Added helpful quoting hints from Martin Wille

[SVN r20819]
This commit is contained in:
Dave Abrahams 2003-11-16 18:14:49 +00:00
parent ba373eff18
commit 721309d041

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@ -21,12 +21,23 @@
<td><a href="index.htm"><font face="Arial" color="#FFFFFF"><big>More</big></font></a></td>
</tr>
</table>
<h1>Boost Discussion Policy</h1>
<p>Email discussion is the tie that binds boost members together into a community.
If the discussion is stimulating and effective, the community thrives. If
the discussion degenerates into name calling and ill will, the community withers
and dies.</p>
<h2>Acceptable topics</h2>
<h2>Contents</h2>
<dl>
<dt><a href="#acceptable">Acceptable Topics</a><dd>
<dt><a href="#unacceptable">Unacceptable Topics</a><dd>
<dt><a href="#quoting">Quoting and Message Size</a><dd>
<dt><a href="#behavior">Prohibited Behavior</a><dd>
<dt><a href="#culture">Culture</a><dd>
</dl>
<h2><a name="acceptable"></a>Acceptable topics</h2>
<ul>
<li>Queries to determine interest in a possible library submission.</li>
<li>Technical discussions about a proposed or existing library, including bug
@ -38,7 +49,7 @@ and dies.</p>
</ul>
<p>Other topics related to boost development may be acceptable, at the discretion of moderators. If unsure, go ahead and post. The moderators
will let you know.</p>
<h2>Unacceptable topics</h2>
<h2><a name="unacceptable"></a>Unacceptable topics</h2>
<ul>
<li>Advertisements for commercial products.</li>
<li>Requests for help getting non-boost code to compile with your compiler.
@ -47,12 +58,64 @@ will let you know.</p>
newsgroup instead.</li>
<li>Job offers.</li>
<li>Requests for solutions to homework assignments.</ul>
<h2>Message size</h2>
<p>The mailing list software automatically limits message and attachment size to
a reasonable amount, typically 75K, which is adjusted from time-to-time by the
moderators.. This limit is a courtesy to those who rely on dial-up Internet
access.</p>
<h2>Prohibited behavior</h2>
<h2><a name="quoting"></a>Quoting and Message Size</h2>
<p>Please <b>limit the amount of quoted text</b> in replies to this
list. Some people have to pay for, or wait for, each byte that they
download from the list. More importantly, it will save time and make
your post more valuable when readers do not have to find out which
exact part of a previous message you are responding to.
<p>A common and very useful approach is to cite the small fractions of
the message you are actually responding to and to put your response
directly beneath each citation, with a blank line separating them for
readability:
<blockquote>
<pre>
&gt; Some part of a paragraph that you wish to reply to goes
&gt; here; there may be several lines.
Your response to that part of the message goes here. There may,
of course, be several lines.
&gt; The second part of the paragraph that is relevant to your
&gt; reply goes here; agiain there may be several lines.
Your response to the second part of the message goes here.
...
</pre>
</blockquote>
For more information about effective use of quotation in posts, see <a
href="http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html">this helpful
guide</a>.
<p>A summary of the foregoing thread is only needed after a long
discussion, especially when the topic is drifting or a result has been
achieved in a discussion. The mail system will do the tracking that
is needed to enable mail readers to display message threads (and every
decent mail reader supports that).
<p>If you ever have to refer to single message earlier in a thread or
in a different thread then you can use a URL to the <a
href="mailing_lists.htm#archive">message archives</a>. tinyurl.com can
help to keep those URLs short. Citing the relevant portion of a
message you link to is often helpful (if the citation is small).
<p>Don't forget, it's a single writer but there are many readers.
So, saving some time for the readers is worth spending extra
time when writing a message.
<p>The mailing list software automatically limits message and
attachment size to a reasonable amount, typically 75K, which is
adjusted from time-to-time by the moderators.. This limit is a
courtesy to those who rely on dial-up Internet access.
</p>
<h2><a name="behavior"></a>Prohibited behavior</h2>
<p>Prohibited behavior will not be tolerated. The moderators will ban
postings by abusers.</p>
<h3>Flame wars</h3>
@ -71,7 +134,7 @@ troublesome compiler? No, but be wary of overdoing it.</p>
While off-topic posts are often well meaning and not as individually corrosive
as other abuses, cumulatively the distraction damages the effectiveness of
discussion.</p>
<h2>Culture</h2>
<h2><a name="culture"></a>Culture</h2>
<p>In addition to technical skills, Boost members value collaboration,
acknowledgement of the help of others, and a certain level of politeness. Boost
membership is very international, and ranges widely in age and other