Date: Fri, 18 Jan 2013 08:57:50 -0800 (PST) From: Dru Lavigne <dru.lavigne@att.net> To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Subject: [patch] white space fix for article on Best Results FreeBSD Questions Message-ID: <1358528270.26230.YahooMailClassic@web184903.mail.gq1.yahoo.com>
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[-- Attachment #1 --]
This is a white space fix for the Lehey article on FreeBSD Questions. It also fixes the entities for FreeBSD, Microsoft, and the referred to mailing lists.
It does not fix the contractions. Note that the referred to spelling error is OK as it is supposed to be an example of a mis-spelled message.
Cheers,
Dru
[-- Attachment #2 --]
Index: freebsd-questions/article.xml
===================================================================
--- freebsd-questions/article.xml (revision 40677)
+++ freebsd-questions/article.xml (working copy)
@@ -7,8 +7,8 @@
<article lang='en'>
<articleinfo>
- <title>How to get best results from the FreeBSD-questions mailing
- list</title>
+ <title>How to Get Best Results From the &a.questions.name; Mailing
+ List</title>
<author>
<firstname>Greg</firstname>
@@ -33,88 +33,96 @@
<releaseinfo>$FreeBSD$</releaseinfo>
<abstract>
- <para>This document provides useful information for people looking to
- prepare an e-mail to the FreeBSD-questions mailing list. Advice and
- hints are given that will maximize the chance that the reader will
- receive useful replies.</para>
+ <para>This document provides useful information for people
+ looking to prepare an e-mail to the &a.questions.name; mailing
+ list. Advice and hints are given that will maximize the
+ chance that the reader will receive useful replies.</para>
- <para>This document is regularly posted to the FreeBSD-questions mailing
- list.</para>
+ <para>This document is regularly posted to the
+ &a.questions.name; mailing list.</para>
</abstract>
</articleinfo>
<sect1>
<title id="Introduction">Introduction</title>
- <para><literal>FreeBSD-questions</literal> is a mailing list maintained by
- the FreeBSD project to help people who have questions about the normal
- use of FreeBSD. Another group, <literal>FreeBSD-hackers</literal>,
- discusses more advanced questions such as future development
- work.</para>
+ <para><literal>&a.questions.name;</literal> is a mailing list
+ maintained by the &os; project to help people who have
+ questions about the normal use of &os;. Another group,
+ &a.hackers.name;, discusses more advanced questions such as
+ future development work.</para>
<note>
- <para>The term <quote>hacker</quote> has nothing to do with breaking
- into other people's computers. The correct term for the latter
- activity is <quote>cracker</quote>, but the popular press has not found
- out yet. The FreeBSD hackers disapprove strongly of cracking
- security, and have nothing to do with it. For a longer description of
- hackers, see Eric Raymond's <ulink
- url="http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html">How To Become
- A Hacker</ulink></para>
- </note>
+ <para>The term <quote>hacker</quote> has nothing to do with
+ breaking into other people's computers. The correct term
+ for the latter activity is <quote>cracker</quote>, but the
+ popular press has not found out yet. The &os; hackers
+ disapprove strongly of cracking security, and have nothing
+ to do with it. For a longer description of hackers, see Eric
+ Raymond's <ulink
+ url="http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html">How
+ To Become A Hacker</ulink></para>
+ </note>
- <para>This is a regular posting aimed to help both those seeking advice
- from FreeBSD-questions (the <quote>newcomers</quote>), and also those
- who answer the questions (the <quote>hackers</quote>).</para>
+ <para>This is a regular posting aimed to help both those seeking
+ advice from &a.questions.name; (the <quote>newcomers</quote>),
+ and also those who answer the questions (the
+ <quote>hackers</quote>).</para>
- <para>Inevitably there is some friction, which stems from the different
- viewpoints of the two groups. The newcomers accuse the hackers of being
- arrogant, stuck-up, and unhelpful, while the hackers accuse the
- newcomers of being stupid, unable to read plain English, and expecting
- everything to be handed to them on a silver platter. Of course, there is
- an element of truth in both these claims, but for the most part these
- viewpoints come from a sense of frustration.</para>
+ <para>Inevitably there is some friction, which stems from the
+ different viewpoints of the two groups. The newcomers accuse
+ the hackers of being arrogant, stuck-up, and unhelpful, while
+ the hackers accuse the newcomers of being stupid, unable to read
+ plain English, and expecting everything to be handed to them
+ on a silver platter. Of course, there is an element of truth
+ in both these claims, but for the most part these viewpoints
+ come from a sense of frustration.</para>
- <para>In this document, I would like to do something to relieve this
- frustration and help everybody get better results from
- FreeBSD-questions. In the following section, I recommend how to submit
- a question; after that, we will look at how to answer one.</para>
- </sect1>
+ <para>In this document, I would like to do something to relieve
+ this frustration and help everybody get better results from
+ &a.questions.name;. In the following section, I recommend how
+ to submit a question; after that, we will look at how to answer
+ one.</para>
+</sect1>
- <sect1>
- <title id="subscribe">How to subscribe to FreeBSD-questions</title>
+<sect1>
+ <title id="subscribe">How to Subscribe to
+ &a.questions.name;</title>
- <para>FreeBSD-questions is a mailing list, so you need mail access. Point
- your WWW browser to the <ulink url="&a.questions.url;">information page of the FreeBSD-questions mailing list</ulink>.
- In the section titled <quote>Subscribing to freebsd-questions</quote> fill
- in the <quote>Your email address</quote> field; the other fields are optional.
- </para>
+ <para>&a.questions.name; is a mailing list, so you need mail
+ access. Point your WWW browser to the <ulink
+ url="&a.questions.url;">information page of the &a.questions.name;
+ mailing list</ulink>. In the section titled <quote>Subscribing
+ to &a.questions.name;</quote> fill in the <quote>Your email
+ address</quote> field; the other fields are optional.</para>
- <note>
- <para>The password fields in the subscription form provide only mild
- security, but should prevent others from messing with your
- subscription. <emphasis>Do not use a valuable password</emphasis> as
- it will occasionally be emailed back to you in cleartext.</para>
- </note>
+<note>
+ <para>The password fields in the subscription form provide only
+ mild security, but should prevent others from messing with your
+ subscription. <emphasis>Do not use a valuable password</emphasis>
+ as it will occasionally be emailed back to you in
+ cleartext.</para>
+</note>
- <para>You will receive a confirmation message from
- <application>mailman</application>; follow the included instructions
- to complete your subscription.</para>
+<para>You will receive a confirmation message from
+ <application>mailman</application>; follow the included
+ instructions to complete your subscription.</para>
- <para>Finally, when you get the <quote>Welcome</quote> message from
- <application>mailman</application> telling you the details of the list
- and subscription area password, <emphasis>please save it</emphasis>.
- If you ever should want to leave the list, you will need the information
- there. See the next section for more details.</para>
- </sect1>
+<para>Finally, when you get the <quote>Welcome</quote> message
+ from <application>mailman</application> telling you the details
+ of the list and subscription area password, <emphasis>please save
+ it</emphasis>. If you ever should want to leave the list, you
+ will need the information there. See the next section for more
+ details.</para>
+</sect1>
<sect1>
- <title id="unsubscribe">How to unsubscribe from FreeBSD-questions</title>
+ <title id="unsubscribe">How to Unsubscribe from &a.questions.name;</title>
- <para>When you subscribed to FreeBSD-questions, you got a welcome message
- from <application>mailman</application>. In this message, amongst
- other things, it told you how to unsubscribe. Here is a typical
- message:</para>
+ <para>When you subscribed to &a.questions.name;, you got a welcome
+ message from <application>mailman</application>. In this
+ message, amongst other things, it told you how to unsubscribe.
+ Here is a typical message:</para>
<literallayout class="monospaced">Welcome to the freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list!
@@ -150,165 +158,178 @@
unsubscribe or change your account options. There is also a button on
your options page that will email your current password to you.</literallayout>
- <para>From the URL specified in your <quote>Welcome</quote> message you
- may visit the <quote>Account management page</quote> and enter a request
- to <quote>Unsubscribe</quote> you from FreeBSD-questions mailing
- list.</para>
+ <para>From the URL specified in your <quote>Welcome</quote>
+ message you may visit the <quote>Account management page</quote>
+ and enter a request to <quote>Unsubscribe</quote> you from
+ &a.questions.name; mailing list.</para>
<para>A confirmation message will be sent to you from
- <application>mailman</application>; follow the included instructions
- to finish unsubscribing.</para>
+ <application>mailman</application>; follow the included
+ instructions to finish unsubscribing.</para>
- <para>If you have done this, and you still can not figure out what
- is going on, send a message to
- <email>freebsd-questions-request@FreeBSD.org</email>, and they will
- sort things out for you. <emphasis>Do not</emphasis> send a message to
- FreeBSD-questions: they can not help you.</para>
+ <para>If you have done this, and you still can not figure out
+ what is going on, send a message to
+ <email>freebsd-questions-request@FreeBSD.org</email>, and
+ they will sort things out for you. <emphasis>Do not</emphasis>
+ send a message to &a.questions.name;: they can not help
+ you.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1>
- <title id="askwho">Should I ask <literal>-questions</literal> or
- <literal>-hackers</literal>?</title>
+ <title id="askwho">Should I ask &a.questions.name; or
+ &a.hackers.name;?</title>
- <para>Two mailing lists handle general questions about FreeBSD,
- <literal>FreeBSD-questions</literal> and
- <literal>FreeBSD-hackers</literal>. In some cases, it is not really
- clear which group you should ask. The following criteria should help
- for 99% of all questions, however:</para>
+ <para>Two mailing lists handle general questions about &os;,
+ <literal>&a.questions.name;</literal> and &a.hackers.name;.
+ In some cases, it is not really clear which group you should
+ ask. The following criteria should help for 99% of all
+ questions, however:</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
<para>If the question is of a general nature, ask
- <literal>FreeBSD-questions</literal>. Examples might be questions
- about installing FreeBSD or the use of a particular &unix;
- utility.</para>
+ <literal>&a.questions.name;</literal>. Examples might be
+ questions about installing &os; or the use of a
+ particular &unix; utility.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <para>If you think the question relates to a bug, but you are not sure,
- or you do not know how to look for it, send the message to
- <literal>FreeBSD-questions</literal>.</para>
+ <para>If you think the question relates to a bug, but you
+ are not sure, or you do not know how to look for it, send
+ the message to
+ <literal>&a.questions.name;</literal>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>If the question relates to a bug, and you are
- <emphasis>sure</emphasis> that it is a bug (for example, you can
- pinpoint the place in the code where it happens, and you maybe have
- a fix), then send the message to
- <literal>FreeBSD-hackers</literal>.</para>
+ <emphasis>sure</emphasis> that it is a bug (for example,
+ you can pinpoint the place in the code where it happens,
+ and you maybe have a fix), then send the message to
+ &a.hackers.name;.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <para>If the question relates to enhancements to FreeBSD, and you
- can make suggestions about how to implement them, then send the
- message to <literal>FreeBSD-hackers</literal>.</para>
+ <para>If the question relates to enhancements to &os;,
+ and you can make suggestions about how to implement them,
+ then send the message to
+ &a.hackers.name;.</para>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
- <para>There are also a number of other specialized mailing lists, for
- example <literal>FreeBSD-isp</literal>, which caters to the interests of
- ISPs (Internet Service Providers) who run FreeBSD. If you happen to be
- an ISP, this does not mean you should automatically send your questions
- to <literal>FreeBSD-isp</literal>. The criteria above still apply, and
- it is in your interest to stick to them, since you are more likely to get
- good results that way.</para>
+ <para>There are also a number of other specialized mailing lists,
+ for example &a.isp.name;, which caters to the interests of ISPs
+ (Internet Service Providers) who run &os;. If you happen to
+ be an ISP, this does not mean you should automatically send
+ your questions to &a.isp.name;. The criteria above still apply,
+ and it is in your interest to stick to them, since you are more
+ likely to get good results that way.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1>
- <title id="before">Before submitting a question</title>
+ <title id="before">Before Submitting a Question</title>
- <para>You can (and should) do some things yourself before asking a question
- on one of the mailing lists:</para>
+ <para>You can (and should) do some things yourself before asking
+ a question on one of the mailing lists:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
- <para>Try solving the problem on your own. If you post a question which
- shows that you have tried to solve the problem, your question will
- generally attract more positive attention from people reading it.
- Trying to solve the problem yourself will also enhance your understanding
- of FreeBSD, and will eventually let you use your knowledge to help others
- by answering questions posted to the mailing lists.
- </para>
+ <para>Try solving the problem on your own. If you post a
+ question which shows that you have tried to solve the
+ problem, your question will generally attract more positive
+ attention from people reading it. Trying to solve the
+ problem yourself will also enhance your understanding
+ of &os;, and will eventually let you use your knowledge
+ to help others by answering questions posted to the mailing
+ lists.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <para>Read the manual pages, and the FreeBSD documentation (either
- installed in <filename>/usr/doc</filename> or accessible via WWW at
- <ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org"></ulink>), especially the
+ <para>Read the manual pages, and the &os; documentation
+ (either installed in <filename>/usr/doc</filename> or
+ accessible via WWW at
+ <ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org"></ulink>), especially
+ the
<ulink url="&url.books.handbook;/index.html">handbook</ulink>
- and the <ulink url="&url.books.faq;/index.html">FAQ</ulink>.
- </para>
+ and the
+ <ulink url="&url.books.faq;/index.html">FAQ</ulink>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <para>Browse and/or search the archives for the mailing list, to see if your
- question or a similar one has been asked (and possibly answered) on the
- list. You can browse and/or search the mailing list archives
- at <ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/mail"></ulink>;
- and <ulink url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/search/search.html#mailinglists"></ulink>;
- respectively. This can be done at other WWW sites as well, for example
- at <ulink url="http://marc.theaimsgroup.com"></ulink>.
- </para>
- </listitem>
+ <para>Browse and/or search the archives for the mailing list,
+ to see if your question or a similar one has been asked
+ (and possibly answered) on the list. You can browse and/or
+ search the mailing list archives at <ulink
+ url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/mail"></ulink>; and <ulink
+url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/search/search.html#mailinglists"></ulink>;
+ respectively. This can be done at other WWW sites as well,
+ for example at <ulink
+ url="http://marc.theaimsgroup.com"></ulink>.</para>;
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>Use a search engine such as <ulink url="http://www.google.com">Google</ulink>;
- or <ulink url="http://www.yahoo.com">Yahoo</ulink>; to find answers to your question.
- Google even has a <ulink
- url="http://www.google.com/bsd">BSD-specific search interface</ulink>.
- </para>
- </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
- </sect1>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Use a search engine such as <ulink
+ url="http://www.google.com">Google</ulink>; or <ulink
+ url="http://www.yahoo.com">Yahoo</ulink>; to find answers
+ to your question. Google even has a <ulink
+ url="http://www.google.com/bsd">BSD-specific search
+ interface</ulink>.</para>
+ </listitem>
+</itemizedlist>
+</sect1>
<sect1>
- <title id="submit">How to submit a question</title>
+ <title id="submit">How to Submit a Question</title>
- <para>When submitting a question to FreeBSD-questions, consider the
- following points:</para>
+ <para>When submitting a question to &a.questions.name;, consider
+ the following points:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
- <para>Remember that nobody gets paid for answering a FreeBSD
- question. They do it of their own free will. You can influence this
- free will positively by submitting a well-formulated question
- supplying as much relevant information as possible. You can
- influence this free will negatively by submitting an incomplete,
- illegible, or rude question. It is perfectly possible to send a
- message to FreeBSD-questions and not get an answer even if you
- follow these rules. It is much more possible to not get an answer if
- you do not. In the rest of this document, we will look at how to get
- the most out of your question to FreeBSD-questions.</para>
+ <para>Remember that nobody gets paid for answering a &os;
+ question. They do it of their own free will. You can
+ influence this free will positively by submitting a
+ well-formulated question supplying as much relevant
+ information as possible. You can influence this free will
+ negatively by submitting an incomplete, illegible, or rude
+ question. It is perfectly possible to send a message to
+ &a.questions.name; and not get an answer even if you
+ follow these rules. It is much more possible to not get
+ an answer if you do not. In the rest of this document, we
+ will look at how to get the most out of your question to
+ &a.questions.name;.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <para>Not everybody who answers FreeBSD questions reads every message:
- they look at the subject line and decide whether it interests them.
- Clearly, it is in your interest to specify a subject. <quote>FreeBSD
- problem</quote> or <quote>Help</quote> are not enough. If you provide no subject at
- all, many people will not bother reading it. If your subject is not
- specific enough, the people who can answer it may not read
- it.</para>
+ <para>Not everybody who answers &os; questions reads every
+ message: they look at the subject line and decide whether
+ it interests them. Clearly, it is in your interest to
+ specify a subject. <quote>&os; problem</quote> or
+ <quote>Help</quote> are not enough. If you provide no
+ subject at all, many people will not bother reading it.
+ If your subject is not specific enough, the people who can
+ answer it may not read it.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <para>Format your message so that it is legible, and
- PLEASE DO NOT SHOUT!!!!!. We appreciate that a lot of people do not
- speak English as their first language, and we try to make
- allowances for that, but it is really painful to try to read a
- message written full of typos or without any line breaks.</para>
+ <para>Format your message so that it is legible, and
+ PLEASE DO NOT SHOUT!!!!!. We appreciate that a lot of
+ people do not speak English as their first language, and
+ we try to make allowances for that, but it is really painful
+ to try to read a message written full of typos or without
+ any line breaks.</para>
- <para>Do not underestimate the effect that a poorly formatted mail
- message has, not just on the FreeBSD-questions mailing list.
- Your mail message is all people see of you, and if it is poorly
- formatted, one line per paragraph, badly spelt, or full of
- errors, it will give people a poor impression of you.</para>
+ <para>Do not underestimate the effect that a poorly formatted
+ mail message has, not just on the &a.questions.name; mailing
+ list. Your mail message is all people see of you, and if
+ it is poorly formatted, one line per paragraph, badly spelt,
+ or full of errors, it will give people a poor impression
+ of you.</para>
<para>A lot of badly formatted messages come from
- <ulink url="http://www.lemis.com/email.html">bad mailers or badly
- configured mailers</ulink>. The following mailers are known to
- send out badly formatted messages without you finding out about
- them:</para>
+ <ulink url="http://www.lemis.com/email.html">bad mailers
+ or badly configured mailers</ulink>. The following mailers
+ are known to send out badly formatted messages without you
+ finding out about them:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
@@ -340,96 +361,105 @@
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
- <para>As you can see, the mailers in the Microsoft world are frequent
- offenders. If at all possible, use a &unix; mailer. If you must use a
- mailer under Microsoft environments, make sure it is set up
- correctly. Try not to use <acronym>MIME</acronym>: a lot of people
- use mailers which do not get on very well with
+ <para>As you can see, the mailers in the µsoft; world
+ are frequent offenders. If at all possible, use a &unix;
+ mailer. If you must use a mailer under µsoft;
+ environments, make sure it is set up correctly. Try not
+ to use <acronym>MIME</acronym>: a lot of people use mailers
+ which do not get on very well with
<acronym>MIME</acronym>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <para>Make sure your time and time zone are set correctly. This may
- seem a little silly, since your message still gets there, but many
- of the people you are trying to reach get several hundred messages a
- day. They frequently sort the incoming messages by subject and by
- date, and if your message does not come before the first answer, they
- may assume they missed it and not bother to look.</para>
+ <para>Make sure your time and time zone are set correctly.
+ This may seem a little silly, since your message still gets
+ there, but many of the people you are trying to reach get
+ several hundred messages a day. They frequently sort the
+ incoming messages by subject and by date, and if your
+ message does not come before the first answer, they may
+ assume they missed it and not bother to look.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <para>Do not include unrelated questions in the same message. Firstly,
- a long message tends to scare people off, and secondly, it is more
- difficult to get all the people who can answer all the questions to
- read the message.</para>
+ <para>Do not include unrelated questions in the same message.
+ Firstly, a long message tends to scare people off, and
+ secondly, it is more difficult to get all the people who
+ can answer all the questions to read the message.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <para>Specify as much information as possible. This is a difficult
- area, and we need to expand on what information you need to submit,
- but here is a start:</para>
+ <para>Specify as much information as possible. This is a
+ difficult area, and we need to expand on what information
+ you need to submit, but here is a start:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
- <para>In nearly every case, it is important to know the version of
- FreeBSD you are running. This is particularly the case for
- FreeBSD-CURRENT, where you should also specify the date of the
- sources, though of course you should not be sending questions
- about -CURRENT to FreeBSD-questions.</para>
+ <para>In nearly every case, it is important to know the
+ version of &os; you are running. This is particularly
+ the case for &a.current.name;, where you should also
+ specify the date of the sources, though of course you
+ should not be sending questions about &a.current.name;
+ to &a.questions.name;.</para>
</listitem>
- <listitem><para>With any problem which <emphasis>could</emphasis> be
- hardware related, tell us about your hardware. In case of
- doubt, assume it is possible that it is hardware. What kind of
- CPU are you using? How fast? What motherboard? How much
- memory? What peripherals?</para>
-
- <para>There is a judgement call here, of course, but the output of
- the &man.dmesg.8; command can frequently be very useful, since it
- tells not just what hardware you are running, but what version of
- FreeBSD as well.</para>
- </listitem>
-
<listitem>
- <para>If you get error messages, do not say <quote>I get error
- messages</quote>, say (for example) <quote>I get the error
- message 'No route to host'</quote>.</para>
- </listitem>
+ <para>With any problem which <emphasis>could</emphasis>
+ be hardware related, tell us about your hardware. In
+ case of doubt, assume it is possible that it is
+ hardware. What kind of CPU are you using? How fast?
+ What motherboard? How much memory? What
+ peripherals?</para>
- <listitem>
- <para>If your system panics, do not say <quote>My system
- panicked</quote>, say (for example) <quote>my system panicked
- with the message 'free vnode isn't'</quote>.</para>
+ <para>There is a judgement call here, of course, but
+ the output of the &man.dmesg.8; command can frequently
+ be very useful, since it tells not just what hardware
+ you are running, but what version of &os; as
+ well.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <para>If you have difficulty installing FreeBSD, please tell us
- what hardware you have. In particular, it is important to know
- the IRQs and I/O addresses of the boards installed in your
- machine.</para>
- </listitem>
+ <para>If you get error messages, do not say <quote>I
+ get error messages</quote>, say (for example) <quote>I
+ get the error message 'No route to host'</quote>.</para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>If you have difficulty getting PPP to run, describe the
- configuration. Which version of PPP do you use? What kind of
- authentication do you have? Do you have a static or dynamic IP
- address? What kind of messages do you get in the log
- file?</para>
- </listitem>
- </itemizedlist>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>If your system panics, do not say <quote>My system
+ panicked</quote>, say (for example) <quote>my system
+ panicked with the message 'free vnode
+ isn't'</quote>.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <para>A lot of the information you need to supply is the output of
- programs, such as &man.dmesg.8;, or console messages, which usually
- appear in <filename>/var/log/messages</filename>. Do not try to copy
- this information by typing it in again; it is a real pain, and you are
- bound to make a mistake. To send log file contents, either make a
- copy of the file and use an editor to trim the information to what
- is relevant, or cut and paste into your message. For the output of
- programs like &man.dmesg.8;, redirect the output to a file and
- include that. For example,</para>
+ <para>If you have difficulty installing &os;, please tell
+ us what hardware you have. In particular, it is
+ important to know the IRQs and I/O addresses of the
+ boards installed in your machine.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>If you have difficulty getting PPP to run, describe
+ the configuration. Which version of PPP do you use?
+ What kind of authentication do you have? Do you have
+ a static or dynamic IP address? What kind of messages
+ do you get in the log file?</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </itemizedlist>
+ </listitem>
+
+ <listitem>
+ <para>A lot of the information you need to supply is the
+ output of programs, such as &man.dmesg.8;, or console
+ messages, which usually appear in
+ <filename>/var/log/messages</filename>. Do not try to copy
+ this information by typing it in again; it is a real pain,
+ and you are bound to make a mistake. To send log file
+ contents, either make a copy of the file and use an editor
+ to trim the information to what is relevant, or cut and
+ paste into your message. For the output of programs like
+ &man.dmesg.8;, redirect the output to a file and include that.
+ For example,</para>
+
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>dmesg > /tmp/dmesg.out</userinput></screen>
<para>This redirects the information to the file
@@ -437,21 +467,22 @@
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <para>If you do all this, and you still do not get an answer, there
- could be other reasons. For example, the problem is so complicated
- that nobody knows the answer, or the person who does know the answer
- was offline. If you do not get an answer after, say, a week, it
- might help to re-send the message. If you do not get an answer to
- your second message, though, you are probably not going to get one
- from this forum. Resending the same message again and again will
- only make you unpopular.</para>
+ <para>If you do all this, and you still do not get an answer,
+ there could be other reasons. For example, the problem is
+ so complicated that nobody knows the answer, or the person
+ who does know the answer was offline. If you do not get
+ an answer after, say, a week, it might help to re-send the
+ message. If you do not get an answer to your second
+ message, though, you are probably not going to get one
+ from this forum. Resending the same message again and
+ again will only make you unpopular.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
- <para>To summarize, let's assume you know the answer to the following
- question (yes, it is the same one in each case).
- You choose which of these two questions you would be more prepared to
- answer:</para>
+ <para>To summarize, let's assume you know the answer to the
+ following question (yes, it is the same one in each case).
+ You choose which of these two questions you would be more
+ prepared to answer:</para>
<example>
<title>Message 1</title>
@@ -466,9 +497,11 @@
<example>
<title>Message 2</title>
- <literallayout class="monospaced">Subject: Problems installing FreeBSD
+ <literallayout class="monospaced">Subject: Problems installing
+&os;
-I've just got the FreeBSD 2.1.5 CDROM from Walnut Creek, and I'm having a lot
+I've just got the &os; 2.1.5 CDROM from Walnut Creek, and I'm having a
+lot
of difficulty installing it. I have a 66 MHz 486 with 16 MB of
memory and an Adaptec 1540A SCSI board, a 1.2GB Quantum Fireball
disk and a Toshiba 3501XA CDROM drive. The installation works just
@@ -478,28 +511,30 @@
</sect1>
<sect1>
- <title id="followup">How to follow up to a question</title>
+ <title id="followup">How to Follow up to a Question</title>
- <para>Often you will want to send in additional information to a question
- you have already sent. The best way to do this is to reply to your
- original message. This has three advantages:</para>
+ <para>Often you will want to send in additional information to
+ a question you have already sent. The best way to do this is
+ to reply to your original message. This has three
+ advantages:</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
- <para>You include the original message text, so people will know what
- you are talking about. Do not forget to trim unnecessary text out,
- though.</para>
+ <para>You include the original message text, so people will
+ know what you are talking about. Do not forget to trim
+ unnecessary text out, though.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <para>The text in the subject line stays the same (you did remember to
- put one in, did you not?). Many mailers will sort messages by
- subject. This helps group messages together.</para>
+ <para>The text in the subject line stays the same (you did
+ remember to put one in, did you not?). Many mailers will
+ sort messages by subject. This helps group messages
+ together.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <para>The message reference numbers in the header will refer to the
- previous message. Some mailers, such as
+ <para>The message reference numbers in the header will refer
+ to the previous message. Some mailers, such as
<ulink url="http://www.mutt.org/">mutt</ulink>, can
<emphasis>thread</emphasis> messages, showing the exact
relationships between the messages.</para>
@@ -508,115 +543,124 @@
</sect1>
<sect1>
- <title id="answer">How to answer a question</title>
+ <title id="answer">How to Answer a Question</title>
- <para>Before you answer a question to FreeBSD-questions, consider:</para>
+ <para>Before you answer a question to &a.questions.name;,
+ consider:</para>
<orderedlist>
<listitem>
- <para>A lot of the points on submitting questions also apply to
- answering questions. Read them.</para>
+ <para>A lot of the points on submitting questions also apply
+ to answering questions. Read them.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <para>Has somebody already answered the question? The easiest way to
- check this is to sort your incoming mail by subject: then
- (hopefully) you will see the question followed by any answers, all
- together.</para>
+ <para>Has somebody already answered the question? The easiest
+ way to check this is to sort your incoming mail by subject:
+ then (hopefully) you will see the question followed by any
+ answers, all together.</para>
- <para>If somebody has already answered it, it does not automatically
- mean that you should not send another answer. But it makes sense to
- read all the other answers first.</para>
+ <para>If somebody has already answered it, it does not
+ automatically mean that you should not send another answer.
+ But it makes sense to read all the other answers
+ first.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <para>Do you have something to contribute beyond what has already been
- said? In general, <quote>Yeah, me too</quote> answers do not help
- much, although there are exceptions, like when somebody is
- describing a problem he is having, and he does not know whether it is
- his fault or whether there is something wrong with the hardware or
- software. If you do send a <quote>me too</quote> answer, you should
+ <para>Do you have something to contribute beyond what has
+ already been said? In general, <quote>Yeah, me too</quote>
+ answers do not help much, although there are exceptions,
+ like when somebody is describing a problem he is having,
+ and he does not know whether it is his fault or whether
+ there is something wrong with the hardware or software.
+ If you do send a <quote>me too</quote> answer, you should
also include any further relevant information.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <para>Are you sure you understand the question? Very frequently, the
- person who asks the question is confused or does not express himself
- very well. Even with the best understanding of the system, it is
- easy to send a reply which does not answer the question. This
- does not help: you will leave the person who submitted the question
- more frustrated or confused than ever. If nobody else answers, and
- you are not too sure either, you can always ask for more
- information.</para>
+ <para>Are you sure you understand the question? Very
+ frequently, the person who asks the question is confused
+ or does not express himself very well. Even with the best
+ understanding of the system, it is easy to send a reply
+ which does not answer the question. This does not help:
+ you will leave the person who submitted the question
+ more frustrated or confused than ever. If nobody else
+ answers, and you are not too sure either, you can always
+ ask for more information.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
- <para>Are you sure your answer is correct?
- If not, wait a day or so. If nobody else comes up with a
- better answer, you can still reply and say, for example, <quote>I
- do not know if this is correct, but since nobody else has
- replied, why don't you try replacing your ATAPI CDROM with
- a frog?</quote>.</para>
- </listitem>
+ <para>Are you sure your answer is correct? If not, wait a
+ day or so. If nobody else comes up with a better answer,
+ you can still reply and say, for example, <quote>I
+ do not know if this is correct, but since nobody else has
+ replied, why don't you try replacing your ATAPI CDROM with
+ a frog?</quote>.</para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>Unless there is a good reason to do otherwise, reply to the
- sender and to FreeBSD-questions. Many people on the
- FreeBSD-questions are <quote>lurkers</quote>: they learn by reading
- messages sent and replied to by others. If you take a message which
- is of general interest off the list, you are depriving these people
- of their information. Be careful with group replies; lots of people
- send messages with hundreds of CCs. If this is the case, be sure to
- trim the Cc: lines appropriately.</para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Unless there is a good reason to do otherwise, reply
+ to the sender and to &a.questions.name;. Many people on
+ the &a.questions.name; are <quote>lurkers</quote>: they
+ learn by reading messages sent and replied to by others.
+ If you take a message which is of general interest off the
+ list, you are depriving these people of their information.
+ Be careful with group replies; lots of people send messages
+ with hundreds of CCs. If this is the case, be sure to
+ trim the Cc: lines appropriately.</para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>Include relevant text from the original message. Trim it to the
- minimum, but do not overdo it. It should still be possible for
- somebody who did not read the original message to understand what
- you are talking about.</para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Include relevant text from the original message. Trim
+ it to the minimum, but do not overdo it. It should still
+ be possible for somebody who did not read the original
+ message to understand what you are talking about.</para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>Use some technique to identify which text came from the original
- message, and which text you add. I personally find that prepending
- <quote><literal>> </literal></quote> to the original message
- works best. Leaving white space after the
- <quote><literal>> </literal></quote> and leave empty lines
- between your text and the original text both make the result more
- readable.</para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Use some technique to identify which text came from
+ the original message, and which text you add. I personally
+ find that prepending <quote><literal>> </literal></quote>
+ to the original message works best. Leaving white space
+ after the <quote><literal>> </literal></quote> and leave
+ empty lines between your text and the original text both
+ make the result more readable.</para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>Put your response in the correct place (after the text to which
- it replies). It is very difficult to read a thread of responses
- where each reply comes before the text to which it replies.</para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Put your response in the correct place (after the text
+ to which it replies). It is very difficult to read a thread
+ of responses where each reply comes before the text to which
+ it replies.</para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>Most mailers change the subject line on a reply by prepending a
- text such as <quote>Re: </quote>. If your mailer does not do it
- automatically, you should do it manually.</para>
- </listitem>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>Most mailers change the subject line on a reply by
+ prepending a text such as <quote>Re: </quote>. If your
+ mailer does not do it automatically, you should do it
+ manually.</para>
+ </listitem>
- <listitem>
- <para>If the submitter did not abide by format conventions (lines too
- long, inappropriate subject line), <emphasis>please</emphasis> fix
- it. In the case of an incorrect subject line (such as
- <quote>HELP!!??</quote>), change the subject line to (say)
- <quote>Re: Difficulties with sync PPP (was: HELP!!??)</quote>. That
- way other people trying to follow the thread will have less
- difficulty following it.</para>
+ <listitem>
+ <para>If the submitter did not abide by format conventions
+ (lines too long, inappropriate subject line),
+ <emphasis>please</emphasis> fix it. In the case of an
+ incorrect subject line (such as <quote>HELP!!??</quote>),
+ change the subject line to (say) <quote>Re: Difficulties
+ with sync PPP (was: HELP!!??)</quote>. That way other
+ people trying to follow the thread will have less
+ difficulty following it.</para>
- <para>In such cases, it is appropriate to say what you did and why you
- did it, but try not to be rude. If you find you can not answer
- without being rude, do not answer.</para>
+ <para>In such cases, it is appropriate to say what you did
+ and why you did it, but try not to be rude. If you find
+ you can not answer without being rude, do not answer.</para>
- <para>If you just want to reply to a message because of its bad
- format, just reply to the submitter, not to the list. You can just
- send him this message in reply, if you like.</para>
- </listitem>
- </orderedlist>
- </sect1>
+ <para>If you just want to reply to a message because of its
+ bad format, just reply to the submitter, not to the list.
+ You can just send him this message in reply, if you
+ like.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </orderedlist>
+</sect1>
</article>
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