[pulseaudio-discuss] difference between Gnome Sound Preferences and PulseAudio Volume Control

[Colin Guthrie]

'Twas brillig, and Piscium at 07/06/10 10:14 did gyre and gimble:
> This is the first time ever anyone asks me to post top, bottom or
> otherwise. No problem. I just wonder if this is a forum rule, and if
> so, if there are more like this as I would rather not unwittingly
> infringe them.

Most mailing lists for open source projects tend to follow the same
general rules. Some lists are more strict than others (to the extent
that people will simply not answer any questions you ask until it's
posted correct!). We're not super strict here but we do like to give
friendly reminders/initial guidance.

As many of the developer are subscribed to 40+ mailing lists, reading
the messages and separating out what you are interested in, verses what
is irrelevent to you is often tricky. This is why a uniform style and
presentation is so highly desirable. If everything is formatted in
(largely) the same way, it's much quicker to scan over various messages
in various different lists. This is also a contributing factor as to why
mailing lists are preferred over web-based forums - it's much quicker to
check a mail inbox (or NNTP feed from the likes of GMane.org) than visit
several separate websites.

Generally speaking, you can't go wrong on open source/development
mailing lists if you:
 1. Use plain text: html and personal styling breaks the default look
and feel and slows down reading for regulars.
 2. Do not top post, it's better to strip out a small, relevant section
of the mail to which you are replying and address that point
specifically. If you need to address several points, do so with
appropriate quoting and trimming of quoted text.

This is how email started and it was only when business folks got
involved with crappy email clients that "top posting" became the norm.
It's evil and makes reading an email very tricky in a
discussion/threaded environment.

HTH explain these things (and keep in mind that there are always
variations on this!)

Take care

Col

-- 

Colin Guthrie
gmane(at)colin.guthr.ie
http://colin.guthr.ie/

Day Job:
  Tribalogic Limited [http://www.tribalogic.net/]
Open Source:
  Mandriva Linux Contributor [http://www.mandriva.com/]
  PulseAudio Hacker [http://www.pulseaudio.org/]
  Trac Hacker [http://trac.edgewall.org/]