Subject: Welcome to the comp.os.linux.* hierarchy!
From: [email-masked] (Matt Welsh)
Date: Wed, 27 Jul 1994 19:45:36 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce,comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.linux.development,comp.os.linux.admin,comp.os.linux.misc

Welcome to the comp.os.linux.* hierarchy!

Background
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
	This posting is an introduction to the comp.os.linux.* hierarchy 
	of USENET newsgroups. 

	Linux is a free implementation of UNIX for 80386/80486 machines 
	covered by the GNU GPL. Most of the development of the Linux 
	kernel has been done by Linus Torvalds, an internationally 
	reknowned UNIX wizard from Helsinki, Finland.

	For the past two years or so, the newsgroup comp.os.linux has 
	grown be one of the most popular groups on USENET. Late in 1992, 
	a CFV for splitting comp.os.linux was posted; the only group which 
	passed was comp.os.linux.announce, a moderated newsgroup for Linux 
	announcements and patches.

	Six months later, during the summer of 1993, another CFV for 
	splitting comp.os.linux was posted. The voting period for the 
	comp.os.linux reorganization results ended at 23:59:59 UTC on 
	4 August 1993 (4:59PM US Pacific Time, 7:59PM US Eastern Time.) 
	The results are as follows:

	comp.os.linux reorganization results - 1842 votes

	 Yes   No  : 2/3? >100? : Pass? : Group
	 ---- ---- : ---- ----- : ----- : -------------------------------
	 1692  135 :  Yes   Yes :   Yes : comp.os.linux.admin
	 1741   90 :  Yes   Yes :   Yes : comp.os.linux.development
	 1647  177 :  Yes   Yes :   Yes : comp.os.linux.help
	 1660  155 :  Yes   Yes :   Yes : comp.os.linux.misc

	Because of this split, the newsgroup comp.os.linux will be 
	deleted on 11 November 1993. The new newsgroups will be created 
	on 11 August 1993. This posting describes these newsgroups, 
	including comp.os.linux.announce, which will remain entact.

General Policy
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
	The general policy for the Linux newsgroups is simple. Who sets
	the policy? We all do. All of us on USENET are interested in
	communicating openly about a number of topics. That's why we
	have USENET. If you want the Linux newsgroups to work for you,
	a few suggestions:

	* Read the Linux FAQ and follow the newsgroups for some time 
	  before posting questions. This is very important. comp.os.linux 
	  suffered from HUGE amounts of noise and traffic because much 
	  of the growing readership never bothered to READ the newsgroup;
	  they only posted questions.
	  
	  The same thing will happen with the new newsgroups unless you 
	  read the FAQ (found on sunsite.unc.edu in the file 
	  pub/Linux/docs/FAQ) and read the newsgroup for some time before 
	  posting questions. Chances are, your question has already been
	  recently answered, and a simple browsing of the newsgroup
	  will answer it. We suggest using a threaded newsreader such as
	  "trn" which will allow you to browse and mark articles by 
	  subject, so you don't have to read each and every article in
	  each newsgroup.

	* Crossposting between the Linux newsgroups is STRONGLY 
	  discouraged. If you do crosspost questions between Linux 
	  newsgroups, expect to be flamed to oblivion. The reason we
	  have a newsgroup split is to categorize discussions into 
	  separate newsgroups. Crossposting negates this effect. 
	  If your posting cannot fit into ONE of the newsgroups
	  c.o.l.admin, c.o.l.help, or c.o.l.development, then you 
	  should post it to c.o.l.misc. 

	  The one exception is for announcements. Occasionally, an
	  important announcement (such as this one) will be crossposted
	  between c.o.l.announce and one or more of the other c.o.l.*
	  groups. These announcements must be approved by the .announce
	  moderator; see below.

	* Reply to questions via e-mail if at all possible. While 
	  discussion in the newsgroups is encouraged, if someone is
	  asking a simple question to which the answer is well-known,
	  there is no reason to post the reply. Don't assume that 
	  the person posting the question actually reads the newsgroup
	  or will even note your followup if they do. Reply via e-mail
	  unless the reply is of general interest. 

	* Don't flame newbies. Over the course of the past few months,
	  the Linux community has developed an oversensitive ego and
	  a reputation for being unfriendly towards newcomers, mostly
	  because of unwarranted flaming by a handful of righteous 
	  individuals. If someone posts, saying, "Hi! I'm new to
	  this group! What is Linux?" (which will inevitably happen
	  as the new newsgroups are propagated), DO NOT FLAME THEM.
	  When someone sees a new newsgroup pop up within "rn", they
	  are justifiably curious about the new group and probably
	  don't know that well over 80,000 people who know EVERYTHING
	  about Linux read the group. Right? 

	  Instead of being rude, you can send a polite note to the
	  poster, saying, "Hello, Linux is a free implementation of
	  UNIX for the 386 and 486. You can get the FAQ from 
	  sunsite.unc.edu in /pub/Linux/docs. Let me know if I can
	  be of help!". That's all. Not difficult, eh? You can even
	  save your stock reply in a file and simply send form-letters
	  to newbies if you wish. But there is very little point in
	  flaming or ever being rude. It goes against everything that
	  Linux can and should be. 

	  Just remember that nobody knows everything---not even Linus---
	  and that you were a newbie once, too. :)

comp.os.linux.announce
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	Comp.os.linux.announce is a moderated newsgroup for Linux 
	announcements and source patches. The purpose of this group was
	to get all of the ``important'' Linux information out of the
	regular newsgroup and into a place where all Linux users could see
	the important announcements without having to wade through a 
	jungle of other postings. So far, this group has been very 
	successful. 

	The moderators for this group are myself (Matt Welsh, 
	[email-masked]) and Lars Wirzenius ([email-masked]). 
	We will be sharing the moderator duty, and backing each other up 
	to make sure that postings to this group will be approved as soon 
	as possible after they're submitted.

	Submissions to this group should be mailed to the address:
      		[email-masked]

	If you have any problems or questions about c.o.l.announce, please 
	send mail to the moderators at
	        [email-masked]
	Or simply mail us directly. This is not a request address for 
	mailing list subscription; see below.

	A separate posting details the guidelines for submitting to this 
	group.  I plan to approve just about anything that's posted to this 
	group, except for questions or discussions about Linux. So, please, 
	post away.  :)

	There are also archives of comp.os.linux.announce available at a 
	number of Linux FTP sites: check 
		sunsite.unc.edu:/pub/Linux/docs/linux-announce.archive

	There is a mailing list mirror of the comp.os.linux.announce 
	newsgroup; to join, send mail to
        	[email-masked]
	With the line
        	X-Mn-Admin: join ANNOUNCE
	at the top of the body (not in the subject). Approved postings to 
	c.o.l.announce will automatically be mailed to this mailing list 
	channel.

comp.os.linux.admin	
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
	This newsgroup was created simply to thwart the unique newsgroup
	acronym "c.o.l.a", previously used by c.o.l.announce. However,
	this newsgroup is also used for discussions and questions about
	running Linux systems, either in a single-user or multi-user
	environment.

	Clearly, there is no large distinction between c.o.l.admin and
	c.o.l.help. However, .admin should be mostly used for discussions
	about RUNNING Linux, not USING or PROGRAMMING it. Unfortunately,
	especially with Linux, the line between system administrator and
	system user is very fuzzy. In short, we anticipate c.o.l.admin
	to be mostly about questions with installing, setting up, and
	configuring Linux systems, as well as other discussions relating
	to system administration. 

comp.os.linux.development
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
	c.o.l.development, or "c.o.l.d" for short, is a newsgroup for 
	questions and discussions about Linux kernel and systems-level 
	development. Please note that this is a newsgroup about 
	development OF Linux, not development FOR Linux. In other words, 
	c.o.l.d isn't for questions about programming or porting software 
	to Linux. Instead, this is a newsgroup for discussions about 
	developing the Linux kernel itself, including writing device 
	drivers, adding new features, and so on. In addition, discussions
	about development of shared libraries, and other essential 
	systems-level projects, are welcome here. 

	Hopefully, this newsgroup will embody some of the content and
	scope of the linux-activists mailing list channels such as GCC, 
	KERNEL, SCSI, and NET.

comp.os.linux.help
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
	Comp.os.linux.help is perhaps the most general of Linux 
	newsgroups. It is for any general user, programming, or 
	setup questions and discussion about Linux. If your question
	is about Linux development, post to c.o.l.development. If
	it is about system administration, post to c.o.l.admin. 
	However, if your question is of a more general nature, such
	as "How do I set up Linux for use with an NE2000 card?",
	c.o.l.help is your place. 

	Remember that you should not crosspost between .help and
	other Linux newsgroups. This means that if you are asking for
	help in .development, that's fine, but .help is for those
	questions which don't fit into .admin and .development.

comp.os.linux.misc
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	This group is the canonical ``catch-all'' for discussions and 
	questions which don't fit into the other Linux newsgroups.
	While c.o.l.help is generally for questions, c.o.l.misc is for
	discussions of a general nature about Linux, such as setting up
	a file hierarchy standard, questions about Linus' personal life
	and virtual beer, and the inevitable flame war. Again, it should 
	be noted that crossposting between c.o.l.misc and other Linux 
	newsgroups is strongly discouraged. If your posting or question 
	does not fit into ONLY ONE of the other Linux newsgroups, post 
	it to .misc.

Comments
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	If you have questions or comments about this document, please
	direct them to [email-masked]. Flames to /dev/null; cheques
	and money orders to Linus Torvalds. Thanks.

--
M. Welsh, [email-masked]