DRAFT

Posting to comp.os.linux.announce

Read this text if you want to post an announcement to comp.os.linux.announce. It covers both the technical and other details that you need to get right in order to get the article accepted, and also some of my thoughts on how to make efficient announcements.

Don't panic about the technical stuff. You're alive, the rest is easy.

What is a moderated group?

Normal newsgroups are open for everyone. Moderated groups are pre-screened. When you post to a moderated group, the article is not put into the group. Instead, it is mailed to the moderator. If the moderator thinks the article is suitable for the group, he puts it there for all to see.

The moderator functions as a quality control unit. He makes sure only articles that belong in the group, get into the group. For an announcement group like c.o.l.a, this means that only announcements appear in the group. Some announcements create a bit of discussion, and that discussion is redirected to another group.

What kinds of stuff is OK for c.o.l.a?

C.o.l.a is intended for all announcements that are relevant for the Linux community: new software for Linux (completely new or a new version), new documentation, warnings about bugs and security holes, notices about user group meetings, stuff like that.

Discussion, and stuff that is not related to Linux is out. Borderline cases include things like surveys and requests for testers. These are handled on a case by case basis. If you're unsure, ask the moderator.

As a special case, job announcements (offered or requested) are out. This was decided by a vote in 1995. There won't be a re-vote.

The moderator is an asshole, how do we get rid of him?

Start a discussion about it in comp.os.linux.misc or news.groups.

Any special things I need to know to announce something?

C.o.l.a has some special conventions that you should be aware of:

No crossposting, unless absolutely necessary.: I remove all crossposts. If you want to announce it in several groups, you will have to post it yourself to the other groups. (Reason: dealing with crossposts between multiple moderated groups is a pain in the ass for the moderators, especially for me, since I do not run a full news feed and cannot easily know which groups are moderated and who their moderator is.)
All articles carry a Followup-to header that directs replies away from c.o.l.a.: Only rarely do the replies belong in the group, so they shouldn't be sent to the moderator. Please put in a suitable group; if you don't, I will.
Some classes of articles carry a keyword in the subject.: The keywords include ADMIN, COMMERCIAL, CONFERENCE, CORRECTION, FTP, IMPORTANT, LOCAL, MAILING-LIST, SECURITY, SHAREWARE, WANTED, and WWW. Please put in the keyword yourself, it you think it is appropriate; I'll do my best to do it, if there is none. The purpose of the keywords is to make it easier for the readers to select articles.
Pack plenty information into the subject.: Don't write a subject like "Foo version 1.1 released". Many people will not know what Foo is, so the subject won't help them select articles. Instead, say "Foo 1.1 - copy files more efficiently than cp". There is no need to say that the article is an announcement, so don't write a subject like "ANNOUNCEMENT: Foo version 1.1 released".
All non-English articles must contain at least an English summary, if not a complete translation.: I won't accept an article I don't understand. It's too dangerous for me.
Avoid using all upper case in the Subject.: I'll rewrite it to lower case, and it just annoys me.
Make sure From is a valid address.: I reserve the right to ignore submissions with bad addresses. If you can't get your software to make the address correctly, write the correct at the beginning of the article and I'll fix From.

Don't worry too much about the conventions. If you make an error, I'll fix it. But do try to get it right, since I work more efficiently when I have fewer errors to correct.

How do I write a successful announcement?

Note: This section is very much based on my own opinions. I have not made any survey of whether following these notes will actually make things better for you.

Within the first five lines, say what the program does. Don't make people read through fifty screens of text to find out.
Be short. Few people want to read a lot of text. Don't post installation instructions in c.o.l.a.
Avoid hype. Most Linux users are intelligent and adventurous and are likely to know more about computers than an average computer user. Hype insults intelligent people.
Don't assume people have heard of you or your program. Always explain what it does, even if only with a couple of sentences.
Be honest about commercialism. Linux is free software, and many Linuxers prefer free software, but few people are fanatic about it. Only crackpots will flame you if you clearly say that your software is commercial (and there's no need to be apologetic about it, either). But if you try to hide it, lots of people will be annoyed by it. If you only say that something is commercial on your web site, you'll only make people angry.

How do I send the announcement to the moderator?

Usually it is enough to just post it to the group. The news software notices that the group is moderated and automatically sends it to the moderator via e-mail. Alternatively, you can mail it yourself, to linux-announce@news.ornl.gov. If you mail it, put the address in the To or Cc header. Do not send articles via a mailing list (don't put the c.o.l.a address on a mailing list), and do not put it in the Bcc header. This is because I need to have my mail filter catch the articles so that I can automate the moderating process as much as possible.

What should I do afterwards?

When your article arrives in my moderation folder, you should get an automatic reply. When the article is posted, you should get an automatic notice. If I reject the article, I may send a rejection letter, but if the article was completely off topic, I won't bother (it's usually spam or subscription requests).

How quickly will an announcement get to the group after I send it?

I don't always have the time to do c.o.l.a every day. I do, of course, try to be as quick about it as possible. After posting it usually takes a day or two to get to most news servers, but sometimes there are delays of several days.

If you think your announcement is urgent, you should write "URGENT" at the beginning of the subject and explain why in the beginning of the body. I will then try to deal with it as quickly as possible.

If you have a product release that requires an announcement to reach the readers at a precise time, think again. Netnews works by copying an article to many computers, and this can be slow, and it usually takes several days to get to some distant parts of the net.

Is c.o.l.a archive anywhere?

Yes, at http://www.iki.fi/mjr/linux/cola.html.

What does "BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE" mean?

To make it clear whether an announcement has actually been approved by me (it's technically eeasy to by-pass a moderator), all articles in c.o.l.a are digitally signed using Phil Zimmermann's Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) encryption software. See the c.o.l.a home page for the public key.

Don't worry about it. I'll deal with it. (And it will go away when I switch to PGP Moose.)

How do I contact the moderator

My name is Mikko Rauhala. My e-mail address is mjr@iki.fi. I do not have the aggressive mail filters by predecessor used to have ;).