From 3e96cf129ba5fc2834b691314c504aa363fd5cf4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Eric Wong Date: Thu, 9 Jan 2014 23:13:37 +0000 Subject: initial commit --- README | 145 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 145 insertions(+) create mode 100644 README (limited to 'README') diff --git a/README b/README new file mode 100644 index 00000000..71643dcc --- /dev/null +++ b/README @@ -0,0 +1,145 @@ +public-inbox - shared mailboxes via git for public discussion +------------------------------------------------------------- + +public-inbox implements the sharing of an email inbox to complement or +replace traditional mailing lists for public discussion. public-inbox +is primarily intended as a Free, distributed (but not yet decentralized) +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. + +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 and have easy access to historical +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. Readers may also have difficulty +following discussions which started before they joined if archives do +not expose Message-Id headers for responses. For list server admins, +this also burdens them with bounce/failure messages for bad/invalid +addresses. + +public-inbox uses the "pull" model. Readers import mail into an mbox, +Maildir, or IMAP folder from the 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. Readers only need +to install ssoma, a command-line tool[1] currently implemented in Perl. + +Readers may also follow the list via Atom feed. + +[1] http://ssoma.public-inbox.org/ + +Features +-------- +* stores email in git, so readers have a full history of the mailing list +* 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 + +Requirements (Atom, read-only client) +------------------------------------- +* any feed reader capable of following Atom feeds + +Requirements (server MDA) +------------------------- +* git +* MTA - postfix is recommended +* Perl and several modules: + - Email::Filter + - XML::Atom::SimpleFeed +* Ssoma - currently a Perl module +* SpamAssassin (optional, recommended) +* any HTTP server (optional, for serving Atom feed) + +Hacking +------- +Source code is available via git: + + git clone git://bogomips.org/public-inbox + +See below for contact info. + +Contact +------- +We are happy to see feedback of all types via plain-text email. +public-inbox discussion is self-hosting on public-inbox.org +Please send comments, user/developer discussion, patches, bug reports, +and pull requests to our public-inbox.org address at: + + public-inbox@public-inbox.org + +Please Cc: all recipients when replying as we do not require +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: + + URL=git://git.public-inbox.org/public-inbox + LISTNAME=public-inbox + + # to initialize a maildir (this may be a new or existing maildir, + # ssoma will not touch existing messages) + # If you prefer mbox, use "ssoma add mbox ..." instead + ssoma add $LISTNAME $URL maildir:/path/to/maildir/ + + # read with your favorite MUA (only using mutt as an example) + mutt -f /path/to/maildir # (or /path/to/mbox) + + # to keep your mbox or maildir up-to-date, periodically run the following: + ssoma sync $LISTNAME + + # 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 + +Anti-Spam +--------- +The maintainer of public-inbox has found SpamAssassin a good tool for +filtering his personal mail, and it will be the default spam filtering +tool in public-inbox. + +Readers may also use a custom mail-delivery-agent for delivery to enable +spam filtering by having ssoma deliver to a command via pipe. + +There is unlikely to be any tool which is 100% accurate at classifying +spam, so it is possible to remove messages using the ssoma-rm(1) tool +in ssoma. + +Content Filtering +----------------- +To discourage phishing, web bugs (tracking), viruses and other nuisances, +only plain-text content is allowed by default and non-text content is +stripped. This saves I/O bandwidth and storage, which is important as +entire mail archives are shared between clients. + +As of the 2010s, successful online social networks and forums are the +ones which heavily restrict users formatting options; so public-inbox +aims to preserve the focus on content, and not presentation. + +Copyright +--------- +Copyright 2013, Eric Wong and all contributors. +License: AGPLv3 or later + +This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify +it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by +the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or +(at your option) any later version. + +This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, +but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of +MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the +GNU Affero General Public License for more details. + +You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License +along with this program. If not, see . -- cgit v1.2.3-24-ge0c7