Eleven FAQ's About comp.databases.informix and informix-list@iiug.org

Eleven FAQ's About comp.databases.informix and informix-list@iiug.org ===================================================================== Last Update $Date: 2003/03/03 17:58:59 $ The comp.databases.informix news group is intended to be the primary news group for discussing how to use the IBM Informix database products. FAQ 1 - What is the informix-list@iiug.org mailing list? -------------------------------------------------------- The informix-list@iiug.org mailing list is a bi-directional gateway to the comp.databases.informix (c.d.i) UseNet news group. Messages posted to the newsgroup are forwarded by mail to subscribers of the mailing list, responses sent to the informix-list@iiug.org email address are posted to comp.databases.informix, and the gateway manages to keep track of things so that postings do not repeat themselves. The service is provided by the International Informix User Group, IIUG, with the web site http://www.iiug.org. The IIUG web site also has a software repository with a lot of useful information in it -- check it out. The IIUG also provides a number of other mailing list services to IIUG members; details are available at the IIUG web site. The official home of the Informix FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) list is at http://www.smooth1.demon.co.uk/informix.htm. The FAQ list is maintained by David Williams, djw@smooth1.demon.co.uk. FAQ 2 - How Can I Subscribe To comp.databases.informix by Email --------------------------------------------------------------- In order to subscribe to the Informix List (informix-list@iiug.org), you must be a member of IIUG. Membership is free. Go to the IIUG web site, http://www.iiug.org, to join and subscribe. If you are already a member of IIUG, you need your membership number, name and email address to log into the member area. Go to the web site and click on "Update Your Member Profile". If you don't know your membership number, there is a link on the login screen to have it emailed to you. Finally, if you can't obtain your member information, send an email to webmaster@iiug.org. Once in the member area, click on the "Subscribe" button. There will be a lists of email discussion groups including informix-list. Also visit http://www.iiug.org/ver1/resources/forums_top.html for more information. You can no longer subscribe (or unsubscribe) by sending email to majordomo@iiug.org. FAQ 3 - How Can I Unsubscribe From informix-list@iiug.org --------------------------------------------------------- Visit the IIUG web site once more, login to the the member area as above, and use the Subscribe button. This will show you the list of email discussion groups that are available, and you can unsubscribe yourself by removing the check-mark against the "informix-list" entry. FAQ 4 - What else do I need to know about this? ----------------------------------------------- When you subscribe to c.d.i, you should expect to receive 50-150 emails per day from the news group. Currently, there is no digest service. A digest service would accumulate the messages over the course of a day (or part of a day) and then send out a single large email message to the digest subscribers. FAQ 5 - What Rules Exist Regarding Format, Content, Flame Wars, etc. -------------------------------------------------------------------- None; this is a news group! That is, there are no rules enforced by the software. There are periodically discussions on c.d.i about what should and should not be said. This is my FAQ, so it gets my spin on the rules that should be followed. * Format: HTML postings are strongly discouraged; so are MIME postings. Both cause problems with many frequently used news readers. That means that attachments aren't encouraged either. Also, sending the same information twice, once in HTML and once in plain text is downright wasteful. * Content: straight technical answers to questions don't need any special treatment. When the subject under discussion changes sufficiently that the subject is no longer accurate, it is courteous to change the subject. The standard, time-honoured NetNews technique is "New Subject (was: Old Subject)". There is a strong tendency for discussions in c.d.i to veer from the technical into jocular commentary, often about the participants. It is courteous to change the thread subject when you do this, and the standard method used in most news groups is to add 'OT' to indicate 'off-topic' content. Marking off-topic messages makes it easier for those who don't want to read the banter to avoid it. If you feel compelled to put technical content into a thread currently marked off-topic, remove the tag. * Quoting Posts: when you respond to a post, please trim as much of the quoted material as possible. However, do include enough of the question to ensure that your answer is comprehensible. Leave out the signature blocks (especially the obnoxiously irrelevant ones about how you should not abuse this message if it was sent to you in error) and any superfluous content. Be careful about misattributing information to the wrong poster. * OCR - original content ratio. Dr Pablo has taken to posting a summary once a month of who has posted what in the news group. One of the statistics is the OCR. Don't worry too much about the statistic, but in general, the higher the OCR of your postings, the better. An OCR of 100% probably means that you are either only asking questions (which is OK), or you are not quoting any of the question in your answer (which is not such a good idea unless your answers indicate clearly what the questions said). An OCR under about 10% means you should be trimming the original content a lot more than you are. Anywhere in the middle and you are unlikely show up in the statistics at the end of the month. * Versions: it is often helpful to include platform and version information for the software you are using. For example: Sun Solaris 7, IDS 9.30.UC1, CSDK 2.70.UC1. With Linux, both the version of the kernel and the version of the GLIBC library are relevant. It is often helpful to identify 64-bit hardware. * Flame Wars: Don't! For the most part, the c.d.i group manages to maintain a civilized discourse (even with the contributors who work for Oracle) and ad hominem flame wars are strongly discouraged. * Banter: largely covered under content. Banter cannot be prevented. Once you've been reading c.d.i for a week or two, it will be obvious that banter figures quite prominently in the content (and usually without any off-topic tag). Banter should be limited - more limited than it is (there speaks The Curmudgeon who is not entirely in tune with the regular posters of banter). Do it judiciously. If you do indulge, make sure you trim the quoted content of messages to the minimum and add the OT marker; someone passing two lines of jocular remarks on a posting of several hundred lines of quoted material is being discourteous to the other users of