Mailing List Posting Guidelines
There are two node mailing lists, with different purposes.
As of May 3, 2014, nodejs is a moderated group. See https://gist.github.com/othiym23/9886289#file-moderation-policy-md for the current moderation policy, which is a slightly tweaked version of what's on this page.
For people and things about node. Including but not limited to:
- Release announcements for Node.js programs.
- Community events, meetups, drinkups, workups, hack nights, conferences, and other social events.
- Discussions of Node.js community guidelines and policies
- JavaScript language discussions/questions/suggestions.
- Discussions of other SSJS platforms.
- Questions about specific node programs. (Though, it's worth checking if they have their own mailing list. Express, socket.io, npm, and many others have their own dedicated lists and issue trackers, where you'll generally get faster help.)
- "Help, I'm new to JS and need to know why this code doesn't work." Note that this is very different from "Please do my homework for me"! General rules of techie politeness apply. Be easy to help, and you'll get more help.
- What's awesome, who's hot, who's not, who just had a baby, a funny video on youtube, philosophy, politics, sports, or any other (valuable!) primate-bonding subjects that you as a member of the node.js community are interested in and feel like sharing with others in the community. It's not reddit, and it should be at least somewhat node-related to be shared on the list, but the bar is pretty low.
nodejs-dev http://groups.google.com/group/nodejs-dev
This list is no longer used, it's kept for archival purposes. Design ideas and node core bugs can be posted on the github issues page.
Here are some things that do not belong on the list:
Please post node-related job openings at http://jobs.nodejs.org/
Job openings for node-related positions should not be posted to either mailing list. For a while, this was encouraged, because it benefitted the community to have some outlet for these things, and there was no job board. However, they seem to cause a lot of clutter, and invite flame wars as to what "really" counts as a "node job".
Posting on the job board costs money. The reason for this is to weed out people who are not serious about their intent to hire a node developer to work on node. Node is a popular buzzword, and spam is an unfortunate side effect of that.
The price isn't intended to be exorbitant. If the price is a significant obstacle to you for some reason (for example, if you are an unfunded self-bootstrapped startup looking for a partner), then please contact us off-list and we'll try to work something out. The last thing anyone wants is to prevent the node ecosystem from growing.
If someone offends or insults you on-list, it's probably inadvertent. Most people try to be nice most of the time, or at least think they are. Take it up with them off-list. That kind of drama is not interesting to other users.
This also covers generally mean-spirited comments about other platforms, software programs, or events, as well as people. Complaining about other stuff doesn't help node. We get nowhere by pushing other open source software projects down.
In fact, no complaining of any sort is allowed at all on the list, because it's never the right place for it, and no one wants to hear it.
Didn't have a good time at a conference, or the videos are taking a long time to be released? Email the organizer off-list.
Don't think promises are a good idea? Just don't use them. But what if someone asks (on-list) if you think promises are a good idea!? (Maybe they're just curious.) Reply that you don't use them, and explain the pro's and con's, respectfully, like an adult.
Got a problem with a module that you do use? Post a bug, or email the author. Got a problem with node itself? We got you covered. Keep it off the list.
Pretend that your best friend or dear old auntie made that thing you're annoyed with. Does it still seem like a nice idea to tear it down in a public forum?
If you're not sure whether or not a given sentiment counts as "complaining", assume that it does, and figure out if there's something better you can do with that opinion. Perhaps there's a better place to discuss it (and perhaps "alone with your thoughts" is the perfect place to do so).
If you really need to complain, do it productively, like a grownup, off-list, with the person who you actually have a problem with. If you want to whine like a child in unproductive ways about how the free services of the world are not satisfying your every need, then that's what Hacker News is for. The Node community is different. We don't want to hear it.
We don't care about losing a few people who spew bad energy. We care about losing all the newcomers who see a bad-energy-geyser, and decide that Node is not a friendly place.
Those who violate the "no kvetching" rule will be removed from the list swiftly, permanently, and without recourse or discussion.
If someone posts something that you think doesn't belong in the place they posted it, please kindly direct them to this page, and trust that they'll read it and try to follow it.
If you think this page is unclear or unhelpful, then let's discuss that on the nodejs list, without making it about a specific user, who will probably end up feeling guilty and picked on, and almost certainly had the best intentions. We need to encourage our community to grow, and we can't do that by berating new people.
If someone is repeatedly breaking these rules, chances are that a moderator is just not noticing because it tends to be a rather busy list, and it's hard to keep up with every thread. Email [email protected] with your concerns.
Don't reply to spam, not even to tell the spammer to die, not even in a fire.
