[PD-ot] netiquette for the pd-lists

[Renick Bell]

> There are some spelling errors, maybe a native speaker can look over
> this, as I would surly overlook some.

Here's a slightly cleaned-up version by a native speaker.

---

Netiquette
Style-guide for posts to one of the various PD-lists
Be sure to read this before you post to the PD-related lists found at
http://lists.puredata.info
Language:
The language of all PD-related lists hosted at
http://lists.puredata.info is English.
However, the lists are read internationally. If you feel your English
is not so good, do not be ashamed; most subscribers aren't native
English speakers.
If you are absolutely sure that your mail does not make sense in
English, you can include an additional version in your own language.
Make sure that you remember to include the English version so that
those who don't understand your language can still read and reply to
your message.
Subject:
Always use a subject that explains what you are going to write about.
Do not use subjects like "PLEASE HELP," "i have a question," or "you
have won!"
When you are answering a thread in which the subject does not reflect
the content of the discussion anymore (because people tend to drift
away from topics), feel free to change the subject accordingly.
It is generally a good idea to hint in the subject that you have
changed it, like "troubles with ALSA-midi (was: building a
drum-machine)."
Don't let the subject get too long -- "software-piracy (was: why not
use Max/MSP (was: ugly interfaces (was: look at my new patch)))" is
probably not so good.
Threads:
If you are receiving a list in digest mode (in which you get all the
new postings to the list in one large email once a day), change the
subject appropriately -- "PD-list Digest, Vol 6, Issue 11" tells the
possible readers far less than "FFTs and PD."
If you want to start a new thread (that is, bring up a new topic),
please, please do start a new thread by sending a fresh email which is
not a reply; do not take a random post to the list and reply to this
post with a changed subject and body just because you don't know the
email address of the list. A lot of people with decent mail readers
view their mails in "thread view," so they know which mail is a reply
to which other mail. It is quite annoying if you cannot find the mail
regarding the possibilities to play back a sound file (which you know
has the answer to your troubles) just because it is deep within a
thread regarding the problems of firewalls on W32-XP!
Reply-To:
The "Reply-To"-field in the header of emails coming from the
PD-related lists is the original author and NOT the list itself.
The "List-Post"-field in the header of emails points to the address of the list.
If you want to reply to the list instead of the original author, you
will have to use "Reply-All" or "Reply-List" (preferably the later if
your mail client supports it).
This specific setting is a constant source of trouble, as new posters
often answer only to the original author of the mail instead of the
entire list.
Read http://www.unicom.com/pw/reply-to-harmful.html for an explanation
why it is like this.
Read http://www.metasystema.net/essays/reply-to.mhtml if you want a
different opinion.
For now, there are no plans to change the behaviour of the PD-related lists.
Quoting:
Please read http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html,
especially Section-2!
Rejected posts:
Anyone with a valid email-account can subscribe to the PD-related
lists; however, due to the well-known spam problem, posting to the
list is restricted to members.
Mail from a email address which is not subscribed to the list won't
get through to any of these lists.
All mail from email addresses which are not subscribed to the list
will be held for approval by a human being. Mail which is considered
spam will be discarded (they will silently vanish). Mail that appears
to come from someone interested in PD will be rejected; the author
will get a rejection email.
You may use multiple email accounts to send email; however, each
address must be subscribed to the list. Otherwise, your postings will
be rejected by the moderators if you try to post from an address that
is not subscribed.
In order to not receive the list postings on each subscribed address,
you can set the delivery options to "no-mail" for your secondary
accounts via the web interface for your account. This way you can send
email to the list from a lot of different accounts, but you will
receive the mail at only one address.


-- 
Renick Bell
http://www.the3rd2nd.com