diff --git a/wiki/pages/mailing_lists.md b/wiki/pages/mailing_lists.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bef611c --- /dev/null +++ b/wiki/pages/mailing_lists.md @@ -0,0 +1,118 @@ +--- +author: ~erxeto +published: true +title: mailing lists +description: tildeverse mailing lists netiquette +category: + - main +---- + +# description + +The tildeverse has now its own mailing list service. You can take a look at: + + https://lists.tildeverse.org/ + +This is a description of the basic *netiquette* rules for this service. Most of +the text is taken shamelessly from https://man.sr.ht/lists.sr.ht/etiquette.md +with some adaptations and a couple more suggestions taken from other lists out +there. + +Some email clients have popularized email usage patterns which are considered +poor form on many mailing lists. Please review some of our suggestions for +participating more smoothly in discussions on the tildeverse. This advice will +likely serve you well outside of the tildeverse as well. + +If you have any troubles following this guides or don't know how to configure +your email client for this purpose, ask on IRC (#meta or #tilde), you'll find +always somebody willing to help. + +## Plain text + +Please make sure that your email client is configured to use plain text emails. +By default, many email clients compose emails with HTML, so you can use rich +text formatting. Rich text is not desirable for mailing lists. Keep in mind that +some people uses console email clients without html rendering support. Also, +people with high volume of emails may pre-process them and html is not good for +that. So you should disable this feature and send your email as "plain text". +Every email client is different, you should research the options for your +specific client. + +## Top-posting + +Some email clients will paste the entire email you're replying to into your +response and encourage you to write your message over it. This behavior is +called "top posting" and is discouraged on the tildeverse lists (or on any +mailing list really). Instead, cut out any parts of the reply that you're not +directly responding to and write your comments inline. Feel free to edit the +original message as much as you like. In other words, keep the relevant context +for your reply and delete the rest. This makes cleaner emails that are easier to +read, even if the reader jumps in the middle of a thread. + +For example, if I emailed you: + + Hey Casey, + + Can you look into the bug which is causing 2.34 clients to disconnect + immediately? I think this is related to the timeouts change last week. + + Also, your fix to the queueing bug is confirmed for the next release, + thanks! + +You might respond with: + + Hey Drew, I can look into that for sure. + + > I think this is related to the timeouts change last week. + + I'm not so sure. I think reducing the timeouts would *improve* this issue, + if anything. + + > Also, your fix to the queueing bug is confirmed for the next release, + > thanks! + + Sweet! Happy to help. + +- A: Because it reverses the logical flow of conversation. +- Q: Why is top posting frowned upon? + +## Wrap lines + +Please wrap lines in your email at 72 columns. Many people use email readers +designed to faithfully display plain text and won't break lines at a width which +is comfortable for reading, or won't break lines at all, which is useful when +reviewing patches. Some readers also have many things open in addition to their +mail client, and may not allocate as much screen real-estate to email as you do. + +If you're curious about why this arbitrary column count. "Regular" terminals +have 80 columns, and 8 characters less gives you some room for the response +prefix ('> ') making threads with nested replies more readable. + +Don't worry about re-wrapping lines written by anyone you're quoting unless you +want to. + +## PGP Signatures + +If you use PGP, please attach your signature to the message instead of using an +inline signature. Look in your local PGP implementation's documentation for +`PGP/MIME` options. + +## Attachments + +Try not to send attachment to the list or, if you do it, try them to be small +files. Think about people with bad internet connection or limited resources. +It's better to send a link to download whatever you want to share. If you send +links, it's a good practice to describe the content and the size, so the reader +can choose to download it or not before following the link. As an example: + + https://mysite.com/myfiletoshare (pdf, 3,5MB) + +# Conclusion + +Whatever you send to a mailing list gets forwarded to an unknown number of email +accounts. You cannot know beforehand the quality of connection, resources, +operating systems or really anything else the people that owns those accounts +have. So, try to stick to the principles here stated to make the whole list +communication easier for all. + +Thank you for taking the time to adjust your habits!