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What to do before posting to the Linux India Help List

Author: Biju Philip Chacko (botsie@mail.com)
Ver: 0.1
Last Revised: 30/03/2000
Started: 25/03/2000

[This is a first draft. Things marked ToDo need more work. Feel free to contribute anything you feel is pertinent.]

Introduction

Often the best solution to a problem is another eyeball. Another person's viewpoint or experience can be just the thing to solve an otherwise intractable problem. The Linux-India Help (LIH) list provides a ready bank of interested eyeballs.

However, even the most enthusiastic eyeball gets fatigued. Numerous variations of the same question dull the interest of the experienced users who are the list's real resource.

In addition, nobody likes to be exploited. People are more sympathetic to those who have genuinely tried to solve their problems and are stuck. On the other hand, somebody trying to get an easy answer for something that is well documented will be, at best, ignored or worse, flamed.

So, what can you do to make the list a useful resource, interesting reading material, and an all-round nice place to be? Before posting you should:

• Know the List Rules
• RTFM
• Get a good book
• Check the Archives
• And if you post... a little Mailing List Etiquette

And to help you out a bit I've also put in a list of useful links to various web-based resources.

Know the List Rules

The Linux India General (LIH) mailing list for helping people (especially newbies) install and run Linux. Topics Suitable for discussion:

• Connecting to Indian ISPs (VSNL, MTNL, Satyam etc.)
• Configuring popular harware found in India.
• Sis graphics cards
• Help with PCQ / Chip Linux CDs.

The FAQs can be found at

http://lists.linux-india.org/lists/LIH/faq.txt

Note that these are the FAQs about using the list and what is acceptable. A reference of the questions that are most frequently asked on the list is currently still work in progress.

RTFM

Before posting to LIH, be sure to Read The F***ing Manual. There are online documents on Linux systems that will help you accomplish most tasks. Most programs have either manual pages or GNU Info pages. These can be accessed with the commands

	man <program>
	info <program>

respectively. These commands will generally give you information on how to use the program. Sometimes a task will require more than one program or perhaps you don't know the program to use. In such cases, a HOWTO may be what you are looking for.

HOWTOs are short documents that describe how to perform a specific task. There are HOWTOs on subjects as diverse as Connecting to the internet, playing Quake, and controlling a coffee machine with your computer! The documents are usually found in the following locations:

[ToDo: Get the locations for these distros. If there are any changes from version to version note them.]

RedHat: /usr/docs/HOWTO
Debian:

Debian 2.2 (potato): /usr/share/doc/HOWTO
Debian 2.1 (hamm): /usr/doc/HOWTO

Caldera:
SuSE:
Mandrake:

[ToDo: Add more distros]

The latest versions of these HOWTOs are online. The index can be found at the following URL:

http://linuxdoc.org/docs.html#howto

Get a good book

If you are very new to Linux then the above documents may not be very useful to you. You may want to first learn the basics from a book. The following books have been recommended to me:

• Linux Complete (BPB/Techmedia, Rs 195/-)
• [ToDo: Add more books]

Check the Archives

It is very likely that another user will have faced your problem. Check if a related query has already been posted on the list. You can do this by searching the list archive. It can be found at the following URL:

http://lists.linux-india.org/cgi-bin/wilma/linux-india-help

And if you post... a little Mailing List Etiquette

(These tips have been adapted from those on www.list-etiquette.com)

• Use common sense when posting. Be aware that you always have two options: responding through the list or to a member personally. The content of your message should determine which of these you choose.
• Follow the list rules at all times. If you're not sure whether your post will violate the rules, ask the moderator before you send it.
• Lurk and learn what's acceptable before posting to the list.
• Don't over-quote. Include only the specific information you're responding to, and chop out the rest.
• Keep posts to the list brief. If you're post doesn't add value, don't send it. (Example: Don't send a "thanks" message through the list. Send something like that directly to the person you're thanking.)
• Be courteous to other list members. If you disagree with them, fine, just don't resort to personal insults.
• Consult the list archives before posting a question. This is also a good way to become familiar with a list's acceptable topics, etc.
• Do not cross-post (send the same message to more than one list).
• If you feel the need to flame, send hate mail, or otherwise reprimand another list member, do it off-list.
• Do not forward virus warnings and the like to the list.
• Respect other people's opinions. If you disagree, do it politely.
• Spell check and reread your messages before posting.
• Do not blatantly promote yourself or otherwise spam the list. Self-promotion should be kept to a brief signature file at the end of your posts. Sig files shouldn't exceed 5-6 lines.
• Do not forward copyrighted material to the list unless you have permission to do so.
• If you do use information not your own, give proper credit.
• Do not send HTML, rich text, or stylized email, or messages in "quoted-printable" format. Not all email programs of list members will recognize such formats. Send messages in ASCII.
• Do not write in uppercase -- it looks like you are SHOUTING.

Useful Links

• http://www.exocore.com/linux : A collection of FAQs about the November '99 PCQ distribution of Red Hat 6.1 . It also contains a lot of generally useful information. These are maintained by Atul Chitnis.
• http://linuxdoc.org/docs.html#faq : The Linux FAQs. These are maintained by the Linux Documentation Project.
• [ToDo: Add more links and descriptions]