The Mailing List

The Gnumeric project maintains a mailing list which is a system by which people can send one email which gets distributed to everyone who has signed up to read these emails. Please understand that this list is used for serious discussions about developing this spreadsheet further. Questions from users are generally answered when posted to this list but simple questions which are answered in the manual may generate the simple answer, "Please read the manual." Also, developers volunteer any time they take to answer your questions so please be polite.

The best way to use this resource is first to read the archives for the past few months to see if any of the subjects look similar to the issue which interests you. It may be that your question has just been asked by someone else and a good answer has been posted. To access the archives, use a web browser to go to the mailing list web page at http://www.gnome.org/ and then ...

If none of the emails recently posted to the mailing list address your issue, if you would like clarification to an earlier answer, or if you simply want to thank the developers, you are welcome to send an email of your own to the list. This simply requires writing an email and sending it to

gnumeric-list@gnome.org

and your posting will eventually get sent to everyone who is subscribed to the list. Please select the subject of your email carefully to make it easy for everyone to see if they are interested in reading and possibly answering your message. For example, the subject "I need help" may be true but is ineffective; a better subject would be "Help needed with statistical regression". Please make it easy for others to give you help.

After you have sent your email, there may be an initial delay while the moderator of the list, a person who acts as editor, reviews your email to see if it is relevant to the discussion. This step is required to limit the junk email that gets sent out to everyone.

Very rarely an email might automatically be discarded if it appeared to be a mass junk mailing. If, after a few days, your email does not appear in the archives and you don't get any response, then re-send your email to the list omitting any signatures or other material that might appear to be commercial solicitation. A simple, text message is the least likely to be discarded by these automatic tools.

Once your email is sent to everyone on the list, someone may answer you. They may choose to answer you directly, to post a response to the list, or to do both. In the hours and days after posting, you can check to see if you received email and check the list archives, as is explained above, to see if someone answered there.

The Mailing List

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