-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 is an "archives first" approach to mailing lists.
-It implements the sharing of an email inbox to complement or replace
-traditional mailing lists. public-inbox is primarily intended as a
-Free, distributed 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
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 via SMTP and have easy access to
-old messages.
+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. New readers may also have difficulty
-following existing discussions if archives do not expose Message-Id
-headers for responses. List server admins are also burdened with
-occasional bounce messages.
+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 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. Dedicated readers
-only need to install ssoma, a command-line tool[1] currently implemented
-in Perl.
+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.
Casual readers may also follow the list via Atom feed or web archives.
_Anybody_ may also setup a delivery-only mailing list server to replay
a public-inbox git archive to subscribers via SMTP.
-[1] http://ssoma.public-inbox.org/
-
-Features
---------
-* anybody may participate by emailing the public address
-* 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/README
Requirements (Atom, read-only client)
-------------------------------------
* any feed reader capable of following Atom feeds
+Any basic web browser will do for the HTML archives.
+
Requirements (participant)
--------------------------
-* ssoma - http://ssoma.public-inbox.org/
+* ssoma - http://ssoma.public-inbox.org/INSTALL
* 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 MDA)
--------------------------
-* git
-* MTA - postfix is recommended
-* Perl and several modules:
- - Email::Filter
- - XML::Atom::SimpleFeed
-* ssoma - http://ssoma.public-inbox.org/
-* SpamAssassin (optional, recommended)
-* CGI-capable HTTP server (optional, recommended for Atom feed and archives)
+Requirements (server)
+---------------------
+See INSTALL
Hacking
-------
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:
- bugs@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).
-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
LISTNAME=public-inbox