Newbie ELUG Mailing List Information

1. A mailing list is a facility where you send an email to subscribe to a list. You will receive confirmation and further instructions. Once joined you will be able to send an email of help etc to everyone subscribed to that list by purely sending a single email to an address like elug at elug dot co dot za. Subsequently whoever answers, answers to the whole list, by replying to that email so that other subscribers can take note of the help offered etc. and perhaps join in. It is a community/group effort where everyone participates. It is not a company and does not offer commercial support. For this reason the list can easily get out of control hence the reason for some guidelines listed here.


2. Before posting/sending and email to the list ...
   • Have a read through these guidelines
   • Try to look for help on Google Linux - www.google.com/linux
   • There are man pages on your pc, in a console window type the words 'man man' for more on how the system works. For example 'man bash' and look what you get.
   • There are many places with good help, one particular place is http://www.tldp.org - The Linux Documentation Project. At this website you will find many articles/HowTo documents about setting up/configuring your machine, from networking to watching dvd's to configuring modems to ...
   • Lastly use a specific descriptive subject line of your problem. Then in the email, list what you have tried or done when the problem occurs. Where you have googled. List any error messages. Let us know what hardware, if relevant, and your distribution that you are running ie: Debian, Slackware, Mandrake, SuSe etc.


3. Set your mail client to post in text only format, ie not in HTML. Please check if your exchange/similar server adds a signature/disclaimer that might convert your email into html without your knowledge.


4. The only files if you absolutely have to send as attachments to the email list are .conf or plain text files. Do not send msword, msexcel, pictures etc. If you have attachments like this, rather post a link to them on a server, so that people who may be able to help can just go to the link. This is a biggie and is sure to get you flamed.


5. When replying or offering help, try to remember to post underneath the message always. We will be putting the mailing list archives up soon and you will see the obvious reason to this when they are online. Also do not be afraid of trimming off signatures, converting html to text, and removing attachments that may have got through. If the message is long, break the text into pieces and give comments where applicable.


6. As a newbie you have a couple of chances where the people will be patient but if you keep doing the same thing after being advised not to, be prepared to be flamed.


7. This is a Linux/GNU, opensource mailing list, as such try to keep your questions on these topics. If you must post about non relevant information please include the letters OT as the first letters in your subject line. OT stands for 'Off Topic'. People can then filter these messages out that do not want to receive them.


8. If you are caught harvesting email addresses off the list you are at your own risk.


9. With revelance to the above point, no commercial offers/content is/are welcome about your services, products you sell, there is plenty of other media available for this. Unless the specific thread is on this topic, you will probably be removed from the list.


10. The mail form supplied on the website www.elug.co.za does not go out to the list, neither should it be used for help. It is purely for the purposes proposed on the specific pages that carry it as a link.