[vdr] Mailing List Etiquette

[Clemens Kirchgatterer <clemens@thf.ath.cx>]

I hope you don't mind for posting this. i find it quite important!
I have stolen the mail from some other mailing list, but i can't
remember which ... anyways ...

Due to the increased volume of traffic currently appearing on the VDR
mailing lists, it's about time for a reminder of mailing list
etiquette.


E-mail formatting
=================

Mailing list email should fit the following criteria:

DO
---
* Trim quoted material to the minimum needed to clarify what you're
  talking about
* Make sure you are attributing material to the correct person 
  (i.e. make sure the "On 19/07/2002, Joe Bloggs said:" is correct)
* Write your responses *after* the quoted text, not before.  If your
  mail client makes it difficult to do this, get a new one!
* Make sure lines are wrapped at 76 characters (to fit an 80 character
  wide screen)

Don't
-----
* Post in either HTML-only or in Text and HTML.  If your mail client
  doesn't support not doing this, please change it.
* Top post
* Give a one line answer having quoted the whole post
* Use too long a signature
* Reply where you should start a new thread

In general, make emails as short as possible whilst keeping them
comprehensible.


General Etiquette
=================

This can really be summed up in one phrase - 'be polite'.  

If you think something is off-topic, don't reply to the list although 
you may want to send a short and *polite* note to the person privately 
telling then which list would be more appropriate; don't just say - 
"that is OT for here".

If someone flames or trolls the list, don't reply - it wastes everyones
bandwidth.

Don't reply to spam which gets through to the list - we do use
SpamAssasin on the lists now and this catches most of the spam; it is
inevitable that some will get through so just ignore it when it does.
We also use Razor for spam elimination and Gerard watches the list
carefully for any spam which does get through.  When some does (as is
inevitable) he updates the rules in order to prevent it occurring again.
 This is done quietly and so there is no need to report it, reply to it
or do anything other than ignore it!

Resources
=========

* The ultimate guide to most matters to do with email etiquette is
  RFC-2822 which can be found at: 

  ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2822.txt


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