[WFS-India] Suggestion for re-modelling of the mailing list rules

[A. Mani]

Rectified Version: 54...58:Final Version

Suggestion: Add few more examples?

For experienced people an optional refined version of earlier
guidelines in harder formalese can be kept
________________________________



Introduction:

These guidelines apply to the WFS-India mailing lists. Please try to
keep these in mind while posting, a sort of self censorship if you
will. These are in place to help members follow the discussions
better, and allow for encouraging,enriching and useful interaction
within the community.


Basic guidelines:

   * Politeness gets your more friends and colleagues willing to help
you and support your cause, so politeness on the list is usually
always a big WIN :-) It is also always nice to say words like
"Thanks", "Thanks in Advance" and "Please". If you have offended
somebody or do not agree with somebody, you can always say "Sorry". Do
not pass sexist, racist, gender discriminatory or hateful remarks on
others.

   * Freedom in software and culture is all about choice, even one
that may be unpopular or niche at a given time. These may even lead to
conflicting opinions and heated debates. If there is disagreement
beyond a certain point, let all agree to be civil and choose to agree
to disagree. Bottom line : not everyone is ever going to agree with
you, then there wouldn't be any 'choice' left. Be happy with your
choice and leave it at that.

   * One for all and all for one - so try to help out others whenever possible.

   * The mailing list archives hold record of past discussions. Often
your question/issues have been discussed threadbare. It is a good
habit to first search and see if that is the case.If your question is
still not answered or if you have additional points to add, go ahead
and post them. The mailing list archives can be found here:
http://www.mail-archive.com/wfs-india@lists.openhatch.org/

Mail composition guidelines:


   * Be considerate to others : When we hit the 'Reply' option of our
mail client, by default we end up quoting and re-posting the entire
mail we are replying to. Doing so is the online equivalent of hogging
a bus seat in a manner that our co-passenger barely has room to seat.
So, try to save bandwidth, when replying to lengthy posts, by snipping
off parts of the original mail that have no bearing to your reply. It
is also good for the planet. Less bytes = Less electricity to push and
prod them around = Less generation of greenhouse gases :-)

   * The top-posting bugbear: Adding your reply to the top of an
existing post is called 'top-posting'. If you are coming from a
corporate e-mail culture, top-posting is the usual norm and replies
often start with 'pls refer to the trail mail'. Top posting is bad
because it breaks threads and makes it difficult to read in natural
logical order. However, as a matter of convention on Free software and
the Cultural Commons, top-posting is often considered bad form. So, on
WFS-India mailing lists interleaved,  trimmed  replies or bottom posts
are preferred.
An example of good reply style is shown below:

______________________________
abc at bmail.com wrote:
>   I am facing a problem when i'm using any linux OS

I  think you're talking about the GNU/Linux OS.  Fedora, Ubuntu,
etc.are  all GNU/Linux distros -- variants of the GNU system (with
Linux as the  kernel).

> CPU fan always from start-up moving so fast , and
<snip>

It is a hardware bug, that is solved here: http://www.666.org

___________________________________

   * Plain text - to be or not to be: Even Hamlet had a tough time
with that, and so do we! In ancient days when the dinos ruled the
Internet, plain-text ASCII was the one true option for email. However
things have changed... and how! Earlier one had an option to prefer
plain text over HTML and RTF for  messages. However, these days, even
if you do not intend to use HTML posts, often your mail client will
automatically do it for you, especially if you even take a passing
sniff at any Unicode (read that as any language other than US English)
text inside your by-and-large english email. It is an option let to
the user, do what you are comfortable doing, just bear in mind that an
HTML encoded mail carries more than twice the size in delivery payload
and most users will be converting it back to plain text.

   * When you post on the WFS-India mailing lists, your posts are
going to be publicly read and archived, so appending lengthy
quasi-legal privacy  messages to your posts really makes no sense. If
such a message is part of your standard e-mail signature/footer,
consider switching it off when posting on WFS-India.

   * Use good understandable English language. Example of
what-not-to-do  "ne1 hr cn tell me whr to gt da source of vlc?". The
correct way to ask would be "Anyone here can tell me where to get the
source of vlc?"

Sharing files and code snippets:

   * Managing large code-segments / log file output / stack traces:
Sooner or later you are going to need posting these to get answers for
your queries or to give replies to others' questions. The way to
handle this is to use a pastebin
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastebin) and point to it using the URL
/ web address in your post / reply. That way everyone remains happy.
:-) Useful public pastebin sites are:
     * http://www.pastebin.com
     * http://pastebin.ca
     * http://pastebin.mozilla.org
   * If you are sharing code snippets, it is useful to share it
through some specialised pastebins which work as code evaluators as
well. These websites let you run your code live and give you a
publicly shareable URL to your snippet. Useful code snippet sharing
sites are:
     * HTML, CSS, Javascript: http://jsfiddle.net
     * PHP, Python, Ruby etc.: http://codepad.org
     * Almost everything: https://gist.github.com
   * If  you dont know how to use these or can't seem to figure out on
your own, we encourage you to ask on the mailing list. Someone will
probably be too happy to help you,  may  be even conduct an online
training session.
   * What if you want to share a file with the entire group : Upload
it somewhere, there are plenty of file-hosting and sharing websites
around. Find one that works best for you. If in doubt just ask on the
list for options. Simply upload and insert the link to the file in
your mail. Useful file upload sites include:
     * Dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com
     * MediaFire: http://www.mediafire.com/
     * Rapidshare: https://rapidshare.com/
   * However, if you are sharing entire libraries or lengthy code or
documentation that you have written, it makes more sense to upload
your work to GitHub or Bitbucket, and sharing the link to your
repository with the members of the mailing list. This will also help
you learning more about version control in general.


What to avoid?

   * Off Topic messages: Women in technology are still a relative
minority globally, WFS-India seeks to address the gap in India,
especially when it comes to Free Software and the Commons. So let us
try being as close to Free Software and Open Source, issues affecting
women and the traditionally marginalized like LGBT and their
participation in technology production, ownership and use.If you feel
the topic merits posting even if it does not fall within the above
boundaries use the [OT] tag on subject line while posting such
messages.

   * Using the list as a job board / promotional space: Commercial
posts and  job offerings etc. for anything to do with Free Software
and Culture are welcome with a rider, as long as the subject line
carries a [Commercial] tag. Also, the original sender should provide
contact details where interested members may contact off the list. The
member is not expected to treat this list exclusively as a job board
or a business promotion space. On repeated attempts, a member may
first be warned. However further instances may lead the member to lose
the posting privilege / membership in the group.

   * If  you're responding to a job posted on the list, make sure you
do not respond to the list. Instead reply back to the original sender,
using the contact details provided in the job posting. In the event
when no separate contact details have been provided by the sender,
compose a new message to the sender's email address without replying
back to the list.

   * Cross-posting: Posting the same mail to multiple mailing lists at
the same time is called cross-posting. People often indulge in this in
their attempt to reach out to the maximum number of people at the same
time. However, different lists have different objectives, goals and
priorities and in general cross-posting is considered as impolite
behavior. Try to refrain from the same as far as possible, if you are
the OP (original poster) then posting same email to multiple list
maybe okay for the first email, but posting follow-up replies to
conversations on other lists and have these out of context replies
pumped back into this list makes things confusing for members on this
list. The latter action is actively discouraged. The members are
encouraged to withhold themselves from such follow-up cross-posting as
a sort of self-censorship. Repeated cross-posting in spite of
objections from list members may result in revocation of posting
privileges.

* Hijacking threads: A thread begins when someone posts a new topic
with a new subject line and not as a reply to another's mail. The
discussion the generates around that topic is called a thread. Imagine
a group of your friends discussion about Sachin Tendulkar's retirement
date and suddenly you interrupt everyone by loudly demanding to know
if 'Did United States Congress ratify the Kyoto Protocol on Climate
Change?' When you do something like that on a mailing list it is
called hijacking the thread. So, for every new question use a
different subject line. Posting a new topic as a reply to an existing
email in the list will make it appear as a comment on an existing
thread. Instead, create a new email with a new subject line while
sending a new topic or question to the list.This will ensure that you
have a far better chance of getting an answer to your question or
whatever you wished to discuss. And just like in the real world people
won't see you as an intrusion/intruder and welcome you.

  * Illegal activities: This list has zero-tolerance for discussions
that indulge in any illegal activities like software cracking, sharing
 cracks/serial  numbers for proprietary, non-free software,
copying/distribution of proprietary, non-free software whose End-user
License Agreement (EULA) restricts such an action, passwords of
accounts you are not supposed to have access to etc on the list.
Doing so will result in summary loss of membership of the group.

   * Bigotry: Do not pass sexist, racist, gender discriminatory, or
hateful remarks on others. Denigration or display of bigotry, even as
off-color jokes towards any particular community,  group, gender or
country on the list are not welcome.

   * Personal Emails : As a group we socialize here. We also debate
and discuss. If you wish to talk to or email a specific member, please
do so by sending a private email to that member's email address.

 * No stalking : Romances and deeply meaningful friendship do often
blossom between individuals on an online community. However any report
of attempts to stalk or similarly harass a member may lead to life ban
from membership as well as possible report of such activity to Law
Enforcement Agencies

  * If in doubt, send an off-list message to the List Admin(s) and ask.


____________________________________________




Best

A. Mani


--
A. Mani
CU, ASL, AMS, CLC, CMS
http://www.logicamani.in