- MinGW.org Mailing-Lists
- Mailing-Lists and Mail Archives Operated by MinGW.org
MinGW.org’s preferred method for communication,
between users and the project team, is by way of mailing‑lists.
Historically, there were several topic‑specific lists, originally
hosted on SourceForge.net;
today, only two remain operational, and both are
hosted on OSDN.net.
Operational Mailing‑Lists
The currently operational
MinGW.org mailing‑lists are:—
- MinGW‑Users Mailing‑List
- This is the primary conduit for dialogue between MinGW users
and the MinGW.org project team;
(you are advised to use this mailing‑list
at any time when you wish to engage in such dialogue).
It is a public mailing‑list, but to avoid spam,
you must subscribe
before you will be
permitted to post your first message,
(and your subscription must remain active,
if you wish to post subsequent messages).
- Before
posting to this mailing‑list
you are advised to acquaint yourself with the
posting etiquette;
failure to comply with this etiquette may seriously impair
your chances of receiving a useful response,
and, in cases of flagrant disregard,
may even result in your future posts being moderated.
- Previous correspondence,
posted to this mailing‑list between February 2018
and the present day, has been
archived on OSDN.net;
(earlier correspondence, prior to February 2018, has also been
archived, on SourceForge.net).
As noted in the etiquette,
before you introduce a new topic on this mailing‑list,
you are advised to search these archives,
to ensure that you are not asking a question
which has already been answered.
You may use the following pair of search boxes to perform
keyword searches within the OSDN.net (upper),
and the SourceForge.net (lower box) archives, respectively.
(If your question relates to MSYS, you may also wish to refer to the
historical MinGW‑MSYS archive, below).
- MinGW‑Notify Mailing‑List
- This is a read‑only mailing‑list,
which is used to deliver notifications of source code repository updates,
issue tracker submissions, and feature request submissions.
If you would like to receive such notifications,
you are welcome to subscribe to this mailing‑list,
but please do not attempt to post messages to it.
- Notifications posted to this mailing‑list,
since November 2017, have been
archived on OSDN.net,
while notifications posted prior to September 2017 have been
archived, on SourceForge.net.
Once again, you may use the following pair of search boxes
to perform keyword searches on these archives, respectively.
Historical Mailing‑List Archives
In earlier days of the project history,
the volume of mailing‑list traffic was significantly greater
than it is today.
This traffic was distributed over five topic‑specific
mailing‑lists, of which only the two identified above
remain operational today;
the other three historical lists, which are identified below,
are now closed, and it is no longer possible to subscribe,
or to post messages to them.
However, archives of historical postings remain
available on SourceForge.net,
and may be searched using their respective keyword‑search boxes,
below.
- MinGW‑MSYS Mailing‑List
- This was a public mailing‑list,
dedicated to correspondence relating specifically to MSYS,
in order to segregate it from more general MinGW‑Users list traffic;
today, such correspondence should be directed to
the MinGW‑Users mailing‑list.
- You may use this search box to perform a keyword search
on the historical MinGW-MSYS archive.
- MinGW‑Dvlpr Mailing‑List
- This was a private, but publicly archived mailing‑list,
which was used by MinGW.org Project contributors, to discuss various
aspects of project development; this mailing‑list has now been
superseded by alternative web technologies, for such discussion.
- You may use this search box to perform a keyword search
on the historical MinGW-Dvlpr public archive.
- MinGW‑CVS Mailing‑List
- This obsolete read‑only mailing‑list was
formerly used for posting of notifications of updates to the
MinGW.org CVS, (and more recently git),
source code repositories;
since migration of these repositories to
OSDN.net, such notifications have been directed to
the MinGW‑Notify mailing‑list.
- You may use this search box to perform a keyword search
on the historical MinGW-CVS archive.
Mailing‑List Posting Etiquette
MinGW is an open source project.
As such, it is heavily dependent on people who dedicate
their spare time to the goals and continuing development of the project,
so please keep this in mind when posting to the mailing‑list.
Before you post, you are advised to
acquaint yourself with the following commonly accepted guidelines,
with which you are strongly encouraged to comply,
when composing your posts.
Failure to comply with these guidelines may result
in your posts being ignored by a number of knowledgeable people,
and repeated offenses may even lead to your posts being vetted,
and potentially rejected, by the list moderator.
- The language of the lists is English ;
if you post in any other language, you are unlikely to elicit a response.
- Do search the mailing list archives,
(both the current archives, and those of the historical topic‑specific
lists), before posting, (see the links associated with each of the lists above);
many questions have already been asked and answered.
- Do use
a meaningful subject line.
A subject line should include a pertinent few words summarizing
the subject of the email;
(when one replies to emails,
one should always make certain the subject line of the email is still
relevant to the reply).
In particular, if you receive list mail in digest format,
do always
set the subject back to the original text,
from the message to which you are replying.
Do not reply with a subject of
“Re: MinGW-??? Digest no. ???”;
such replies are prime candidates for deletion, without being read.
- Do post in a MIME format with
“Content-Type: text/plain”.
Do not post as HTML, or in any other MIME format,
(and in particular, do not use multi-part MIME,
with plain text duplicated as HTML);
some list subscribers are unable to, or choose not to read such mail,
and will be unable or unwilling to answer you.
- Do not
post messages with very long lines of text;
except when pasting screenshots, where line wrapping might lead to confusion,
ensure that lines of running text are wrapped with hard line breaks,
at a length of between 65 and 72 characters.
- Do quote sections of the original text,
and interleave your replies to individual points,
below the relevant context.
Do not
top-post;
(this
treatise
explains why top-posting is considered unacceptable).
- Do trim out sections of the original mail,
which are not required to establish the context of your reply.
(Once more,
this is particularly important when replying to mail received in digest form;
do reply
to one subject at a time,
and do remove all content related to other subjects).
Do not persistently recycle irrelevant junk,
quoted from earlier messages in the thread.
- Do not
include “legal mumble” signatures.
You are posting to a list that will be read by thousands of users,
and anything you say will be archived in the public domain;
in this context, such drivel in your signature is neither enforceable,
nor meaningful.
- Do not hijack an existing topic thread,
when you wish to introduce an unrelated subject;
(i.e. do not reply to an existing message,
when your reply is unrelated to the original subject).
When you want to introduce a new topic, plainly start a new thread,
(i.e. a completely new message).
Replying in an existing thread confuses mail readers
and humans who are trying to participate in the original discussion;
it is a sure way to irritate other subscribers,
and will likely get you ignored,
if not even black-listed.
Historical information on netiquette may be found in
RFC-1855.
This
article,
(also available
here),
offers valuable advice on how to ask questions,
in a manner most likely to elicit useful replies.