Almost everything at Apache uses a mailing list to get work done, including this Community Development project right here! People can send mail to the list, many other community members get the message, and someone will usually reply. Every mailing list at Apache is archived: most lists are archived publicly. That means that newcomers to a community can learn how decisions on a project were made in the past, because all the discussions a project had are archived from their mailing list discussions.
If you have questions about anything at Apache, the first thing to do is find the right mailing list - and then send your question!
Detailed instructions on how to use Apache mailing lists (subscribing, sending mail, reading the archives, and other technical steps) are posted on our main developer site. You can email most lists without subscribing, but some lists require subscription first. Most emails are moderated, so it won't show up on the list immediately, you may need to wait a day, especially if you are new.
Please be sure your question is on topic for the list, and that you have at least checked the documentation first: everyone at Apache is a volunteer, and if you don't do your homework, we probably can't help you. It's also best to follow our email etiquette guidelines.
Finding the right list helps get your question in front of people who will know the answer. Each project at Apache uses their own dev@, user@, and other mailing lists - so asking about Apache Tomcat on the Apache Cassandra lists is likely going to be ignored.
Most projects have a Mailing Lists, Community, or Contact Us link on their homepage,
so start there if you know which project you're asking about. If you don't know which
kind of list to ask on, we have a full list of all Apache-wide mailing lists.
If you have any non-technical questions - or a question for us here in community
development - then you should just ask here by sending mail to dev@community.apache.org!
You can also read the archives of our dev@community mailing list, to see what other people have asked.
Almost every list at Apache is archived publicly. This is a great way to learn about how a community has done things in the past, or to learn about why a project operates the way they do. The ASF maintains an official archive, allows both browsing and searching through all public mail archives:
Several other organizations also archive many/most Apache mailing lists, and some offer useful search or sending functionality: