OpenSUSE mailing list netiquette

From openSUSE

Why we need netiquette?

The old-timers, real experts, the ones who can really give an advice, read a lot of emails a day and are tired of messages that use any style and shape that comes in mind. Many just "plonk" a message and request for assistance is completely ignored. So if you want good advice, please, do only what you do when visit someone, accept customs in that home, be a good guest. Below is collection of our customs and reasons why it is done that way. If you are in emergency, we do understand that, you can read the netiquette after you post initial question.

Use a descriptive subject

The openSUSE mailing list receives hundreds of emails a day. So if you have a question or a problem to solve, please use a subject that summarise your issue and also gives some detail. Here are some examples of subjects from real message to the opensuse mailinglist:

Much more about good and bad subjects:

• Help written by Linux veterans Eric Raymond and Rick Moen to computer users that have a problem, yet don't know how to ask right question and get straight answer.

Quoting

When you reply to a message, please quote only the relevant part that you are replying to. Everyone on the list is served by one mail list server and receives the whole message fast. That means there is no need to repost the whole message, like in the Usenet (newsgroups) where you can see the answer on a message that is still not present on your ISP news server. It can happen that original message appear few hours after the answer, so quoting is essential for understanding of the answer.

• The quoting HOWTO gives a nice introduction to the art of mail quoting.

Bottom post

Bottom post means that your reply underneath the quoted text and leads to a natural flow of quoted messages that is easy to read and to reply.

We are discussing topics that include comments to:

• output of a command, configuration files, program code that often contains multiple lines,
• groups of tests performed to troubleshoot the problem,

and we need the style that will allow inserted comments in quotes of original message with space after all comments for a summary or next batch of proposals how to solve the problem.

Need for this style is amplified with a fact that we often live in different time zones, so giving one option, than wait another day for the answer, to give another proposal, will be waste of time and discussion will stretch over days. We are trying to go around this, by offering more options at once.

So time and practice brought the general consensus that this is a better way to communicate on this list. Other lists can have different operating conditions and they can consider some other posting style as the most appropriate.

Changing the subject without opening a new thread

Very often a long thread splits into several topics (for example if there are several answers to the same problem). In this case changing the subject may be necessary. One widely accepted method for this is a subject like

Re: kde icon blinks (was: is that an Xfree problem?)

Later reply posts usually remove the (was: ...) part. This allows to change a subject, but keep thread structure intact. If the discussion led to a totally different subject, you may stop, open a new thread and go on. On the other side usually others wont follow you and still discuss in old thread, so use thread splitting wisely.

Also, do not simply hit Reply to a message and change the subject to start a new discussion. When you do so you break the thread that was in progress making it hard to follow in the archives.

Don't be aggressive

This applies to new and old openSUSE mail listusers.

Most of the people on the list are friendly and helpful people. They use their time to help others so even if you are angry because you can't solve some problem, please, calm down and then post your question, to avoid aggressive and abusive language.

To answer the question one has to know a few details about the problem. Don't be upset because there is a question asking for more information. We would like to help, but not everybody has a good crystal ball to see the things that are not written in email, so we have to ask.

Understand that the audience is passionate about SUSE and openSUSE, posting that you hate SUSE, the mailing list, or other closely related things, will most likely get passionate responses, don't take things too personally.

Mail lists are used by a lot of people who's first language is not English. This sometimes leads to misunderstandings in excess of the normal misunderstandings that can happen in email exchanges.

Don't be aggressive to new posters, but instead help them on their way to become a part of our community, sometimes a private email may be appropriate, to explain something, but .

Don't use a long signature block

Most people on the list genuinely want to help people out in solving any issues they may have. Very large signature blocks at the bottom of emails can hinder this as they often swamp the actual body of the email. Reference on your system properties, address, web page, etc, has just opposite effect than you may want if it is too long.

A good guideline is a maximum of four lines. Line length should not exceed eighty characters of plain text.

For reference read Jargon File: McQuary Limit

Don't post Off Topic emails to the mail lists

Each list is created to discuss one part of the openSUSE activity. The topic is posted on Communicate/Mailinglists page next right to the links for subscription and help. Please stay within this realm and help reduce the volume of unrelated posts to any list.

It may seem interesting to discuss topics not related to openSUSE as listed on Communicate/Mailinglists page and for that purpose is created opensuse-offtopic@opensuse.org list, so be kind and use it for any topic you like. P.S. It has to be off topic otherwise it is off topic for this list :-)

Do not use HTML

Most of openSUSE mail lists users have HTML turned off for many reasons (1). HTML message looks strange as a plain text and it is hard to read. People will avoid it if possible, or complain asking you to post in plain text if they can't skip it.

(1) Believe it or not there are still many people who are forced to use metered dialup connections to the internet and posting to the list using html adds considerably to their costs. So please show consideration to _all_ list members and post using plain text email only. (2) Some properties of HTML are misused by spammers to harvest email addresses and good email client programs are set not to use HTML, except by user request. That makes HTML post unreadable and people just skip them.