[luau] Proposed list guidelines

[R. Scott Belford]

This is my proposed list guideline/welcome.  I have inserted it into my 
message, and I am including a plain text attachment.   Please do with it 
what you will.  You don't have to like it.  Just help make it better if 
you don't.

scott


Aloha!  Welcome to the mailing list of Hawaii`i's Linux and Unix 
Advocates and Users (LUAU).   We are pleased that you have decided to 
join our gathering.  Before you get too wrapped up in the party, perhaps 
you can take a few moments to look through our recommended list 
guidelines.  Anytime so many people get together and welcome your 
comments in their inbox, it doesn't hurt to know how to be a welcome guest.

LUAU is a mailing list that encourages discussion about Linux and Unix.  
It is a communication venue for users and advocates of the countless 
distributions of Linux.  It is for the many variants of Unix such as the 
*bsd projects.
Unix has given birth to many amazing software projects.  Some of these 
have been organized within the GNU (gnu is not Unix) endeavor.  Some 
have been focused on the development of Linux.  Because of the existence 
of the GPL, these projects are available for anyone to be involved in 
without paying money.  This is because the source code is Open to the 
public.  Consequently, many professionals and hobbyists have been able 
to create software capable of controlling your home, business, or 
charity, and it is Free to you.

Advocates are interested in seeing the benefits of Free and Open Source 
Software reach more than just the enthusiastic community of current 
users.  This list invites their experiences or ideas about how to make 
this remarkable assimilation of distributed software projects a bigger 
part of our society and economy.  If you are involved in an interesting 
project, we would like to know.  Perhaps someone here can help.

Users trying the fruits of these projects may encounter hardware, 
software, and programming issues as they attempt to make the computer 
obey their wishes.  All of their questions are welcome.  Regardless of 
what you may think as you type it, NO question is stupid or foolish.  We 
all start somewhere; there is no shame in sharing where you are.  Your 
helpful experiences are encouraged.  We have a WIKI, why not document 
them there?  If you can help someone, go for it.  If you are wrong, 
there is no harm in trying.

It is harmful not being polite when offering help.  Please do not be 
condescending to or critical of other participants.  Responding to other 
members on the list to address personal issues is generally 
discouraged.  This is a gathering.  If you have an issue with a person 
at a gathering, you don't disrespect the peace of the others by 
publicizing your personal grievances.  This communication is best left 
off the list.

So, this list is about helping.  It is about sharing information.  If 
one wishes to be explicitly critical of a particular software project or 
a design feature in a Linux distribution, try to make this criticism 
with logic and not emotion.  If one really intends to influence the 
opinion of every subscriber to this list, please attempt to do so with 
reason and experience.

Frankly, we ask that you do not SPAM the list.  We define SPAM as 
Selling a Product that Asks for Money.  Please do not use the 
opportunity to reach such a targeted market to push your product.  There 
are subtleties to this policy that are difficult to be certain of.  If 
you are really uncertain, ask the listmanager for input.  Try to think 
of it this way: If you are at a party, you probably don't want someone 
selling you insurance.  You may not mind if they tell you where they got 
a great deal on a processor.  It wouldn't hurt to know about volunteer 
projects you are interested in.  It would be nice if they offered you 
the chance to earn money doing something you like.  In the context of 
this mailing list, it is preferable not to sell products on it, it is 
okay to share good experiences with vendors, it is okay to share 
information about relevant volunteer projects, and it is okay to try to 
give the list sponsor or list members money.

Obviously, there are some formatting suggestions that make everyone's 
experience better.  The first is the theming of a post.  If you find a 
news event that you want to share, please precede the subject with 
[NEWS].  Use this protocol for announcements, [ANNOUNCE] and any other 
theme you think is appropriate.  If you want to pay someone on the list 
for a service, please precede the subject with [SOLICIT]  Also, please 
provide an off-list contact number or address so that interested parties 
can privately negotiate with you.

Replying to a post involves more than just typing in your comment.  
First and foremost, please check to be sure that your email client is 
sending plain text email, not html.  Try to delete everything that is 
not necessary.  This is referred to as trimming your post.  Most email 
clients are set to include the entire message to which you are 
responding in your reply.  Do you really need to include all of this?  
Let us use again consider that this a luau, a gathering.  If you 
approach a crowd and wish to make a comment, do you repeat everything 
that everyone has said before you say your piece, or do you just frame 
your comment within the relevant parts of the discussion?  Look at your 
email before you send it and please remove that which is redundant.  
This includes the mailing list footer the bottom of each message.  If 
there are many people you want to reply to, and their posts have been 
part of an ongoing thread , it is polite to consolidate your replies 
into as few messages as possible.  Try cutting and pasting from the 
various posts and create your own reply.  Excessive traffic can be 
avoided if you don't reply to each post individually.
 
Mistakes will be made.  You may post something inappropriate; you could 
break the guidelines.  This is of no consequence.  Making repeated 
mistakes is no problem because we are just human.  Please don't be 
offended if another subscriber politely suggests a better way to 
communicate something or that they found your post off-topic.  They may 
refer you to a wiki page with a better example.  This only gives you a 
chance to learn.  If you want to subscribe to and be a member of this 
group, it is only appropriate to participate in these few suggested 
ways.  If you want members to comply with these objectives, please be 
gentle and diplomatic in your suggestions.

Effectively ignoring or deliberately neglecting the guidelines is not a 
welcome behavior.  No one can stop you.  You will likely be ignored or 
placed into a black list.  Please don't deprive others of your 
experience by refusing to honor our few guidelines about the theme of 
the group, the level of civility we aspire to, and our desire to keep 
commercialization to a well defined realm.  All of that said, come on 
in.  You are very welcome.


Please note that the first letter of each paragraph spells out "LUAU is 
for ME".  :-)






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