Because a number of people have been _obviously_ not bothering to take
any effort in terms of reading the FAQ for the mailing list or even
following any of the rules contained within, I'm sending this updated
(today) version out to the mailing list so that _nobody_ has any excuse
for not knowing the rules.
Consider this a rather nasty warning that if you do not follow the rules
contained within, you will be removed from the list.
Ae.
CircleMUD Mailing List Frequently Asked Questions
(created July 9th, 1996)
(last updated November 13th, 2000)
Authored and Maintained by: Alex Fletcher <fletchra@qsilver.queensu.ca>
_________________________________________________________________
Contrary to what is apparently popular belief, this FAQ just happens
to contain the policies of the CircleMUD Mailing List.
Herein lie the answers to the following questions:
(Items marked with '*' are in this part of the posting)
* Q1: What is the CircleMUD mailing list about? How do I post an
article?
* Q2: How do I subscribe/unsubscribe to the list?
* Q3: Are there any subject conventions I should follow?
* Q4: What other conventions should I follow?
* Q5: Why all of these rules on how to format messages?
Q6: Is there an archive?
Q7: Are there any resource archives for the mailing list?
Q8: How often are articles processed? How are they processed? How
about a digest?
Q9: What other things should I know?
Q10: I hate the flames, what can I do?
Q11: Where can I find this FAQ?
Q12: What is the history of this FAQ?
_________________________________________________________________
Q1: What is the CircleMUD mailing list about? How do I post an
article?
The CircleMUD mailing list is for CircleMUD implementors and
administrators to gather together to discuss coding techniques,
ideas, methods, and solutions, as well as other CircleMUD
related discussions such as lib related items (the world, help
files, etc), changes needed for Operating Systems, bugs and
problems, and so forth.
Common netiquette rules apply on the list, especially those
related to flaming, advertising, quoting, slang, and large sig
files. Flames are not welcome on the list itself. If you feel
the need to flame someone, please send it to them only.
Commercial advertising is also not welcome on the list. If you
feel the need to advertise your mud, start the subject with
[AD]. When quoting previous pieces of mail, only quote what is
needed, do not quote the entire message, that just wastes
bandwidth and the readers' time. Also, sig files should be kept
to a minimum. This means less than four lines please. Finally,
discussions on the use of the English language are no longer
welcome (ditto for calling people Hitler), and these 'offenses'
will result a removal from the list with a piece of form mail
explaining why.
To post an article, simply send it to: <circle@post.queensu.ca>
Q2: How do I subscribe/unsubscribe to the Mailing list?
To subscribe to the mailing list send a message to
listserv@post.queensu.ca with any subject and the message body
should be simply subscribe circle <first name> <last name>.
Subscription attempts from system accounts (ie 'root',
'postmaster', etc) will be ignored.
To unsubscribe from the list send a message to
<listserv@post.queensu.ca> with the words unsubscribe circle as
the message body.
DO NOT send subscription/unsubscription requests to the list in
general. There are hundereds of people on the list, and it will
only irritate a ton of people who have no power to remove you
from the list.
If you have any problems, please contact
<owner-circle@post.queensu.ca>.
Remember, posting on the list is a privilege. It is suggested
that you lurk for a while to get a gist of how things work on
the list. Reading the list archives can also be very useful.
Q3: Are there any subject conventions I should follow?
First of all, please include a subject on ALL of your CircleMUD
mailing list mail. This subject should be a BRIEF summary of
the message sent.
Second, as noted above, there are some subject conventions that
are often followed on the mailing list so that people can
choose what they want to read.
AD:
This should be used for Mud Advertisments and the like.
ADMIN:
This header should be used when discussing administration
methods and ideas for muds.
CODE:
This should preface an article that is generally about a
piece of code, either release, or one that has a bug in
it.
INFO:
This is more of an administrative use, but can also be
used to inform people of a new code release, change on
the FTP site, or some other piece of interesting
information.
LIB:
This header should be used when discussing the db part of
CircleMUD, including, but not limited to, the world.
NEWBIE:
This should preface a 'dumb question', or one that you
think has an obvious answer but is eluding you.
RP:
This header should be used when discussing Role-Playing
ideas for CircleMUDs.
SYSTEM:
This header should be used when discussing various
operating system needs and changes. This header can be
further expanded into SYSTEM-WIN95, SYSTEM-LINUX, etc.
Note that you do not need to put the [Circle] tag on your mail
as it will be added by the remailer. You are welcome to suggest
other subject prefaces.
Q4: What other conventions should I follow?
- Read the CircleMUD FAQ before posting to the list, your
question may already be answered in there.
- In short: No more than 80 columns wide, and only use 7bit
ASCII. If you are posting from a country/language which uses
"special" characters, such as with umlauts or other diacritical
marks, then please ensure that your mailer properly MIME wraps
them. Most modern mailers will do this properly.
- MIME, HTML, RichText and similar are discouraged. This includes
"vcard" attachments from Netscape mail and similar. Small MIME
attachments, such as a graphic used to illustrate a point
discussed in the text of a message, are acceptable. The guiding
rule is that the brunt of the value of a message must always be
in the text.
- Use a bit of common sense when quoting. Include enough of the
original message to make sense; no more or less. Avoid quoting
an entire post with a one line reply (one line replies are
bad).
- Sending large pieces of mail is counter productive. Don't do
it.
- It is not necessary to PGP-sign your posts.
- Stick to CircleMUD topics. Discussing non-CircleMUD topics such
as how to flood a machine with 'ping' requests is off topic for
the list.
- If you still must make an offtopic posting to the list, at
least include an 'ObCircle:' section containing something
related to CircleMUD. This means 'Obligatory CircleMUD Related
Section'.
Q5: Why all of these rules on how to format messages?
Simply: More signal, less noise. Per the list owner, each of
the rules and guidelines are things that he has seen help keep
a mailing list on track, help maintain mutual respect among the
members, and help keep the discussions focused and useful.
By a high signal to noise ratio, the following is meant:
The noisy postings include messages which essentially say "I
agree!" and add no extra value, or those that do not relate to
the purpose of the list (like what you had for dinner, how your
code/world clearly superior to all others in existence and why
language such and such is better than such and such). Try to
keep on topic and you won't go wrong.
[Continued in Part 2]
+------------------------------------------------------------+
| Ensure that you have read the CircleMUD Mailing List FAQ: |
| http://qsilver.queensu.ca/~fletchra/Circle/list-faq.html |
+------------------------------------------------------------+
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : 04/11/01 PDT