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Old 19th January 2014
ocicat ocicat is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by undercover_penguin View Post
I've signed up in several lists allready (according to the FAQ's hints), but the archive may be a great help.
Although you did not say that you were going to post to the project's mailing lists, be forewarned that posting to those lists requires more thought that most consider.

The project's mailing lists are for use by the developers -- not the general community. The project's mailing lists are designed for deep, thoughtful, specific relevant information exchange. The project's mailing lists are not intended for pointing people to information easily found in the documentation or archives. The project's mailing lists are not designed to facilitate the lazy. Questions which are not thoroughly researched & documentation may very will receive very scathing replies about how poorly the poster understands what they ask about, how poorly they have articulated needed information, and/or how poorly they have researched the archives for similar issues.

If this seems unfriendly, recognize that the mailing lists are theirs. They support the infrastructure, so they can target their usage how they see fit. Just because the mailing lists are accessible to all does not give everyone the right to ask anything. More newbie-type questions are better suited for forums like this one or the openbsd-newbies@ mailing list.

jggimi wrote up comments on how newcomers should frame their questions -- especially if they are asking for support:

http://daemonforums.org/showthread.php?t=596

These are similar to what Eric Raymond classically described as how to ask smart questions:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Please consider these. All members of the community should consider the responsibility & integrity required.
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