Transition from maiing list to forum

Dear GMT user-

We presently have three avenues for you to interact with us and with other GMT users:

1. The [email protected] (which you are subscribed to) has for ~20 years been
   the only way to reach over a thousand subscribers with your GMT questions.  It has
   been used to explore GMT solutions to problems, request new features, notify us of
   suspected bugs, inquire about data sets, and in general ask anything related to GMT
   installation, use, scripting, tricks, etc., etc.  Only subscribers to gmt-help may
   post to the list.
2. The Issue tracker on gmt.soest.hawaii.edu.  This system allows you to post either
   a bug report or a feature request.  It is the preferred way of doing so as emails
   get lost but the tracker will keep track of the progress on a specific issue.  It
   makes it much more likely that the developers will address a problem in a timely
   manner.  An issue will remain open until a solution is found and tested.  Only
   those registered on the web site may post.
3. The user forum on gmt.soest.hawaii.edu.  Like the gmt-help list, you can post
   questions of all sorts.  Again, only those registered on the site may post.

Since it is essential to us developers that all bug reports and feature requests be
submitted via the website tracking system (New Issue), and since you must register to
do so, we have decided to eventually shut down the mailing list and direct all the
traffic to the User Forum.  The benefits are several: (1) Since you must register to
post a bug you can also post on the forum, so no need for two separate accounts, (2)
You can start a new thread or reply to an existing thread.  Thus, you have better
control over what sort of notifications you wish to get from the site.  You can ask
for daily digest, notification for every message (like you get from the email list),
or just the ones you posted or indicate you care about.  (3) You have access to all
previous posts on any topic already organized for you (unlike a long email trail
with inbox-clogging attachments).  The forum allows you to better document your case.

At the moment, some users post to the forum and some post to the gmt-help list, which
causes a split of our services into two incompatible branches that only portions of
the audience interact with.  It makes our job of maintaining both of these systems and
responding to you very cumbersome.

Change is hard for many, so we will continue to maintain the gmt-help mailinglist
until Sept 1, 2014.  That gives users who have yet to register on our web site at
gmt.soest.hawaii.edu about 4 months to accomplish this 1-minute task.  No doubt some
will be very upset and refuse to do so.  However, those who feel it is beneficial to
be part of the GMT community will sign up or have already done so. As of today,
about 250 have registered on the site, and this is growing rapidly as new users
discover GMT.

After you register and login to the site, take a minute to examine your settings
under the "My account" link near the top-right corner. In particular the Email
Notifications selections control when the system will email you about new postings.
You have to change this selection to receive mail for all events, similar to what
our mailing list currently do by default.

We will remind you again in August about the change, but the sooner you take action,
the better.

Sincerely, The GMT Team


Mailing list for GMT discussions of all kinds.  If you are not sure you have found a bug, discuss it here first.
To formally report bugs or request features, please register and add New Issue on gmt.soest.hawaii.edu
To unsubscribe, send the message "signoff gmt-help" to [email protected]