Date: Mon, 7 Mar 94 08:29 PST
From: bruce@nova.unix.portal.com (Bruce Perens)
To: debian-announce@pixar.com
Subject: Debian Mailing List FAQ

This is the Debian Mailing List FAQ. This version is dated March 7, 1994.
There are several e-mail lists concerning the Debian Distribution:

    Subject               List to Use

    Announcements         debian-announce@pixar.com (moderated)
    User Questions        debian-user@pixar.com
    Software Development  debian-devel@pixar.com (closed membership)

The manager of the lists is Bruce Perens < Bruce@Pixar.com>.

HOW TO SUBSCRIBE

Everyone who is running the Debian Linux distribution should subscribe
to the debian-announce list, and you may wish to subscribe to the
debian-user list. To do so, mail a message containing these
commands to LISTSERV@PIXAR.COM

	subscribe debian-announce YOUR-NAME-HERE
	subscribe debian-user YOUR-NAME-HERE

Since several people who might not be very good at reading English have
missed the point - put your name where it says "YOUR-NAME-HERE"!

If you are actively developing software for the Debian distribution,
you should subscribe to debian-devel. Send mail to Bruce@Pixar.com
with a sentence explaining what software you are developing and a
request to be added to the list.

GUIDELINES

The debian-user and debian-devel lists are currently unmoderated.
Any time the noise level climbs, I may turn moderation on. Thus:

+ Please try to stick to the topic of the list.
+ When you think a posting is off the topic, say so to the author
  rather than the list, and allow the topic to quietly die off of the list.
+ When replying to a posting, edit the "> " text down to a few lines.
+ Don't carbon-copy mail to the list inadvertently, it will get published!
+ Don't start a flame war on this channel - there is a polite way to
  say almost anything.
+ Be slow to take offense, some of our posters act young and require
  patience.
+ Do not use "personalities" such as "So-and-so is the one who did this
  on the usenet 6 months ago".
+ Don't swear, it means trouble for people who access this group via
  digital ham radio, where swearing is not allowed.
+ Be considerate of me. When I have to turn moderation on I use up my
  break time in editing the mailing list.

ABOUT THE LIST SERVER

You can do everything necessary to maintain your own subscription via
the list server. For instructions, Send mail to listserv@pixar.com with
this exact text in the body of the message:

	HELP
	LISTS

That will tell you how to use the list server, and what lists are
available for you to join.

You may find the list-server to be a bit restrictive at times. This
is not done to give you a hassle, but to make it possible for the list
to run without diverting me from my job many times each day.

To guard the readers from junk-mail, the list server will reject mail if
the sender is root or a daemon, or the subject looks like output of a
vacation program, is something like "test" or "please ignore", or looks
like a mail delivery failure report. It will also reject list-server
commands that are sent to the mailing list instead of listserv@Pixar.com .
If you have problems posting a message, send e-mail to Bruce@Pixar.com .

ABOUT PROCMAIL

I subscribe to 20 different mailing lists, and use the "procmail"
program to divert them into individual mailboxes so that my personal
mailbox doesn't get filled with list mail and I can read each list as
if it was a newsgroup.  If you wish to get "procmail" to help you
manage reading this list, a recent version can be picked up at various
comp.sources.misc archives.  The latest version can be obtained
directly from the ftp-archive at ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de
(137.226.112.172), directory pub/unix/procmail . If you can't use FTP,
ask me (Bruce@Pixar.com) and I'll e-mail the source.

Another way to reduce your mail volume is to send mail to
LISTSERV@pixar.com with the command:

	SET DEBIAN-USER MAIL DIGEST

That will cause the list to be collected into a digest and mailed to
you once daily. Don't do this unless the mail volume is a problem, it's
easier to reply to individual messages than a digest, and easier to have
a conversation without a 24-hour delay. To turn this feature back off,
send LISTSERV the command:

	SET DEBIAN-USER MAIL ACK

Please e-mail Bruce@Pixar.com to suggest any changes to this FAQ.

	Thanks

	Bruce Perens