Mailing List Guidelines

As a community, WAMUG is a group of people who send each other email, generally about Macintosh issues. The group is now so large that not everyone knows everyone else, so we've come up with the following suggestions for your valued contributions to this list. This is not a rule-book, but a suggestion which makes your questions and answers as helpful to as many people as possible.

Before posting a message to WAMUG:

  1. Did you attempt to resolve the problem yourself?
  2. Did you search the message archive for a similar problem?
  3. Did you search the web for a similar problem?
  4. Did you give your post a relevant, meaningful Subject?
  5. It is good practice to include System Information where relevant.
  6. It is good practice to show unsuccessful attempts at resolution.
  7. It is good practice to include relevant URLs.

When you reply to a posting made by another person:

  1. Did you only respond to the list - unless specifically asked otherwise?
  2. Did you quote only appropriate parts of the message?
  3. Did you attribute the quotes correctly?
  4. It is good practice to put your response below the quoted part.
  5. It is good practice to include relevant URLs.
  6. It is good to be mindful of a future user who searches the archive.
  7. If you don't know, then say that you're guessing.
  8. If you're not sure, then say that you think so.
  9. If your response is really a new post, adjust the Subject accordingly.

The Digest List:

As a subscriber, you can choose to receive each individual message, or a daily digest. If you receive the digested version of the list and respond, be sure to change the Subject of your response, otherwise other subscribers will not be able to follow the thread of conversation.

Resources to assist you:

Relevant System Information includes:

  • OS (6, 7, 8, 9, X or Classic)
  • Machine and Model (ie PowerBook 5300, iMac Flat Screen, etc.)
  • Any peripherals involved (SCSI, FireWire, USB, Serial or ADB)
  • Disk space / RAM / Extensions / Version numbers as related

Mailing List Archive

<http://wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml>

WAMUG home page

<http://www.wamug.org.au/>

Macintosh version of Google

<http://www.google.com/mac.html>

Web search engine

<http://www.google.com/>

Apple Info Library

<http://kbase.info.apple.com/>

Apple Info Advanced Search, including Archive

<http://search.info.apple.com/>

Apple Reference Library

<http://developer.apple.com/>

Apple Hardware Reference Library

<http://developer.apple.com/documentation/Hardware/hardware2.html>

Version Tracker OSX

<http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/>

Version Tracker MacOS

<http://www.versiontracker.com/macos/>

MacFixIt

<http://macfixit.com/>

MacSurfer

<http://macsurfer.com/>

Historical Hardware Reference

<http://lowendmac.com/>

RFC 1855, Netiquette Guidelines

<http://rfc.net/rfc1855.html>

Credits:

This document was created by many members of the WAMUG list after protracted discussion.

Version: 1.1, published 20 June 2004 - Onno Benschop

Updated old URLs and added new ones - Onno Benschop

Version: 1.0, published 19 February 2002 - Onno Benschop

First release, no changes from 0.5, just version number update - Onno Benschop

Version: 0.5, published 8 February 2002 - Onno Benschop

Added Credits - Onno Benschop

Added Version Details - Onno Benschop

Version: 0.4, published 6 February 2002 - Onno Benschop

Attempted to incorporate suggestions - John Taylor

Less Draconian language - Shay Telfer / Anthony Briggs

Added Resources - Rod Lavington / Bob

Reworded Respond below a quote - Nathalie Collins

Deleted Spelling - Shay Telfer

Version: 0.3, published 6 February 2002 - Onno Benschop

Added Digest Paragraph - John Taylor

Version: 0.2, published 5 February 2002 - Onno Benschop

Reordered Points - Onno Benschop

Reworded choosing a subject - Shay Telfer

Added URL suggestion - Shay Telfer

Added System Information - Shay Telfer

Version: 0.1, published 4 February 2002 - Onno Benschop

Original RFC after suggestion from Neil Blake / Daniel Forsdyke