Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 05:35:11 -0600 (CST) From: Mark Linimon <linimon@lonesome.com> To: FreeBSD-gnats-submit@FreeBSD.org Subject: docs/64934: [patch] add new article to docs, FreeBSD Mailing List FAQ Message-ID: <200403301135.i2UBZB04026234@lonesome.lonesome.com> Resent-Message-ID: <200403301140.i2UBe6GY014996@freefall.freebsd.org>
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>Number: 64934
>Category: docs
>Synopsis: [patch] add new article to docs, FreeBSD Mailing List FAQ
>Confidential: no
>Severity: non-critical
>Priority: low
>Responsible: freebsd-doc
>State: open
>Quarter:
>Keywords:
>Date-Required:
>Class: change-request
>Submitter-Id: current-users
>Arrival-Date: Tue Mar 30 03:40:05 PST 2004
>Closed-Date:
>Last-Modified:
>Originator: Mark Linimon
>Release: FreeBSD 4.9-PRERELEASE i386
>Organization:
Lonesome Dove Computing Services
>Environment:
System: FreeBSD lonesome.lonesome.com 4.9-PRERELEASE FreeBSD 4.9-PRERELEASE #3: Thu Jan 22 20:41:05 CST 2004 root@lonesome.lonesome.com:/usr/src/sys/compile/MULTIMEDIA i386
>Description:
During a recent metadiscussion, it seemed to me that those who
are new to FreeBSD need a clearer explanation of the what/why/
when/where/hows of the mailing lists. This new article attempts
to explain some of the above. Particular attention is paid to
the "you should just know this" lore that does not seem to be
written up anywhere else.
Parts of this are recycled from the "How To Get The Best Results
From freebsd-questions" article that grog wrote some time ago --
in particular, the parts that apply to a) using any mailing list,
and b) getting familiar with the FreeBSD mailing lists. (He has
given permission, via email, to incorporate them).
Notes: I haven't proposed removing any text from that article,
because I think it stands on its own as an introduction. A
future rework of it (if this article is accepted) could trim
it, I suppose.
The output of the docbook run on the affected files is available at
http://www.lonesome.com/FreeBSD_doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/mailing-lis
t-faq/article.html
and http://lonesome.com/FreeBSD_www/en/support.html, although
some markup seems to be missing from the latter.
Further note: patches are included to rework the introductory
www pages, to direct new users through this document first
(and, by implication, through grog's document), rather than
to posting to freebsd-questions directly.
>How-To-Repeat:
(n/a)
>Fix:
Note that the following is my attempt to meld patches from
two different trees, and may thus be flawed. Also, the first
Makefile patch assumes a commit of the (trivial) PR docs/64931.
diff -ruN /usr/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/Makefile /mnt/dcvs/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/Makefile
--- /usr/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/Makefile Sat Mar 8 02:27:28 2003
+++ /mnt/dcvs/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/Makefile Tue Mar 30 03:59:47 2004
@@ -21,8 +21,9 @@
SUBDIR+= hats
SUBDIR+= hubs
SUBDIR+= ipsec-must
SUBDIR+= java-tomcat
SUBDIR+= laptop
+SUBDIR+= mailing-list-faq
SUBDIR+= mh
SUBDIR+= multi-os
SUBDIR+= new-users
diff -ruN /usr/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/mailing-list-faq/Makefile /mnt/dcvs/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/mailing-list-faq/Makefile
--- /usr/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/mailing-list-faq/Makefile Wed Dec 31 18:00:00 1969
+++ /mnt/dcvs/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/mailing-list-faq/Makefile Sun Mar 21 11:24:55 2004
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+#
+# $FreeBSD$
+#
+# Build the FreeBSD Mailing List FAQ
+#
+
+DOC?= article
+
+FORMATS?= html
+
+INSTALL_COMPRESSED?= gz
+INSTALL_ONLY_COMPRESSED?=
+
+WITH_ARTICLE_TOC?=YES
+
+#
+# SRCS lists the individual SGML files that make up the document. Changes
+# to any of these files will force a rebuild
+#
+
+# SGML content
+SRCS= article.sgml
+
+DOC_PREFIX?= ${.CURDIR}/../../..
+.include "${DOC_PREFIX}/share/mk/doc.project.mk"
diff -ruN /usr/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/mailing-list-faq/article.sgml /mnt/dcvs/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/mailing-list-faq/article.sgml
--- /usr/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/mailing-list-faq/article.sgml Wed Dec 31 18:00:00 1969
+++ /mnt/dcvs/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/mailing-list-faq/article.sgml Tue Mar 30 03:44:11 2004
@@ -0,0 +1,554 @@
+<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//DTD DocBook V4.1-Based Extension//EN" [
+<!ENTITY % man PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Manual Page Entities//EN">
+%man;
+
+<!ENTITY % freebsd PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Miscellaneous FreeBSD Entities//EN">
+%freebsd;
+
+<!ENTITY % authors PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Author Entities//EN">
+%authors;
+
+<!ENTITY % teams PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Team Entities//EN">
+%teams;
+
+<!ENTITY % mailing-lists PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Mailing List Entities//EN">
+%mailing-lists;
+
+<!ENTITY % trademarks PUBLIC "-//FreeBSD//ENTITIES DocBook Trademark Entities//EN">
+%trademarks;
+]>
+
+<article>
+ <articleinfo>
+ <title>Frequently Asked Questions About The &os; Mailing Lists</title>
+
+ <authorgroup>
+ <author>
+ <surname>The &os; Documentation Project</surname>
+ </author>
+ </authorgroup>
+
+ <pubdate>$FreeBSD$</pubdate>
+
+ <copyright>
+ <year>2004</year>
+ <holder>The &os; Documentation Project</holder>
+ </copyright>
+
+ <abstract>
+ <para>This is the FAQ for the &os; mailing lists. If you are
+ interested in helping with this project, send email to the &a.doc;.
+ The latest version of this document is always available from the
+ <ulink
+ URL="http://www.FreeBSD.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/mailing-list-faq/index.html">&os;
+ World Wide Web server</ulink>. It may also be downloaded as
+ one large <ulink URL="article.html">HTML</ulink> file with HTTP
+ or as plain text, PostScript, PDF, etc. from the <ulink
+ URL="ftp://ftp.FreeBSD.org/pub/FreeBSD/doc/">&os; FTP
+ server</ulink>. You may also want to <ulink
+ URL="../../../../search/index.html">Search the
+ FAQ</ulink>.</para>
+ </abstract>
+ </articleinfo>
+
+ <sect1 id="introduction">
+ <title>Introduction</title>
+
+ <para>As is usual with FAQs, this document aims to cover the
+ most frequently asked questions concerning the &os; mailing
+ lists (and of course answer them!). Although originally intended
+ to reduce bandwidth and avoid the same old questions being asked
+ over and over again, FAQs have become recognized as valuable
+ information resources.</para>
+
+ <para>This document attempts to represent a community consensus, and
+ as such it can never really be <emphasis>authoritative</emphasis>.
+ However, if you find technical errors within this document, or
+ have suggestions about items that should be added, plase either
+ submit a PR, or email the &a.doc;. Thanks.</para>
+
+ <qandaset>
+ <qandaentry>
+ <question id="purpose">
+ <para>What is the purpose of the &os; mailing lists?</para>
+ </question>
+
+ <answer>
+ <para>The &os; mailing lists serve as the primary
+ communication channels for the &os; community, covering many
+ different topic areas and communities of interest.</para>
+ </answer>
+ </qandaentry>
+
+ <qandaentry>
+ <question id="audience">
+ <para>Who is the audience for the &os; mailing lists?</para>
+ </question>
+
+ <answer>
+ <para>This depends on charter of each individual list. Some
+ lists are more oriented to developers; some are more oriented
+ towards the &os; community as a whole. Please see <ulink
+ url="http://lists.FreeBSD.org/mailman/listinfo">this list</ulink>
+ for the current summary.</para>
+ </answer>
+ </qandaentry>
+
+ <qandaentry>
+ <question id="participation-who">
+ <para>Are the &os; mailing lists open for anyone to participate?</para>
+ </question>
+
+ <answer>
+ <para>Again, this depends on charter of each individual list.
+ Please read the charter of a mailing list before you post to it,
+ and respect it when you post. This will help everyone to have
+ a better experience with the lists.</para>
+
+ <para>If after reading the above lists, you still do not know
+ which mailing list to post a question to, you will probably
+ want to post to freebsd-questions (but see below, first).</para>
+
+ <para>Also note that the mailing lists have traditionally
+ been open to postings from non-subscribers. This has
+ been a deliberate choice, to help make joining the &os;
+ community an easier process, and to encourage open sharing
+ of ideas. However, due to past abuse by some individuals,
+ certain lists now have a policy where postings from
+ non-subscribers must be manually screened to ensure that
+ they are appropriate.</para>
+ </answer>
+ </qandaentry>
+
+ <qandaentry>
+ <question id="subscribe">
+ <para>How can I subscribe?</para>
+ </question>
+
+ <answer>
+ <para>You can use <ulink
+ url="http://lists.FreeBSD.org/mailman/listinfo">;
+ the Mailman web interface</ulink> to subscribe to any
+ of the public lists.</para>
+ </answer>
+ </qandaentry>
+
+ <qandaentry>
+ <question id="unsubscribe">
+ <para>How can I unsubscribe?</para>
+ </question>
+
+ <answer>
+ <para>You can use the same interface as above; or,
+ you can follow the instructions that are at the
+ bottom of every mailing list message that is sent.</para>
+
+ <para>Please do not send unsubscribe messages directly
+ to the public lists themselves. First, this will not
+ accomplish your goal, and second, it will irritate the
+ existing subscribers, and you will probably get flamed.
+ This is a classical mistake when using mailing lists;
+ please try to avoid it.</para>
+ </answer>
+ </qandaentry>
+
+ <qandaentry>
+ <question id="archives">
+ <para>Are archives available?</para>
+ </question>
+
+ <answer>
+ <para>Yes. Threaded archives are available
+ <ulink url="http://docs.FreeBSD.org/mail/">here</ulink>.</para>;
+ </answer>
+ </qandaentry>
+
+ <qandaentry>
+ <question id="digest">
+ <para>Are mailing lists available in a digest format?</para>
+ </question>
+
+ <answer>
+ <para>Yes. See <ulink
+ url="http://lists.FreeBSD.org/mailman/listinfo">;
+ the Mailman web interface</ulink>.</para>
+ </answer>
+ </qandaentry>
+ </qandaset>
+ </sect1>
+
+ <sect1 id="etiquette">
+ <title>Mailing List Etiquette</title>
+
+ <para>Participation in the mailing lists, like participation
+ in any community, requires a common basis for communication.
+ Please make only appropriate postings, and follow common
+ rules of etiquette.</para>
+
+ <qandaset>
+ <qandaentry>
+ <question id="before-posting">
+ <para>What should I do before I post?</para>
+ </question>
+
+ <answer>
+ <para>You have already taken the most important step by
+ reading this document. However, if you are new to &os;,
+ you may first need to familiarize yourself with the
+ software, and all the social history around it, by
+ reading the numerous
+ <!-- XXX MCL link is incorrect; I merely copied it -->
+ <ulink url="../../../../docs.html#books">books</ulink>
+ and
+ <!-- XXX MCL link is incorrect; I merely copied it -->
+ <ulink url="../../../../docs.html#articles">articles</ulink>
+ that are available. Items of particular interest
+ include the <ulink
+ url="../../books/faq/index.html">
+ &os; Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)</ulink> document,
+ the <ulink
+ url="../../books/handbook/index.html">
+ &os; Handbook</ulink>,
+ and the articles <ulink
+ url="../freebsd-questions/index.html">
+ How to get best results from the FreeBSD-questions mailing list</ulink>
+ and <ulink
+ url="../explaining-bsd/index.html">
+ Explaining BSD</ulink>,
+ and <ulink
+ url="../new-users/index.html">
+ &os; First Steps</ulink>.</para>
+
+ <para>It is always considered bad form to ask a question that is
+ already answered in the above documents. This is not because
+ the volunteers who work on this project are particularly mean
+ people, but after a certain number of times answering the same
+ questions over and over again, frustration begins to set in.
+ This is particularly true if there is an existing answer to the
+ question that is already available. Always keep in mind that
+ almost all of the work done on &os; is done by volunteers,
+ and that we are only human.</para>
+ </answer>
+
+ </qandaentry>
+
+ <qandaentry>
+ <question id="inappropriate">
+ <para>What constitutes an inappropriate posting?</para>
+ </question>
+
+ <answer>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Postings must be in accordance with the charter
+ of the mailing list.</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Personal attacks are discouraged. As good
+ net.citizens, we should try to hold ourselves to high
+ standards of behavior.</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Spam is not allowed, ever. The mailing lists are
+ actively processed to ban offenders to this rule.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </answer>
+ </qandaentry>
+
+ <qandaentry>
+ <question id="etiquette-posting">
+ <para>What is considered proper etiquette when posting
+ to the mailing lists?</para>
+ </question>
+
+ <answer>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Please wrap lines at 75 characters, since not
+ everyone uses fancy GUI mail reading programs.</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Please respect that fact that bandwidth is not
+ infinite. Not everyone reads email through high-speed
+ connections, so if your posting involves something like
+ the content of <filename>config.log</filename> or an
+ extensive stack trace, please consider putting that
+ information up on a website somewhere and just provide
+ a URL to it. Remember, too, that these postings will
+ be archived indefinitely, so huge postings will simply
+ inflate the size of the archives long after their
+ purpose has expired.</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Format your message so that it is legible, and
+ PLEASE DO NOT SHOUT!!!!!. Do not underestimate the
+ effect that a poorly formatted mail message has, and not
+ just on the &os; mailing lists. Your mail message is
+ all that people see of you, and if it is poorly formatted,
+ badly spelled, full of errors, and/or has lots of exclamation
+ points, it will give people a poor impression of you.</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Please use an appropriate human language for a
+ particular mailing list. Many non-English mailing
+ lists are
+ <ulink url="../../../../support.html#mailing-list-languages">
+ available</ulink>.</para>
+
+ <para>For the ones that are not, we do appreciate that many
+ people do not speak English as their first language,
+ and we try to make allowances for that. It is considered
+ particularly poor form to criticize non-native speakers
+ for spelling or grammatical errors. &os; has an
+ excellent track record in this regard; please, help us
+ to uphold that tradition.</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Please use a standards-compliant Mail User Agent (MUA).
+ A lot of badly formatted messages come from
+ <ulink url="http://www.lemis.com/email.html">bad mailers
+ or badly configured mailers</ulink>. The following mailers
+ are known to send out badly formatted messages without you
+ finding out about them:</para>
+
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>cc:Mail</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>&eudora; (older versions)</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>exmh</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>µsoft; Exchange</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>µsoft; Internet Mail</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>µsoft; &outlook;</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>&netscape; (older versions)</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+
+ <para>As you can see, the mailers in the Microsoft world
+ are frequent offenders. If at all possible, use a &unix;
+ mailer. If you must use a mailer under Microsoft
+ environments, make sure it is set up correctly. Try not
+ to use <acronym>MIME</acronym>: a lot of people use mailers
+ which do not get on very well with
+ <acronym>MIME</acronym>.</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Make sure your time and time zone are set correctly.
+ This may seem a little silly, since your message still
+ gets there, but many of the people on these mailing lists
+ get several hundred messages a day. They frequently sort
+ the incoming messages by subject and by date, and if your
+ message does not come before the first answer, they may
+ assume that they missed it and not bother to look.</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>A lot of the information you need to supply is the
+ output of programs, such as &man.dmesg.8;, or console
+ messages, which usually appear in
+ <filename>/var/log/messages</filename>. Do not try to copy
+ this information by typing it in again; not only it is a
+ real pain, but you are bound to make a mistake. To send log
+ file contents, either make a copy of the file and use an
+ editor to trim the information to what is relevant, or cut
+ and paste into your message. For the output of programs
+ like <command>dmesg</command>, redirect the output to a
+ file and include that. For example,</para>
+
+ <screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>dmesg > /tmp/dmesg.out</userinput></screen>
+
+ <para>This redirects the information to the file
+ <filename>/tmp/dmesg.out</filename>.</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>When using cut-and-paste, please be aware that some
+ such operations badly mangle their messages. This is of
+ particular concern when posting contents of
+ <filename>Makefiles</filename>, where <literal>tab</literal>
+ is a significant character. This is a very common,
+ and very annoying, problem with submissions to the
+ <!-- XXX MCL link is incorrect; I merely copied it -->
+ <ulink url="../../../../support.html#gnats">
+ GNATS Problem Reports database</ulink>.
+ <filename>Makefiles</filename> with tabs changed to either
+ spaces, or the annoying <literal>=3B</literal> escape
+ sequence, create a great deal of aggravation for
+ committers.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </answer>
+ </qandaentry>
+
+ <qandaentry>
+ <question id="etiquette-replying">
+ <para>What are the special etiquette consideration when replying
+ to an existing posting on the mailing lists?</para>
+ </question>
+
+ <answer>
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Please include relevant text from the original message.
+ Trim it to the minimum, but do not overdo it. It should
+ still be possible for somebody who did not read the original
+ message to understand what you are talking about.</para>
+
+ <para> This is especially important for postings of the type
+ "yes, I see this too", where the initial posting was dozens
+ or hundreds of lines.</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Use some technique to identify which text came from
+ the original message, and which text you add. A common
+ convention is to prepend
+ <quote><literal>> </literal></quote> to the original
+ message. Leaving white space after the
+ <quote><literal>> </literal></quote> and leaving empty
+ lines between your text and the original text both make
+ the result more readable.</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Please ensure that the attributions of the text
+ you are quoting is correct. People can become offended
+ if you attribute words to them that they themselves did
+ not write.</para>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Please do not <literal>top post</literal>. By this, we
+ mean that if you are replying to a message, please put your
+ replies after the text that you copy in your reply.</para>
+ <!-- note: the question and answer are intentionally
+ reversed for humorous effect -->
+ <itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>A: Because it reverses the logical flow of
+ conversation.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Q: Why is top posting frowned upon?</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ <para>(Thanks to Randy Bush for the joke.)</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </answer>
+ </qandaentry>
+ </qandaset>
+ </sect1>
+
+ <sect1 id="recurring">
+ <title>Recurring Topics On The Mailing Lists</title>
+
+ <para>Participation in the mailing lists, like participation
+ in any community, requires a common basis for communication.
+ Many of the mailing lists presuppose a knowledge of the
+ Project's history. In particular, there are certain topics
+ that seem to regularly occur to newcomers to the community.
+ It is the responsibility of each poster to ensure that
+ their postings do not fall into one of these categories.
+ By doing so, you will help the mailing lists to stay on-topic,
+ and probably save yourself being flamed in the process.</para>
+
+ <para>The best method to avoid this is to familiarize yourself
+ with the <ulink url="http://docs.FreeBSD.org/mail/">;
+ mailing list archives</ulink>,
+ to help yourself understand the background of
+ what has gone before. In this, the <ulink
+ url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/search/search.html#mailinglists">;
+ mailing list search interface</ulink>
+ is invaluable. (If that method does not yield useful results,
+ please supplement it with a search with your favorite major
+ search engine).</para>
+
+ <para>By familiarizing yourself with the archives, not only will
+ you learn what topics have been discussed before, but also how
+ discussion tends to proceed on that list, who the participants
+ are, and who the target audience is. These are always good things
+ to know before you post to any mailing list, not just a &os;
+ mailing list.</para>
+
+ <para>There is no doubt that the archives are quite extensive, and
+ some questions recur more often than others, sometimes as followups
+ where the subject line no longer accurately reflects the new content.
+ Nevertheless, the burden is on you, the poster, to do your homework
+ to help avoid these recurring topics, and especially the dreaded
+ <literal>bikeshed</literal>s.</para>
+ </sect1>
+
+ <sect1 id="bikeshed">
+ <title>What Is A "Bikeshed"?</title>
+ <para>Literally, a <literal>bikeshed</literal> is a small outdoor
+ shelter into which one may store one's two-wheeled form of
+ transportation. However, in &os; parlance, the word is a
+ derogatory term that refers to any oft-recurring discussion
+ about a particular subject; in particular, it is most often used
+ to refer to a topic which has never reached a consensus within
+ the &os; community, and instead remains controversial. (The
+ genesis of this term is explained in more detail <ulink
+ url="../../books/faq/misc.html#BIKESHED-PAINTING">
+ in this document</ulink>). You simply must have a working
+ knowledge of this concept before posting to any &os; mailing
+ list.</para>
+
+ <para>More generally, a bikeshed is a topic that will tend to
+ generate immediate meta-discussions and flames if you have
+ not read up on their past history.</para>
+
+ <para>Please help us to keep the mailing lists as useful for as
+ many people as possible by avoiding bikesheds whenever you can.
+ Thanks.</para>
+ </sect1>
+
+ <sect1 id="acknowledgments">
+ <title>Acknowledgments</title>
+
+ <variablelist>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&a.grog;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Original author of most of the material on mailing
+ list etiquette, taken from the article on <ulink
+ url="../freebsd-questions/index.html">
+ How to get best results from the FreeBSD-questions mailing list</ulink>.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term>&a.linimon;</term>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Creation of the rough draft of this FAQ.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ </variablelist>
+ </sect1>
+
+</article>
diff -ruN /usr/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/mailing-list-faq/docbook.css /mnt/dcvs/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/mailing-list-faq/docbook.css
--- /usr/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/mailing-list-faq/docbook.css Wed Dec 31 18:00:00 1969
+++ /mnt/dcvs/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/mailing-list-faq/docbook.css Mon Mar 29 16:49:53 2004
@@ -0,0 +1,160 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (c) 2001, 2003 The FreeBSD Documentation Project
+ * All rights reserved.
+ *
+ * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
+ * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
+ * are met:
+ * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
+ * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
+ * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
+ * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
+ * documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
+ *
+ * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
+ * ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
+ * IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
+ * ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
+ * FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
+ * DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
+ * OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
+ * HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
+ * LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
+ * OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
+ * SUCH DAMAGE.
+ *
+ * $FreeBSD: doc/share/misc/docbook.css,v 1.7 2004/03/22 19:17:52 ceri Exp $
+ */
+
+BODY ADDRESS {
+ line-height: 1.3;
+ margin: .6em 0;
+}
+
+BODY BLOCKQUOTE {
+ margin-top: .75em;
+ line-height: 1.5;
+ margin-bottom: .75em;
+}
+
+HTML BODY {
+ margin: 1em 8% 1em 10%;
+ line-height: 1.2;
+}
+
+.LEGALNOTICE {
+ font-size: small;
+ font-variant: small-caps;
+}
+
+BODY DIV {
+ margin: 0;
+}
+
+DL {
+ margin: .8em 0;
+ line-height: 1.2;
+}
+
+BODY FORM {
+ margin: .6em 0;
+}
+
+H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, H6,
+DIV.EXAMPLE P B,
+.QUESTION,
+DIV.TABLE P B,
+DIV.PROCEDURE P B {
+ color: #990000;
+}
+
+BODY H1 {
+ margin: .8em 0 0 -4%;
+ line-height: 1.3;
+}
+
+BODY H2 {
+ margin: .8em 0 0 -4%;
+ line-height: 1.3;
+}
+
+BODY H3 {
+ margin: .8em 0 0 -3%;
+ line-height: 1.3;
+}
+
+BODY H4 {
+ margin: .8em 0 0 -3%;
+ line-height: 1.3;
+}
+
+BODY H5 {
+ margin: .8em 0 0 -2%;
+ line-height: 1.3;
+}
+
+BODY H6 {
+ margin: .8em 0 0 -1%;
+ line-height: 1.3;
+}
+
+BODY HR {
+ margin: .6em
+}
+
+BODY IMG.NAVHEADER {
+ margin: 0 0 0 -4%;
+}
+
+OL {
+ margin: 0 0 0 5%;
+ line-height: 1.2;
+}
+
+BODY PRE {
+ margin: .75em 0;
+ line-height: 1.0;
+ color: #461b7e;
+}
+
+BODY TD {
+ line-height: 1.2
+}
+
+BODY TH {
+ line-height: 1.2;
+}
+
+UL, BODY DIR, BODY MENU {
+ margin: 0 0 0 5%;
+ line-height: 1.2;
+}
+
+HTML {
+ margin: 0;
+ padding: 0;
+}
+
+
+.FILENAME {
+ color: #007a00;
+}
+
+BODY H1, BODY H2, BODY H3, BODY H4, BODY H5, BODY H6 {
+ margin-left: 0
+}
+
+.GUIMENU, .GUIMENUITEM, .GUISUBMENU,
+.GUILABEL, .INTERFACE, .GUIBUTTON,
+.SHORTCUT, .SHORTCUT .KEYCAP {
+ background-color: #F0F0F0;
+}
+
+.ACCEL {
+ background-color: #F0F0F0;
+ text-decoration: underline;
+}
+
+.PROGRAMLISTING, .SCREEN {
+ margin-left: 3ex;
+}
diff -ruN /usr/www/en/support.sgml /mnt/dcvs/www/en/support.sgml
--- /usr/www/en/support.sgml Sun Mar 7 19:21:04 2004
+++ /mnt/dcvs/www/en/support.sgml Sun Mar 21 12:20:50 2004
@@ -29,17 +29,34 @@
<h2>Mailing lists</h2>
<p><a href="doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/eresources.html#ERESOURCES-MAIL">Mailing
- lists</a> are the primary support channel for FreeBSD users, with
- numerous mailing lists covering different topic areas. When in doubt
- about what list to post a question to, post to <a
- href="mailto:freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG">freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG</a>.
- To get an up to the minute view of the mailing lists available
+ lists</a> are the primary communication channels for the FreeBSD
+ community, and cover many topic areas. Depending on the charter
+ of each individual list, it may be more oriented to developers
+ or to FreeBSD users. Please read the charter of a mailing list
+ before you post to it, and respect it when you post. The complete
+ list of mailing list charters is <a
+ href="doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/eresources.html#ERESOURCES-SUMMARY">
+ here</a>.</p>
+
+ <p>When in doubt about what list to post a question to, see <a
+ href="doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/articles/freebsd-questions/">
+ How to get best results from the FreeBSD-questions mailing list</a>.</p>
+
+ <p>Before posting to any list, please learn about how to best use the
+ mailing lists, such as how to help avoid frequently-repeated
+ discussions, by reading the
+ <a href="doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/mailing-list-faq/article.html">Mailing
+ List Frequently Asked Questions</a> (FAQ) document.</p>
+
+ <p>To get an up to the minute view of the mailing lists available
or to subscribe to a mailing list, use FreeBSD.org's <a
href="http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo">Mailman web
interface</a>. All mailman lists are available in a digest
format and have threaded archives available. See the individual
list's web page for details.</p>
+ <a name="mailing-list-archives"></a>
+
<h3>Mailing list archives</h3>
<p>You can
@@ -51,6 +68,8 @@
<a href="http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo">browse</a>;
the mailing lists via Mailman webinterface.</p>
+ <a name="mailing-list-languages"></a>
+
<h3>Non-English Mailing lists</h3>
<p>Several non-English mailing lists are also available:</p>
>Release-Note:
>Audit-Trail:
>Unformatted:
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