Annotation of www/mail.html, Revision 1.131
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1.25 deraadt 16: <p>
1.129 deraadt 17: <h2><font color="#e00000">Mailing Lists</font></h2>
1.57 horacio 18: <hr>
1.7 downsj 19:
1.66 nick 20: Mailing lists are an important means of communication among users and
1.121 tedu 21: developers of OpenBSD. With the exception of <b>announce</b>,
22: the lists are not moderated. We deliberately
1.66 nick 23: restrict the number of different mailing lists.
24: This helps reduce the amount of cross-posting and makes sure that the
25: information gets distributed to a wide audience.
26:
1.28 louis 27: <p>
1.66 nick 28: <a name="Netiquette"></a>
29: <h2><font color="#e00000">Netiquette</font></h2>
1.28 louis 30: <p>
31: Be considerate of other subscribers on the mailing lists.
32: <dl>
1.66 nick 33: <dt><b>Plain text, 72 characters per line</b>
34: <dd>Many subscribers and developers read their mail on text-based mailers
35: (mail(1), emacs, Mutt)
1.45 millert 36: and they find HTML-formatted messages, or lines that stretch beyond 72
37: characters often unreadable.
38: Most OpenBSD mailing lists strip messages of MIME content before
39: sending them out to the rest of the list.
40: If you don't use plain text your messages will be reformatted or,
41: if they cannot be reformatted, summarily rejected.
1.66 nick 42: The only mailing list that allows attachments is the <b>ports</b> list,
1.45 millert 43: they will be removed from messages on the other mailing lists.
1.66 nick 44:
45: <dt><b>Do your homework before you post</b>
1.28 louis 46: <dd>If you have an installation question, make sure that you have read the relevant
47: documents such as the INSTALL.* text files in the FTP installation directories, the
1.57 horacio 48: <a href="faq/index.html">FAQ</a> and the relevant man pages (start with
1.66 nick 49: <a href= "http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=afterboot&sektion=8">afterboot(8)</a>),
50: and check the mailing list <a href="#Archives">archives</a>.
51: We want to help, but we wouldn't want to deprive you of a valuable
52: learning experience, and no one wants to see the same question on the
53: lists for the fifth time in a month.
54:
55: <dt><b>Include a useful Subject line</b>
1.45 millert 56: <dd>Messages with an empty Subject will get bounced to the list manager and
1.57 horacio 57: so they will take longer to show up. Including a relevant Subject in the message
1.45 millert 58: will ensure that more people actually read what you've written.
59: Also, avoid Subject lines with excessive capitalization.
1.96 jmc 60: "Help!" or "I can't get it to work!" are not useful subject lines.
1.66 nick 61: Do not change the subject line while on the same topic. YOU may know
62: what it is regarding, the rest of us who get several hundred messages a
63: day will have no idea.
64:
65: <dt><b>Trim your signature</b>
66: <dd>Keep the signature lines at the bottom of your mail to a reasonable
67: length. PGP signatures, and those automatic address cards are merely
68: annoying and are stripped out. Legal disclaimers and advisories are
69: very annoying, and inappropriate to public mailing lists.
70:
71: <dt><b>Stay on topic</b>
1.28 louis 72: <dd>Please keep the subject of the post relevant to users of OpenBSD.
1.66 nick 73:
74: <dt><b>Include important information</b>
75: <dd>Don't waste everyone's time with a hopelessly incomplete question.
76: No one other than you has the information needed to resolve your
77: problem, it is better to provide more information than needed than one
78: detail too little. Any question should include at least the
79: <a href="faq/faq5.html#Flavors">version</a> of OpenBSD (i.e.,
80: "3.2-stable", "3.3-current as of July 20, 2003"). Any hardware related
1.69 nick 81: questions should mention the platform (i.e., sparc,
1.66 nick 82: alpha, etc.), and provide a full
1.70 nick 83: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=dmesg&sektion=8">dmesg(8)</a>.
1.66 nick 84: Hardware model numbers, unfortunately, don't indicate much about the
85: actual content of a particular machine or accessory, and are useless to
86: anyone who doesn't have that exact machine sitting where they can easily
87: recognize it. The dmesg(8) tells us exactly what is IN your machine,
88: not what stickers are on the outside.
89:
90: <dt><b>Respect differences in opinion and philosophy</b>
91: <dd>Intelligent people may look at the same set of facts and come to
92: very different conclusions. Repeating the same points that didn't
93: convince someone previously rarely changes their mind and irritates all
94: the other readers.
95:
96: <dt><b>Do not cross-post or repeat post</b>
97: <dd>Posting the same message to multiple lists and/or multiple times
98: does not increase the likelihood of getting a useful response, but is
99: likely to irritate the people you want to help you. If you didn't get a
100: satisfactory response the first time you posted to an appropriate list,
101: it is usually because you provided insufficient or unclear information.
102: Don't simply repost the same message.
103:
1.28 louis 104: </dl>
1.1 deraadt 105:
1.33 millert 106: <p>
1.66 nick 107: <a name="spam"></a>
108: <h2><font color="#e00000">Spam</font></h2>
1.33 millert 109: <p>
1.66 nick 110: The OpenBSD mailing lists use
1.78 millert 111: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=spamd&sektion=8">spamd(8)</a> in greylisting mode as well as
1.66 nick 112: <a href="http://www.spamassassin.org">SpamAssassin</a> to keep down the
1.87 millert 113: spam volume but things do sneak through--deal with it.
1.66 nick 114: In addition, the list server also has regex-based rules to reject
1.87 millert 115: based on some common spam and virus telltales.
116: If you get spam through one of the OpenBSD mailing lists, you don't need to
117: send a copy to the list owner--chances are he's already seen it.
118: Also, please do <b>not</b> submit spam received through the
119: mailing lists to <a href="http://spamcop.net">spamcop</a>
120: as this will result in the list server being added to their RBL.
121: Complaining about and commenting upon spam on the list proper
122: is counter-productive as it generates more traffic than the spam itself.
123: <p>
1.77 millert 124: Note that if you are sending mail from a dynamic IP address you
125: will probably <b>not</b> be able to post to the mailing lists.
126: In this case you should use a <em>smart host</em> sendmail configuration
127: that utilizes your ISP's mail server. See the comments in
128: <tt>/usr/share/sendmail/cf/openbsd-proto.mc</tt> for how to do this.
1.66 nick 129:
130:
131: <a name="Lists"></a>
132: <h2><font color="#e00000">The Mailing Lists</font></h2>
1.33 millert 133:
1.66 nick 134: <h3>General Interest Lists</h3>
135: These lists are of interest to most users of OpenBSD.
1.1 deraadt 136: <dl>
1.66 nick 137:
138: <dt><b>misc</b>
139: <dd>User questions and answers, general questions. This is the most
140: active list. Please, <a href="faq/index.html">read the FAQ</a> and the
141: installation documents, and see <a href="report.html">How to report a
142: Problem</a> before posting.
143:
144: <dt><b>advocacy</b>
145: <dd>Promoting the use of OpenBSD. Non-technical discussions in
146: <i>misc</i> often get shunted here.
147:
148: <dt><b>announce</b>
149: <dd>Important announcements. This low volume list is excellent for
150: people who just want occasional news about the project.
151:
152: <dt><b>ports</b>
153: <dd>Discussions about using and contributing to the 'ports' source tree.
154:
1.127 tedu 155: </dl>
156:
1.66 nick 157: <h3>Developer's Lists</h3>
158: These lists are for technical discussions of aspects of OpenBSD. They
159: are NOT for beginning or average users, they are not for problem
160: reporting (unless you are including a good fix), and they are not for
161: installation problems. If you have any question about if a message
162: should be posted to any of these lists, almost invariably, it should not
163: be. Use <b>misc</b>, above, instead. <b>Please</b> do not cross post
164: to multiple lists.
165:
166: <dl>
167: <dt><b>bugs</b>
1.57 horacio 168: <dd><a href="report.html">Bug reports</a> as sent in via
1.66 nick 169: <a href="http://www.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/man.cgi?query=sendbug&sektion=1">sendbug(1)</a>
1.119 nick 170: and follow-up discussions.
1.66 nick 171:
172: <dt><b>tech</b>
173: <dd>Discussion of technical topics for OpenBSD developers and advanced
174: users. This is <b>not</b> a "tech support" forum, do not use it as
175: such.
1.86 nick 176: OpenBSD developers will often make patches to implement new features
177: and other important changes available for public testing through this
178: list.
1.123 deraadt 179: </dl>
1.66 nick 180:
181: <h3>Platform Specific Lists</h3>
182: These lists are focused on user issues and development on individual
183: platforms.
184: <dl>
185: <dt><b>alpha</b>
186: <dd>OpenBSD/alpha port
187:
1.75 miod 188: <dt><b>arm</b>
1.105 deanna 189: <dd>OpenBSD/zaurus port and other ARM porting efforts
1.75 miod 190:
1.66 nick 191: <dt><b>hppa</b>
192: <dd>OpenBSD/hppa port
193:
1.98 miod 194: <dt><b>m88k</b>
195: <dd>OpenBSD/aviion, OpenBSD/luna88k and OpenBSD/mvme88k ports
196:
1.66 nick 197: <dt><b>ppc</b>
1.81 nick 198: <dd>OpenBSD/macppc and other PowerPC porting efforts
1.66 nick 199:
1.109 jsing 200: <dt><b>sgi</b>
201: <dd>OpenBSD/sgi port
202:
1.66 nick 203: <dt><b>sparc</b>
204: <dd>OpenBSD/sparc and OpenBSD/sparc64 ports
205:
206: <dt><b>vax</b>
207: <dd>OpenBSD/vax port
208: </dl>
209:
210: <h3>CVS Changes Mailing Lists</h3>
211: Every time a developer commits a change to the OpenBSD
1.130 jcs 212: CVS tree, a message is mailed out to all the subscribers
1.66 nick 213: of these lists, containing the commit comments.
214:
215: <dl>
216: <dt><b>source-changes</b>
217: <dd>Automated mail-out of CVS source tree changes in all the repositories
218: other than <i>ports</i>.
219:
220: <dt><b>ports-changes</b>
221: <dd>Automated mail-out of ports-specific CVS source tree changes.
1.1 deraadt 222: </dl>
223:
1.116 sthen 224: <a name="Mirrors"></a>
225: <h3>Mirror-related Mailing Lists</h3>
226: Announcements and discussion relating to mirrors of OpenBSD.
227:
228: <dl>
229: <dt><b>mirrors-announce</b>
230: <dd>This is a moderated list used solely for important announcements
231: to operators of OpenBSD mirrors.
232:
233: <dt><b>mirrors-discuss</b>
234: <dd>Discussion relating to OpenBSD mirrors.
235: </dl>
236:
1.66 nick 237: <a name="Majordomo"></a>
238: <h2><font color="#e00000">Managing Mailing List Membership via
239: Majordomo</font></h2>
1.1 deraadt 240: <p>
1.57 horacio 241: If you want to be sent a complete list with all mailing lists available
1.66 nick 242: at openbsd.org, send the command "<tt>lists</tt>" on the body of
1.57 horacio 243: a message to
244: <a href="mailto:majordomo@OpenBSD.org">majordomo@OpenBSD.org</a>.
1.28 louis 245:
246: <p>
1.66 nick 247: To subscribe to a given list, send mail to
248: <a href="mailto:majordomo@OpenBSD.org">majordomo@OpenBSD.org</a>
249: with a message body of "<b>subscribe mailing-list-name</b>".
250:
251: <p>
252: For further assistance, send a message body of "<b>help</b>"
1.57 horacio 253: to <a href="mailto:majordomo@OpenBSD.org">majordomo@OpenBSD.org</a>
1.13 deraadt 254: and you will receive a reply outlining all your options. Your domain
1.66 nick 255: <b>MUST</b> resolve properly or the mail will not go through!
1.1 deraadt 256:
1.66 nick 257:
258: <a name="Web"></a>
259: <h2><font color="#e00000">Managing Mailing List Membership via
260: Web</font></h2>
261: Your membership to the OpenBSD mailing lists can also be managed via
262: a web interface at:
263: <blockquote>
264: <a href="http://lists.openbsd.org/">http://lists.openbsd.org/</a>
265: </blockquote>
266:
267:
268: <a name="Tricks"></a>
269: <h2><font color="#e00000">Mailing Lists Tricks</font></h2>
270: There are a number of very useful options that can be selected, either
271: by the <a href="http://lists.openbsd.org">web interface</a> or through
272: <a href="mailto:majordomo@openbsd.org">Majordomo</a>. You can change
273: your email address without having to unsubscribe and resubscribe, you
1.69 nick 274: can temporarily disable your message delivery for a few days while you go on
1.66 nick 275: vacation, and much more. The user is invited to spend some time reading
276: through the options, available by sending
277: <a href="mailto:majordomo@openbsd.org">Majordomo</a> a message
278: containing "<tt>help</tt>" as the body text, or through the
279: "<tt>Help</tt>" tab of the <a href="http://lists.openbsd.org">web
280: interface</a>.
281:
282: <p>
283: As an example, if you were going on vacation for two weeks and didn't
1.69 nick 284: wish to come back to several thousand e-mails, you can disable
1.70 nick 285: message delivery by the mail server for the time of your vacation and have
286: delivery automatically resume upon your scheduled return using the command:
1.66 nick 287: <pre>
1.82 nick 288: set ALL nomail-14d
1.66 nick 289: </pre>
1.68 nick 290: This will suspend your subscription to all mail lists for 14 days
291: (<tt>-14d</tt>). More details and options can be seen on the
1.90 grunk 292: <a href="http://lists.openbsd.org/cgi-bin/mj_wwwusr?&user=&passw=&list=GLOBAL&func=help&extra=overview">Majordomo
1.68 nick 293: overview page</a>.
294:
1.66 nick 295:
296: <h3>Digests</h3>
297: If you would prefer to see a "digest" (a consolidated listing of all the
298: messages for a time period), rather than getting messages individually
299: in "real-time" form, you can use the commands:
300: <pre>
301: set misc digest-daily
302: set source-changes digest-weekly
303: </pre>
304: for daily digests of the <b>misc</b> list, and weekly digests of the
305: <b>source-changes</b> list. Yes, multiple commands can be placed in one
306: Majordomo email.
307:
308:
309: <a name="OtherLists"></a>
310: <h2><font color="#e00000">Other Mailing Lists</font></h2>
311: <p>
312: The fine folks at
313: <a href="http://www.squish.net/openbsd/">squish.net</a> run mailing
314: lists with daily and weekly digests of the OpenBSD <b>source-changes</b>
315: and <b>ports-changes</b> mailing list. This is handy for those who
1.72 nick 316: don't like the typically high volume of these lists.
1.42 millert 317:
318: <p>
1.108 merdely 319: The insomniac at <a href="http://www.benzedrine.cx/mailinglist.html">benzedrine.cx</a>
1.66 nick 320: maintains the <b>pf</b> list for people using the OpenBSD
1.61 dhartmei 321: packet filter. To subscribe:
322: <br>
323: echo subscribe | mail pf-request@benzedrine.cx
324:
1.66 nick 325: <a name="nonEnglish"></a>
326: <h2><font color="#e00000">Non-English Lists</font></h2>
1.28 louis 327:
1.66 nick 328: Several non-English speaking mailing lists related to OpenBSD are available
1.59 miod 329: separately. Here is a list of the currently known mailing lists:
330:
331: <!--
332: PLEASE KEEP THIS LIST SORTED, EXCEPT FOR TRANSLATIONS, WHERE YOU SHOULD PUT
333: THE LIST IN YOUR LANGUAGE, IF ONE EXISTS, HEAD OF LIST.
334: -->
335:
336: <p>
1.84 otto 337: Dutch:
338: <b>openbsd@list.ii.nl</b>
339: <br>To subscribe, visit the URL at:
340: <a href="http://list.ii.nl/listinfo/openbsd">http://list.ii.nl/listinfo/openbsd</a>.
341:
342: <p>
1.71 todd 343: French:
1.100 aanriot 344: <b>misc@openbsd-france.org</b>
1.71 todd 345: <br>To subscribe, visit the URL at:
1.117 gilles 346: <a href="http://www.openbsd-france.org/communaute.php">http://www.openbsd-france.org/communaute.php</a>.
1.71 todd 347:
348: <p>
1.59 miod 349: Italian:
1.66 nick 350: <a href="http://www.sikurezza.org/">sikurezza.org</a>, an Italian language
351: non-commercial security portal hosts <b>openbsd@sikurezza.org</b>.
1.59 miod 352: <br>To subscribe just send an empty message to <a
353: href="mailto:openbsd-subscribe@sikurezza.org">openbsd-subscribe@sikurezza.org</a>.
354:
355: <p>
1.114 syuu 356: Japanese:
357: <b>openbsd-japan@googlegroups.com</b><br>
358: To subscribe, please visit
359: <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/openbsd-japan">
360: http://groups.google.com/group/openbsd-japan</a>
361:
1.131 ! sthen 362: <p>
1.59 miod 363: Portuguese:
1.66 nick 364: <b>openbsd@neei.uevora.pt</b>
1.59 miod 365: <br>To subscribe, visit the URL at:
366: <a href="http://neei.uevora.pt/mailman/listinfo/openbsd/">http://neei.uevora.pt/mailman/listinfo/openbsd/</a>.
1.34 form 367:
368: <p>
1.73 nick 369: Slovenian:
370: to subscribe please visit the URL at
371: <a href="http://obsd.17slon.org/mailinglist.php"
372: >http://obsd.17slon.org/mailinglist.php</a>
373:
374: <p>
1.62 fgsch 375: Spanish:
1.91 grunk 376: <b>OpenBSD-Mexico@googlegroups.com</b>, run from Mexico.
377: <br>To subscribe, please visit
378: <a href="http://groups.google.com.mx/group/OpenBSD-Mexico">
379: http://groups.google.com.mx/group/OpenBSD-Mexico</a>
1.49 horacio 380:
381: <p>
1.101 steven 382: Ukrainian:
383: <b>openbsd@uaoug.org.ua</b>
384: <br>To subscribe, send mail to
385: <a href="mailto:openbsd+subscribe@uaoug.org.ua">
386: openbsd+subscribe@uaoug.org.ua</a>
387:
388: <p>
1.66 nick 389: <a name="Archives"></a>
390: <h2><font color="#e00000">Mailing List Archives:</font></h2>
391: These mailing list archives are not managed by the OpenBSD project.
392: Take the time to look at more than one -- each is a little different,
393: and has different search abilities. If you don't find an answer in
394: one, check another.
395:
1.19 deraadt 396: <ul>
1.106 martynas 397: <li><a href="http://marc.info/">MARC</a>
1.120 sthen 398: <li><a href="http://dir.gmane.org/index.php?prefix=gmane.os.openbsd">Gmane</a> (also available by <a href="nntp://news.gmane.org/">NNTP</a>)
1.57 horacio 399: <li>Neohapsis has a
400: <a href="http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/openbsd/">mixed archive
401: for tech@, misc@ and ports@</a> and a
402: <a href="http://archives.neohapsis.com/archives/openbsd/cvs/">mixed
403: archive for CVS commits</a>
1.120 sthen 404: <li><a href="http://www.sigmasoft.com/~openbsd/archives/">Sigmasoft</a> has posts up to March 2010
405: <li><a href="http://www.monkey.org/openbsd/">Monkey.org</a> has posts up to June 2009
1.19 deraadt 406: </ul>
1.1 deraadt 407:
1.97 nick 408: <p>
409: General search engines, such as
410: <a href="http://www.google.com">Google</a> also prove very effective at
411: finding answers to OpenBSD questions.
412:
1.103 reyk 413: <p>
414: <a name="Feeds"></a>
415: <h2><font color="#e00000">RSS Feeds:</font></h2>
416: There are also some RSS feeds available. Most recent web browsers will
417: support RSS feeds, but there are also a number of RSS readers available.
418: The RSS feeds are not managed by the OpenBSD project.
419:
420: <ul>
421: <li><a href="http://www.undeadly.org/cgi?action=rss">OpenBSD Journal</a>
422: <li><a href="http://www.undeadly.org/cgi?action=errata">OpenBSD Errata (provided by the OpenBSD Journal)</a>
423: </ul>
1.1 deraadt 424:
425: </body>
426: </html>
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