path: root/english/MailingLists/index.wml

#use wml::debian::template title="Mailing Lists"
#use wml::debian::toc

<toc-display/>

<toc-add-entry name="intro">Introduction</toc-add-entry>

<p>Debian is developed through distributed development all around
the world. Therefore, e-mail is the preferred way to discuss various items.
Much of the conversation between Debian developers and users is managed
through several
<a href="https://foldoc.org/mailing+list">mailing
lists</a>.</p>

<p>There are many world-open mailing lists, meaning anyone can read
everything that is posted, and participate in the discussions. Everyone is
encouraged to help development of Debian and to spread the word of free
software. There are also a few lists which are only open to official Debian
developers; please don't interpret this as closed development, it sometimes
doesn't make much sense discussing internal topics with non-developers.</p>

<p>All original Debian mailing lists are run on a special server, using an
automatic mail processing software called SmartList. This server
is called <code><a href="https://lists.debian.org/">lists.debian.org</a></code>.
All submission, subscription and unsubscription messages have to be sent
to a particular address at this host.</p>


<toc-add-entry name="basics">Basic use</toc-add-entry>

<p>Each Debian mailing list has a submission address in the form
<kbd><var>listname</var>@lists.debian.org</kbd>, a control request
address in the form <kbd><var>listname</var>-request@lists.debian.org</kbd>,
and a web page at <kbd>https://lists.debian.org/<var>listname</var>/</kbd>.</p>

<p>To send an email to a list, simply send it to the submission address.
To subscribe to a list to be able to read incoming mails as they arrive,
or to unsubscribe from a list, use the control request
address (<a href="#subunsub">see below</a>).</p>

<p>The current list of available mailing lists is at
<url "https://lists.debian.org/">, presented sorted by topic
and unsorted.</p>

<p>We also maintain some <a href="https://lists.debian.org/stats/">usage
statistics</a> for the mailing lists: check the average number of posts
before subscribing to a list in order to avoid being flooded by mails.</p>


<toc-add-entry name="disclaimer">Disclaimer / Privacy policy / Legal information</toc-add-entry>

<p>The mailing lists are <strong>public forums</strong>.</p>

<p>All emails sent to the lists are distributed both to the list
subscribers and copied to the <a href="https://lists.debian.org/">public
archive</a>, for people to browse or
<a href="https://lists.debian.org/search.html">search</a> without the need
to be subscribed.</p>

<p>Furthermore, you can browse our mailing lists as Usenet newsgroups.

<p>There may be other places where lists are distributed &mdash; please make sure
you never send any confidential or unlicensed material to the lists. This
includes things like e-mail addresses. Of particular note is the fact that
spammers, viruses, worms etc have been known to abuse e-mail addresses
posted to our mailing lists.</p>

<p>Debian maintains the mailing lists in good faith and will take steps to
curb all noticed abuse and maintain uninterrupted normal service. At the
same time, Debian is not responsible for all mailing list posts or anything
that may happen in relation to them.</p>

<p>Please see our <a href="disclaimer">disclaimer of responsibility</a> for
more information.</p>


<toc-add-entry name="subunsub">Subscription / Unsubscription</toc-add-entry>

<p>Anyone is able to subscribe/unsubscribe on their own to any mailing list,
presuming the subscription policy for a particular list is <q>open</q>.</p>

<p>You can use simple web forms to subscribe or unsubscribe from
individual mailing lists, available at their respective web pages at
<url "https://lists.debian.org/">.</p>

<p>To subscribe or unsubscribe from multiple mailing lists at once,
use the list <a href="subscribe">subscription</a> or
<a href="unsubscribe">unsubscription</a> web forms, respectively.
The former page also includes descriptions and the subscription policy
for each list.</p>

<p>The requests for subscription or unsubscription can also be sent by
email, to a special control address, which is slightly different from the
lists address. <strong>Subscription or unsubscription messages should NOT be
sent to the address of the mailing list itself.</strong></p>

<p>To subscribe to or unsubscribe from a mailing list, please send mail to</p>

<p><var>&lt;listname&gt;</var>-REQUEST@lists.debian.org</p>

<p>with the word <q>subscribe</q> or <q>unsubscribe</q> as subject.</p>

<p><strong>Please remember the -REQUEST part of the address.</strong></p>

<p>As part of the subscription process, the list software will send you an
email to which you must reply in order to finish subscribing. This is a
security measure to keep people from subscribing others to the lists without
their permission.</p>

<h3><a name="subglitches">Common glitches in the (un)subscription process</a></h3>

<p>Please remember that <strong>an unsubscription request should be sent from
the address that is subscribed</strong>. If that is not possible, the Subject:
header should be:  <code>unsubscribe
<var>subscribedaddress@subscribed.domain</var></code>, or you can use the <a
href="unsubscribe">unsubscription</a> web form.</p>

<p>If you're receiving mail from a mailing list but you can't find the
address through which you are subscribed, you can use the full headers
of the received messages which will include something like this:</p>

<pre>
  From bounce-debian-foo=quux=example.com@lists.debian.org  Tue Apr 22 01:38:14 2003
</pre>

<p>This tells you reliably that the list in question is called
<code>debian-foo</code> and that the subscribed address is
<code>quux@example.com</code>. In this (fictional) case you would send e-mail
to <kbd>debian-foo-request@lists.debian.org</kbd> with <kbd>unsubscribe
quux@example.com</kbd> in the Subject field.  The address you should send your
unsubscribe request to is also in the List-Unsubscribe-Header of every
mail.</p>

<p>Unfortunately it's currently impossible to subscribe with a username that
matches procmail's check for mail coming from a daemon. This means that a
username may not have <q>mail</q>, <q>admin</q>, <q>root</q>, <q>master</q> or
similar strings in it (see <kbd>procmailrc(5)</kbd> for
<q>FROM_DAEMON</q>).</p>

<p>Another known limitation in our mailing list software is that most
rejected e-mails get silently dropped, so the user has no real indication
on what went wrong. For example, it is common for people to try to subscribe
an address that is already subscribed: SmartList will simply ignore their
e-mail.</p>

<p>If you are uncertain as to whether you are subscribed to a mailing
list of ours, send mail to <email majordomo@lists.debian.org> with
</p>
<p><kbd>which <var>your.email@address</var></kbd></p>
<p>
in the body. Further
information about this service (the so-called <q><a
href="https://www.infodrom.org/projects/majorsmart/">MajorSmart</a></q>) is
available by sending another mail to the same address with
</p>

<p><kbd>help</kbd></p>

<p>in the body.</p>


<toc-add-entry name="codeofconduct">Code of conduct</toc-add-entry>

<p>When using the Debian mailing lists, please follow
<a href="../code_of_conduct">the Debian Code of Conduct</a> in addition to these rules:</p>

<ul>
  <li>The mailing lists exist to
      foster the development and use of Debian.
      Non-constructive or off-topic messages,
      along with other abuses, are not welcome.</li>
  <li>Do not send <em><a href="https://foldoc.org/spam">
      spam</a></em>; see the <a href="#ads">advertising policy</a> below.</li>
  <li>Send all of your e-mails in English. Only use other languages on
      mailing lists where that is explicitly allowed
      (e.g. French on debian-user-french).</li>
  <li>Make sure that you are using the proper list. In particular, don't
      send user-related questions to developer-related mailing lists.</li>
  <li>Wrap your lines at 80 characters or less for ordinary
      discussion. Lines longer than 80 characters are acceptable
      for computer-generated output (e.g., <kbd>ls -l</kbd>).</li>
  <li>Do not send automated <q>out-of-office</q> or <q>vacation</q> messages.</li>
  <li>Do not send <q>test</q> messages to determine whether your mail client
      is working.</li>
  <li>Do not send subscription or unsubscription requests to the list
      address itself; use the respective <tt>-request</tt> address instead.</li>
  <li>Please don't send your messages in HTML; use plain text instead.</li>
  <li>Avoid sending large attachments.</li>
  <li>Do not quote messages that were sent to you by other people
      in private mail, unless agreed beforehand.</li>
  <li>When replying to messages on the mailing list, do not send a carbon
      copy (CC) to the original poster unless they explicitly request to be
      copied.</li>
  <li>If you want to complain to someone who sent you a carbon copy when
      you did not ask for it, do it privately.</li>
  <li>If you send messages to lists to which you are not subscribed, always
      note that fact in the body of your message.</li>
  <li>Do not use foul language; besides, some people receive the lists
      via packet radio, where swearing is illegal.</li>
  <li>Try not to <em><a href="https://foldoc.org/flame">
      flame</a></em>; it is not polite.</li>
  <li>Use common sense all the time.</li>
</ul>


<toc-add-entry name="maintenance">List maintenance</toc-add-entry>

<p>If you wish to request a new mailing list, please read the
<a href="HOWTO_start_list">HOWTO</a>.</p>

<p>If you're having problems subscribing or unsubscribing, please
make sure you've <a href="#subunsub">followed the proper procedure</a>
<strong>before</strong> trying to contact us. Make sure that you have seen
<a href="#subglitches">the caveats regarding subscription/unsubscription</a>.
</p>

<p>To contact the list maintainer, send e-mail <strong>in English</strong>
to <email "listmaster@lists.debian.org">.
<br />
Alternatively, you can <a href="$(HOME)/Bugs/Reporting">file a bug report</a>
against the
<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/lists.debian.org">lists.debian.org</a>
pseudo-package.</p>

<p>If you were unable to unsubscribe from a mailing list, please include a
copy of all the headers of an example message that you have received from
that list in your e-mail.</p>


<toc-add-entry name="ads">Debian mailing list advertising policy / Spam Fighting</toc-add-entry>

<p>The sending of any kind of unsolicited bulk email (also known as <q>spam</q>)
to any of the Debian lists is prohibited.
Senders of such messages can get blocked from posting on lists
and/or reported to the relevant authorities.</p>

<p>The Debian Listmasters do their best to stop as many such emails as possible
from reaching the lists. On a typical day, over 40,000 such messages are blocked.</p>

<p>Many of the rules we use to block spammers and their messages have been reported
to us by subscribers. If you wish to help us reduce the amount of spam even more, your
help is very much appreciated.
<br/>
To report spam properly, you need to do the following:</p>

<ul>
	<li>Find a copy of the message at the
            <a href="https://lists.debian.org">list archives</a>.</li>
	<li>Find a SpamAssassin rule to catch this type of spam. Keep in mind
	    that this rule will be applied against all lists, and that we want
	    to keep the false positives to a minimum. (you can see our ruleset
	    at <url
	    "https://salsa.debian.org/debian-listmasters/spamassassin_config">)</li>
	<li>Send email to <email "listmaster@lists.debian.org"> with
            the exact URL of the message, and the said filter rule,
            if possible.</li>
</ul>

<p>You will get a reply when we act on your submission.
<br/>
Please bear in mind that we will only act on reported spam messages/patterns
that have been sent in the last few hours, because there is no point
in having out of date filtering rules.
<br/>
Also, please do not send any pre-packaged lists of rules you have found
somewhere. They very rarely provide good results on our lists, because they
receive some pretty unique traffic.</p>

<p>Do not allow any emails that you receive from any Debian mailing lists
to be sent to an automated spam reporting system. Doing so is often harmful
to all users and will force us to block you from receiving traffic from
all Debian lists until you prove that you will not do so again.</p>

<p>More efforts to reduce spam on the lists and in the archive
<url "https://lists.debian.org/"> can be found at 
<url "https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/ListMaster/ListArchiveSpam"></p>