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| |
| <document> |
| |
| <properties> |
| <author email="dev.AT.jmeter.DOT.apache.DOT.org">Apache JMeter Project</author> |
| <title>Mailing Lists</title> |
| </properties> |
| |
| <body> |
| |
| <section name="Mailing Lists - Guidelines"> |
| |
| <p>A mailing list is an electronic discussion forum that anyone can |
| subscribe to. When someone sends an email message to the mailing list, |
| a copy of that message is broadcast to everyone who is subscribed to |
| that mailing list. Mailing lists provide a simple and effective |
| communication mechanism. With potentially thousands of subscribers, |
| there is a common set of etiquette guidelines that you should observe. |
| Please keep on reading. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| Please note that usage of these mailing lists is subject to the |
| <a href="http://www.apache.org/foundation/public-archives.html">Public Forum Archive Policy</a>. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| <strong> |
| Respect the mailing list type |
| </strong><br/> |
| There are generally two types of lists. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| <ul> |
| <li> |
| The "User" lists where you can send questions and comments about |
| configuration, setup, usage and other "user" types of questions. |
| </li> |
| <li> |
| The "Developer" lists where you can send questions and |
| comments about the actual software source code and general |
| "development" types of questions. |
| </li> |
| </ul> |
| </p> |
| |
| <p>Some questions are appropriate for posting on both the "user" and |
| the "developer" lists. In this case, pick one and only one. Do not |
| cross post.</p> |
| |
| <p>Asking a configuration question on the developers list is frowned |
| upon because developers' time is as precious as yours. By contacting |
| them directly instead of the user base you are abusing resources. In |
| fact, it is unlikely that you will get a quicker answer, if at |
| all.</p> |
| |
| <p> |
| <strong> |
| Join the lists that are appropriate for your discussion. |
| </strong><br/> |
| Please make sure that you are joining the list that is appropriate for the |
| topic or product that you would like to discuss. For example, |
| please do not join the Regexp mailing list and ask questions about Tomcat. |
| Instead, you should join the Tomcat User list and ask your questions |
| there. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| <strong> |
| Ask smart questions. </strong><br/> |
| |
| Every volunteer project obtains its strength from the people involved |
| in it. You are welcome to join any of our mailing lists. You can |
| choose to lurk, or actively participate; it's up to you. The level of |
| community responsiveness to specific questions is generally directly |
| proportional to the amount of effort you spend formulating your |
| question. Eric Raymond and Rick Moen have even written an essay entitled <a |
| href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html">"<b>Asking |
| Smart Questions</b>"</a> precisely on this topic. Although somewhat |
| militant, it is definitely worth reading.<br/> |
| <b>Note</b>: Please do NOT send your Java problems to the two authors. They welcome feedback on the FAQ's contents, but are simply not a Java help resource. Follow the essay's advice and <a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#forum">choose your forum</a> carefully. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| <strong> |
| Give feedback when you get a good answer. </strong><br/> |
| |
| If an answer given to you helped you solve your problem then send a mail saying so and don't forget to say <b>THANKS</b>. |
| If you fixed the problem yourself then contribute to the mailing list by writing how you solved your issue. |
| Giving feedback is useful to people who faced/will face same problems as you and will be your way |
| to contribute to the project. Don't forget that people answering your questions are volunteers |
| doing so on their personal time.<br/> |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| <strong> |
| Keep your email short and to the point; use a suitable subject line. |
| </strong><br/> |
| If your email is more than about a page of text, chances are that it |
| won't get read by very many people. It is much better to try to pack a |
| lot of informative information (see above about asking smart questions) |
| into as small of an email as possible. If you are replying to a previous |
| email, it is a good idea to only quote the parts that you are replying |
| to and to remove the unnecessary bits. This makes it easier for people |
| to follow a thread as well as making the email archives easier to search |
| and read. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| <strong> |
| Start a new thread for a new topic |
| </strong><br/> |
| When asking a new question, please start a new thread with an appropriate new subject line. |
| This makes it easier to read, and to find later in the archives. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| <strong> |
| Do your best to ensure that you are not sending HTML or |
| "Stylized" email to the list. |
| </strong><br/> |
| If you are using Outlook or Outlook Express or Eudora, chances are that |
| you are sending HTML email by default. There is usually a setting that |
| will allow you to send "Plain Text" email. If you are using Microsoft |
| products to send email, there are several bugs in the software that |
| prevent you from turning off the sending of HTML email. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| <strong> |
| Please don't send attachments or include large chunks of code</strong><br/> |
| Attachments can be difficult to read and are rarely needed by all recipients. |
| Some mailing lists are set up to drop them. |
| If you need to send more than a few lines of code, ask first. |
| Note that code is often mangled by word-wrapping, so it is better to provide a link to a downloadable file. |
| If necessary, arrange with the person(s) responding to the posting how best to give access to the data, |
| should it prove necessary. |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| <strong> |
| Watch where you are sending email. |
| </strong><br/> |
| The majority of our mailing lists have set the Reply-To to go back to the |
| list. That means that when you Reply to a message, it will go to the list |
| and not to the original author directly. The reason is because it helps |
| facilitate discussion on the list for everyone to benefit from. Be careful |
| of this as sometimes you may intend to reply to a message directly to someone |
| instead of the entire list. |
| <em> |
| The appropriate contents of the Reply-To header is an age-old debate that |
| should not be brought up on the mailing lists. You can |
| examine opposing points of view |
| <a href="http://www.unicom.com/pw/reply-to-harmful.html">condemning</a> |
| our convention and |
| <a href="http://www.metasystema.net/essays/reply-to.mhtml"> |
| condoning</a> |
| it. Bringing this up for debate on a mailing list will add nothing |
| new and is considered off-topic. |
| </em> |
| </p> |
| |
| <p> |
| <strong> |
| Do not cross post messages. |
| </strong><br/> |
| In other words, pick a mailing list and send your messages to that mailing |
| list only. Do not send your messages to multiple mailing lists. The reason is |
| that people may be subscribed to one list and not to the other. Therefore, |
| some people will only see part of the conversation. |
| </p> |
| </section> |
| |
| <section name="Conclusion"> |
| <p> |
| <strong>Now that you have read the guidelines above</strong>, <a |
| href="./mail2.html"><strong>here</strong></a> is the page that gives |
| you a listing of the different mailing lists that you can join. If you |
| managed to find this without reading the above information, chances |
| are you will be sent back here. You might as well read it now and save |
| yourself the embarrassment. |
| </p> |
| </section> |
| |
| </body> |
| </document> |