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Message-ID: <42714EA3.3070802@kitware.com>
Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 16:59:15 -0400
From: Brad King <brad DOT king AT kitware DOT com>
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To: cygwin AT cygwin DOT com
Subject: Re: sshd and /usr/bin/zsh
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Christopher Faylor wrote:
 >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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