X-Git-Url: http://www.git.stargrave.org/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=README;h=646caa9f265d89897f5f0254fb39ada2491041b1;hb=095880dfd8a5df380c5a5ce155c779a22a9765dc;hp=71643dcc05d076de6f6732e30995ba1039961ecd;hpb=3e96cf129ba5fc2834b691314c504aa363fd5cf4;p=public-inbox.git diff --git a/README b/README index 71643dcc..646caa9f 100644 --- a/README +++ b/README @@ -1,68 +1,79 @@ -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. @@ -71,18 +82,18 @@ Contact 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, @@ -99,8 +110,10 @@ You can subscribe via ssoma(1), LISTNAME is a name of your choosing: # 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 --------- @@ -118,8 +131,8 @@ in ssoma. 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