Netiquette for ABINIT forum/developer
MLs
Copyright (C) 2003-2005 ABINIT group (MMikami, JMBeuken, XGonze)
This file is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public
License, see ~ABINIT/Infos/copyright or
http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.txt.
For the initials of contributors, see ~ABINIT/Infos/contributors .
The ABINIT MLs are available for fruitful information exchange among
ABINITioners, thanks to the UCL system and the administrators' hard
work.
Now the number of the accounts in the forum ML gets over 500 from many
countries, i.e. GLOBAL. Since
our "common sense" may differ from country to country, we strongly feel
that we need set up our etiquette to keep the MLs effective. Thus those
who want to post e-mails (esp. questions) to the MLs should follow a
sort of etiquette ("netiquette")
to make the MLs most effective, and the burden of our limited resource
("humanware" as well as hardware) little as possible.
Our netiquette will be:
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- Before posting, please check
relevant documents (the FAQ etc.) in
ABINIT source archives (src_tests_*.tar.gz) as well as the ML archives.
- Q: How to find relevant documents for my questions ?"
- A: Follow this FAQ
!
- Try to make your post
"beautiful" as possible. Specifically speaking,
- Give a meaningful Subject to your e-mail that may help us to
find/remember your post easily. We should avoid
"HELP","PLEASE","Question", (BLANK), ...
- Do not cite e-mails that are not relevant to your post. When
you want to start a new thread, please do not post by follow-up (reply).
This is important, for Mailers/ML web pages make the most use of
"thread" idea.
- Please avoid two-byte characters in your e-mails. (Especially
for Asian subscribers, e.g. Chinese characters for "month", "date",
"year" etc.).
- Please stick to PLAIN TEXT format for posting. About "HOW TO
SEND YOUR E-MAIL in PLAIN TEXT ?", you can consult with the online help
of your Mailer. The following hyperlinks may also be helpful.
- Try to make your post "small" as
possible. Specifically speaking,
- Make a good summary about your results: Specific & Concise.
Follow the spirit described in the FAQ: FAQ1,FAQ2. Just a
small, relevant portion (e.g. ending part) of Log/Output files could be
cited. Whole/complete Input files should be attached (if applicable),
rather than whole Log/Outputs.
- If you still want to attach an output/log (as a whole), please
compress with bzip2, gzip, zip etc. (NB: this is no effective for binary
files, of course)
- If you might have attachment over 500KByte, please stop
attachment ! (Such large-sized e-mail is now automatically blocked for
the distribution, to save Mail Servers in the world.) Instead ...
- You might put your files to an anonymous ftp server. Our
anonymous ftp site "ftp.abinit.org/pub/incoming" is available for this
purpose.(NB: for the security reason, you must give the full path of
your file for distribution. See the FAQ.)
- It will also be a good idea to have your WEB page. You can
put your outputs (and images) FREELY on your home page. You could
suggest by saying, "Please visit my homepage http://www.foo.foo/ for the
details." Having your own WEB page may be more effective than posting
your questions daily; we should remember, many posts may be overlooked
in our ML inbox, once we have too heavy traffic on the MLs. For those
who do not have your own web server, you may use our shared web page.
The entrance (registration) is at the "Login"
button on the page (upper left).
- Please try feedback when you
obtain suggestions/comments. Making a good summary will be welcome
! It will be reused as a part of the FAQ. In
this way, we have chances to contribute to ABINIT.
- Please remember, the MLs are not
for so-called "user-support"; we should also recall, "Nobody is
paid to give a service to the ABINIT community." Let us put aside the
idea, "What can ABINIT/ABINITioners do for me (free-of-charge) ?" Let us
think this way, "What can I do for
ABINIT/ABINITioners ?" and try positive contributions. If you
wonder why you do not have any responses, please read the FAQ.
Please do not reiterate your questions just for the aim to draw our
attentions; it would not be effective, because your e-mails might be
filed/blocked as SPAM..
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