Following a third party bringing existence of unauthorised mirrors to my attention, and subsequent discussion with Eric, I've started on 2006-01-02 tracking unauthorised mirrors and talking their maintainers into complying with copyright law. Per the copying policy referenced from the essay copy on Eric's site (to which I consent), modifications/derivatives are not permitted, translations to other languages are permitted, and dynamic mirrors that track changes to the canonical catb.org HTML copy are permitted. (Note for anyone finding this file: It's not a huge issue, but we'd rather have people post links to the master copy than have outdated mirrors lying around. All of the "unauthorised mirrors" listed below are problems because they are outdated or otherwise violate the posted conditions.) Authorised English-language mirrors: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html Eric's (canonical) http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Essays/smart-questions.html Rick's http://www.schucker.org/Wiki.jsp?page=HowToAskQuestions Current and complete (v. 3.1, 28 Oct 2004) mirror. Site contact is Foster Schucker, foster of schucker.org. http://www.thc.org/root/docs/smart-questions.html Almost current (v. 3.0, 2 Feb 2004) mirror, except with some odd charset errors. Site contact is Van Hauser, vh@thc.org. (Sent him a polite suggestion to update to revision 3.1.) http://www.ruhr.de/home/smallo/smart-questions.html Current and complete (v. 3.1, 28 Oct 2004) mirror. Site contact info _at_ adimus.de (Adimus GmbH) or technik _at_ ruhr.de (webmaster) or Olaf Klein ok _at_ adimus.de . http://www.kolumbus.fi/erkki.halkka/LWFAQ/Smart_Q_01.html Was for a while an ancient version (slightly altered to reference Lightwave 3D software), with no author credits or changelog, but it turned out that Eric had authorised this version, and I added my OK on 2005-01-05. Site owner Erkki Hannes Ilmari Halkka, erkki.halkka@kolumbus.fi. http://www.blacklabelsociety.net/howtoaskbbquestions.html Omits both author names. Omits copyright notice. Omits changelog. Essay contents very slightly altered to refer to "BBs". 2006-01-04: Asked site owner Walt Mrowczynski, wmrowczynski@yahoo.com SkullDragon@BlackLabelSociety.net to remedy. 2006-01-05: After discussion with Walt, on my authority gave him permission on behalf of me and Eric, which I'll double-check with Eric when I can reach him. I suggested but didn't require that Walt append "Adapted from... with permission." Authorised translations: http://www.eglug.org/node/40/diff Arabic http://www.fengnet.com/smart-questions.html Chinese. http://stare.cz/otazky/index.html Czech http://www.usenet.dk/netikette/udvdebatteknik.html Danish http://linux.ee/~kala/smart-questions.html Estonian http://www.gnurou.org/Writing/SmartQuestionsFr French http://www.lugbz.org/documents/smart-questions_de.html German Vicky Denaxa got permission from us on 2005-11-02 to do a Greek translation, but we haven't seen it, yet. http://www.penguin.org.il/essays/smart-questions-he.html Hebrew http://www.no.info.hu/~kryss/gnu/esr/smart-questions_hu.html Hungarian http://members.xoom.virgilio.it/army1987/domande.html Italian http://www.ranvis.com/articles/smart-questions.ja.html Japanese http://rtfm.killfile.pl/ Polish http://ln.com.ua/~openxs/articles/smart-questions-ru.html Russian http://www.sindominio.net/ayuda/preguntas-inteligentes.html Spanish http://www.se.linux.org/dokumentation/howto/smartafragor Swedish http://belgeler.org/howto/smart-questions.html Turkish Unauthorised mirrors: http://www.linuxsilo.net/docs/smart-questions-en.html Omits co-author. Omits changelog. Ancient version (2001). 2006-01-04: Asked site owner Jaume Sabater, jsabater@linuxsilo.net, to remedy. http://www.possibility.com/epowiki/Wiki.jsp?page=HowToAskQuestionsTheSmartWay Omits both author names. Omits copyright notice. Omits changelog. (Mirror's version is uncertain.) 2006-01-04: Asked site owner Janne Jalkanen, tmh@possibility.com, to remedy. http://www.madchat.org/sysadm/unix.guide/smart-questions.html Omits co-author. Omits changelog. Ancient version (2001). 2006-01-04: Asked site contact ef064da1a446fbcb8018bdda5d558d80-327107@owner.gandi.net (domain reg.), to remedy. Domain owned by Madchat Organization, Farfareuhouaiye, Loitainville, 667-667 AW, wherever that is. (It's probably deliberate gibberish.) Admin contact: postmistress@madchat.org ; sent duplicate query to that address. http://www.jnez.cn/info/files/question_en.htm Omits both author names (but includes copyright notice). Omits changelog. Ancient version (2001). 2006-01-04: Asked site contact jnezinfo@163.com to remedy. http://spazioinwind.libero.it/lacasa666/hacking/questions.html Ancient version (2001). Uncertain whom to contact. http://geocities.yahoo.com.br/cesarakg/smart-questions.html Omits both author names. Omits copyright notice. Omits changelog. (Mirror's version is uncertain, but probably 2001.) 2006-01-04: Asked site owner César A. K. Grossmann, cesarakg@bol.com.br, to remedy. 2006-01-05: Removed. http://www.owlriver.com/tips/smart/ Ancient version (2001). 2006-01-04: Asked site contact info@owlriver.com to remedy. 2006-01-04: Site owner R.P. (Russ) Herrold, herrold@owlriver.com wrote back, refused to comply unless Eric also requested. He claims it's OK because it's not a "mirror", only an "archive copy", and asserts that republishing 100% of our piece is "fair use". Advised Russ that he can either remove or come into compliance with copying policy, but not keep it as-is. Telephoned Eric; he concurs with me. Eric said he'd reply to Russ's mail if I forwarded; unfortunately, Eric's MTA is refusing mail. Turns out I know Russ; he's a good guy, just confused about the situation. To be nice, we're going to wait until Eric can chime in. 2006-01-04: Russ removed his outdated mirror, substituting selective pieces of his and my private correspondence (e.g., omitting where I had apologised for a couple of initial factual errors, and where I'd said all he need do is bring his copy up to date), plus adding his editorial comments. See also: http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/conspire/2006-January/001725.html http://linuxmafia.com/pipermail/conspire/2006-January/001727.html http://davecompton.com/how_to_ask_questions_the_smart_way.htm Omits co-author. Omits copyright notice. Omits changelog. Ancient version (2001). 2006-01-04: Asked site owner Dave Compton, dcdcompton@yahoo.com per domain record, to remedy. 2006-01-04: Dave Compton alleges that I have no authority to make the request, denies that I am co-author of the document he has, and claims he will comply only if so requested by Eric. Replying, documenting my co-authorship and title, stating that he can either comply with Eric's posted copying policy or remove. 2006-01-04: Dave says he'll remove mirror by 2005-01-07. 2006-01-04: Removed. http://forums.beyondunreal.com/showthread.php?t=109192 Web forum, multipart post. Will ignore. http://www.itfreaks.com/forum/how-to-ask-questions-the-smart-way-1957.html Web forum, multipart post. Will ignore. http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=7333 http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t7333.html Web forum post. Will ignore. http://www.dotproject.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2009 http://www.dotproject.net/vbulletin/archive/index.php/t-2009.html Web forum post. Will ignore. http://www.cubeowner.com/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t3159.html Partial copy, modifed, in a Web forum. Will ignore. http://www.austech.info/showthread.php?t=1845 Web forum post (as "attached file"). Will ignore. http://www.security-forums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=288&view=previous&sid=842c99be64aea7f40af295f0a4f94411 Web forum post. Will ignore. http://www.edgeofnowhere.cc/viewtopic.php?t=7990&start=0&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight= Web forum post. Will ignore. http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=2f24f02cf8930ddcd4c6fb15a66b44c7&topic=10.msg14 Web forum post. Will ignore. (As it turns out, the above list barely scratches the surface of unauthorised postings to Web forums. There must be a hundred or more.)