## General & Project Mailing Lists

Last updated 2003-10

General Mailing Lists | Project Mailing Lists | Newsgroups

Introduction

All our lists are public. They are not private message centers. Messages posted to them are carried by, among others, Gmane and Google. Therefore, consider carefully what you say.

Anyone can post to our most popular lists, but if you are not already subscribed, your message will be moderated. In this way, we limit the amount of spam entering the message lists.

Of the lists to which you might consider subscribing, the most useful are the "discuss," "users," and "announce." Both the discuss and users lists accept posts; the announce list does not. Its function is to disseminate important information that is of interest to the general community. Individual projects have their own announce and discuss lists, too. As a rule, honor the nature of the list.

If you want to post a message without it being moderated, please subscribe to the relevant mailing list. To subscribe to any list, all you have to do is click on the "Normal" or "Digest" links and send on the empty email message that will be automatically generated and addressed. This message is just to let the friendly computer know of your intentions; you will immediately, upon sending this first note, receive a confirmation notice. Follow the instructions and send it back. Thus, to subscribe to the general discuss list, you just send mail to discuss-subscribe@openoffice.org and then follow the instructions.

OpenOffice.org Member Responsibilities: Mail Lists

1. Members are encouraged to participate in any mailing list as long as they honor Open Source principles of respect to other members and to the project at hand and abide by the basic rules of netiquette. (See the Guidelines for information.)
2. Repeated violation of these principles will result in suspension of the subscriber's membership in the relevant mailing list. If the subscriber insists on joining under different aliases, the subscriber's posts will be quarantined.
3. Spam is not tolerated. For the most part, OpenOffice.org avoids spam by restricting posts to subscribers. In the rare case where a spammer subscribes to a list and posts spam to the list, he or she will be deleted from the list. Continued violation will result in the spammer being reported to his or her ISP (Internet Service Provider).
4. Please do not send attachments with your message, as they add to the bandwidth burden we must all deal with. OpenOffice.org features several other avenues for persons interested in submitting attachments. Check with your project lead or send a message to webmasters@openoffice.org to find out which would be best for you.

Mailing List Guidelines

Please familiarize yourself with the Mailing List Guidelines, if you have not already.

Newsgroups

For those who prefer to use newsgroups rather than e-mail mailing lists, there are the Gmane newsgroups. For more information on Gmane, contact Gmane. To correspond via newsgroups, you can use open-source command-line clients, Mozilla, or many other clients. The Gmane server address is:

- news.gmane.org

Then enter the list you wish to subscribe to; see below for the ones available or scan Gmane's list, which is always growing. Many specific projects also use Gmane. For instance, ES, Groupware are two projects that use Gmane. If you want your project lists to use Gmane, contact Gmane directly and set it up. It's easy.

Process

E-mails that are sent by subscribers to the mailing lists are automatically forwarded to the relevant Newsgroup. Conversely, posts to a Newsgroup are forwarded to the appropriate mailing list. That is, the operation of Gmane is bidirectional. It is not necessary to be subscribed to a mailing list to be able to post to a Newsgroup. The Gmane system uses its own authorization process. Thus, to post to a Newsgroup, do the following:

- Post a message to the appropriate Newsgroup. You will receive an authorization request from Gmane.
- Reply to that request.
- Your post will then appear in both the Gmane newsgroup and it will also appear on the mailing list.
- You will need to be authorized for each Newsgroup to which you post (but only once per group)

Gmane newsgroups are listed next to the relevant mail lists. If a newsgroup is not listed and exists, please contact us.

General Mailing Lists
List | Subscribe | Unsubscribe | Search Archives | Browse Archives | Newsgroup
users@openoffice.org For questions relating to the use of OpenOffice.org (the application). A very popular and effective list. This list is in English. For non-English help resources, see the "Native-Lang" project lists below. | Normal | Normal | Search | Browse archives | gmane.comp.openoffice.questions
announce@openoffice.org The primary list for important, community-wide announcements. For major release notifications, major new projects, important documentation releases, and so on. This is not a discussion list, and is not open to public posting. Traffic is expected to be very low, of the order of fewer than ten messages per month. If you're interested in OpenOffice.org, it is recommended you subscribe at a minimum to this list. | Normal | Normal | Search | Browse archives | n/a
discuss@openoffice.org This list is intended for discussions on OpenOffice.org and Open Source. Begin by stating: Who you are; A few words on your background; Your interest in OpenOffice.org; and What you would like to see happen with OpenOffice.org. This is a high-volume list; may we suggest the "digest"? Note: For questions regarding the use of the OpenOffice.org suite, please submit your questions to "users@openoffice.org." | Normal Digest | Normal Digest | Search | Browse archives | gmane.comp.openoffice.general
webmasters@openoffice.org This list is for questions relating to the overall project, not for how to use OpenOffice.org, the product. | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a | n/a
dev@openoffice.org This list provides a general entry point for developers. If you are unsure which project fits your needs best, ask for redirection here. But do not expect user discussions or support. Rather, discussions are focused on the development of the technology. | Normal | Normal | Search | Browse archives | gmane.comp.openoffice.devel.general
allfeatures@openoffice.org The primary list for new features in OpenOffice.org | Normal | Normal | Search | Browse archives | gmane.comp.openoffice.announce.features
allcvs@openoffice.org. | Normal | Normal | Search | Browse archives | gmane.comp.openoffice.cvs
allbugs@openoffice.org | Normal | Normal | Search | Browse archives | gmane.comp.openoffice.bugs
interface-announce@openoffice.org Changes to C++/Java Interfaces are announced on this list. Developers from higher-level projects have to act by changing their code on incompatible modifications accordingly. Other messages may be for informational purposes only. This is not a discussion list, and is not open to public posting. | Normal | Normal | Search | Browse archives | gmane.comp.openoffice.announce.interface
interface-discuss@openoffice.org Proposals for changes to C++/Java Interfaces are discussed here. Developers from other projects using your interface will provide feedback regarding their current usage, feasibility, timeframes, alternatives or just give you a go according to our guidelines. | Normal | Normal | Search | Browse archives | n/a
releases@openoffice.org This list serves as a medium to synchronize our efforts for building, testing, and publishing milestone/snapshot builds. For general roadmap discussions please use discuss@openoffice.org. | Normal | Normal | Search | Browse archives | gmane.comp.openoffice.releases

Project Mailing Lists

Please visit your project's homepage to see what lists are available for the project you're interested in.

The list below is of the most popular Engish-language lists, but be aware that there are many other projects and lists available.

Popular Project Mailing Lists
Project | Mail List | Subscribe | Unsubscribe | Browse Archives | Newsgroup
API | dev@api.openoffice.org Are you using the OpenOffice.org Programming Interface to automate or integrate? | Normal | Normal | Browse archives | gmane.comp.openoffice.devel.api
Build Tools | dev@tools.openoffice.org Having problems with your build and need questions answered? Suggestions for building better? Dying to write better build documentation for us? This is the place for you... | Normal | Normal | Browse archives | gmane.comp.openoffice.devel.tools
Documentation | dev@documentation.openoffice.org The purpose of this project is to create and maintain documentation for the various programs that make up the OpenOffice.org suite. | Normal | Normal | Browser archives | n/a
Native-Lang | dev@native-lang.openoffice.org The Native Language Development Project includes projects offering information, mailing lists, and resources in many language groups. Please go to the Native-Lang homepage to view projects available. | Normal | Normal | Browse Archives | gmane.comp.openoffice.nativelanguage
Localization | dev@l10n.openoffice.org Want to know where things are at and how to contribute to make Openoffice.org a reality in your native language? | Normal | Normal | Browse archives | gmane.comp.openoffice.devel.localization
Marketing | dev@marketing.openoffice.org Want to get involved in "marketing" OpenOffice.org? This list is heavily trafficked; consider the digest. | Normal Digest | Normal Digest | Browse archives | gmane.comp.openoffice.devel.marketing
Mirrors | dev@distribution.openoffice.org If you have a mirror or want to create one, subscribe here. | Normal | Normal | Browse archives | n/a
Porting | dev@porting.openoffice.org Discussions relating to porting OpenOffice.org to your favorite platform. | Normal | Normal | Browse archives | gmane.comp.openoffice.devel.porting
QA | dev@qa.openoffice.org The project list for quality assurance, general bug fixing and so on. | Normal | Normal | Browse archives | n/a
XML | dev@xml.openoffice.org Developer's list for the Openoffice.org XML file format | Normal | Normal | Browse archives | gmane.comp.openoffice.devel.xml

Here is a general description of available lists; many projects have more than these, so be sure and check with the project page for specifics:

dev@<project>.openoffice.org
This list is designated for discussion about project implementation issues, and is for developers only.
features@<project>.openoffice.org
This is an announce list for new project features. Only authorized persons can post to this list
issues@<project>.openoffice.org
This list carries project-specific automatically generated mails from the bug tracking system (IssueZilla).
cvs@<project>.openoffice.org
This list carries generated mails for changes on the files within this project. No posts to this list are possible.

Mailing List Problems?

If you're having problems with any of the lists, please contact the list owner rather than posting your problem to the whole list. Addresses for list owners take the form listname-owner@openoffice.org, so for example the discuss list owner address would be discuss-owner@openoffice.org

By far the most common mailing list problem is attempting to unsubscribe from an address that is not subscribed. If you need to unsubscribe a specific address, say "mary@host.domain", send a blank email to discuss-unsubscribe-mary=host.domain@openoffice.org.

If none of this helps, and you still have questions, please contact us.

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