Nice format Wolfi but I would like to add something 7. supporting evidence: put any error messages or any evidence you can get specific to your problem with your E-mail in *plain text* please no downloads. how's that sound? Oh yeah, and keep your signature about 5 lines or less......HA HA HA. -- ------ D. McGlone AIM: dmcglone27 ICQ: 96210352 ------------------Registered Linux User 226218-------------- If it isn't Linux, it's broke Powered by Red Hat linux 7.2 and KDE 2.2-10 and kernel 2.4-7 On Saturday 29 December 2001 11:20 am, you wrote:
TITLE: How do I receive attention to my question on the list? SuSE VERSION: Any AUTHOR: Wolfi (Wolfgang Zerrmayr) <wolfi_z@yahoo.com>
QUESTION: How do I receive attention to my question? How can I get good answers from the list?
ANSWERS / RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. Choose a specific subject
Many experienced people on this list receive such a lot of emails, they will 'automatically' delete messages with a non-specific subject (e.g. 'one question' or 'help me' or 'newbie problem'). E.g. if your update from 7.2 to 7.3 made you lose your internet, then write: 'Update 7.2 -> 7.3 lost my internet connection'.
2. (Try to) Make a short post
For same reasons as stated in (1). If you think of a mailer with a splitted window, message list on top, and preview below, it would be most convenient if the whole message fitted in the preview. Cut surplus stuff when replying, especially the SuSE mailinglist information will be re-attached each time, so just delete it. To make it clear, cuts can be marked with (...) or [...]
3. Include all necessary information
Which hardware, which programs (versions!) are concerned, which SuSE release, which kernel ...
4. (Try to) Use correct grammar and spelling
I know this is not so easy for some of the foreigners. But I am one too, so please re-read your message for mistakes before sending it. If you are not familiar with English, maybe a mailing list in your native language is also existing?
5. Threading
Post your question by means of 'New Message'. Do not reply to an arbitrary post, erase the subject, and fill in a new one. Advanced mailers have the 'threaded view' feature which sorts messages the way they belong to one another, and this gets messed up if another issue comes up in the old thread. Maybe your message will then be inside a longish thread which 3/4 of the list is already ignoring, the damage will then be with you for losing answers! To make it clear: A thread is a history of replies and their dependencies and therefore reply should only be used within one thread and not to start a new one.
6. Be friendly :-)
No explanations required, I hope :-) Mark jokes with :-) or :o) [depending on what kind of nose you have:-)] to make it clear you are joking. Not everybody will automatically understand it, especially if it's complicated - this is an international list and not everyone is an English professor. If something is not directly related to SuSE Linux, add an [OT] in the subject line.