27.1.3. List charters

AllFreeBSD mailing lists have certain basic rules which must be adhered to by anyone using them. Failure to comply with these guidelines will result in two (2) written warnings from the FreeBSD Postmaster, after which, on a third offense, the poster will removed from all FreeBSD mailing lists and filtered from further posting to them. We regret that such rules and measures are necessary at all, but today's Internet is a pretty harsh environment, it would seem, and many fail to appreciate just how fragile some of its mechanisms are.

Rules of the road:

• The topic of any posting should adhere to the basic charter of the list it is posted to, e.g. if the list is about technical issues then your posting should contain technical discussion. Ongoing irrelevant chatter or flaming only detracts from the value of the mailing list for everyone on it and will not be tolerated. For free-form discussion on no particular topic, the freebsd-chat mailing list is freely available and should be used instead.
• No posting should be made to more than 2 mailing lists, and only to 2 when a clear and obvious need to post to both lists exists. For most lists, there is already a great deal of subscriber overlap and except for the most esoteric mixes (say "-stable & -scsi"), there really is no reason to post to more than one list at a time. If a message is sent to you in such a way that multiple mailing lists appear on the Cc line then the cc line should also be trimmed before sending it out again. You are still responsible for your own cross-postings, no matter who the originator might have been.
• Personal attacks and profanity (in the context of an argument) are not allowed, and that includes users and developers alike. Gross breaches of netiquette, like excerpting or reposting private mail when permission to do so was not and would not be forthcoming, are frowned upon but not specifically enforced. However, there are also very few cases where such content would fit within the charter of a list and it would therefore probably rate a warning (or ban) on that basis alone.
• Advertising of non-FreeBSD related products or services is strictly prohibited and will result in an immediate ban if it is clear that the offender is advertising by spam.

Individual list charters:

FREEBSD-AFS

Andrew File System
This list is for discussion on porting and using AFS from CMU/Transarc

FREEBSD-ADMIN

Administrative issues
This list is purely for discussion of freebsd.org related issues and to report problems or abuse of project resources. It is a closed list, though anyone may report a problem (with our systems!) to it.

FREEBSD-ANNOUNCE

Important events / milestones
This is the mailing list for people interested only in occasional announcements of significant FreeBSD events. This includes announcements about snapshots and other releases. It contains announcements of new FreeBSD capabilities. It may contain calls for volunteers etc. This is a low volume, strictly moderated mailing list.

FREEBSD-ARCH

Architecture and design discussions
This is a moderated list for discussion of FreeBSD architecture. Messages will mostly be kept technical in nature, with (rare) exceptions for other messages the moderator deems need to reach all the subscribers of the list. Examples of suitable topics:

• How to re-vamp the build-system to have several customized builds running at the same time
• What needs to be fixed with VFS to make Heidemann layers work
• How do we change the device driver interface to be able to use the same drivers cleanly on many buses and architectures?

Example of a non-suitable topic:

• How do I write a network driver?

The moderator reserves the right to do minor editing (spell-checking, grammar correction, trimming) of messages that are posted to the list. The volume of the list will be kept low, which may include having to delay topics until an active discussion has been resolved.

FREEBSD-BUGS

Bug reports
This is the mailing list for reporting bugs in FreeBSD Whenever possible, bugs should be submitted using the "send-pr(1)" command or the WEB interface to it.

FREEBSD-CHAT

Non technical items related to the FreeBSD community
This list contains the overflow from the other lists about non-technical, social information. It includes discussion about whether Jordan looks like a toon ferret or not, whether or not to type in capitals, who is drinking too much coffee, where the best beer is brewed, who is brewing beer in their basement, and so on. Occasional announcements of important events (such as upcoming parties, weddings, births, new jobs, etc) can be made to the technical lists, but the follow ups should be directed to this -chat list.

FREEBSD-CORE

FreeBSD core team
This is an internal mailing list for use by the core members. Messages can be sent to it when a serious FreeBSD-related matter requires arbitration or high-level scrutiny.

FREEBSD-CURRENT

Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current
This is the mailing list for users of freebsd-current. It includes warnings about new features coming out in -current that will affect the users, and instructions on steps that must be taken to remain -current. Anyone running "current" must subscribe to this list. This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical content is expected.

FREEBSD-CURRENT-DIGEST

Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current
This is the digest version of the freebsd-current mailing list. The digest consists of all messages sent to freebsd-current bundled together and mailed out as a single message. The average digest size is about 40kB. This list is Read-Only and should not be posted to.

FREEBSD-DOC

The FreeBSD Documentation project
This mailing list is for the discussion of issues and projects related to the creation of documentation for FreeBSD. The members of this mailing list are collectively referred to as 'The FreeBSD Documentation project'. It is an open list; feel free to join and contribute!

FREEBSD-FS

Filesystems
Discussions concerning FreeBSD filesystems. This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical content is expected.

FREEBSD-ISDN

ISDN Communications
This is the mailing list for people discussing the development of ISDN support for FreeBSD.

FREEBSD-JAVA

Java Development
This is the mailing list for people discussing the development of significant Java applications for FreeBSD and the porting and maintenance of JDKs.

FREEBSD-HACKERS

Technical discussions
This is a forum for technical discussions related to FreeBSD. This is the primary technical mailing list. It is for individuals actively working on FreeBSD, to bring up problems or discuss alternative solutions. Individuals interested in following the technical discussion are also welcome. This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical content is expected.

FREEBSD-HACKERS-DIGEST

Technical discussions
This is the digest version of the freebsd-hackers mailing list. The digest consists of all messages sent to freebsd-hackers bundled together and mailed out as a single message. The average digest size is about 40kB. This list is Read-Only and should not be posted to.

FREEBSD-HARDWARE

General discussion of FreeBSD hardware
General discussion about the types of hardware that FreeBSD runs on, various problems and suggestions concerning what to buy or avoid.

FREEBSD-INSTALL

Installation discussion
This mailing list is for discussing FreeBSD installation development for the future releases and is closed.

FREEBSD-ISP

Issues for Internet Service Providers
This mailing list is for discussing topics relevant to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) using FreeBSD. This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical content is expected.

FREEBSD-NEWBIES

Newbies activities discussion
We cover any of the activities of newbies that are not already dealt with elsewhere, including: independent learning and problem solving techniques, finding and using resources and asking for help elsewhere, how to use mailing lists and which lists to use, general chat, making mistakes, boasting, sharing ideas, stories, moral (but not technical) support, and taking an active part in the FreeBSD community. We take our problems and support questions to freebsd-questions, and use freebsd-newbies to meet others who are doing the same things that we do as newbies.

FREEBSD-PLATFORMS

Porting to Non-Intel platforms
Cross-platform freebsd issues, general discussion and proposals for non-Intel FreeBSD ports. This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical content is expected.

FREEBSD-PORTS

Discussion of "ports"
Discussions concerning FreeBSD's "ports collection" (/usr/ports), proposed ports, modifications to ports collection infrastructure and general coordination efforts. This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical content is expected.

FREEBSD-QUESTIONS

User questions
This is the mailing list for questions about FreeBSD. You should not send "how to" questions to the technical lists unless you consider the question to be pretty technical.

FREEBSD-QUESTIONS-DIGEST

User questions
This is the digest version of the freebsd-questions mailing list. The digest consists of all messages sent to freebsd-questions bundled together and mailed out as a single message. The average digest size is about 40kB.

FREEBSD-SCSI

SCSI subsystem
This is the mailing list for people working on the scsi subsystem for FreeBSD. This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical content is expected.

FREEBSD-SECURITY

Security issues
FreeBSD computer security issues (DES, Kerberos, known security holes and fixes, etc). This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical content is expected.

FREEBSD-SECURITY-NOTIFICATIONS

Security Notifications
Notifications of FreeBSD security problems and fixes. This is not a discussion list. The discussion list is FreeBSD-security.

FREEBSD-SMALL

FreeBSD Embedded
This list discusses topics related to unusually small and embedded FreeBSD installations. This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical content is expected.

FREEBSD-STABLE

Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-stable
This is the mailing list for users of freebsd-stable. It includes warnings about new features coming out in -stable that will affect the users, and instructions on steps that must be taken to remain -stable. Anyone running ``stable'' should subscribe to this list. This is a technical mailing list for which strictly technical content is expected.

FREEBSD-USER-GROUPS

User Group Coordination List
This is the mailing list for the coordinators from each of the local area Users Groups to discuss matters with each other and a designated individual from the Core Team. This mail list should be limited to meeting synopsis and coordination of projects that span User Groups. It is a closed list.