Mailing lists

Most James mailing lists are open and also archived and available online. You can read them even if you are not subscribed. You can post only if you are subscribed.

First, find out the particular email address to which ezmlm is sending. The email headers are visible in Microsoft Outlook via the messages menu "View | Options".

The Return-Path header contains the email address which is subscribed.

To stop subscription for the address john@host.domain, send an email to

server-dev-unsubscribe-john=host.domain@james.apache.org

or to

server-user-unsubscribe-john=host.domain@james.apache.org

A mailing list is an electronic discussion forum that anyone can subscribe to. When someone sends an email message to the mailing list, a copy of that message is broadcasted to everyone who is subscribed to that mailing list. Mailing lists provide a simple and effective communication mechanism for discussion and decision making.

The Apache Software Foundation has well established reasons for using email and not other types of forum. You may use a mail-news gateway, gmail or anything else you like but email is, and will remain, the official medium.

With potentially thousands of subscribers, there is a common etiquette that you should observe. Please keep on reading.

Respect the mailing list type

Some questions are appropriate for posting on both the "user" and the "developer" lists. In this case, pick one and only one. Do not cross post.

Asking a configuration question on the developers list is frowned upon because developers' time is as precious as yours. By contacting them directly instead of the users list you are abusing resources. It is unlikely that you will get a quicker answer this way, those developers who have time to devote to providing support are also subscribed to the users list. If you contact individuals directly, or post your user issues to the developer list you may get no answer at all.

Join the lists that are appropriate for your discussion

Please make sure that you are joining the list that is appropriated for the topic that you would like to discuss. The general list is for discussions about the management and direction of the James project, not for "general support".

Ask smart questions

Every volunteer project obtains its strength from the people involved in it. You are welcome to join any of our mailing lists. You can choose to lurk, or actively participate; it’s up to you. The level of community responsiveness to specific questions is generally directly proportional to the amount of effort you spend formulating your question. Eric Raymond and Rick Moen have even written an essay entitled "Asking Smart Questions" precisely on this topic. Although somewhat militant, it is definitely worth reading.

Note: Please do NOT send your Java problems to the two authors. They welcome feedback on the FAQ’s contents, but are simply not a Java help resource. Follow the essay’s advice and choose your forum carefully.

Keep your email short and to the point

If your email is more than about a page of text, chances are that it won’t get read by very many people. It is much better to try to pack a lot of informative information (see above about asking smart questions) into as small of an email as possible. If you are replying to a previous email only quote the parts that you are replying to and to remove the unnecessary bits. This makes it easier for people to follow a thread as well as making the email archives easier to search and read.

Do your best to ensure that you are not sending HTML or "Stylelized" email to the list

If you are using Outlook or Outlook Express or Eudora, chances are that you are sending HTML email by default. There is usually a setting that will allow you to send "Plain Text" email. If you are using Microsoft products to send email, there are several bugs in the software that prevent you from turning off the sending of HTML email.

Watch where you are sending email

The majority of our mailing lists have set the Reply-To to go back to the list. That means that when you Reply to a message, it will go to the list and not to the original author directly. The reason is because it helps facilitate discussion on the list for everyone to benefit from. Be careful of this as sometimes you may intend to reply to a message directly to someone instead of the entire list. The appropriate contents of the Reply-To header is an age-old debate that should not be brought up on the mailing lists. You can examine opposing points of view condemning our convention and condoning it. Bringing this up for debate on a mailing list will add nothing new and is considered off-topic.

Do not cross post messages

In other words, pick one mailing list and send your messages to that mailing list only. Do not send your messages to multiple mailing lists. The reason is that people may be subscribed to one list and not to the other. Therefore, some people will only see part of the conversation.