Linux Audio Developers

General mailing list information

• Posting recommendations
• Subscribe / Unsubscribe
• Filters, Abuse and Subscription Cancelling

Posting recommendations

• Keep your messages to the topic of the list. The topics are outlined on the list-specific pages.
• Choose a meaningful subject. Think of the list as a knowledge database that needs to be browsable - all posts are archived.
• If you feel you must post an off-topic message, think again. If you're still sure, please mark your message as such by beginning your subject line with [OT].
• No advertising. Not even with an "[OT]" subject.
• If you are posting an announcement that is only of local interest (such as a meeting), please begin your subject with [LOCAL] and the country and region or city for which it is relevant.
• Post in plain text only. No HTML, please. Outlook and Netscape users please check your default settings.
• Post your text inline. Some mail programs seem to send emtpy mails with the message as an attachment. Few people will take the extra step to open it in a text viewer, most will simply ignore it.
• Help keep up the friendly tone of the lists. Be picky with what you write, and generous about the things you read.
• The language on all Linux Audio lists is English. If you are not a native speaker, there's no need to be afraid of making spelling or grammar mistakes - it's a foreign language for many list members. Still, try your best to make yourself understood, and leave those kewl or l33t spellingz to the kiddies.
• There are people from many different countries here, so be careful with slang expressions or sarcasm/irony. These don't cross borders too well.

Subscribe / Unsubscribe

The Linux Audio lists have been switched to Mailman in April 2002. It offers both email commands and a comfortable web interface, and allows for easier list administration. There are several interesting features that the old majordomo-based system did not offer, such as temporary deactivation of subscriptions (you do not need to unsubscribe while you're on vacation) and better handling of digest delivery.

When you subscribe, you will be mailed a link to your personal list options page, where you can control all these things. Alternatively, you can use the email interface at linux-audio-{dev|user|announce}-request@lists.linuxaudio.org.

To all Linux Audio veterans: The old majordomo@... interface is no longer available. Please re-read these pages to find out about the new procedure. The password to manage your subscription has been mailed to you. You can have it resent at any time by visiting your list's web interface and entering your email address.

Filters, Abuse and Subscription Cancelling

To prevent abuse of the lists, some filters are in effect on the mailing list server. All list postings are scanned for obvious signs of spam. We also try to weed out stray administrative requests.

Additionally, HTML or otherwise enriched messages are filtered and will be dropped without notice, for the following reasons:

• There is no widely accepted standard for them.
• Many mail readers will not display them properly.
• They do not offer any added value.
• On the contrary, they bloat the messages to many times the size of the plain text.

Sending spam to the lists will result in immediate banning, and is likely to wreck your karma to such an extent that you'll be born again as an AOL promotional CD. Think twice.

People who repeatedly insult others or stubbornly ignore the most basic netiquette may be thrown off the lists. This has never happened, and hopefully never will.

Subscribed addresses that reject or bounce list mail will be deactivated.

Most bounces occur due to exceeded disk quotas. Please make sure your mailbox can accept mail by reqularly checking and cleaning up your folders.

If you haven't received anything from the lists for a while, please check that your mail account is working and take a look at the web interface to find out whether your subscription is still active.

If anything is unclear, you can contact the list administrator of the respective list (see the list-specific pages for the address).

Please do not send and receive your mail directly from your home machine with a dynamic IP address, even if you have a permanent internet connection, for two reasons: 1) home boxen are just not as reliable as the UPSed, redundant big iron at your ISP and will eventually cause lots of bounces, and 2) your IP will probably be known as a "dial-up" address, causing your mail to be rejected by most target hosts for spam prevention.