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<title>Boost Discussion Policy</title>
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<div id="content">
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<div class="section" id="intro">
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<div class="section-0">
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<div class="section-title">
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<h1>Boost Discussion Policy</h1>
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</div>
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<div class="section-body">
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<p>Email discussion is the tie that binds boost members
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together into a community. If the discussion is stimulating and
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effective, the community thrives. If the discussion degenerates
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into name-calling and ill will, the community withers and
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dies.</p>
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<ul class="toc">
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<li><a href="#acceptable">Acceptable Topics</a></li>
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<li><a href="#unacceptable">Unacceptable Topics</a></li>
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<li><a href="#effective">Effective Posting</a><ul class="toc">
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<li><a href="#well-crafted">Well-Crafted Posting is Worth the Effort</a></li>
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<li><a href="#subject-line">Put the Library Name in the Subject Line</a></li>
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<li><a href="#tabs">Don't Use Tabs</a></li>
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<li><a href="#longlines">Limit Line
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Length</a></li>
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<li><a href="#quoting">Don't Overquote, Don't Top-Post, and Do
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Use Inline Replies for Readable Quotations</a></li>
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<li><a href="#formatting-quotations">Keep the Formatting of Quotations Consistent</a></li>
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<li><a href="#summarizing-referring">Summarizing and Referring to Earlier Messages</a></li>
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<li><a href="#discussion-threads">Maintain the Integrity of Discussion Threads</a></li>
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<li><a href="#max-size">Keep The Size of Your Posting Manageable</a></li>
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<li><a href="#email-footers">Avoid Corporate and Confidentiality Footers in Your Emails</a></li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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<li><a href="#behavior">Prohibited Behavior</a><ul class="toc">
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<li><a href="#flame-wars">Flame wars</a></li>
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<li><a href="#third-party-attacks">Third-party attacks</a></li>
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<li><a href="#off-topic-posts">Off-topic posts</a></li>
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</ul>
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</li>
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<li><a href="#culture">Culture</a></li>
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<li><a href="#effective-discussions">Guidelines for Effective Discussions</a></li>
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<li><a href="#lib_names">Library Names</a></li>
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</ul>
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<h2><a name="acceptable" id="acceptable"></a>Acceptable
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topics</h2>
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<ul>
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<li>Queries to determine interest in a possible library
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submission.</li>
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<li>Technical discussions about a proposed or existing
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library, including bug reports and requests for help.</li>
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<li>Formal Reviews of proposed libraries.</li>
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<li>Reports of user experiences with Boost libraries.</li>
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<li>Boost administration or policies.</li>
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<li>Compiler specific workarounds as applied to Boost
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libraries.</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Other topics related to boost development may be acceptable,
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at the discretion of moderators. If unsure, go ahead and post.
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The moderators will let you know.</p>
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<h2><a name="unacceptable" id="unacceptable"></a>Unacceptable
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Topics</h2>
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<ul>
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<li>Advertisements for commercial products.</li>
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<li>Requests for help getting non-boost code to compile with
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your compiler. Try the comp.lang.c++.moderated newsgroup
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instead.</li>
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<li>Requests for help interpreting the C++ standard. Try the
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comp.std.c++ newsgroup instead.</li>
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<li>Job offers.</li>
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<li>Requests for solutions to homework assignments.</li>
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</ul>
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<h2><a name="effective" id="effective"></a>Effective
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Posting</h2>
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<p>Most Boost mailing lists host a great deal of traffic, so
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your post is usually competing for attention with many other
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communications. This section describes how to make sure it has
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the desired impact.</p>
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<h3><a name="well-crafted"></a>Well-Crafted Posting is Worth the Effort</h3>
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<p>Don't forget, you're a single writer but there are many
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readers, and you want them to stay interested in what you're
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saying. Saving your readers a little time and effort is usually
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worth the extra time you spend when writing a message. Also,
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boost discussions are saved for posterity, as rationales and
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history of the work we do. A post's usefulness in the future is
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determined by its readability.</p>
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<h3><a name="subject-line"></a>Put the Library Name in the Subject Line</h3>
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<p>When your post is related to a particular Boost library,
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it's helpful to put the library name in square brackets at the
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beginning of the subject line, e.g.</p>
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<blockquote>
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<p>Subject: [Regex] Why doesn't this pattern match?</p>
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</blockquote>
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<p>The Boost developers' list is a high-volume mailing list,
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and most maintainers don't have time to read every message. A
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tag on the subject line will help ensure the right people see
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your post.</p>
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<h3><a name="tabs" id="tabs"></a>Don't Use Tabs</h3>
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<p>If you use tabs to indent your source code, convert them to
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spaces before inserting the code in a posting. Something in the
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processing chain usually strips all the indentation and leaves
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a mess behind.</p>
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<h3><a name="longlines" id="longlines"></a>Limit Line
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Length</h3>
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<p>If you put source code in your postings and your mailer
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wraps long lines automatically, either keep the code narrow or
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insert the code as an (inline, if possible) attachment. That
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will help ensure others can read what you've posted.</p>
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<h3><a name="quoting" id="quoting"></a>Don't Overquote, Don't
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Top-Post, and Do Use Inline Replies for Readable Quotations</h3>
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<p>Please <strong>prune extraneous quoted text</strong> from
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replies so that only the relevant parts are included. It will
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save time and make your post more valuable when readers do not
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have to find out which exact part of a previous message you
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are responding to.</p>
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<p>Don't <a href=
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Top-posting">top-post</a>;
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inline replies are the appropriate <a href=
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"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style">posting style</a>
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for Boost lists.</p>
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<p>The common and very useful inline approach cites the small
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fractions of the message you are actually responding to and
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puts your response directly beneath each citation, with a blank
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line separating them for readability:</p>
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<pre><var>Person-you're-replying-to</var> wrote:
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> Some part of a paragraph that you wish to reply to goes
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> here; there may be several lines.
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Your response to that part of the message goes here. There may,
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of course, be several lines.
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> The second part of the paragraph that is relevant to your
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> reply goes here; again there may be several lines.
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Your response to the second part of the message goes here.
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...
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</pre>
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<p>For more information about effective use of quotation in
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posts, see <a href=
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"http://www.netmeister.org/news/learn2quote.html" class=
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"external">this helpful guide</a>.</p>
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<h3><a name="formatting-quotations"></a>Keep the Formatting of Quotations Consistent</h3>
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<p>Some email and news clients use poor word wrapping
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algorithms that leave successive lines from the same quotation
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with differing numbers of leading "<code>></code>"
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characters. <strong>Microsoft Outlook</strong> and
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<strong>Outlook Express</strong>, and some web clients, are
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especially bad about this. If your client offends in this way,
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please take the effort to clean up the mess it makes in quoted
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text. Remember, even if you didn't write the original text,
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it's <em>your</em> posting; whether you get your point across
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depends on its readability.</p>
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<p>The Microsoft clients also create an unusually verbose
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header at the beginning of the original message text and leave
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the cursor at the beginning of the message, which encourages
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users to write their replies before all of the quoted text
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rather than putting the reply in context. Fortunately, Dominic
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Jain has written a utility that fixes all of these problems
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automatically: <a href=
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"http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/outlook-quotefix/" class=
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"external">Outlook Quotefix</a> for Outlook Users and <a href=
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"http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/oe-quotefix/" class=
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"external">OE QuoteFix</a> for users of Outlook Express.</p>
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<h3><a name="summarizing-referring"></a>Summarizing and Referring to Earlier Messages</h3>
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<p>A summary of the foregoing thread is only needed after a
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long discussion, especially when the topic is drifting or a
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result has been achieved in a discussion. The mail system will
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do the tracking that is needed to enable mail readers to
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display message threads (and every decent mail reader supports
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that).</p>
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<p>If you ever have to refer to single message earlier in a
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thread or in a different thread then you can use a URL to the
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<a href="groups.html#archive">message archives</a>. To help to
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keep those URLs short, you can use <a href="http://tinyurl.com"
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class="external">tinyurl.com</a>. Citing the relevant portion
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of a message you link to is often helpful (if the citation is
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small).</p>
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<h3><a name="discussion-threads"></a>Maintain the Integrity of Discussion Threads</h3>
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<p><strong>When starting a new topic, always send a fresh
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message</strong>, rather than beginning a reply to some other
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message and replacing the subject and body. Many mailers can detect the thread you started with and will show the
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new message as part of the original thread, which probably
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isn't what you intended. Follow this guideline for your own
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sake as well as for others'. Often, people scanning for
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relevant messages will decide they're done with a topic and
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hide or kill the entire thread: your message will be missed,
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and you won't get the response you're looking for.</p>
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<p>By the same token, <strong>when replying to an existing
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message, use your mailer's "Reply" function</strong>, so that
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the reply shows up as part of the same discussion thread.</p>
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<p><strong>Do not reply to digests</strong> if you are a digest
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delivery subscriber. Your reply will not be properly threaded
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and will probably have the wrong subject line. Instead, you can
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reply through the <a href=
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"http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.lib.boost.devel" class=
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"external">GMane web interface</a>.</p>
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<h3><a name="max-size"></a>Keep The Size of Your Posting Manageable</h3>
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<p>The mailing list software automatically limits message and
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attachment size to a reasonable amount, typically 75K, which is
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adjusted from time-to-time by the moderators. This limit is a
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courtesy to those who rely on dial-up Internet access and let's
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face it, no one wants to read a posting that consists of 75K of
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error message text.</p>
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<h3><a name="email-footers"></a>Avoid Corporate and Confidentiality
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Footers in Your Emails</h3>
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<p>Remember that mailing lists are publicly viewable, including
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by people not subscribed to the list. The responsibility of not
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posting any confidential information is always on the sender,
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and any confidentiality notice you may have in your email is void.
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Sending an email with a confidentiality footer is a one-way action
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by the sender, and the receiver has no way to accept or reject the
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terms specified in the footer. As such, the footer is not binding,
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but may come across as imposing on the receiver. This negative
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reception will reduce the likelihood of your message being
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answered.</p>
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<p>Additionally, if your footer contains corporate information,
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such as company name, logo, marketing slogans, contacts, and your
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position within the company, this may be taken as advertisement,
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which is explicitly forbidden. If your message requires you to
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expose your corporate affiliation, please include this information
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in the body of your message instead of attaching it to your every
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post in the corporate footer.</p>
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<p>If the footer is a mandatory corporate policy then please avoid
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using corporate email accounts for sending posts to the mailing
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lists. Use a non-corporate email account instead.</p>
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<h2><a name="behavior" id="behavior"></a>Prohibited
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Behavior</h2>
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<p>Prohibited behavior will not be tolerated. The moderators
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will ban postings by abusers.</p>
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<h3><a name="flame-wars"></a>Flame wars</h3>
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<p>Personal insults, argument for the sake of argument, and all
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the other behaviors which fall into the "flame war" category
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are prohibited. Discussions should focus on technical
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arguments, not the personality traits or motives of
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participants.</p>
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<h3><a name="third-party-attacks"></a>Third-party attacks</h3>
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<p>Attacks on third parties such as software vendors, hardware
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vendors, or any other organizations, are prohibited. Boost
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exists to unite and serve the entire C++ community, not to
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disparage the work of others.</p>
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<p>Does this mean that we ban the occasional complaint or wry
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remark about a troublesome compiler? No, but be wary of
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overdoing it.</p>
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<h3><a name="off-topic-posts"></a>Off-topic posts</h3>
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<p>Discussions that stray from the acceptable topics are
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strongly discouraged. While off-topic posts are often well
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meaning and not as individually corrosive as other abuses,
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cumulatively the distraction damages the effectiveness of
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discussion.</p>
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<h2><a name="culture" id="culture"></a>Culture</h2>
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<p>In addition to technical skills, Boost members value
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collaboration, acknowledgment of the help of others, and a
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certain level of politeness. Boost membership is very
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international, and ranges widely in age and other
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characteristics. Think of discussion as occurring among
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colleagues in a widely read forum, rather than among a few
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close friends.</p>
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<p>Always remember that the cumulative effort spent by people
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reading your contribution scales with the (already large)
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number of boost members. Thus, do invest time and effort to
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make your message as readable as possible. Adhere to English
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syntax and grammar rules such as proper capitalization. Avoid
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copious informalism, colloquial language, or abbreviations,
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they may not be understood by all readers. Re-read your message
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before submitting it.</p>
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<h2><a name="effective-discussions"></a>Guidelines for Effective Discussions</h2>
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<p>Apply social engineering to prevent heated technical
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discussion from degenerating into a shouting match, and to
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actively encourage the cooperation upon which Boost
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depends.</p>
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<ul>
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<li>Questions help. If someone suggests something that you
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don't think will work, then replying with a question like
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"will that compile?" or "won't that fail to compile, or am I
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missing something?" is a lot smoother than "That's
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stupid - it won't compile." Saying "that fails to compile for
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me, and seems to violate section n.n.n of the standard" would
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be yet another way to be firm without being abrasive.</li>
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<li>If most of the discussion has been code-free
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generalities, posting a bit of sample code can focus people
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on the practical issues.</li>
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<li>If most of the discussion has been in terms of specific
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code, try to talk a bit about hidden assumptions and
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generalities that may be preventing discussion closure.</li>
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<li>Taking a time-out is often effective. Just say: "Let me
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think about that for a day or two. Let's take a time-out to
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digest the discussion so far."</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Avoid <i><strong>Parkinson's Bicycle Shed</strong></i>.
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Parkinson described a committee formed to oversee design of an
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early nuclear power plant. There were three agenda items - when
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to have tea, where to put the bicycle shed, and how to ensure
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nuclear safety. Tea was disposed of quickly as trivial. Nuclear
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safety was discussed for only an hour - it was so complex,
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scary, and technical that even among experts few felt
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comfortable with the issues. Endless days were then spent
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discussing construction of the bicycle shed (the parking lot
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would be the modern equivalent) because everyone thought they
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understood the issues and felt comfortable discussing them.</p>
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<h2><a name="lib_names" id="lib_names"></a>Library Names</h2>
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<p>In order to ensure a uniform presentation in books and
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articles, we have adopted a convention for referring to Boost
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libraries. Library names can either be written in a compact
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form with a dot, as "Boost.<var>Name</var>", or in a long form
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as "the Boost <var>Name</var> library." For example:</p>
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<blockquote>
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<p><strong>Boost.Python</strong> serves a very different
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purpose from <strong>the Boost Graph library</strong>.</p>
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</blockquote>
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<p>Note that the word "library" is not part of the name, and as
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such isn't capitalized.</p>
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<p>Please take care to avoid confusion in discussions between
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libraries that have been accepted into Boost and those that
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have not. Acceptance as a Boost library indicates that the code
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and design have passed through our peer-review process; failing
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to make the distinction devalues the hard work of library
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authors who've gone through that process. Here are some
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suggested ways to describe potential Boost libraries:</p>
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<ul>
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<li>the proposed Boost <var>Name</var> library</li>
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<li>the Boost.<var>Name</var> candidate</li>
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<li>the <var>Name</var> library (probably the best choice
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where applicable)</li>
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</ul>
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<p>Note that this policy only applies to discussions, not to
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the documentation, directory structure, or even identifiers in
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the code of potential Boost libraries.</p>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div id="sidebar">
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<!--#include virtual="/common/sidebar-common.html" -->
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<!--#include virtual="/common/sidebar-community.html" -->
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</div>
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<div class="clear"></div>
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</div>
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</div>
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<div id="footer">
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<div id="footer-left">
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<div id="revised">
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<p>Revised $Date$</p>
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</div>
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<div id="copyright">
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<p>Copyright Beman Dawes, Rob Stewart, David Abrahams, 2000-2005.</p>
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</div><!--#include virtual="/common/footer-license.html" -->
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</div>
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<div id="footer-right">
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<!--#include virtual="/common/footer-banners.html" -->
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</div>
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<div class="clear"></div>
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</div>
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</body>
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</html>
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