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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
<link rel="top" title="Home" href="http://www.mozilla.org/">
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<title>Mozilla Forum Etiquette</title>
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<link rel="prev" href="community.html" title="mozilla.org Community page">
<link rel="Search" href="/search.html">
<link rel="Section" title="Ground Rules" href="#ground-rules">
<link rel="Section" title="Posting Conventions" href="#conventions">
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<body id="www-mozilla-org" class="deepLevel">
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<p class="important">You are currently viewing a snapshot of www.mozilla.org taken on April 21, 2008. Most of this content is
highly out of date (some pages haven't been updated since the project began in 1998) and exists for historical purposes only. If
there are any pages on this archive site that you think should be added back to www.mozilla.org, please <a
href="https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=Websites&component=www.mozilla.org">file a bug</a>.</p>
<p class="skipLink"><a href="#mainContent" accesskey="2">Skip to main content</a></p>
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<h1><a href="/" title="Return to home page" accesskey="1">Mozilla</a></h1>
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<div id="mainContent">
<h1>Mozilla Forum Etiquette</h1>
<h2><a name="ground-rules"
id="ground-rules"></a>Ground Rules</h2>
<p>There are a few ground rules for participation in
<a href="community.html#topical-forums">forums</a> hosted by
mozilla.org. Please respect these rules, and each other.</p>
<dl>
<dt>Be civil.</dt>
<dd>
<p>No personal attacks. If you feel the need to flame
someone, please do it in private e-mail. Do not feel
compelled to defend your honor in public.</p>
</dd>
<dt>Stay on topic.</dt>
<dd>
<p>These are generally high-traffic groups, so please
pay attention to the topic of your messages, and check
that it still relates to the charter of the forum to
which you are posting.</p>
</dd>
<dt>No crossposting.</dt>
<dd>
<p>It is almost never appropriate to send the same
message to two mailing lists or newsgroups. Please
don't do it. Or, if you must, make sure you set the
Followup-To and Reply-To fields to ensure that replies
go only to one, not to both.</p>
<table style="margin-left:2em;background-color:#eeeeee">
<caption>example:</caption>
<tr><th style="text-align:right">Newsgroup:</th>
<td>netscape.public.seamonkey</td></tr>
<tr><th style="text-align:right">Newsgroup:</th>
<td>netscape.public.browser</td></tr>
<tr><th style="text-align:right">FollowUp-To:</th>
<td>netscape.public.browser</td></tr>
<tr><th style="text-align:right">Reply-To:</th>
<td>mozilla-browser@mozilla.org</td></tr>
<tr><th style="text-align:right">Subject:</th>
<td>XPFE browser?</td></tr>
</table>
<p>It is never appropriate to send the same message
to two forums when one of those forums has
<q><b>general</b></q> in its name.</p>
</dd>
<dt>No advocacy.</dt>
<dd>
<p>These groups are for discussions about the Mozilla
source code. As such, discussions about which operating
system is better, or whether one toolkit is better than
another, or whether Microsoft is the root of all evil,
are <strong class="stronger">not relevant</strong>.
There are many forums for discussing such issues on
Usenet; please have such discussions <a href=
"http://groups.google.com/groups?as_ugroup=*advocacy*">there</a>
instead of on the Mozilla forums. Might we
recommend:</p>
<ul style="font-size: 85%;">
<li><a href="news://comp.infosystems.www.advocacy">comp.infosystems.www.advocacy</a></li>
<li><a href="news://comp.os.linux.advocacy">comp.os.linux.advocacy</a></li>
<li><a href="news://comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy">comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy</a></li>
<li><a href="news://comp.os.os2.advocacy">comp.os.os2.advocacy</a></li>
<li><a href="news://comp.sys.amiga.advocacy">comp.sys.amiga.advocacy</a></li>
<li><a href="news://comp.sys.be.advocacy">comp.sys.be.advocacy</a></li>
<li><a href="news://comp.sys.mac.advocacy">comp.sys.mac.advocacy</a></li>
<li><a href="news://comp.unix.advocacy">comp.unix.advocacy</a></li>
<li><a href="news://comp.lang.java.advocacy">comp.lang.java.advocacy</a></li>
<li><a href="news://alt.netscape.sucks">alt.netscape.sucks</a></li>
<li><a href="news://alt.fan.mozilla">alt.fan.mozilla</a></li>
<li><a href="news://gnu.misc.discuss">gnu.misc.discuss</a></li>
</ul>
</dd>
<dt>Ignore spammers.</dt>
<dd>
<p>Spam is a blight upon the face of the net. Nobody
likes it. However, it is hard to avoid. Despite our
best efforts, you will occasionally see spam on the
Mozilla mailing lists and newsgroups. If you feel the
need to flame the spammer, do not CC the list.
Complaining about spam in public increases noise, but
not signal. It may make you feel better, but it doesn't
help. (For info on fighting spam effectively, check out
<a href=
"http://spam.abuse.net/">spam.abuse.net</a>.)</p>
</dd>
<dt>No anonymous messages.</dt>
<dd>
<p>If you have something that you are offering for
others to read, you should be willing to attach your
name to it, and to give people the ability to reply to
you privately about it, in case they feel that a public
reply would be inappropriate.</p>
<p>So-called <q>address munging</q> is frowned upon. Your
return address should be replyable. If you want to
avoid spam, use mail filters, or don't post. Other
alternatives are not welcome here.</p>
</dd>
<dt>No large attachments.</dt>
<dd>
<p>Do not send binary attachments, including screen shots,
and especially including screen shots of textual dialog
boxes. Many people read these messages through slow
network connections; try to be respectful of them. If
you have a large file that you would like to
distribute, put it on a Web page and announce the URL
instead of attaching it.</p>
</dd>
<dt>Trim your follow-ups.</dt>
<dd>
<p>Do not quote the entire content of the message to
which you are replying. Include only as much as is
necessary for context. Remember that if someone wants
to read the original message, they can; it is easily
accessible. A good rule of thumb is, don't include more
quoted text than new text.</p>
</dd>
<dt>Post HTML at your own risk.</dt>
<dd>
<p>Keep in mind that not everyone uses mail or news
readers that can easily display HTML messages.
Consequently, you will reach a larger audience if you
post in plain-text. Many people simply ignore HTML
messages, because it takes a nontrivial amount of
effort to read them.</p>
</dd>
<dt>Report bugs in Bugzilla, not in the Mozilla forums</dt>
<dd>
<p>If you encounter a bug with Mozilla, please take the time to
<a href="/quality/bug-writing-guidelines.html">file a report</a>
in Bugzilla about it. Mozilla developers do not all have time to
follow all the Mozilla-related forums on a regular basis, and if
you just post a bug report to a newsgroup or mailing list then it
may not reach anyone who can actually do anything about the bug.
By reporting the bug through Bugzilla you ensure that it will
receive a higher level of attention, and will be tracked along
with other bugs. Please also read the <a
href="http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=etiquette.html"
>Bugzilla etiquette page</a>.</p>
</dd>
<dt>Identify your subject matter.</dt>
<dd>
<p>Not everyone has time reading all forum postings.
To ensure that your message reach the right people at
timely manner, identify your subject matter clearly in
the subject line. Subjects like a <q>question</q> and
<q>Mozilla problem</q> are unacceptable.</p>
</dd>
<dt>No <q>unsubscribe</q> messages.</dt>
<dd>
<p>Unfortunately, this bears repeating. See
<strong><a href="community.html#subscribe">How To
Subscribe</a></strong>.</p>
</dd>
<dt>No <q>test</q> messages.</dt>
<dd>
<p>Please do not send test messages to the newsgroups except
<a href="news://news.mozilla.org/netscape.public.mozilla.test">
netscape.public.mozilla.test</a>. The test newsgroup has no
corresponding mailing list.</p>
</dd>
</dl>
<h2><a name="conventions"
id="conventions"></a>Posting Conventions</h2>
<p>In addition to the ground rules, there are some posting conventions
that you should follow. Posting conventions may vary from forum to forum,
so you should read past postings to get a feel of what is expected from
you before posting.</p>
<dl>
<dt>Top-posting vs bottom-posting</dt>
<dd>
<p>Some people like to put reply after the quoted text, some
like it the other way around, and still some prefer interspersed
style. Debates about which posting style is better have lead to
many flame wars in the forums. To keep forum discussion friendly,
please follow the general preference, which is
<strong>bottom-posting</strong> (with the exception of the
accessibility forum, which is top-posting).</p>
</dd>
<dt><q>Public</q> but not for end users</dt>
<dd>
<p>All newsgroups hosted by mozilla.org are for developers only.
Use forums listed in the <a href="/support/">support page</a>
for user support.</p>
<p>Please do not complain about the word <q>public</q> in newsgroup
names. The word was originally used to remind Netscape staff that
these forums are open to the general public. It was an unfortunate
choice that most developers have no control over. Don't start arguing
about the name when you are directed to other forums..</p>
</p>
</dd>
</dl>
<p>Learn more about Usenet newsgroups and Usenet etiquette at
the <a href="http://www.ibiblio.org/usenet-i/">Usenet Info
Center</a>.</p>
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<p>
<span>Last modified December 5, 2003</span>
<span><a href="http://bonsai-www.mozilla.org/cvslog.cgi?file=mozilla-org/html/community-etiquette.html&rev=&root=/www/">Document History</a></span>
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