-public-inbox - shared mailboxes via git for public discussion
--------------------------------------------------------------
+public-inbox - an "archives first" approach to mailing lists
+------------------------------------------------------------
+public-inbox implements the sharing of an email inbox via git to
+complement or replace traditional mailing lists.
-public-inbox implements the sharing of an email inbox to complement or
-replace traditional mailing lists for public discussion. public-inbox
-is primarily intended as a Free, distributed (but not yet decentralized)
-public communications tool for users and developers of Free and Open
-Source Software. public-inbox should be easy-to-deploy and manage;
-encouraging software projects to run their own instances with minimal
-overhead.
+public-inbox spawned around three main ideas:
+
+* Publically accessible and archived communication is essential to
+ Free and Open Source development.
+* Contributing to Free and Open Source projects should not require the
+ use of non-Free/non-Open Source services or software.
+* Graphical user interfaces should not be required for text-based
+ communication.
+
+public-inbox aims to be easy-to-deploy and manage; encouraging projects
+to run their own instances with minimal overhead.
+
+Features
+--------
+* anybody may participate via plain-text email
+* stores email in git, readers have a complete archive of the inbox
+* Atom feed allows casual readers to follow via feed reader
+* Mail user-agent (MUA) users may use Maildir, mbox(5) and/or IMAP locally
+* uses only well-documented and easy-to-implement data formats
+
+Try it out now, see http://try.public-inbox.org/
Implementation
--------------
public-inbox uses ssoma[1], Some Sort Of Mail Archiver which implements
no policy of its own. By exposing an inbox via git, readers may follow
-the mailing list without subscribing and have easy access to historical
+the inbox without subscribing via SMTP and have easy access to old
messages.
-Traditional mailing lists use the "push" model. List servers deliver
-content via SMTP to other mail servers used by readers of the mailing
-list. For readers, this requires commitment to subscribe to the list
-and extra effort to unsubscribe. Readers may also have difficulty
-following discussions which started before they joined if archives do
-not expose Message-Id headers for responses. For list server admins,
-this also burdens them with bounce/failure messages for bad/invalid
-addresses.
+Traditional mailing lists use the "push" model. For readers, this
+requires commitment to subscribe and effort to unsubscribe. New readers
+may also have difficulty following existing discussions if archives do
+not expose Message-ID headers for responses. List server admins may be
+burdened with delivery failures.
public-inbox uses the "pull" model. Readers import mail into an mbox,
-Maildir, or IMAP folder from the git repositories periodically. If a
-reader loses interest, they simply stop syncing. Since ssoma uses git,
-mirrors are easy-to-setup, and lists are easy-to-relocate to different
-mail addresses without losing/splitting archives. Readers only need
-to install ssoma, a command-line tool[1] currently implemented in Perl.
+Maildir, or IMAP folder from git repositories periodically. If a reader
+loses interest, they simply stop syncing. Since we use git, mirrors are
+easy-to-setup, and lists are easy-to-relocate to different mail
+addresses without losing/splitting archives. Dedicated readers only
+need to install ssoma, a command-line tool[1] currently implemented in
+Perl.
-Readers may also follow the list via Atom feed.
+Casual readers may also follow the list via Atom feed or web archives.
-[1] http://ssoma.public-inbox.org/
+_Anybody_ may also setup a delivery-only mailing list server to replay
+a public-inbox git archive to subscribers via SMTP.
-Features
---------
-* stores email in git, so readers have a full history of the mailing list
-* Atom feed allows casual readers to follow via feed reader
-* Mail user-agent (MUA) users may use Maildir, mbox(5) and/or IMAP locally
-* uses only well-documented and easy-to-implement data formats
+[1] http://ssoma.public-inbox.org/
Requirements (Atom, read-only client)
-------------------------------------
* any feed reader capable of following Atom feeds
-Requirements (server MDA)
--------------------------
-* git
-* MTA - postfix is recommended
-* Perl and several modules:
- - Email::Filter
- - XML::Atom::SimpleFeed
-* Ssoma - currently a Perl module
-* SpamAssassin (optional, recommended)
-* any HTTP server (optional, for serving Atom feed)
+Any basic web browser will do for the HTML archives.
+
+Requirements (participant)
+--------------------------
+* ssoma - http://ssoma.public-inbox.org/
+* any MUA which may send text-only emails ("git send-email" works!)
+* participants do not need to install public-inbox, only server admins
+
+Requirements (server)
+---------------------
+See http://public-inbox.org/INSTALL.html
Hacking
-------
Source code is available via git:
- git clone git://bogomips.org/public-inbox
+ git clone git://80x24.org/public-inbox
See below for contact info.
We are happy to see feedback of all types via plain-text email.
public-inbox discussion is self-hosting on public-inbox.org
Please send comments, user/developer discussion, patches, bug reports,
-and pull requests to our public-inbox.org address at:
+and pull requests to our public-inbox address at:
- public-inbox@public-inbox.org
+ meta@public-inbox.org
Please Cc: all recipients when replying as we do not require
subscription. This also makes it easier to rope in folks of
-tangentially related projects we depend on (e.g. git developers on
-git@vger.kernel.org).
+tangentially related projects we depend on (e.g. git developers
+on git@vger.kernel.org).
-You can subscribe via ssoma(1), LISTNAME is a name of your choosing:
+You may subscribe via ssoma(1), LISTNAME is a name of your choosing:
- URL=git://git.public-inbox.org/public-inbox
+ URL=git://public-inbox.org/meta
LISTNAME=public-inbox
# to initialize a maildir (this may be a new or existing maildir,
# your MUA may modify and delete messages from the maildir or mbox,
# this does not affect ssoma functionality at all
- # to sync all your ssoma subscriptions
- ssoma sync
+ # to sync all your ssoma subscriptions via cronjob
+ ssoma sync --cron
+
+HTML inbox archives are available: http://public-inbox.org/meta/
Anti-Spam
---------
Content Filtering
-----------------
To discourage phishing, web bugs (tracking), viruses and other nuisances,
-only plain-text content is allowed by default and non-text content is
-stripped. This saves I/O bandwidth and storage, which is important as
+only plain-text content is allowed and non-text content is stripped.
+This saves I/O bandwidth and storage, which is important as
entire mail archives are shared between clients.
As of the 2010s, successful online social networks and forums are the