xref: /php-src/docs/mailinglist-rules.md (revision 4bee528e)
1# Mailing list rules
2
3This is the first file you should be reading before doing any posts on PHP
4mailing lists. Following these rules is considered imperative to the success of
5the PHP project. Therefore, expect your contributions to be of much less positive
6impact if you do not follow these rules. More importantly you can actually
7assume that not following these rules will hurt the PHP project.
8
9PHP is developed through the efforts of a large number of people.
10Collaboration is a Good Thing(tm), and mailing lists lets us do this. Thus,
11following some basic rules with regards to mailing list usage will:
12
13   a. Make everybody happier, especially those responsible for developing PHP
14      itself.
15
16   b. Help in making sure we all use our time more efficiently.
17
18   c. Prevent you from making a fool of yourself in public.
19
20   d. Increase the general level of good will on planet Earth.
21
22Having said that, here are the organizational rules:
23
24   1. Respect other people working on the project.
25
26   2. Do not post when you are angry. Any post can wait a few hours. Review
27      your post after a good breather, or a good nights sleep.
28
29   3. Make sure you pick the right mailing list for your posting. Please review
30      the descriptions on the
31      [mailing list overview page](https://www.php.net/mailing-lists.php). When
32      in doubt ask a friend or someone you trust on IRC.
33
34   4. Make sure you know what you are talking about. PHP is a very large project
35      that strives to be very open. The flip side is that the core developers
36      are faced with a lot of requests. Make sure that you have done your
37      research before posting to the entire developer community.
38
39   5. Patches have a much greater chance of acceptance than just asking the
40      PHP developers to implement a feature for you. For one, it makes the
41      discussion more concrete, and it shows that the poster put thought and time
42      into the request.
43
44   6. If you are posting to an existing thread, make sure that you know what
45      previous posters have said. This is even more important the longer the
46      thread is already.
47
48   7. Please configure your email client to use a real name and keep message
49      signatures to a maximum of 2 lines if at all necessary.
50
51The next few rules are more some general hints:
52
53   1. If you notice that your posting ratio is much higher than that of other
54      people, double-check the above rules. Try to wait a bit longer before
55      sending your replies to give other people more time to digest your answers
56      and more importantly give you the opportunity to make sure that you
57      aggregate your current position into a single mail instead of multiple
58      ones.
59
60   2. Consider taking a step back from a very active thread now and then. Maybe
61      talking to some friends and fellow developers will help in understanding
62      the other opinions better.
63
64   3. Do not top post. Place your answer underneath anyone you wish to quote
65      and remove any previous comment that is not relevant to your post.
66
67   4. Do not high-jack threads, by bringing up entirely new topics. Please
68      create an entirely new thread copying anything you wish to quote into the
69      new thread.
70
71Finally, additional hints on how to behave inside the virtual community can be
72found in [RFC 1855](http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1855.html).
73
74Happy hacking,
75
76PHP Team
77