The SIG mailing lists are managed byGNU Mailman, a web-based interfacefor mailing lists written in Python.Un/subscription requests, archiving of messages, etc. all happenautomatically, without human intervention. This is A Good Thing (TM)because such responses should be processed very quickly. (While thenormal way to interact with a mailing list is via the SIG's "listinfo"web page, it is also possible to send commands to a specialadministrative address, see below.)

Every SIG must have a clear mission, with a well defined conclusionand end date, and a coordinator - a specific person responsible forreporting on the SIG activity and for shepherding the SIG's activityand wrap-up. The end date can be extended if activity warrants, butwe need some reasonable wrap-up objective to avoid maintenance ofunproductive SIGs.

To create a SIG once you can satisfy these criteria, propose it fordiscussion on themeta-sig mailing list. Ifyou get agreement that the SIG is worth creating - and in particular,no other SIG nor the general Python newsgroup is already more suitable- and your coordinator is ready, the SIG will be created.

Mailing List Framework

Each mailing list has a short name, for example "gui". For eachSIG, there are three special addresses:

• <name>-sig@python.org: The address forposting messages to the SIG mailing list. Anything posted to thisaddress gets forwarded to all list members, and also gets archivedautomatically. Be careful what you send to this address!
• <name>-sig-request@python.org: This is an emailrobot address which can process subscription and removalrequests, help requests and other Mailman email commands. Ordinarily,these messages will not be seen or processed by a human. For morehelp send a message to this address with the wordhelp in theSubject: header.
• <name>-sig-owner@python.org: This is an alias thatreaches the administrators of the SIGs mailing list. This will be theperson who manages specifics of the mailing list, such assubscribe/unsubscribe approvals (if necessary), approving held posts,etc. There is always a real person on the other end of this address,so if you need to contact a human being, this is the address touse.

Mailing List Policy

Each mailing list has a policy for such things as who can join thelist, or post messages, etc. In general all SIG lists have thefollowing (fairly lax) policy. SIG owners are given their own webinterface to Mailman, so they can change the policy without our help.

• Subscriptions are open to everyone. Approval will only berequired if the subscribing address does not match the mail headers ofthe subscription message.
• Anyone can post messages to the list, even if they are not membersof the list. The list is not be moderated.

Creation Guidelines

So you want to create a new SIG mailing list? Well here's what youhave to do. Most importantly, you have to take responsibility foryour list. This means we get to alias<name>-sig-owner@python.org to your personal mailbox:-). You won't get bugged too often (hopefully), but you mayoccasionally have to process subscription approvals, and you will getignorable notification messages whenever someone subscribes orunsubscribes. Your most important job will likely be discarding thespam messages that get sent to your list, but which Mailman rightfullyputs a hold on.

You should decide what your topic is going to be and what it'sscope is. Try to keep it focused, and make sure you verify that noother SIG covers your topic. You need to write two things. First,you should write a short informational blurb about your SIG; justsomething that can be put in a short list of SIGs, e.g. "Developmentof a C++ Binding."

You'll also need to write a somewhat longer blurb, which willeventually be used on the SIG's web page. Here, for example, is theinfo page for themeta SIG. Include as muchinformation as you feel is necessary, but try to keep it fairly briefand concise.

You should discuss your proposed sig on themeta SIGmailing list. Introduce your proposal, and include a draft of bothblurbs, so we can all discuss the merits of the new SIG. If theconsensus is to create it, we'll set up the necessary infrastructureand communicate with you about the details.