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<title>Boost Discussion Policy</title>
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<img src="../boost.png" alt="boost.png (6897 bytes)" width="277" height="86"></td>
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<td><a href="../index.htm"><font face="Arial" color="#FFFFFF"><big>Home</big></font></a></td>
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<td><a href="../libs/libraries.htm"><font face="Arial" color="#FFFFFF"><big>Libraries</big></font></a></td>
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<td><a href="../people/people.htm"><font face="Arial" color="#FFFFFF"><big>People</big></font></a></td>
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<td><a href="faq.htm"><font face="Arial" color="#FFFFFF"><big>FAQ</big></font></a></td>
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<td><a href="index.htm"><font face="Arial" color="#FFFFFF"><big>More</big></font></a></td>
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</tr>
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</table>
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<h1>Boost Discussion Policy</h1>
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<p>Email discussion is the tie that binds boost members together into a community.
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If the discussion is stimulating and effective, the community thrives. If
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the discussion degenerates into name calling and ill will, the community withers
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and dies.</p>
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<h2>Contents</h2>
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<dl>
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<dt><a href="#acceptable">Acceptable Topics</a><dd>
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<dt><a href="#unacceptable">Unacceptable Topics</a><dd>
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<dt><a href="#effective">Effective Posting</a><dd>
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<dt><a href="#behavior">Prohibited Behavior</a><dd>
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<dt><a href="#culture">Culture</a><dd>
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<dt><a href="#lib_names">Library Names</a><dd>
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</dl>
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<h2><a name="acceptable"></a>Acceptable topics</h2>
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<ul>
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<li>Queries to determine interest in a possible library submission.</li>
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<li>Technical discussions about a proposed or existing library, including bug
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reports and requests for help.</li>
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<li>Formal Reviews of proposed libraries.</li>
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<li>Reports of user experiences with Boost libraries.</li>
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<li>Boost administration or policies.</li>
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<li>Compiler specific workarounds as applied to Boost libraries.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Other topics related to boost development may be acceptable, at the discretion of moderators. If unsure, go ahead and post. The moderators
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will let you know.</p>
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<h2><a name="unacceptable"></a>Unacceptable Topics</h2>
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<ul>
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<li>Advertisements for commercial products.</li>
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<li>Requests for help getting non-boost code to compile with your compiler.
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Try the comp.lang.c++.moderated newsgroup instead.</li>
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<li>Requests for help interpreting the C++ standard. Try the comp.std.c++
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newsgroup instead.</li>
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<li>Job offers.</li>
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<li>Requests for solutions to homework assignments.</ul>
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<h2><a name="effective"></a>Effective Posting</h2>
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<p>Most Boost mailing lists host a great deal of traffic, so your post
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is usually competing for attention with many other communications.
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This section describes how to make sure it has the desired impact.
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<h3>Well-Crafted Posting is Worth the Effort</h3>
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<p>Don't forget, you're a single writer but there are many readers,
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and you want them to stay interested in what you're saying. Saving
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your readers a little time and effort is usually worth the extra time
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you spend when writing a message. Also, boost discussions are saved
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for posterity, as rationales and history of the work we do. A post's
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usefulness in the future is determined by its readability.
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<h3>Put the Library Name in the Subject Line</h3>
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<p>When your post is related to a particular Boost library, it's
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helpful to put the library name in square brackets at the beginning of
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the subject line, e.g.
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<blockquote>
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Subject: [Regex] Why doesn't this pattern match?
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</blockquote>
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The Boost developers' list is a high-volume mailing list, and most
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maintainers don't have time to read every message. A tag on the
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subject line will help ensure the right people see your post.
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<p><a name="tabs"></a>
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<h3>Don't Use Tabs</h3>
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If you use tabs to indent your source code, convert them to spaces
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before inserting the code in a posting. Something in the processing
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chain usually strips all the indentation and leaves a mess behind.
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<p><a name="longlines"></a>
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<h3>Limit Line Length</h3>
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If you put source code in your postings and your mailer wraps long
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lines automatically, either keep the code narrow or insert the code as
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an (inline, if possible) attachment. That will help ensure others can
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read what you've posted.
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<p><a name="quoting"></a>
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<h3>Don't Overquote</h3>
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Please <b>prune extraneous quoted text</b> from replies so that
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only the relevant parts are included. Some people have to pay for, or
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wait for, each byte that they download from the list. More
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importantly, it will save time and make your post more valuable when
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readers do not have to find out which exact part of a previous message
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you are responding to.
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<h3>Use a Readable Quotation Style</h3>
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<p>A common and very useful approach is to cite the small fractions of
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the message you are actually responding to and to put your response
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directly beneath each citation, with a blank line separating them for
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readability:
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<blockquote>
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<pre>
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<i>Person-you're-replying-to</i> wrote:
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> Some part of a paragraph that you wish to reply to goes
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> here; there may be several lines.
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Your response to that part of the message goes here. There may,
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of course, be several lines.
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> The second part of the paragraph that is relevant to your
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> reply goes here; agiain there may be several lines.
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Your response to the second part of the message goes here.
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...
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</pre>
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</blockquote>
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For more information about effective use of quotation in posts, see <a
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href="http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html">this helpful
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guide</a>.
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<h3>Keep the Formatting of Quotations Consistent</h3>
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<p>
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Some email and news clients use poor word wrapping algorithms that
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leave successive lines from the same quotation with differing numbers
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of leading "<tt>></tt>" characters. <b>Microsoft
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Outlook</b> and <b>Outlook Express</b>, and some web clients, are
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especially bad about this. If your client offends in this way, please
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take the effort to clean up the mess it makes in quoted text.
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Remember, even if you didn't write the original text, it's <i>your</i>
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posting; whether you get your point across depends on its readability.
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<p>
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The Microsoft clients also create an unusually verbose header at the
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beginning of the original message text and leave the cursor at the
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beginning of the message, which encourages users to write their
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replies before all of the quoted text rather than putting the reply in
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context. Outlook Express users can fix all of these problems
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automatically by installing
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<a href="http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/oe-quotefix/">OE
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QuoteFix</a>. Unfortunately there's no similar utility for Outlook
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Users; they will have to clean up their posts manually.
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<h3>Summarizing and Referring to Earlier Messages</h3>
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<p>A summary of the foregoing thread is only needed after a long
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discussion, especially when the topic is drifting or a result has been
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achieved in a discussion. The mail system will do the tracking that
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is needed to enable mail readers to display message threads (and every
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decent mail reader supports that).
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<p>If you ever have to refer to single message earlier in a thread or
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in a different thread then you can use a URL to the <a
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href="mailing_lists.htm#archive">message archives</a>. To help to
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keep those URLs short, you can use <a
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href="http://www.tinyurl.com">tinyurl.com</a>. Citing the relevant
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portion of a message you link to is often helpful (if the citation is
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small).
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<h3>Maintain the Integrity of Discussion Threads</h3>
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<p><b>When starting a new topic, always send a fresh message</b>,
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rather than beginning a reply to some other message and replacing the
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subject and body. Many mailers are able to detect the thread you
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started with and will show the new message as part of the original
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thread, which probably isn't what you intended. Follow this guideline
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for your own sake as well as for others'. Often, people scanning for
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relevant messages will decide they're done with a topic and hide or
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kill the entire thread: your message will be missed, and you won't get
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the response you're looking for.
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<p>By the same token, <b>When replying to an existing message, use
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your mailer's "Reply" function</b>, so that the reply shows
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up as part of the same discussion thread.
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<p><b>Do not reply to digests</b> if you are a digest delivery
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subscriber. Your reply will not be properly threaded and will
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probably have the wrong subject line. Instead, you can reply through
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the <a href="http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lib.boost.devel">GMane
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web interface</a>.
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<h3>Keep The Size of Your Posting Manageable</h3>
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<p>The mailing list software automatically limits message and
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attachment size to a reasonable amount, typically 75K, which is
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adjusted from time-to-time by the moderators. This limit is a
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courtesy to those who rely on dial-up Internet access.
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</p>
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<h2><a name="behavior"></a>Prohibited Behavior</h2>
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<p>Prohibited behavior will not be tolerated. The moderators will ban
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postings by abusers.</p>
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<h3>Flame wars</h3>
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<p>Personal insults, argument for the sake of argument, and all the other
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behaviors which fall into the "flame war" category are
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prohibited. Discussions should focus on technical arguments, not the
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personality traits or motives of participants.</p>
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<h3>Third-party attacks</h3>
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<p>Attacks on third parties such as software vendors, hardware vendors, or any
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other organizations, are prohibited. Boost exists to unite and serve the
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entire C++ community, not to disparage the work of others.</p>
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<p>Does this mean that we ban the occasional complaint or wry remark about a
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troublesome compiler? No, but be wary of overdoing it.</p>
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<h3>Off-topic posts</h3>
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<p>Discussions which stray from the acceptable topics are strongly discouraged.
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While off-topic posts are often well meaning and not as individually corrosive
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as other abuses, cumulatively the distraction damages the effectiveness of
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discussion.</p>
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<h2><a name="culture"></a>Culture</h2>
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<p>In addition to technical skills, Boost members value collaboration,
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acknowledgement of the help of others, and a certain level of politeness. Boost
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membership is very international, and ranges widely in age and other
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characteristics. Think of discussion as occurring among colleagues in a widely read forum, rather
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than among a few close friends.</p>
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<p>Always remember that the cumulative effort spent by people reading
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your contribution scales with the (already large) number of boost
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members. Thus, do invest time and effort to make your message as
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readable as possible. Adhere to English syntax and grammar rules such
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as proper capitalization. Avoid copious informalism, colloquial
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language, or abbreviations, they may not be understood by all readers.
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Re-read your message before submitting it.</p>
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<h2>Guidelines for Effective Discussions</h2>
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<p>Apply social engineering to prevent heated technical discussion from
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degenerating into a shouting match, and to actively encourage the cooperation
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upon which Boost depends.</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Questions help. If someone suggests something that you don't think
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will work, then replying with a question like "will that compile?"
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or "won't that fail to compile, or am I missing something?" is a
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lot smoother than "That's really stupid - it won't compile."
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Saying "that fails to compile for me, and seems to violate section
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n.n.n of the standard" would be yet another way to be firm without
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being abrasive.</li>
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<li>If most of the discussion has been code-free generalities, posting a bit
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of sample code can focus people on the practical issues.</li>
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<li>If most of the discussion has been in terms of specific code, try to talk
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a bit about hidden assumptions and generalities that may be preventing
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discussion closure.</li>
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<li>Taking a time-out is often effective. Just say: "Let me think
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about that for a day or two. Let's take a time-out to digest the
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discussion so far."</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Avoid Parkinson's Bicycle Shed. Parkinson described a committee formed
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to oversee design of an early nuclear power plant. There were three agenda
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items - when to have tea, where to put the bicycle shed, and how to
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ensure nuclear safety. Tea was disposed of quickly as trivial.
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Nuclear safety was discussed for only
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an hour - it was so complex, scary, and technical that even
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among experts few felt comfortable with the issues. Endless days were then
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spent discussing where to put the bicycle shed (the parking lot would
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be a modern equivalent) because everyone
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understood the issues and felt comfortable discussing them. </p>
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<h2><a name="lib_names"></a>Library Names</h2>
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<p>In order to ensure a uniform presentation in books and articles, we
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have adopted a convention for referring to Boost libraries. Library
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names can either be written in a compact form with a dot, as
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"Boost.<i>Name</i>", or in a long form as "the
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Boost <i>Name</i> library." For example:
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<blockquote>
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<b>Boost.Python</b> serves a very different purpose from <b>the Boost Graph library</b>.
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</blockquote>
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Note that the word "library" is not part of the name, and as such isn't capitalized.
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<p>Please take care to avoid confusion in discussions between
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libraries that have been accepted into Boost and those that have not.
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Acceptance as a Boost library indicates that the code and design have
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passed through our peer-review process; failing to make the
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distinction devalues the hard work of library authors who've gone
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through that process. Here are some suggested ways to describe
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potential Boost libraries:
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<ul>
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<li>the proposed Boost <i>Name</i> library</li>
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<li>the Boost.<i>Name</i> candidate</li>
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<li>the <i>Name</i> library</i> (probably the best choice where applicable)</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Note that this policy only applies to discussions, not to the
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documentation, directory structure, or even identifiers in the
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code of potential Boost libraries.
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<hr>
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<p>Revised <!--webbot bot="Timestamp" S-Type="EDITED" S-Format="%d %B, %Y" startspan -->28 May, 2005<!--webbot bot="Timestamp" i-checksum="38549" endspan -->
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</p>
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<p><EFBFBD> Beman Dawes, Rob Stewart, and David Abrahams 2000-2005</p>
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<p> Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0.
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(See accompanying file <a href="../LICENSE_1_0.txt">LICENSE_1_0.txt</a> or
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copy at <a href="http://www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt">www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt</a>)
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</p>
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