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<html><head><title>The Answer Gang FAQ</title></head>
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<h1>The Answer Gang FAQ</h1>
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Updated Wed Nov 6 EST 2002<br>
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Please send any corrections and additions to Ben Okopnik <fuzzybear@pocketmail.com>
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<p>
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<pre>
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I enjoy very much being on the list; I learn a great many things, burst
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out laughing well more than often and sometimes have an opportunity to
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contribute to the best of my ability.
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-- Didier Heyden in TAG
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</pre>
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<p>
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<h2>Table of Contents</h2>
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<li><a href="#about">About The Answer Gang</a><br>
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<li><a href="#join">How do I join The Answer Gang?</a><br>
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<li><a href="#members">TAG Members' Reference</a><br>
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<li><a href="#guidelines">Guidelines For Answering Questions</a><br>
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<li><a href="#markup">The TAG E-mail Markup Language</a><br>
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<li><a href="#private">"What Do You Mean, This Is A List?
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I Want A Private Answer!"</a><br>
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<li><a href="tag-kb.html">The Answer Gang Knowledge Base</a><br>
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<p>
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<a name="about">
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<b>About The Answer Gang</b></br>
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<p>
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The Answer Gang actually started as The Answer Guy - Jim Dennis did this
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job all by himself starting with issue #13 (the lucky issue for the Linux
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community, I suppose...) At a certain point, Jim found himself writing the
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equivalent of the Encyclopedia Britannica once a month; even with the
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Answer Gal (his wife, Heather Stern) putting her shoulder to the wheel, it
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was still too much work. So, in complete desperation (right around issue
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#55), they were forced to let a crowd of, erm, colorful characters (who
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immediately put their feet up on the furniture, drank all the beer, and
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went digging around in the refrigerator) invade their private domain. Most
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of us are still around - after all, Heather keep refilling the fridge
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(shhh... don't let her catch on!) - and the whole shebang keeps somehow
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rolling along.
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<p>
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If you want more details, here is what the motley crew had to say for
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themselves (after all, they must have a fair trial before being put up
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against the nearest wall):
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<a href="current/tag/bios.html">The current TAG bios</a>
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<p>
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<a name="join">
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<b>How Do I join The Answer Gang?</b></br>
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<p>OK, most important things first - <i>the beer and the munchies are
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<b>ours</b></i>. You leave them alone. Got it? All right then.
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Chris Gianakopoulos was incautious enough to ask the same thing, back in
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issue #64 (poor deluded fellow, he's <i>still</i> here...) If you are brave
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enough to follow his example, here's the answer that he got (with updated
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links); read it, follow it, and you too may (eventually!) join the exalted
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ranks of those who have access to the chips and the pretzels. And may the
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Great Gnu have mercy on your soul.
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<hr>
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<b> A Question About Answering Questions</b><br>
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From Chris Gianakopoulos<br>
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<i>Answered By Mike Orr, Heather Stern, Dan Wilder</i>
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<pre>
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(?) Where do these questions come from? Is there a central location from
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which all of you retrieve these questions (a repository of some sort),
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or when questions are sent to linux-questions-only@ssc.com, does the
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message automatically get forwarded to the members of the Answer Gang?
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(!) [Mike] linux-questions-only@ssc.com is a mailing list. The
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subscribers are people who want to answer questions. The public sends
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in a question, all the TAG members see it. Anybody who feels
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herself/himself qualified will send an answer, both to TAG and to the
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querent. We try to include TAG and the querent on any follow-ups to
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the answer; e.g., if another TAG member wants to contradict it or add
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additional information. At the end of the month, Heather sorts the
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questions and answers, selects threads to publish, and distributes
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them to the Mailbag, 2-Cent Tips and The Answer Gang columns.
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If you want to join The Answer Gang, subscribe to the TAG list at
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<A HREF="http://www.ssc.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-questions-only"
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>http://www.ssc.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-questions-only</A>.
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Anybody is welcome to subscribe and offer answers.
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(!) [Dan] Anybody in the world can post (which causes a certain amount
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of spam to clear the spam-filter), and postings are forwarded to all
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subscribers. The list admin may have to approve your subscription, and
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in any case the list server will send you a cookie in the mail with
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instructions for its return. When the listserver gets your return
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mail (and maybe after the list admin approves your request), you're
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on. List members are asked to copy list responses to the original
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poster.
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(!) [Mike] There is also an "inner circle" of TAG volunteers who
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have a greater commitment to keeping TAG functioning and also offer
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other technical advice to the Gazette. These people are listed on
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the LG home page.
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(?) When I once asked a friend how I could ever pay him back for some
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side jobs that he gave (software stuff), he told me "Don't pay back --
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pay ahead". So I am just attempting to pay ahead the gift of knowledge
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that all of those fine authors of textbooks, Linux Gazettes, and other
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stuff have given me.
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(!) [Mike] "Pay ahead" is exactly right, and I've never heard it
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expressed that way before -- thank you. We all volunteer what we know
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so that somebody will help us when we need it.
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(?) P.S. Keep up the good work! Also, let me know if this email has
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been sent as clear text -- I have set up my Microsoft mailer to do
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that.
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(!) [Dan] It arrived as clear text.
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(!) [Heather] Yeah, now if you could give us the steps you did for
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that so we can put it into the FAQ... hey Chris, welcome to the Gang!
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</pre>
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<hr size=4>
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<p><br></p>
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<a name="members"></a>
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<H1>TAG members' reference</H1>
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<P> You will receive questions from the querents, and answers and discussion
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from other TAG members. Feel free to jump in with your own answer at any time,
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or to add to an answer if you feel something is incorrect or missing. Anything
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you don't feel qualified to answer or don't have time to answer, just delete.
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<P> Be warned you'll get a LOT of mail every month -- 200-400 messages currently.
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You may want to follow Ben's suggestions for setting up procmail to
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<A HREF="../issue62/okopnik.html">divert TAG mail to a separate folder</A>.
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<P> Also be warned that a certain amount of spam comes
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through. We have a spamfilter, but it's set more lenient than most because we
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don't want to take the chance that a desperate querent with a clueless ISP
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might not be able to get a question through. <EM>Never reply to spam</EM>.
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Replying just encourages them to send more since they know somebody's reading
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it. Do feel free to ridicule spammers on the list, though; the funniest
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spams and responses are published on The Back Page.
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<P> There is also a second list, <STRONG>tag-admin</STRONG>. This is for
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people who want to take a more active role in Linux Gazette besides just
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answering questions (i.e., it's where the Editor posts appeals for volunteers).
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Tag-admin is also used for discussion which is not to be published, such as
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questions about whether to publish an item. All TAG members are invited to
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subscribe to tag-admin at
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<A HREF="http://www.ssc.com/mailman/listinfo/tag-admin">
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http://www.ssc.com/mailman/listinfo/tag-admin</A>. Unlike the TAG list,
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tag-admin does not accept posts from non-subscribers.
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<P> Web archives of TAG mail are at
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<A HREF="http://www.ssc.com/pipermail/linux-questions-only">
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http://www.ssc.com/pipermail/linux-questions-only</A>
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and
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<A HREF="http://www.ssc.com/pipermail/tag-admin">
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http://www.ssc.com/pipermail/tag-admin</A>.
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The archives are password protected for the sake of querents who wish to
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remain anonymous. If you are an Answer Gang member and don't know the password,
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e-mail the LG Editor.
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<A NAME="guidelines"></A>
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<H2>Guidelines For Answering Questions</H2>
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<P> <STRONG>Always</STRONG> check the To: and Cc: addresses when you reply.
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Always reply to <STRONG>both</STRONG> the querent
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<STRONG>and</STRONG> linux-questions-only at ssc.com. It's easy to
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accidentally drop off one or the other. Dropping off the querent means they'll
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have to wait up to a month for their answer, IF it gets published and IF they
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can find it among the three columns. Dropping off TAG means it <EM>won't</EM>
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be published--the Editor Gal can't publish what she doesn't receive. It
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doesn't matter whether you put both addresses in To: or put one in Cc:, just
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make sure you include both somehow. A few common scenarios:
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<p> The mailing list software prepends a blurb to TAG messages: </p>
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<pre>
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+-+--------------------------------------------------------------------+-+
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You've asked a question of The Answer Gang, so you've been sent the reply
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directly as a courtesy. The TAG list has also been copied. Please send all
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replies to <linux-questions-only@ssc.com> so that we can help our other
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readers by publishing the exchange in our monthly web magazine Linux Gazette,
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http://www.LinuxGazette.com.
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+-+--------------------------------------------------------------------+-+
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+-+--------------------------------------------------------------------+-+
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+-+ Original question from: "Que R. Ent" <qre@somewhere.com>
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+-+--------------------------------------------------------------------+-+
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</pre>
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<p>Leave this blurb in your reply. The reader may ignore it, but at least there's
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a chance they'll read it and realize what The Answer Gang is and that they're
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going to be published. As well, should the querent's address be lost
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somewhere in the process, it's easy enough to copy and paste from the above.</p>
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<p>If your mailer allows you to add custom headers you can help the script
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put the right name next to your answerbubbles. Add this to your outbound
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TAG mail:</p>
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<blockquote><code>X-gazette-tag: yournick</code></blockquote>
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<p>Replace "yournick" with your own preferred nickname; for instance, Jim
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Dennis is JimD.</p>
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<p>It's okay to answer something that you don't know all that well, but
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improved greatly if you tell the reader how it is that you're looking for
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the information, and give some juicy links where we can learn more about
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the subject at hand.</p>
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<p>Try to stick to answering Linux questions. We don't bother to publish
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non-Linux questions unless they are a lot of fun. (After all, <I>LG</I>'s
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goal <STRONG>is</STRONG> to make Linux a bit more fun.)</p>
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<p>We're real people here, just answer conversationally, like you are right
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there with them.</p>
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<P> Remember, you're not just answering the querent, you're composing a message
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that will help thousands of others. So go ahead and throw in related
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information that somebody in that situation would want to know, even if the
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querent doesn't need it directly.
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<p>It's perfectly fine to trim the original message down to only the
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fragments which you have an answer for. Definitely snip off any HTML
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attachment they might have accidentally provided. But it is okay and
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even desirable to leave the ">" quoting marks intact.</p>
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<p>Go ahead and use your own signature block as you normally would.</p>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<A NAME="markup"></A>
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<H2>The TAG E-mail Markup Language</H2>
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<p>These are tricks for composing your text reply so that it remains
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readable as e-mail while also giving our Editor Gal's script some hints how to
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format it as HTML.</p>
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<p>What started it all: when you *emphasize* or _enhance_ words they get
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EM tags. It isn't too bright about _book_titles_ though.</p>
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<P>Use plain text. Wrap lines at 72 characters if your mailer has a setting
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for this. Put a blank line between paragraphs, and don't indent the first
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line of paragraphs. </p>
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<p>Leave the mailer's ">" marks in front of the querent's
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message fragments that you are replying to. This is used to determine
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when the speaker changes so the speakbubbles can be added. <em>Avoid</em>
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the quoting style of putting the other speaker's name at the beginning of
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every line!</p>
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<p>If you don't like the subject the reader used (for example, no subject,
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"Help me pls", or something equally generic) do not replace the Subject: line
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itself. Instead, in the body of the message, below the heading create a 2 or 3
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line paragraph: 1. your replacement subject, 2. a row of two or more tilde (~)
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characters, 3. (optional) a short extra comment. These will be used to create
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the index entries. The Subject: line must remain intact because the Editor
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Gal's script threads by subject.</p>
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<p>Paragraphs that end in a colon (:) hint that the next paragraph should
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be indented.</p>
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<p>Bullet points which are *) ... asterisk paren ... at the beginning of a
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line are detected by the script.</p>
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<p>So are numerous types of smilies and unhappy faces.</p>
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<p>Sometimes it can detect small script fragments on its own by spotting
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comment lines, so commenting your scripts is good.</p>
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<p>Block styling - these hints are typed on a single line before the affected
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block, and on a single line after to close:</p>
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<dl>
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<dt>program listings, log fragments, things to mark up as <PRE>
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<dd>Before: ``
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<br>After: ''
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<br> <br>
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<dt>a dark blue CODE block with no hotlinks in it
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<dd>Before: `
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<br>After: '
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<br> <br>
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<dt>To turn your example into an attachment
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<dd>Before: ===== CUT HERE optional-scriptname.language.txt =====
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<br>After: ===== CUT HERE =====
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<br>Replace "language" with sh, perl, bash, py, etc. as applicable. If
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you don't put a name it's okay, the Editor Gal will make one up.
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<br>There must be at least five "=" at the beginning and at least three at the
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end.
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<br> <br>
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<dt>To turn your example into an attachment (but you think equals look ugly)
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<dd>Before: ----- snip here: filename.bash.txt -----
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<br>After: ----- snip here -----
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<br>It's treated just like the one above. The colon is optional.
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<br> <br>
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</dl>
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<p>If you use angle brackets and ampersands they'll be properly transformed,
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so you can babble to the poor reader about HTML freely if you need to.</p>
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<p>Fully qualified URLs, like <a href="http://www.linuxgazette.com">
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http://www.linuxgazette.com</a> or <a href="ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/"
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>ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/</a>, will be made into hotlinks
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automatically.</p>
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<p>E-mail addresses are detected by the script and made active -- most of
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these end up getting stripped back out, but you don't have to do anything
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special about them.</p>
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<p>A number of things which the Answer Gang often mentions get automatically
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marked up with their URL, if spelled correctly, but only once per message.
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If Gang members think something new should be automatically marked, they
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should mention it on the tag-admin list.</p>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<A NAME="private"></A>
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<H2>"What Do You Mean, This Is A List? I Want A Private Answer!"</H2>
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<p>If a querent writes back to you and demands "private service"
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- as some will - respond to them and Cc: linux-questions-only@ssc.com. Say
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that we are volunteers who answer Linux questions so that a large number of
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people can benefit from the answers. We will withhold their name and/or
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e-mail address if they request anonymity, but we will not help them if they
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refuse to allow us to publish the text of their message. (Of course, we
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are willing to cut out certain paragraphs at their request if the result is
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still a complete question or followup.) Allowing us to publish the thread
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is our "payment" for giving them advice.</p>
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<p>If they want a private consultant they should try LinuxPorts' Consultant
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Guide (<a href=" http://www.linuxports.com/guide/consultants/"
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>http://www.linuxports.com/guide/consultants/</a>), the
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Linux Documentation Project's Consultants-HOWTO
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(<a href="http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Consultants-HOWTO/index.html"
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>http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/Consultants-HOWTO/index.html</a>),
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or possibly seek paid technical support from the commercial Linux vendors
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related to their software. Redhat, Linuxcare, and many others offer
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business level professional services as well.</p>
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<P> If they complain that they didn't know it was going to be published, tell
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them we have made every effort to make this clear in <I>Linux Gazette</I> and
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in the replies themselves, and if they didn't read this or got our address
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from somebody that didn't tell them our policy, we're not responsible for that.
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Tell them we are very interested in knowing how they heard about the
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<I>Gazette</I>, so that we can follow up with the person or webmaster who gave
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them an erroneous impression of what the tag address is for.
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<hr>
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<P> <EM>All TAG members--please submit a short description for yourself for the
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TAG Bios page, linked from The Answer Gang column of recent issues.</EM>
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