Hello folks,
This is a periodic mailing of the FAQ[1] for the various xiph.org
mailing lists. This is triggered by noticing some [probably minor]
clueless use of the mailing list. If you haven't read it before,
please read it now.
[1] In this case FAQ == Frequently Answered Questions. We answer 'em
before you ask 'em. They're not rules, they're just the way it
works.
1) Do not send subscribe/unsubscribe messages to the list; they'll be
filtered and ignored by the mail list system and no one will ever
see them. Follow the instructions listed in the footer of every
message. Eg, to unsubscribe, send a message with the single word
'unsubscribe' in the body to <listname>-request@xiph.org. If
you
have trouble, a polite request to postmaster@xiph.org will get
your request to a human.
2) When posting to the list, don't just ignore subject lines, or reply
to messages that have nothing to do with what you're about to say.
Sophisticated mail readers (like the ones many of the core
developers use) thread conversations, and quite a few of us have
our mail readers set up to totally ignore threads we've previously
marked as uninteresting. Landing an unrelated message in the middle
of a totally different conversation which many of the core folk
have marked as 'uninteresting' will just get you ignored. We'll
never see your mail. We get hundereds of messages a day, and list
mail simply has to take a low priority through batch handling like
that.
BTW, just editing the subject line is not enough to keep your
message out of a thread if you hit 'Reply'. A seperate header is
embedded in the message called 'In-Reply-To'. At a guess, the
pretty graphical mail readers don't let you edit it, or even tell
you that it's there. If you want to start a new subject or
conversation, hit 'New Message' please. Not 'Reply'.
3) The list software does not allow email in HTML format; it is
intentionally configured to drop all HTML formatted software on the
ground with no error and no warning. The primary motivation for
this is to block mailspam; this trick alone filters 99% of the
mailspam that would otherwise flood the lists. A secondary
motivation is that most of the core of the list do not use HTML
mail readers and thus the message looks like gibberish. A tertiary
motivation is that no accepted email standard allows that
particular abuse of the emial RFCs.
Outlook and Exchange, by default, tend to be configured to send
everything in marked up, HTML-like format. This markup is useless
to most of us, takes up space, confuses the web archiving software
and generally does nobody any good. Oh... and it will cause your
mail to get dropped; if you're confused why your posts aren't
showing up on the list, this is probably the reason. Please turn
this formatting 'feature' off when posting to xiph.org lists.
That's all I can think of for now. Happy posting.
Monty
--- >8 ----
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