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+<title>Boost Discussion Policy</title>
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+</head>
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+<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
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+<table border="1" bgcolor="#007F7F" cellpadding="2">
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+ <tr>
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+ <td bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><img src="../c++boost.gif" alt="c++boost.gif (8819 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>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>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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+</ul>
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+<h2>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>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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+<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.</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 or 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 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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+<hr>
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+<p>Revised <!--webbot bot="Timestamp" S-Type="EDITED" S-Format="%d %B, %Y" startspan -->28 December, 2000<!--webbot bot="Timestamp" endspan i-checksum="38518" -->
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+</p>
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+
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+</body>
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+
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+</html>
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Beman Dawes