Changes towards the 200112291721 version:
Point (2) reply-to-list supplemented, as suggested by Ben Rosenberg;
Point (3) Error messages supplemented, as suggested by David Mc Glone.
TITLE: How do I receive attention to my question on the list?
SuSE VERSION: Any
AUTHOR: Wolfi (Wolfgang Zerrmayr)
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 [...]
Reply only to list (good email clients offer you this option) and not to
all to avoid duplicates. If your email client has no reply-to-list
option, then just hit reply and change the recipient to SuSE list
3. Include all necessary information
Which hardware, which programs (versions!) are concerned, which SuSE
release, which kernel ...
Also include error messages or any other evidence you have been
receiving, but only in plain text to save bandwidth.
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.
=============================================
Hope that's ok ... In case I forgot something, feel free to complete the
list !!
Wolfi
=============================================
mailto:wolfi_z@yahoo.com
_________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @yahoo.com address at http://mail.yahoo.com