This is the mail archive of the
docbook-apps@lists.oasis-open.org
mailing list .
DocBook Mailing List Guidelines
- From: Norman Walsh <ndw at nwalsh dot com>
- To: docbook at lists dot oasis-open dot org
- Date: Fri, 19 Jul 2002 11:54:49 -0400
- Subject: DOCBOOK-APPS: DocBook Mailing List Guidelines
DocBook Mailing List Guidelines
$Id: guidelines.xml,v 1.3 2002/05/21 13:29:24 ndw Exp $
21 May 2002
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Table of Contents
Posting
Before You Post
Replies Go to the Author
Use Short Quotes of Previous Messages in Replies
Do Not Post Attachments
Cross-Posting
Digests
Unsubscribing from Docbook List
Unsubscribing from Docbook-Apps List
Unsubscribing from the Docbook Digest
Unsubscribing from the Docbook-Apps Digest
If You Stop Getting Messages
Archive
Reporting Bugs in Software
Further Information on DocBook
Contact
This information[1] is posted to the DocBook and DocBook Applications
mailing lists (and their digests) at regular intervals under the subject
line "DocBook list guidelines".
Posting
| Only subscribers can post to mailing lists, and only from the address they
| used when they subscribed.
|
| Only text messages may be posted to the lists. If your mail client posts
| using HTML or some other "enriched" format, your message will be rejected.
| This decision was motivated by the fact that the overwhelming majority of
| spam that gets sent to the lists arrives as text/html.
There are two DocBook-related lists: docbook and docbook-apps. The docbook
list is for general questions about DocBook. The docbook-apps list is for
questions about applications (stylesheets, transformation tools,
publishing tools, processing requirements, etc.) that use or work with
DocBook.
Specifically:
o Questions about DocBook markup (How do I markup a Widget? What's a
FuncSynopsisInfo for?) should be sent to the docbook list.
o Questions about XSL or DSSSL stylesheets, publishing DocBook documents
on your platform of choice, support for PostScript, PDF, or other
types of output, questions about Windows or Unix applications that can
consume or produce DocBook should be sent to the docbook-apps list.
Do not begin your subject line with "help" or "subscribe" since the list
software will bounce the message because it looks like is an
administrative request.
Do not use un-informative subject lines like "Urgent", "Easy question", or
"Problem". Instead, use a meaningful subject line that will make sense to
the people whose help you are trying to get.
Both subscribers to <docbook@lists.oasis-open.org> and
<docbook-digest@lists.oasis-open.org> should post their messages to
<docbook@lists.oasis-open.org>. The messages will be received by both
subscribers to the list and subscribers to the digest.
Both subscribers to <docbook-apps@lists.oasis-open.org> and
<docbook-apps-digest@lists.oasis-open.org> should post their messages to
<docbook-apps@lists.oasis-open.org>. The messages will be received by both
subscribers to the list and subscribers to the digest.
Do not start a new thread by replying to an unrelated message and just
changing the subject line since the header of your message will contain
references to the previous message and your new message will appear in the
archive as one of the replies to the original message. It is better to
start a new message for a new thread.
Before You Post
1. Check that you are posting to the right list.
2. Make sure you are posting from the account that you used to subscribe.
If you post from another account, your message will be delayed until
it is approved by hand.
3. Check that your question isn't already answered in the mailing list
archives at http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook/ or
http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook-apps/.
4. If you are replying to a post, trim the quoted message to just the
parts to which you are replying.
Replies Go to the Author
The DocBook lists don't set the Reply-to: header on messages (see
"Reply-To" Munging Considered Harmful) so replies go to the author by
default. If you want to reply to the list, make sure you include the list
mailing address in your reply.
Most mail readers make this easy by offering two forms of reply:
reply/group-reply or reply/follow-up, for example. If you want to post to
the list, make sure you select group-reply or follow-up or whatever your
mail reader calls it.
Use Short Quotes of Previous Messages in Replies
Please do not quote entire messages just to add a few lines at the
beginning or end. Instead, quote the parts to which you are directly
replying or quote enough to establish the context.
Everybody on the list has already received the message that you are
quoting, and anyone searching the archive will find your message and the
previous message listed under the same thread.
Subscribers to the mailing list will just ignore most of the quoted
messages and move to the next post, but subscribers to the mailing list
Digest will mostly have to page past the quoted messages to reach the next
material in which they are interested in reading.
Do Not Post Attachments
Since mailing lists have in the past been unwittingly used for spreading
viruses in e-mail attachments, all e-mail attachments are banned from the
DocBook lists.
Most relevant documents (SGML and XML files, stylesheets, documents, etc.)
are text files, so this does not affect the majority of posts to the list
since you can include the files' text in the body of your message. If you
need to refer to a binary file such as a PDF document, you should put the
file on a Web site or FTP site and include the file's URL in your post.
Cross-Posting
Cross-posting between the DocBook mailing lists or to other lists is often
counter-productive unless everybody who replies to the thread is on both
lists. Cross-posts from non-subscribers continuing the thread will bounce,
and mailing list subscribers who are not also on the other list will only
see half of the thread, as will those on the other list who are not also
on the mailing list. Subscribers to both lists will see two copies of the
message, annoying them as well.
Digests
Digests--copies of several days mailing list messages, a 100K chunk, sent
as one email message--are available. To subscribe to the docbook-digest,
send a subscription request to
docbook-digest-request@lists.oasis-open.org. To subscribe to the
docbook-apps-digest, send a subscription request to
docbook-apps-digest-request@lists.oasis-open.org. Remember to unsubscribe
to the undigested list, unless you want both.
Unsubscribing from Docbook List
To unsubscribe from the DocBook mailing list, send mail to
<docbook-request@lists.oasis-open.org> with "unsubscribe" as the body of
your message.
Unsubscribing from Docbook-Apps List
To unsubscribe from the DocBook Applications mailing list, send mail to
<docbook-apps-request@lists.oasis-open.org> with "unsubscribe" as the body
of your message.
Unsubscribing from the Docbook Digest
To unsubscribe from the DocBook digest list, send mail to
<docbook-digest-request@lists.oasis-open.org> with "unsubscribe" as the
body of your message.
Unsubscribing from the Docbook-Apps Digest
To unsubscribe from the DocBook Applications digest list, send mail to
<docbook-apps-digest-request@lists.oasis-open.org> with "unsubscribe" as
the body of your message.
If You Stop Getting Messages
If you stop receiving mailing list message, you may have been removed
because mail to you was bouncing. You are not being picked on, and you can
just rejoin the list.
Archive
The DocBook mailing list messages are archived at
http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook/.
The DocBook Applications mailing list messages are archived at
http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook-apps/.
Reporting Bugs in Software
Confirmed bugs in software should be reported to its author rather than to
the mailing list, but it is appropriate to discuss suspected bugs and
workarounds on the docbook-apps list only.
See also: the DocBook Project at SourceForge.
The recommended way to report bugs in software maintined in the DocBook
Project at SourceForge is with the project "tracker" mechanism. Please be
sure to attach a test case that demonstrates the bug.
Further Information on DocBook
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook | The DocBook Home Page |
|-------------------------------------+----------------------------------|
| http://www.docbook.org/ | DocBook: The Definitive Guide |
|-------------------------------------+----------------------------------|
| http://nwalsh.com/docbook/dsssl | DocBook DSSSL Stylesheets |
|-------------------------------------+----------------------------------|
| http://nwalsh.com/docbook/xsl | DocBook XSL Stylesheets |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Contact
If you have any questions or problems, please contact Norman Walsh,
<ndw@nwalsh.com>
--------------
[1] Credit where credit is due: I stole the vast majority of this document
from Tony Graham's excellent posting on the DSSSL and XSL lists. Thanks,
Tony!