Drools
User mailing list
If you have a question or suggestion about Drools, you can politely ask it, free of charge, on the user mailing list:
- Subscribe to the user mailing list
- Or surf to the user forum which mirrors the user mailing list.
- Look through the archives on gmane or mailman.
To optimize your chances of getting a helpful response follow the guidelines (lower on this page): they include get to the point, include technical details, be polite and be patient. If you're looking for mission-critical and/or priority support, contact Red Hat.
Developer (committer) mailing list
Do not write to the dev list if you have a question about Drools: use the user mailing list or the user forum instead.
Only write to the dev list if you're working on the Drools source code itself and want to discuss source code changes and design:
- Subscribe to the dev mailing list
- Look through the archives on gmane or mailman.
Note: The audience on the developer list is much smaller than the user mailing list. All Drools developers also watch the user mailing list.
Research paper mailing list
For research paper related discussions (excluding anything that belongs in the user mailing list), use this mailing list.
- Subscribe to the research mailing list
- Look through the archives on mailman
Note: The audience on the research list is much smaller and more specific than the user list.
Mailing list and forum guidelines
In general, the Drools core developers will only support the latest release in the free mailing lists.
The user mailing list is for general user querries about drools and how to use and it problems with using it. The dev mailing list is for more hard core discussions about about developing drools itself and general rules/ai theory that might apply to future drools features.
When asking questions, especially about bugs, you should always state which version of Drools you are using.
Anti-patterns to be ignored or attract abuse from others:
- Start the email with "URGENT"
- Tell everyone how desparate you and how you need an immediate response for your really important project.
- Don't wait a minimum of 3 days and resend your email within minutes of hours.
- Send emails directly to mailing list members, especially the developers.
- Paste pages of code and then say "it doesn't work, please help".
- Paste a long stack trace and say "it doesn't work, please help".
- Start your email with "please sirs" or include "do the needful".
- Ask dumb questions that are in the manual.
- Ask basic java questions.
- Ask questions about JRules
- Reply to an existing thread but starting a new topic
- Start your email with "I'm a member of the drools mailinglist, so please answer me"
- General begging and pleading
- Say some thing to the effect of "Please tell me how I can call a function on the LHS. (hurry my assignment is due today!)"
- Talk about a potential bug and not mention the version of Drools you are using
- Email user questions to the dev mailing list.
- Email both dev and user list in the hope of a quicker response.
User forum
This forum is synced with that user mailing list.