niso-sts-list – Open Forum on the Standards Tag Suite

The complete and searchable niso-sts-list archive is available at
http://www.biglist.com/lists/niso-sts-list/archives/

This is the Web page of niso-sts-list, the open forum for the discussion of NISO STS – the Standards Tag Suite.

Introduction

niso-sts-list hosts discussion on: the NISO Standards Tag Suite itself; STS applications, implementations, and customizations; and STS user questions. niso-sts-list is open to everyone: users and developers, experts, and novices alike. There is no restriction to what may be posted on niso-sts-list provided it is directly related to the STS. We ask that commercial announcements on niso-sts-list be directly related to the STS, be short, and that their subject lines start with [ANN].

niso-sts-list is not sponsored, endorsed, or owned by NISO, and it has no official standing with any standards agency or other organization responsible for the maintenance or promulgation of the Standards Tag Suite. However, niso-sts-list was established with the encouragement of members of the NISO Standards Tag Suite committee and members of NISO staff, and members of the committees are among the subscribers to the list.

Only subscribers can post to niso-sts-list, but since the goal is to increase the level of knowledge about the STS and uses of the STS, niso-sts-list is being archived for everybody to view. The topics discussed on niso-sts-list change as new ideas arise or existing problems are dealt with, but the archive contains all of the ideas and solutions that have been discussed on the list.

niso-sts-list is provided by Mulberry Technologies, Inc., as a service to the Standards Tag Suite user community.

Subscribing and Unsubscribing

To subscribe to niso-sts-list, fill out the form at https://www.mulberrytech.com/lists/subscribe-unsubscribe.html.
To unsubscribe from the list, use the same form at https://www.mulberrytech.com/lists/subscribe-unsubscribe.html or click on the “EasyUnsubscribe” link at the bottom of any message you receive from the list.
To subscribe to the digest, use the form at https://www.mulberrytech.com/lists/subscribe-unsubscribe.html, fill out the forms that are presented, click on the link in the emailed response message, which will take you to an online form in which you can confirm your subscription, and, after your subscription is successful, select “My Settings” and click the box beside “Daily Digests”.

Posting Guidelines

Only subscribers can post to niso-sts-list, and only from the exact address they used when they subscribed.

There is no restriction on what may be posted to niso-sts-list provided it is related to STS. Items concerning XML but without a direct connection to STS should be posted to an XML-related list instead of to niso-sts-list.

Do not begin your subject line with “help” or “subscribe” since the list software will bounce the message because it looks like it is an administrative request. Similarly, expect messages to be delayed if they have subject lines that contain these or similar words that are often used in administrative requests (“remove”, “unsubscribe”, “delete”). They will be sent to the list owner/moderator, who will approve them for posting, a process that takes time.

It is best to start a new message for a new thread. Do not start a new thread by replying to an unrelated message and just changing the subject line, since the header of your message will contain references to the previous message and your new message will appear in the archive as one of the replies to the original message.

Good subject lines – those that describe the subject matter of your message – not only increase the chances that you will receive answers to questions or responses to comments, but also make your message and any replies to it discoverable in the list archive.

Subscribers to the digest should reply to messages by:

creating a new email message
addressing the message to: <[email protected]>
copying the subject line of the message or thread to which you are responding into your subject line
copying only the text to which you are responding into your message

Both subscribers to the full list and subscribers to the list digest should post their messages to [email protected]; the messages will be received by both subscribers to the list and subscribers to the digest.

Before You Post ... Do Your Homework

Check that your question isn’t already answered in the niso-sts-list archive at http://www.biglist.com/lists/niso-sts-list/archives/.

In Your Posting ...

Name the tag set and version you are using, for example, tell us that you are using “Interchange MathML3” or “Extended MathML2”. This information is may be necessary to diagnose a problem exactly, and always helps respondents give good advice.

If you are replying to a post, trim the quoted message to just the parts to which you are replying.

In addition to following simple rules of net etiquette and common sense, you will improve the chances that you will receive prompt and helpful responses by:

Asking questions specific enough that answers are possible. Describe what you are trying to do and how you approached it, or what you are trying to communicate and what options you have already explored.
Illustrating your question with a demonstration of the problem. Well-composed questions frequently include a small XML sample, pointers to Tag Library pages, and a description of your need.

Use Informative Subject Lines

When posting to niso-sts-list, do not use uninformative subject lines like “Urgent”, “Question”, or “Newbie HELP!!!”, which don’t say anything about what your problem is. Instead, use a meaningful subject line that will make sense to the people whose help you are trying to get. It may even get a response from people who normally shy away from “beginner” questions.

Informative subject lines make the niso-sts-list archive more useful since people with the same problem will more easily find the relevant threads.

Do Not Cross-Post

Cross-posting to niso-sts-list and to another list is generally counter-productive. No list’s archive will contain the complete thread; cross-posts from non-subscribers continuing the thread will bounce; and niso-sts-list subscribers who are not also on the other list will only see part of the thread. Subscribers to both lists may see two copies of the message, annoying them as well.

Replies Go to the List

The reply address of niso-sts-list messages (and of digests) is [email protected] so REPLIES GO TO THE LIST BY DEFAULT. If you want to reply to just the author of a post, you should change the “To:” field in your reply.

Use Short Quotes of Previous Messages in Replies

Please do not quote entire messages just to add a few lines at the beginning or end. Instead, quote the parts to which you are directly replying or quote enough to establish the context.

Everybody on the list has already received the message that you are quoting, and anyone searching the archive will find your message and the previous message listed under the same thread.

Subscribers to the List will just ignore most of the quoted messages and move to the next post, but subscribers to niso-sts-list Digest will mostly have to page past the quoted messages to reach the next material which they are interested in reading.

Postings Must Be in Plain Text Only

Postings to niso-sts-list must be in plain text only. niso-sts-list does not allow HTML postings because many users cannot display them appropriately, and because they are unnecessarily large.

Attachments Are Banned

Since Mulberry’s mailing lists have in the past been unwittingly used for spreading viruses in email attachments, all email attachments are banned from niso-sts-list.

Tagged articles are XML files, and XML files are text files, so this does not affect the majority of posts to the list since you can include a file’s text in the body of your message. If you need to refer to a binary file such as a PDF file, you should put the file on a Web site or FTP site and include the file’s URL in your niso-sts-list post.

If you do include an attachment in your niso-sts-list post – even a HTML attachment – your message will bounce. (Note: if your email application automatically creates such attachments, or creates email with a mime type of multipart/alternative your posting to niso-sts-list will bounce. You must persuade your emailer to send plain text only in order to post to this list.)

No “TEST” Messages

Please DO NOT SEND TEST MESSAGES to see if your messages are getting through to this list. Simply wait until you have something substantive to say and send that to see if it goes through or not. By using a real message as your “test” message, you get the same information you would have gotten with a “test”, and you avoid sending clutter to the list subscribers. (Think about it: annoying the people you are about to ask for help is not the best strategy.)

Archives of niso-sts-list

Official List Archive

niso-sts-list messages are archived at http://www.biglist.com/lists/niso-sts-list/archives/.

Your Post Will Be Permanently Archived

Because it is a public resource created by and for the entire STS user community, we do not edit niso-sts-list. Therefore, it is the responsibility of list subscribers not to post anything to the list that they do not want publicly available, possibly for a very long time.

Postings in the list archives will be complete, including: all contents, examples, sample data, code or code fragments, and email header and footer contents. An automated process will obscure the domain portion of email addresses (the part after the @ sign) in the headers and footers of postings, but no guarantee is made that this process will be completely successful. Other than this, all postings will be archived in public as received.

Further, we at Mulberry could not, even if we wanted to, edit all of the unofficial archives of niso-sts-list. Several third-parties have created unofficial archives of other Mulberry lists, often without asking, or even informing, Mulberry, and we think it likely that they will also archive niso-sts-list. Postings to niso-sts-list will be included in an unknown and ever-changing variety of web publications. If you don’t want your questions/comments/answers in public view, don’t post them to niso-sts-list.

Third-party Archives of niso-sts-list

Third parties are welcome to create searchable or reference archives of niso-sts-list provided they adhere to the following guidelines:

The material is clearly labelled as being from niso-sts-list, with an acknowledgement of Mulberry’s role as provider of niso-sts-list.
There is a navigable pointer to the official list page at https://www.mulberrytech.com/JATS/niso-sts-list/ either on every posting or associated with the user interface such that it is visible with the postings.
List postings are unedited.
Either the entire archive of the list is provided, or there is a clearly stated method for selecting the subset of the list that is provided.

Mulberry does not provide third parties with help to create their archives, does not endorse particular third party archives, and has no control over the ways in which they present the material in their systems.

People or organizations that publish the contents of niso-sts-list without following the guidelines above are being very antisocial. Please bookmark either the official JASTS-List archive or one provided by a service that plays nicely in the community and shun those who do not give credit where credit is due.

The NISO STS Standard, and forms for comments on the Standard are available from the NISO STS Workroom http://www.niso.org/workrooms/sts/

NISO STS Supporting Information

Supporting information on NISO STS, including DTDs, XSDs, RNGs, and User Documentation (Tag Library) is available at niso-sts.org http://www.niso-sts.org

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