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technogeeks
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List Description
The technogeeks mailing list is for any and all discussion of computers, networking, the IT industry, programming, and related topics. Participation is open to all, but the level of discourse is liable to be somewhat technical – if you ask basic questions like “What’s an IP address?” or “How do I make a hyperlink in an HTML page?”, participants are under no obligation to answer.
Topics may also involve political/legal issues relating to the tech field, such as DMCA violations, IP law, and so on. However, this is not the list’s primary topic. If it starts to take over, the political stuff will be spun off onto a separate list, and technogeeks will be declared a no-politics zone.
List Rules:
- No Flaming: If you must disagree, please attack a person’s argument, not him or her as a person.
- Not Even for Ignorance: No, you can’t flame people even if they’re asking a question you think is “stupid”. Nobody is born knowing anything about computers, so everyone needs to learn somehow. If you think a question is beneath your notice, then just go ahead and “don’t notice it”. It is okay to post an “RTFM” reply, as long as you provide a link to the FM in question. (In other words, be polite rather than flaming.)
- No Topic Too Technical: There is no upper bound on how technical the discussion here can get. You wanna discuss the dereferencing of pointers in the BSD kernel? Fine! Those who can’t keep up are free to ignore those threads. Complaints that a given thread or post is “too technical” or “over my head” are not on-topic here. (Requests for explanation are legitimate. It is not required that they be answered, however.)
- Spamming Forbidden: Duh. If you have a techy item for sale, and “you” are an individual (not a company, marketer or whatnot), you may post about it once. Please put “ADV:” at the beginning of your Subject: line so people can filter it out easily, and make the rest of the Subject: describe the item in brief. Examples:
- Subject: ADV: 8-Port LinkSys ethernet switch
- Subject: ADV: Socket-7 Mobo, 1.5GHz
- Subject: ADV: Handspring Treo for sale
This should also give you a decent idea of the sorts of things that would be okay to offer for sale here. If this gets out of control, this rule may be changed. If you’re in doubt about whether a for-sale post is okay, try asking the moderator first; he’s quite friendly.
- Virus/Vulnerability Warnings: These are only on-topic if they meet both of the following criteria. If the warning you’re about to post fails either of these tests, don’t post it here. In particular, if it fails the first one, you’ll get in trouble if you post it.
- Verified: You must have personally verified that this warning is legitimate, and it must include links to supporting data from a reputable organization such as McAfee, Symantec, BugTraq, CERT/CC, or similar. If it says, “please forward this to everyone you know”, it is almost certainly a hoax; please do not post it here.
- Timely: If the warning you’re getting ready to post is more than 72 hours old, chances are very high that everyone on this list has already heard about it. If it’s younger than that, then you can post it.
Other List Information
The list is moderated (very lightly) by Kai MacTane <kmactane@GothPunk.com>.
