The FreeSWITCH mailing lists

The FreeSWITCH project maintains several mailing lists at http://lists.freeswitch.org. The primary list for most users is appropriately named freeswitch-users. Like many projects, the lists are powered by the GNU mailing list manager, MailMan.

To join one of the lists, simply browse to x and click on the name of the list as shown in the following screenshot:

New users should join only the FreeSWITCH-users list, until they are comfortable with the project. The other lists are very technical in nature, except for the FreeSWITCH-biz list, which is used for discussing commercial endeavors with FreeSWITCH.

You will need to input a username and password when subscribing to a list. Keep this information handy so that you can make adjustments to your e-mail subscriptions. One important setting that you can change is whether or not to receive "digest" e-mails. A digest is an amalgamation of several e-mails into a single transmission. The digest method is handy for those who may be casual readers of the e-mail traffic flowing through the mailing lists. However, if you wish to interact with others then you should not use the digest because it will be difficult to participate in a particular discussion thread.

Some points to keep in mind when using the mailing list are as follows:

• Use an e-mail client that handles threads so that you can more easily follow specific discussions.

• Do not "hijack" threads! A hijack occurs when someone replies to an existing thread and changes the subject line of the e-mail. Always start with a new message to the list if you need to discuss a new subject.

• Try not to become overwhelmed when you first join. There are lots of messages coming through each day. You can only absorb so much, so pace yourself and give yourself time to get acclimated.

• Use the site archives to search for discussions on a particular subject. An example is to use Google. Search Google for site:lists.freeswitch.org "early media" to see all list threads that discuss the topic of "early media".

The mailing lists are a great resource for interacting with people all over the world. However, sometimes you need to have a dialog. In cases like this you will appreciate chatting with others in real-time.