Responding to User Requests and Questions

PETSc users communicate to the PETSc team via two mailing lists: petsc-maint@mcs.anl.gov and petsc-users@mcs.anl.gov. When responding to such inquiries, please follow the guidelines given below.

• Be polite.

• Address the person by name (when you can determine the name).

• Apologize for the problem when it is appropriate (but not otherwise).

• Thank the person for his or her patience if it is more than six hours since the report came in.

• If the person drops the petsc-maint or petsc-users from the reply list, add it back in.

• Don’t ask too many questions or give too many suggestions in the same email. The user often responds only to the first of them or becomes confused.