2018-12-14 14:43:03 +00:00
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---
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author: ~erxeto
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published: true
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2022-02-16 17:33:28 +00:00
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title: mailing list netiquette
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2018-12-14 14:43:03 +00:00
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description: tildeverse mailing lists netiquette
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category:
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- main
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2018-12-14 17:06:39 +00:00
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---
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2018-12-14 14:43:03 +00:00
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2019-07-02 04:38:20 +00:00
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the tildeverse has now its own mailing list service. you can take a look at:
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2018-12-14 17:06:39 +00:00
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[lists.tildeverse.org](https://lists.tildeverse.org/)
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2018-12-14 14:43:03 +00:00
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2019-07-02 04:38:20 +00:00
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this is a description of the basic *netiquette* rules for this service. most of
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2018-12-14 17:06:39 +00:00
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the text is taken shamelessly from
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[man.sr.ht/lists.sr.ht/etiquette.md](https://man.sr.ht/lists.sr.ht/etiquette.md)
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2018-12-14 14:43:03 +00:00
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with some adaptations and a couple more suggestions taken from other lists out
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there.
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2019-07-02 04:38:20 +00:00
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some email clients have popularized email usage patterns which are considered
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poor form on many mailing lists. please review some of our suggestions for
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participating more smoothly in discussions on the tildeverse. this advice will
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2022-02-17 18:55:19 +00:00
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likely serve you well outside the tildeverse as well.
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2018-12-14 14:43:03 +00:00
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2022-02-17 18:55:19 +00:00
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if you have any troubles following these guides or don't know how to configure
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2019-07-02 04:38:20 +00:00
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your email client for this purpose, ask on irc (#meta or #team), you'll find
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2018-12-14 14:43:03 +00:00
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always somebody willing to help.
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2019-07-02 04:38:20 +00:00
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## plain text
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2018-12-14 14:43:03 +00:00
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2019-07-02 04:38:20 +00:00
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please make sure that your email client is configured to use plain text emails.
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by default, many email clients compose emails with HTML, so you can use rich
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text formatting. rich text is not desirable for mailing lists. keep in mind that
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some people uses console email clients without html rendering support. also,
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2018-12-14 14:43:03 +00:00
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people with high volume of emails may pre-process them and html is not good for
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that. so you should disable this feature and send your email as "plain text".
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every email client is different, you should research the options for your
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2018-12-14 14:43:03 +00:00
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specific client.
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## top-posting
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2018-12-14 14:43:03 +00:00
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some email clients will paste the entire email you're replying to into your
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response and encourage you to write your message over it. this behavior is
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2018-12-14 14:43:03 +00:00
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called "top posting" and is discouraged on the tildeverse lists (or on any
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2019-07-02 04:38:20 +00:00
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mailing list really). instead, cut out any parts of the reply that you're not
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directly responding to and write your comments inline. feel free to edit the
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original message as much as you like. in other words, keep the relevant context
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for your reply and delete the rest. this makes cleaner emails that are easier to
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2018-12-14 14:43:03 +00:00
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read, even if the reader jumps in the middle of a thread.
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For example, if I emailed you:
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Hey Casey,
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Can you look into the bug which is causing 2.34 clients to disconnect
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immediately? I think this is related to the timeouts change last week.
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Also, your fix to the queueing bug is confirmed for the next release,
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thanks!
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You might respond with:
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Hey Drew, I can look into that for sure.
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> I think this is related to the timeouts change last week.
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I'm not so sure. I think reducing the timeouts would *improve* this issue,
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if anything.
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> Also, your fix to the queueing bug is confirmed for the next release,
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> thanks!
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Sweet! Happy to help.
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- A: Because it reverses the logical flow of conversation.
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- Q: Why is top posting frowned upon?
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2019-07-02 04:38:20 +00:00
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## wrap lines
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2018-12-14 14:43:03 +00:00
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please wrap lines in your email at 72 columns. many people use email readers
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2018-12-14 14:43:03 +00:00
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designed to faithfully display plain text and won't break lines at a width which
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is comfortable for reading, or won't break lines at all, which is useful when
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reviewing patches. some readers also have many things open in addition to their
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2018-12-14 14:43:03 +00:00
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mail client, and may not allocate as much screen real-estate to email as you do.
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2019-07-02 04:38:20 +00:00
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if you're curious about why this arbitrary column count. "regular" terminals
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have 80 columns, and 8 characters less gives you some room for the response
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prefix ('> ') making threads with nested replies more readable.
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2019-07-02 04:38:20 +00:00
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don't worry about re-wrapping lines written by anyone you're quoting unless you
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2018-12-14 14:43:03 +00:00
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want to.
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2019-07-02 04:38:20 +00:00
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## pgp signatures
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2018-12-14 14:43:03 +00:00
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2019-07-02 04:38:20 +00:00
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if you use pgp, please attach your signature to the message instead of using an
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inline signature. look in your local pgp implementation's documentation for
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2018-12-14 14:43:03 +00:00
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`PGP/MIME` options.
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2019-07-02 04:38:20 +00:00
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## attachments
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2018-12-14 14:43:03 +00:00
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2019-07-02 04:38:20 +00:00
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try not to send attachment to the list or, if you do it, make sure they are
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small files. think about people with bad internet connection or limited
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resources. it's better to send a link to download whatever you want to share.
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if you send links, it's a good practice to describe the content and the size,
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so the reader can choose to download it or not before following the link. for
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2018-12-14 16:50:50 +00:00
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example, you can upload a file to [ttm.sh](https://ttm.sh) or drop it in your
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`~/public_html` directory and then send the link to the list like so:
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2018-12-14 14:43:03 +00:00
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2018-12-14 15:06:18 +00:00
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https://ttm.sh/mydocument.pdf (pdf, 3,5MB)
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2018-12-14 14:43:03 +00:00
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2019-07-02 04:38:20 +00:00
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# conclusion
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2018-12-14 14:43:03 +00:00
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2019-07-02 04:38:20 +00:00
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whatever you send to a mailing list gets forwarded to an unknown number of email
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accounts. you cannot know beforehand the quality of connection, resources,
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2018-12-14 14:43:03 +00:00
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operating systems or really anything else the people that owns those accounts
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have. so, try to stick to the principles here stated to make the whole list
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2018-12-14 14:43:03 +00:00
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communication easier for all.
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2019-07-02 04:38:20 +00:00
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thank you for taking the time to adjust your habits!
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