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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  1. Before posting, please check relevant documents (the FAQ etc.) in ABINIT source archives (src_tests_*.tar.gz) as well as the ML archives.
  2. Try to make your post "beautiful" as possible. Specifically speaking,
    1. 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), ...
    2. Do not cite e-mails that are not relevant to your post.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.
    3. Please avoid two-byte characters in your e-mails. (Especially for Asian subscribers, e.g. Chinese characters for "month", "date", "year" etc.). 
    4. 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.
  3. Try to make your post "small" as possible. Specifically speaking,
    1. 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.
    2. 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)
    3. 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 ...
  4. 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.
  5. 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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