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<h1>Boost Discussion Policy</h1>
<p>Email discussion is the tie that binds boost members together into a community.
If the discussion is stimulating and effective, the community thrives. If
the discussion degenerates into name calling and ill will, the community withers
and dies.</p>
<h2>Acceptable topics</h2>
<ul>
<li>Queries to determine interest in a possible library submission.</li>
<li>Technical discussions about a proposed or existing library, including bug
reports and requests for help.</li>
<li>Formal Reviews of proposed libraries.</li>
<li>Reports of user experiences with Boost libraries.</li>
<li>Boost administration or policies.</li>
<li>Compiler specific workarounds as applied to Boost libraries.</li>
</ul>
<p>Other topics related to boost development may be acceptable, at the discretion of moderators. If unsure, go ahead and post. The moderators
will let you know.</p>
<h2>Unacceptable topics</h2>
<ul>
<li>Advertisements for commercial products.</li>
<li>Requests for help getting non-boost code to compile with your compiler.
Try the comp.lang.c++.moderated newsgroup instead.</li>
<li>Requests for help interpreting the C++ standard. Try the comp.std.c++
newsgroup instead.</li>
<li>Job offers.</li>
<li>Requests for solutions to homework assignments.</ul>
<h2>Message size</h2>
<p>The mailing list software automatically limits message and attachment size to
a reasonable amount, typically 75K, which is adjusted from time-to-time by the
moderators.. This limit is a courtesy to those who rely on dial-up Internet
access.</p>
<h2>Prohibited behavior</h2>
<p>Prohibited behavior will not be tolerated. The moderators will ban
postings by abusers.</p>
<h3>Flame wars</h3>
<p>Personal insults, argument for the sake of argument, and all the other
behaviors which fall into the "flame war" category are
prohibited. Discussions should focus on technical arguments, not the
personality traits or motives of participants.</p>
<h3>Third-party attacks</h3>
<p>Attacks on third parties such as software vendors, hardware vendors, or any
other organizations, are prohibited. Boost exists to unite and serve the
entire C++ community, not to disparage the work of others.</p>
<p>Does this mean that we ban the occasional complaint or wry remark about a
troublesome compiler? No, but be wary of overdoing it.</p>
<h3>Off-topic posts</h3>
<p>Discussions which stray from the acceptable topics are strongly discouraged.
While off-topic posts are often well meaning and not as individually corrosive
as other abuses, cumulatively the distraction damages the effectiveness of
discussion.</p>
<h2>Culture</h2>
<p>In addition to technical skills, Boost members value collaboration,
acknowledgement of the help of others, and a certain level of politeness. Boost
membership is very international, and ranges widely in age and other
characteristics. Think of discussion as occurring among colleagues in a widely read forum, rather
than among a few close friends.</p>
<p>Always remember that the cumulative effort spent by people reading
your contribution scales with the (already large) number of boost
members. Thus, do invest time and effort to make your message as
readable as possible. Adhere to English syntax and grammar rules such
as proper capitalization. Avoid copious informalism, colloquial
language, or abbreviations, they may not be understood by all readers.
Re-read your message before submitting it.</p>
<h2>Guidelines for effective discussions</h2>
<p>Apply social engineering to prevent heated technical discussion from
degenerating into a shouting match, and to actively encourage the cooperation
upon which Boost depends.</p>
<ul>
<li>Questions help. If someone suggests something that you don't think
will work, then replying with a question like "will that compile?"
or "won't that fail to compile, or am I missing something?" is a
lot smoother than "That's really stupid - it won't compile."
Saying "that fails to compile for me, and seems to violate section
n.n.n of the standard" would be yet another way to be firm without
being abrasive.</li>
<li>If most of the discussion has been code-free generalities, posting a bit
of sample code can focus people on the practical issues.</li>
<li>If most of the discussion has been in terms of specific code, try to talk
a bit about hidden assumptions and generalities that may be preventing
discussion closure.</li>
<li>Taking a time-out is often effective. Just say: "Let me think
about that for a day or two. Let's take a time-out to digest the
discussion so far."</li>
</ul>
<p>Avoid Parkinson's Bicycle Shed. Parkinson described a committee formed
to oversee design of an early nuclear power plant. There were three agenda
items - when to have tea, where to put the bicycle shed, and how to
ensure nuclear safety. Tea was disposed of quickly as trivial.
Nuclear safety was discussed for only
an hour - it was so complex, scary, and technical that even
among experts few felt comfortable with the issues. Endless days were then
spent discussing where to put the bicycle shed (the parking lot would
be a modern equivalent) because everyone
understood the issues and felt comfortable discussing them. </p>
<hr>
<p>Revised <!--webbot bot="Timestamp" S-Type="EDITED" S-Format="%d %B, %Y" startspan -->13 May, 2002<!--webbot bot="Timestamp" i-checksum="13969" endspan -->
</p>
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