Posting Guidelines for comp.lang.perl.misc ($Revision: 1.9 $)
    This newsgroup, commonly called clpmisc, is a technical newsgroup
    intended to be used for discussion of Perl related issues (except job
    postings), whether it be comments or questions.

    As you would expect, clpmisc discussions are usually very technical in
    nature and there are conventions for conduct in technical newsgroups
    going somewhat beyond those in non-technical newsgroups.

    The article at:

        http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

    describes how to get answers from technical people in general.

    This article describes things that you should, and should not, do to
    increase your chances of getting an answer to your Perl question. It is
    available in POD, HTML and plain text formats at:

     http://www.rehabitation.com/clpmisc.shtml

    For more information about netiquette in general, see the "Netiquette
    Guidelines" at:

     http://andrew2.andrew.cmu.edu/rfc/rfc1855.html

    A note to newsgroup "regulars":

       Do not use these guidelines as a "license to flame" or other
       meanness. It is possible that a poster is unaware of things
       discussed here.  Give them the benefit of the doubt, and just
       help them learn how to post, rather than assume that they do
       know and are being the "bad kind" of Lazy.

    A note about technical terms used here:

       In this document, we use words like "must" and "should" as
       they're used in technical conversation (such as you will
       encounter in this newsgroup). When we say that you *must* do
       something, we mean that if you don't do that something, then
       it's unlikely that you will benefit much from this group.
       We're not bossing you around; we're making the point without
       lots of words.

    Do *NOT* send email to the maintainer of these guidelines. It will be
    discarded unread. The guidelines belong to the newsgroup so all
    discussion should appear in the newsgroup. I am just the secretary that
    writes down the consensus of the group.

Before posting to comp.lang.perl.misc
  Must
    This section describes things that you *must* do before posting to
    clpmisc, in order to maximize your chances of getting meaningful replies
    to your inquiry and to avoid getting flamed for being lazy and trying to
    have others do your work.

    The perl distribution includes documentation that is copied to your hard
    drive when you install perl. Also installed is a program for looking
    things up in that (and other) documentation named 'perldoc'.

    You should either find out where the docs got installed on your system,
    or use perldoc to find them for you. Type "perldoc perldoc" to learn how
    to use perldoc itself. Type "perldoc perl" to start reading Perl's
    standard documentation.

    Check the Perl Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
        Checking the FAQ before posting is required in Big 8 newsgroups in
        general, there is nothing clpmisc-specific about this requirement.
        You are expected to do this in nearly all newsgroups.

        You can use the "-q" switch with perldoc to do a word search of the
        questions in the Perl FAQs.

    Check the other standard Perl docs (*.pod)
        The perl distribution comes with much more documentation than is
        available for most other newsgroups, so in clpmisc you should also
        see if you can find an answer in the other (non-FAQ) standard docs
        before posting.

    It is *not* required, or even expected, that you actually *read* all of
    Perl's standard docs, only that you spend a few minutes searching them
    before posting.

    Try doing a word-search in the standard docs for some words/phrases
    taken from your problem statement or from your very carefully worded
    "Subject:" header.

  Really Really Should
    This section describes things that you *really should* do before posting
    to clpmisc.

    Lurk for a while before posting
        This is very important and expected in all newsgroups. Lurking means
        to monitor a newsgroup for a period to become familiar with local
        customs. Each newsgroup has specific customs and rituals. Knowing
        these before you participate will help avoid embarrassing social
        situations. Consider yourself to be a foreigner at first!

    Search a Usenet archive
        There are tens of thousands of Perl programmers. It is very likely
        that your question has already been asked (and answered). See if you
        can find where it has already been answered.

        One such searchable archive is:

         http://groups.google.com/advanced_search

  If You Like
    This section describes things that you *can* do before posting to
    clpmisc.

    Check Other Resources
        You may want to check in books or on web sites to see if you can
        find the answer to your question.

        But you need to consider the source of such information: there are a
        lot of very poor Perl books and web sites, and several good ones
        too, of course.

Posting to comp.lang.perl.misc
    There can be 200 messages in clpmisc in a single day. Nobody is going to
    read every article. They must decide somehow which articles they are
    going to read, and which they will skip.

    Your post is in competition with 199 other posts. You need to "win"
    before a person who can help you will even read your question.

    These sections describe how you can help keep your article from being
    one of the "skipped" ones.

  Is there a better place to ask your question?
    Question should be about Perl, not about the application area
        It can be difficult to separate out where your problem really is,
        but you should make a conscious effort to post to the most
        applicable newsgroup. That is, after all, where you are the most
        likely to find the people who know how to answer your question.

        Being able to "partition" a problem is an essential skill for
        effectively troubleshooting programming problems. If you don't get
        that right, you end up looking for answers in the wrong places.

        It should be understood that you may not know that the root of your
        problem is not Perl-related (the two most frequent ones are CGI and
        Operating System related), so off-topic postings will happen from
        time to time. Be gracious when someone helps you find a better place
        to ask your question by pointing you to a more applicable newsgroup.

  How to participate (post) in the clpmisc community
    Carefully choose the contents of your Subject header
        You have 40 precious characters of Subject to win out and be one of
        the posts that gets read. Don't waste them. Take care while
        composing them, they are the key that opens the door to getting an
        answer.

        Spend them indicating what aspect of Perl others will find if they
        should decide to read your article.

        Do not spend them indicating "experience level" (guru, newbie...).

        Do not spend them pleading (please read, urgent, help!...).

        Do not spend them on non-Subjects (Perl question, one-word
        Subject...)

        For more information on choosing a Subject see "Choosing Good
        Subject Lines":

         http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/D/DM/DMR/subjects.post

        Part of the beauty of newsgroup dynamics, is that you can contribute
        to the community with your very first post! If your choice of
        Subject leads a fellow Perler to find the thread you are starting,
        then even asking a question helps us all.

    Use an effective followup style
        When composing a followup, quote only enough text to establish the
        context for the comments that you will add. Always indicate who
        wrote the quoted material. Never quote an entire article. Never
        quote a .signature (unless that is what you are commenting on).

        Intersperse your comments *following* each section of quoted text to
        which they relate. Unappreciated followup styles are referred to as
        "top-posting", "Jeopardy" (because the answer comes before the
        question), or "TOFU" (Text Over, Fullquote Under).

Posting Guidelines for comp.lang.perl.misc ($Revision: 1.9 $)
    This newsgroup, commonly called clpmisc, is a technical newsgroup
    intended to be used for discussion of Perl related issues (except job
    postings), whether it be comments or questions.

    As you would expect, clpmisc discussions are usually very technical in
    nature and there are conventions for conduct in technical newsgroups
    going somewhat beyond those in non-technical newsgroups.

    The article at:

        http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

    describes how to get answers from technical people in general.

    This article describes things that you should, and should not, do to
    increase your chances of getting an answer to your Perl question. It is
    available in POD, HTML and plain text formats at:

     http://www.rehabitation.com/clpmisc.shtml

    For more information about netiquette in general, see the "Netiquette
    Guidelines" at:

     http://andrew2.andrew.cmu.edu/rfc/rfc1855.html

    A note to newsgroup "regulars":

       Do not use these guidelines as a "license to flame" or other
       meanness. It is possible that a poster is unaware of things
       discussed here.  Give them the benefit of the doubt, and just
       help them learn how to post, rather than assume that they do
       know and are being the "bad kind" of Lazy.

    A note about technical terms used here:

       In this document, we use words like "must" and "should" as
       they're used in technical conversation (such as you will
       encounter in this newsgroup). When we say that you *must* do
       something, we mean that if you don't do that something, then
       it's unlikely that you will benefit much from this group.
       We're not bossing you around; we're making the point without
       lots of words.

    Do *NOT* send email to the maintainer of these guidelines. It will be
    discarded unread. The guidelines belong to the newsgroup so all
    discussion should appear in the newsgroup. I am just the secretary that
    writes down the consensus of the group.

Before posting to comp.lang.perl.misc
  Must
    This section describes things that you *must* do before posting to
    clpmisc, in order to maximize your chances of getting meaningful replies
    to your inquiry and to avoid getting flamed for being lazy and trying to
    have others do your work.

    The perl distribution includes documentation that is copied to your hard
    drive when you install perl. Also installed is a program for looking
    things up in that (and other) documentation named 'perldoc'.

    You should either find out where the docs got installed on your system,
    or use perldoc to find them for you. Type "perldoc perldoc" to learn how
    to use perldoc itself. Type "perldoc perl" to start reading Perl's
    standard documentation.

    Check the Perl Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
        Checking the FAQ before posting is required in Big 8 newsgroups in
        general, there is nothing clpmisc-specific about this requirement.
        You are expected to do this in nearly all newsgroups.

        You can use the "-q" switch with perldoc to do a word search of the
        questions in the Perl FAQs.

    Check the other standard Perl docs (*.pod)
        The perl distribution comes with much more documentation than is
        available for most other newsgroups, so in clpmisc you should also
        see if you can find an answer in the other (non-FAQ) standard docs
        before posting.

    It is *not* required, or even expected, that you actually *read* all of
    Perl's standard docs, only that you spend a few minutes searching them
    before posting.

    Try doing a word-search in the standard docs for some words/phrases
    taken from your problem statement or from your very carefully worded
    "Subject:" header.

  Really Really Should
    This section describes things that you *really should* do before posting
    to clpmisc.

    Lurk for a while before posting
        This is very important and expected in all newsgroups. Lurking means
        to monitor a newsgroup for a period to become familiar with local
        customs. Each newsgroup has specific customs and rituals. Knowing
        these before you participate will help avoid embarrassing social
        situations. Consider yourself to be a foreigner at first!

    Search a Usenet archive
        There are tens of thousands of Perl programmers. It is very likely
        that your question has already been asked (and answered). See if you
        can find where it has already been answered.

        One such searchable archive is:

         http://groups.google.com/advanced_search

  If You Like
    This section describes things that you *can* do before posting to
    clpmisc.

    Check Other Resources
        You may want to check in books or on web sites to see if you can
        find the answer to your question.

        But you need to consider the source of such information: there are a
        lot of very poor Perl books and web sites, and several good ones
        too, of course.

Posting to comp.lang.perl.misc
    There can be 200 messages in clpmisc in a single day. Nobody is going to
    read every article. They must decide somehow which articles they are
    going to read, and which they will skip.

    Your post is in competition with 199 other posts. You need to "win"
    before a person who can help you will even read your question.

    These sections describe how you can help keep your article from being
    one of the "skipped" ones.

  Is there a better place to ask your question?
    Question should be about Perl, not about the application area
        It can be difficult to separate out where your problem really is,
        but you should make a conscious effort to post to the most
        applicable newsgroup. That is, after all, where you are the most
        likely to find the people who know how to answer your question.

        Being able to "partition" a problem is an essential skill for
        effectively troubleshooting programming problems. If you don't get
        that right, you end up looking for answers in the wrong places.

        It should be understood that you may not know that the root of your
        problem is not Perl-related (the two most frequent ones are CGI and
        Operating System related), so off-topic postings will happen from
        time to time. Be gracious when someone helps you find a better place
        to ask your question by pointing you to a more applicable newsgroup.

  How to participate (post) in the clpmisc community
    Carefully choose the contents of your Subject header
        You have 40 precious characters of Subject to win out and be one of
        the posts that gets read. Don't waste them. Take care while
        composing them, they are the key that opens the door to getting an
        answer.

        Spend them indicating what aspect of Perl others will find if they
        should decide to read your article.

        Do not spend them indicating "experience level" (guru, newbie...).

        Do not spend them pleading (please read, urgent, help!...).

        Do not spend them on non-Subjects (Perl question, one-word
        Subject...)

        For more information on choosing a Subject see "Choosing Good
        Subject Lines":

         http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/D/DM/DMR/subjects.post

        Part of the beauty of newsgroup dynamics, is that you can contribute
        to the community with your very first post! If your choice of
        Subject leads a fellow Perler to find the thread you are starting,
        then even asking a question helps us all.

    Use an effective followup style
        When composing a followup, quote only enough text to establish the
        context for the comments that you will add. Always indicate who
        wrote the quoted material. Never quote an entire article. Never
        quote a .signature (unless that is what you are commenting on).

        Intersperse your comments *following* each section of quoted text to
        which they relate. Unappreciated followup styles are referred to as
        "top-posting", "Jeopardy" (because the answer comes before the
        question), or "TOFU" (Text Over, Fullquote Under).

Posting Guidelines for comp.lang.perl.misc ($Revision: 1.9 $)
    This newsgroup, commonly called clpmisc, is a technical newsgroup
    intended to be used for discussion of Perl related issues (except job
    postings), whether it be comments or questions.

    As you would expect, clpmisc discussions are usually very technical in
    nature and there are conventions for conduct in technical newsgroups
    going somewhat beyond those in non-technical newsgroups.

    The article at:

        http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

    describes how to get answers from technical people in general.

    This article describes things that you should, and should not, do to
    increase your chances of getting an answer to your Perl question. It is
    available in POD, HTML and plain text formats at:

     http://www.rehabitation.com/clpmisc.shtml

    For more information about netiquette in general, see the "Netiquette
    Guidelines" at:

     http://andrew2.andrew.cmu.edu/rfc/rfc1855.html

    A note to newsgroup "regulars":

       Do not use these guidelines as a "license to flame" or other
       meanness. It is possible that a poster is unaware of things
       discussed here.  Give them the benefit of the doubt, and just
       help them learn how to post, rather than assume that they do
       know and are being the "bad kind" of Lazy.

    A note about technical terms used here:

       In this document, we use words like "must" and "should" as
       they're used in technical conversation (such as you will
       encounter in this newsgroup). When we say that you *must* do
       something, we mean that if you don't do that something, then
       it's unlikely that you will benefit much from this group.
       We're not bossing you around; we're making the point without
       lots of words.

    Do *NOT* send email to the maintainer of these guidelines. It will be
    discarded unread. The guidelines belong to the newsgroup so all
    discussion should appear in the newsgroup. I am just the secretary that
    writes down the consensus of the group.

Before posting to comp.lang.perl.misc
  Must
    This section describes things that you *must* do before posting to
    clpmisc, in order to maximize your chances of getting meaningful replies
    to your inquiry and to avoid getting flamed for being lazy and trying to
    have others do your work.

    The perl distribution includes documentation that is copied to your hard
    drive when you install perl. Also installed is a program for looking
    things up in that (and other) documentation named 'perldoc'.

    You should either find out where the docs got installed on your system,
    or use perldoc to find them for you. Type "perldoc perldoc" to learn how
    to use perldoc itself. Type "perldoc perl" to start reading Perl's
    standard documentation.

    Check the Perl Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
        Checking the FAQ before posting is required in Big 8 newsgroups in
        general, there is nothing clpmisc-specific about this requirement.
        You are expected to do this in nearly all newsgroups.

        You can use the "-q" switch with perldoc to do a word search of the
        questions in the Perl FAQs.

    Check the other standard Perl docs (*.pod)
        The perl distribution comes with much more documentation than is
        available for most other newsgroups, so in clpmisc you should also
        see if you can find an answer in the other (non-FAQ) standard docs
        before posting.

    It is *not* required, or even expected, that you actually *read* all of
    Perl's standard docs, only that you spend a few minutes searching them
    before posting.

    Try doing a word-search in the standard docs for some words/phrases
    taken from your problem statement or from your very carefully worded
    "Subject:" header.

  Really Really Should
    This section describes things that you *really should* do before posting
    to clpmisc.

    Lurk for a while before posting
        This is very important and expected in all newsgroups. Lurking means
        to monitor a newsgroup for a period to become familiar with local
        customs. Each newsgroup has specific customs and rituals. Knowing
        these before you participate will help avoid embarrassing social
        situations. Consider yourself to be a foreigner at first!

    Search a Usenet archive
        There are tens of thousands of Perl programmers. It is very likely
        that your question has already been asked (and answered). See if you
        can find where it has already been answered.

        One such searchable archive is:

         http://groups.google.com/advanced_search

  If You Like
    This section describes things that you *can* do before posting to
    clpmisc.

    Check Other Resources
        You may want to check in books or on web sites to see if you can
        find the answer to your question.

        But you need to consider the source of such information: there are a
        lot of very poor Perl books and web sites, and several good ones
        too, of course.

Posting to comp.lang.perl.misc
    There can be 200 messages in clpmisc in a single day. Nobody is going to
    read every article. They must decide somehow which articles they are
    going to read, and which they will skip.

    Your post is in competition with 199 other posts. You need to "win"
    before a person who can help you will even read your question.

    These sections describe how you can help keep your article from being
    one of the "skipped" ones.

  Is there a better place to ask your question?
    Question should be about Perl, not about the application area
        It can be difficult to separate out where your problem really is,
        but you should make a conscious effort to post to the most
        applicable newsgroup. That is, after all, where you are the most
        likely to find the people who know how to answer your question.

        Being able to "partition" a problem is an essential skill for
        effectively troubleshooting programming problems. If you don't get
        that right, you end up looking for answers in the wrong places.

        It should be understood that you may not know that the root of your
        problem is not Perl-related (the two most frequent ones are CGI and
        Operating System related), so off-topic postings will happen from
        time to time. Be gracious when someone helps you find a better place
        to ask your question by pointing you to a more applicable newsgroup.

  How to participate (post) in the clpmisc community
    Carefully choose the contents of your Subject header
        You have 40 precious characters of Subject to win out and be one of
        the posts that gets read. Don't waste them. Take care while
        composing them, they are the key that opens the door to getting an
        answer.

        Spend them indicating what aspect of Perl others will find if they
        should decide to read your article.

        Do not spend them indicating "experience level" (guru, newbie...).

        Do not spend them pleading (please read, urgent, help!...).

        Do not spend them on non-Subjects (Perl question, one-word
        Subject...)

        For more information on choosing a Subject see "Choosing Good
        Subject Lines":

         http://www.cpan.org/authors/id/D/DM/DMR/subjects.post

        Part of the beauty of newsgroup dynamics, is that you can contribute
        to the community with your very first post! If your choice of
        Subject leads a fellow Perler to find the thread you are starting,
        then even asking a question helps us all.

    Use an effective followup style
        When composing a followup, quote only enough text to establish the
        context for the comments that you will add. Always indicate who
        wrote the quoted material. Never quote an entire article. Never
        quote a .signature (unless that is what you are commenting on).

        Intersperse your comments *following* each section of quoted text to
        which they relate. Unappreciated followup styles are referred to as
        "top-posting", "Jeopardy" (because the answer comes before the
        question), or "TOFU" (Text Over, Fullquote Under).