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@@ -59,8 +59,24 @@ will let you know.</p>
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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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+
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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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+
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+<h3>Well-Crafted Posting is Worth the Effort</h3>
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+
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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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+
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+<h3>Put the Library Name in the Subject Line</h3>
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+
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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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@@ -74,6 +90,8 @@ 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="quoting"></a>
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+
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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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@@ -81,6 +99,7 @@ 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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@@ -89,6 +108,8 @@ 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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+
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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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@@ -108,6 +129,30 @@ 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 you
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+include. Remember, even if you didn't write the original text,
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+it's <i>your</i> posting; its readability determines whether you get
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+your point across.
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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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+
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+<h3>Summarizing and Referring to Earlier Messages</h3>
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+
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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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@@ -122,18 +167,7 @@ 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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-<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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-
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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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+<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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@@ -145,12 +179,25 @@ 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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+
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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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+
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+<h3>Keep The Size of Your Posting Manageable</h3>
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+
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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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+
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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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