs changed to either
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spaces, or the annoying <literal>=3B</literal> escape
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sequence, create a great deal of aggravation for
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committers.</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question id="etiquette-replying">
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<para>What are the special etiquette consideration when replying
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to an existing posting on the mailing lists?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>Please include relevant text from the original message.
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Trim it to the minimum, but do not overdo it. It should
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still be possible for somebody who did not read the original
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message to understand what you are talking about.</para>
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<para> This is especially important for postings of the type
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"yes, I see this too", where the initial posting was dozens
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or hundreds of lines.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Use some technique to identify which text came from
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the original message, and which text you add. A common
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convention is to prepend
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<quote><literal>> </literal></quote> to the original
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message. Leaving white space after the
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<quote><literal>> </literal></quote> and leaving empty
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lines between your text and the original text both make
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the result more readable.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Please ensure that the attributions of the text
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you are quoting is correct. People can become offended
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if you attribute words to them that they themselves did
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not write.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Please do not <literal>top post</literal>. By this, we
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mean that if you are replying to a message, please put your
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replies after the text that you copy in your reply.</para>
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<!-- note: the question and answer are intentionally
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reversed for humorous effect -->
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>A: Because it reverses the logical flow of
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conversation.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Q: Why is top posting frowned upon?</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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<para>(Thanks to Randy Bush for the joke.)</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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</qandaset>
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</sect1>
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<sect1 id="recurring">
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<title>Recurring Topics On The Mailing Lists</title>
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<para>Participation in the mailing lists, like participation
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in any community, requires a common basis for communication.
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Many of the mailing lists presuppose a knowledge of the
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Project's history. In particular, there are certain topics
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that seem to regularly occur to newcomers to the community.
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It is the responsibility of each poster to ensure that
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their postings do not fall into one of these categories.
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By doing so, you will help the mailing lists to stay on-topic,
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and probably save yourself being flamed in the process.</para>
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<para>The best method to avoid this is to familiarize yourself
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with the <ulink url="http://docs.FreeBSD.org/mail/">
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mailing list archives</ulink>,
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to help yourself understand the background of
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what has gone before. In this, the <ulink
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url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/search/search.html#mailinglists">
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mailing list search interface</ulink>
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is invaluable. (If that method does not yield useful results,
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please supplement it with a search with your favorite major
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search engine).</para>
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<para>By familiarizing yourself with the archives, not only will
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you learn what topics have been discussed before, but also how
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discussion tends to proceed on that list, who the participants
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are, and who the target audience is. These are always good things
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to know before you post to any mailing list, not just a &os;
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mailing list.</para>
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<para>There is no doubt that the archives are quite extensive, and
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some questions recur more often than others, sometimes as followups
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where the subject line no longer accurately reflects the new content.
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Nevertheless, the burden is on you, the poster, to do your homework
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to help avoid these recurring topics, and especially the dreaded
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<literal>bikeshed</literal>s.</para>
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</sect1>
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<sect1 id="bikeshed">
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<title>What Is A "Bikeshed"?</title>
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<para>Literally, a <literal>bikeshed</literal> is a small outdoor
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shelter into which one may store one's two-wheeled form of
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transportation. However, in &os; parlance, the word is a
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derogatory term that refers to any oft-recurring discussion
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about a particular subject; in particular, it is most often used
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to refer to a topic which has never reached a consensus within
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the &os; community, and instead remains controversial. (The
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genesis of this term is explained in more detail <ulink
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url="&url.books.faq;/misc.html#BIKESHED-PAINTING">
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in this document</ulink>). You simply must have a working
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knowledge of this concept before posting to any &os; mailing
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list.</para>
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<para>More generally, a bikeshed is a topic that will tend to
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generate immediate meta-discussions and flames if you have
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not read up on their past history.</para>
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<para>Please help us to keep the mailing lists as useful for as
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many people as possible by avoiding bikesheds whenever you can.
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Thanks.</para>
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</sect1>
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<sect1 id="acknowledgments">
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<title>Acknowledgments</title>
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<variablelist>
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<varlistentry>
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<term>&a.grog;</term>
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<listitem>
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<para>Original author of most of the material on mailing
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list etiquette, taken from the article on <ulink
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url="&url.articles.freebsd-questions;/article.html">
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How to get best results from the FreeBSD-questions mailing list</ulink>.</para>
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</listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry>
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<term>&a.linimon;</term>
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<listitem>
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<para>Creation of the rough draft of this FAQ.</para>
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</listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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</variablelist>
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</sect1>
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</article>
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