X-Git-Url: http://www.git.stargrave.org/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=README;h=89e8521fa38463ae4894a839e3ce1194ea61457f;hb=e2ed3be62fbb53e16a9248a408a7a069a05842e6;hp=d1c1776618e40265241af663d1836d4c6eafba8a;hpb=351b08b58a6ce4bc6c2f680f9cdda029ffc4fc90;p=public-inbox.git diff --git a/README b/README index d1c17766..89e8521f 100644 --- a/README +++ b/README @@ -1,71 +1,82 @@ -public-inbox - shared mailboxes via git for public discussion -------------------------------------------------------------- - -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 - 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. Readers may +subscribe to a mailing list using ssoma[1] (a git-wrapper) to +import email from a git repository into an IMAP folder, Maildir, +or mbox. Readers may also read via Atom feeds and HTML archives. + +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. 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/README +[1] http://ssoma.public-inbox.org/ Features -------- -* anybody may participate via plain-text email to the public address -* stores email in git, readers have a full archive of the mailing list +* 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/ + 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/INSTALL +* 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 INSTALL +See http://public-inbox.org/INSTALL 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. @@ -83,9 +94,9 @@ 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 + URL=git://public-inbox.org/meta LISTNAME=public-inbox # to initialize a maildir (this may be a new or existing maildir, @@ -102,8 +113,10 @@ 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 --------- @@ -131,7 +144,7 @@ aims to preserve the focus on content, and not presentation. Copyright --------- -Copyright 2013, Eric Wong and all contributors. +Copyright 2013-2015 all contributors License: AGPLv3 or later This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify