[Techtalk] [FAQ] LinuxChix Policy FAQ (monthly posting)

LinuxChix FAQs lcx.faqs at linuxchix.org
Fri Feb 21 16:00:04 EST 2003


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                           LinuxChix: List Policy FAQ

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                           LinuxChix: List Policy FAQ

  Mary Gardiner

  Jennifer Vesperman

   Copyright (c) 2002 by Mary Gardiner and Jennifer Vesperman. This material
   may be distributed only subject to the terms and conditions set forth in
   the Open Publication License, v1.0 or later (the latest version is
   presently available at http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/).

   +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
   | Revision History                                                       |
   |------------------------------------------------------------------------|
   | Revision 1.3                    | October 2002                         |
   |------------------------------------------------------------------------|
   | Significantly updated section about forwarding messages off-list,      |
   | added a question about list disputes and archiving, divided into       |
   | sections.                                                              |
   |------------------------------------------------------------------------|
   | Revision 1.2                    | September 2002                       |
   |------------------------------------------------------------------------|
   | Added Reply-To question                                                |
   |------------------------------------------------------------------------|
   | Revision 1.1.1                  | July 10 2002                         |
   |------------------------------------------------------------------------|
   | Added question about non-English lists                                 |
   |------------------------------------------------------------------------|
   | Revision 1.1                    | May 19 2002                          |
   |------------------------------------------------------------------------|
   | Added question about copyright material                                |
   |------------------------------------------------------------------------|
   | Revision 1.0                    | January 29 2002                      |
   +------------------------------------------------------------------------+

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   The latest version of this FAQ can be found at
   http://www.linuxchix.org/content/docs/faqs/policy.html

   Discussion of this FAQ is welcome on the <issues at linuxchix.org> list.

   This FAQ is posted once every month to every public LinuxChix list.

   1. Membership Policies

                1.1. What are LinuxChix lists for?

                1.2. Who are LinuxChix lists for?

                1.3. Are men welcome too?

                1.4. Is LinuxChix English-only?

   2. List Policies

                2.1. Are there any rules?

                2.2. Are there any other policies?

                2.3. Why doesn't the reply-to point to the list?

   3. List Etiquette

                3.1. I found this very interesting article about Free
                Software/women/technology/politics that I think everyone
                should read and discuss! Can I forward it?

                3.2. Can I forward LinuxChix posts to people who are not
                subscribed to LinuxChix?

                3.3. I notice that many of the lists are privately archived
                or have no archives available. Can I put up my own archive?

   4. List Complaints and Disputes

                4.1. I have a complaint about a message posted to a LinuxChix
                list. What should I do?

     1. Membership Policies
   1.1. What are LinuxChix lists for?
        
   1.2. Who are LinuxChix lists for?
        
   1.3. Are men welcome too?
        
   1.4. Is LinuxChix English-only?
   1.1. What are LinuxChix lists for?                                         
        LinuxChix lists are designed to be helpful, friendly, female-oriented 
        lists for women interested in Linux. There are lists for technical    
        questions, discussion of women and technology, learning about Linux,  
        and social chat.                                                      
   1.2. Who are LinuxChix lists for?                                          
        LinuxChix lists are lists for women interested in Linux.              
   1.3. Are men welcome too?                                                  
        Men are welcome on most LinuxChix lists, provided that they realise   
        and respect that the lists are primarily intended as lists for women. 
                                                                              
        At present, there is one exception - the grrls-only at linuxchix.org     
        mailing list, which is female-only.                                   
   1.4. Is LinuxChix English-only?                                            
        At present, all LinuxChix posts are in the English language. This is  
        more due to the coordinators of LinuxChix living in English speaking  
        countries than anything else.                                         
                                                                              
        If anyone wants to volunteer to run LinuxChix lists in other          
        languages, they might want to ask on some of the lists if there are   
        many other Chix who would be interested in a list in their language   
        and if so, join the volunteers at linuxchix.org list and volunteer to    
        run it.                                                               
                                                                              
        Alternatively, they could start a language-based chapter, and run a   
        mailing list on a separate server. In this case they should join the  
        chapters at linuxchix.org list.                                          
     2. List Policies
   2.1. Are there any rules?
        
   2.2. Are there any other policies?
        
   2.3. Why doesn't the reply-to point to the list?
   2.1. Are there any rules?                                                  
        There are two:                                                        
                                                                              
          o Be polite                                                         
                                                                              
          o Be helpful                                                        
                                                                              
        LinuxChix was founded in part due to the aggressiveness of existing   
        technical lists. If you do tell someone to read the manual, which is  
        sometimes the most useful answer to a technical question, do it       
        politely and at least tell them where to find the manual, and invite  
        them to come back with any questions that the manual doesn't answer   
        for them.                                                             
                                                                              
        There is no prior knowledge required to post to any LinuxChix         
        technical list. Questions at any level are equally welcome, and       
        should be treated as such.                                            
   2.2. Are there any other policies?                                         
        LinuxChix lists are hosted by volunteers. Please be nice to them and  
        don't send large mails that will overload their machine. All binary   
        attachments, and mails over 20Kb in size will be rejected. Post a     
        link to any information larger than this, or invite people to email   
        you privately to get you to send them a copy.                         
                                                                              
        All posts to LinuxChix lists should be in plain text, rather than     
        HTML. Not all LinuxChix can read mail in HTML format. It can also be  
        very hard on LinuxChix who receive mail in digest form (all messages  
        for the day bundled into one mail).                                   
   2.3. Why doesn't the reply-to point to the list?                           
        There are two articles on the topic of altering a mailing list's      
        'Reply-To' header so that using the 'reply' option in the mail client 
        makes mail go just to the list. I recommend that you read both of     
        them. They are Reply-To Munging Considered Harmful and Reply-To       
        Munging Considered Useful. I also have a couple of considerations     
        that aren't explicitly stated in either article.                      
                                                                              
        If I don't change the reply-to, I respect the choice of people who    
        have explicitly set it in their mail client. If I have a technical    
        way of telling who has and who hasn't set it in their client, and     
        only change the ones that haven't set it, then using 'reply' would be 
        a mix of 'to the sender' and 'to the mailing list', and that would be 
        confusing.                                                            
                                                                              
        Mail clients have been producing a 'reply-to-list' option. This is,   
        in my opinion, the best technical solution.                           
                                                                              
        Some mailing list software (including Mailman) now includes an option 
        to avoid mailing a recipient if the recipient is also cc'd in a       
        message. This minimises duplicate messages, and is a technical        
        solution for one of the biggest issues.                               
                                                                              
        Discussion of new, additional points on the subject is on-topic for   
        most LinuxChix lists. Discussion of the existing points in relation   
        to LinuxChix lists is welcome on the open-topic mailing lists, but    
        not specific-topic lists. (It's on-topic for technical lists if       
        you're asking about it for -your- lists.)                             
                                                                              
        A personal note: Please accept that discussing the known points with  
        me will not make me change my mind about how the LinuxChix lists are  
        set up. New points might, but not the ones I've already thought       
        through. Thank you. Jenn.                                             
     3. List Etiquette
   3.1. I found this very interesting article about Free
   Software/women/technology/politics that I think everyone should read and
   discuss! Can I forward it?
        
   3.2. Can I forward LinuxChix posts to people who are not subscribed to
   LinuxChix?
        
   3.3. I notice that many of the lists are privately archived or have no
   archives available. Can I put up my own archive?
   3.1. I found this very interesting article about Free                      
        Software/women/technology/politics that I think everyone should read  
        and discuss! Can I forward it?                                        
        Please do not post material to the lists that was not written by you, 
        including articles and forwarded material, unless you are certain     
        that the copyright owner of the material allows redistribution.       
        Otherwise you are violating the owner's copyright. If you come across 
        an interesting article that you want to discuss, you should post a    
        link to the article and a summary of the parts you found interesting. 
        If it is not available online, the only thing you can do is post a    
        detailed description of how to find it (author, title,                
        journal/newspaper/book title, publisher and so on).                   
   3.2. Can I forward LinuxChix posts to people who are not subscribed to     
        LinuxChix?                                                            
        No. Not without the author's permission. Assume you do not have such  
        permission if you are uncertain.                                      
                                                                              
        There are several reasons, both legal and ethical, why this is so.    
                                                                              
        The copyright of any message sent to LinuxChix lists is owned by the  
        author of the message, and is only free for redistribution if the     
        copyright owner specifically allows it. You therefore mustn't forward 
        LinuxChix messages off the LinuxChix lists without specific           
        permission from the author. If they didn't give such permission in    
        the body of their message, you could mail them and ask for it, but    
        please respect their decision either way.                             
                                                                              
        Members make posts to LinuxChix on the understanding that they will   
        not be redistributed offlist. Some members make personal posts        
        trusting in this understanding. LinuxChix has successful mailing      
        lists that discusses sensitive topics and these can only function     
        based on this understanding. Members forwarding posts offlist         
        therefore breach this understanding with the author and with          
        LinuxChix, hurting both the author of the message and the function of 
        many of the LinuxChix lists as a whole.                               
                                                                              
        If the message was posted to list publically archived on LinuxChix    
        (some of the technical lists are publically archived), you could give 
        other people a link to the archived copy of their post.               
                                                                              
        Generally, as in all email, when you reply to the mail it is accepted 
        that you can quote relevant parts of the message you are replying to  
        in your message. You should keep this to a minimum, mainly for        
        bandwidth reasons. And everyone is subscribed, so we all saw the      
        previous message.                                                     
   3.3. I notice that many of the lists are privately archived or have no     
        archives available. Can I put up my own archive?                      
        Absolutely not. Any lists not publically archived are not archived    
        for a reason. These reasons include letting people have sensitive     
        personal discussions without making them available for searching and  
        reading for years to come. You must not archive our lists or          
        otherwise republish them.                                             
     4. List Complaints and Disputes
   4.1. I have a complaint about a message posted to a LinuxChix list. What
   should I do?
   4.1. I have a complaint about a message posted to a LinuxChix list. What   
        should I do?                                                          
        In general, LinuxChix lists welcome differing opinions. If your       
        complaint falls within the basic 'be polite, be helpful' guidelines   
        (which includes being polite and helpful to the author), by all       
        means, discuss your problem on any list for which it is on-topic.     
                                                                              
        As a guideline, politely arguing with a post is fine, attacking the   
        poster themself is not.                                               
                                                                              
        Any problems you have with any material posted to the LinuxChix that  
        can't be addressed in a polite and helpful way on-list, for example   
        because it concerns issues you would rather not discuss on list, or   
        because personal attacks, privacy issues, third parties, or legal     
        issues such as defamation are involved should be raised with the list 
        administrators or the LinuxChix coordinator. The list administrators  
        can be contacted at LISTNAME-admin at linuxchix.org. The co-ordinator is 
        currently Jenn Vesperman, who can be reached at <jenn at linuxchix.org>. 

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