Opensuse mailing list netiquette

If you have been pointed to this page after posting a message to one of the openSUSE mailing lists, don't be offended, it is here to make it easier for everybody to contribute to the mailing lists without annoying anybody. There are some easy and basic rules that should be followed:

Use a descriptive subject

The openSUSE mailing list receives hundreds of emails a day. So if you have a question or a problem to solve, please use a subject that summarises your issue and also gives some detail. Here are some examples of subjects from real message to the opensuse mailinglist:

Good subject Scroll horizontally by holding down Alt-key does not work MD5s match MD5SUMS file, but not installation MD5 check

Bad subjects Major problem issue

Learn to quote

When you reply to a message, please quote only the relevant part that you are replying to. Everyone on the list has already received the whole message that you are replying to, so there is no need to repost the whole message. The quoting HOWTO gives a nice introduction to the art of mail quoting.

Bottom post

Posting your reply underneath the quoted text leads to a natural flow of messages, and it is a general consensus that this is a preferred way.

There are times when top-posting is appropriate, for example if you want to say "Thanks, this was the answer", its better to post this at the top of the page. Reading the subject and the first line gives the problem and the info that this is the solution.

Changing the subject without opening a new thread

Very often a long thread split in several ones (for example if there are several answers to the same problem). In this case, add a flag to the subject

Re:kde icon blinks - is that an Xfree problem?

But if the discussion led to an totally different subject, stop, open a new thread and go on.

Don't be aggressive

Most of the people on the list are friendly and helpful people. Please refrain from using agressive and abusive language.

Understand that the audience is passionate about SUSE and openSUSE, posting that you hate SUSE, the mailinglist, or other closely related things, will most likely get passionate responses, don't take things too personally.

There are a lot of people on the list who's first language is not English, and this sometimes leads to misunderstandings in excess of the normal misunderstandings that are common in email exchanges.

Especially don't be agressive to new posters, but instead help them on their way to become a part of our community, sometimes a private email may be appropriate, to explain something.

Don't use a long signature block

Most people on the list genuinely want to help people out in solving any issues they may have. Very large signature blocks at the bottom of emails can hinder this as they often swamp the actual body of the email. A good guideline is a maximum of four lines, each a maximum of eighty characters across (plain text of course). For reference read Jargon File: McQuary Limit