>On Thu, Apr 28, 2005 at 02:53:09PM -0400, Brad King wrote:
>>Oops, sorry. My eyes scrolled through the left column of the web page
>>and found "FAQ". When the problem was not in the FAQ I went back and
>>scrolled up and found "Mailing Lists" before noticing the "Reporting
>>Problems" link. I suggest you add a link to
>>http://cygwin.com/problems.html from http://cygwin.com/lists.html in the
>>description of when posting to the main cygwin list is okay.
>Yeah, we should <http://cygwin.com/problems.html> probably >http://cygwin.com/problems.html> have <http://cygwin.com/problems.html> >known better <http://cygwin.com/problems.html> than to think ><http://cygwin.com/problems.html> that anyone >http://cygwin.com/problems.html> would read ><http://cygwin.com/problems.html> the left bar
Heh :)
I agree that there are plenty of places where this link appears. However, just the fact that you replied in this manner tells me that this is a common mistake by users. In my case I made an honest attempt to post properly (I run several mailing lists so I understand the problem). What I described was a reasonable path to get to the mailing list in which I never saw the link. I then suggested a way to plug the hole in this path to save you and others this trouble in the future.
Most projects I've seen have the following desired policy for posting to a list:
1.) Read the FAQ 2.) Read the mailing list policy 3.) Post to the list
Here is what happens when I follow this policy on the cygwin page:
1.) I find the FAQ link in the left column. The FAQ does not help my problem.
2.) I go back to the front page and my eyes scroll up from FAQ looking for mailing lists. Since the link for reporting problems is above mailing lists I get to the mailing list link first. This is how I missed the link on the front page.
3.) I follow the mailing list link and the page starts with
"Is there a mailing list for the project?
Yes. There are several. They are listed below."
I scroll through the mailing list page looking for the set of available lists mentioned at the top. This is how I missed the link in the middle of the 8 paragraphs of text. I see a "cygwin" list and read its policy, which has a nice set of bullet points. There is no mention of the problems page here. This is where I suggest it be added.
4.) I send a message to the list without subscribing and it works. This is how I missed the link included in the welcome message.
-Brad
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