An announcement (ANN) is a

Usenet Usenet () is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979, and it wa ...

, mailing list or

e-mail Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic (digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" meant ...

message sent to notify subscribers that a

software Software is a set of computer programs and associated software documentation, documentation and data (computing), data. This is in contrast to Computer hardware, hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. ...

project has made a new

release Release may refer to: * Art release, the public distribution of an artistic production, such as a film, album, or song * Legal release, a legal instrument * News release, a communication directed at the news media * Release (ISUP), a code to iden ...

version.

Newsgroup A Usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from users in different locations using the Internet. They are discussion groups and are not devoted to publishing news. Newsgroups are technically distinc ...

announcement recipients often have a name like "comp.''somegroup''.announce". Mailing list announcement recipients often have a name like "''toolname''-announce". In an announcement, the subject line commonly contains the abbreviated prefix ANN: or NN''. The contents of an announcement usually contain a title line which contains the tool name, version, release name, and date. Additional contents often fall into the following message sections: * About: a short paragraph summary of the tool's purpose * Changes: a list of the highest impact changes since the last release (should be brief since the changelog comprises the definitive list) * Resources: links to project pages of interest, such as homepage, where to download,

bug tracking system A bug tracking system or defect tracking system is a software application that keeps track of reported software bugs in software development projects. It may be regarded as a type of issue tracking system. Many bug tracking systems, such as thos ...

, etc. Some additional, optional fields might include "Highlights", "Author(s)", "License", "Requirements", and "Release History". Announcement messages are usually sent in

plain text In computing, plain text is a loose term for data (e.g. file contents) that represent only characters of readable material but not its graphical representation nor other objects (floating-point numbers, images, etc.). It may also include a limit ...

form.

Example

Example announcement message subject line: ANN: fooutils 0.9.42 beta released Example announcement message contents:

Fooutils 0.9.42 Beta Released -- 2006 Feb 16

ANNOUNCING Fooutils v0.2.12beta, the first beta release. About Fooutils -------------- Fooutils are a set of utilities that... Changes ------- Improved the searching facility by including... Fixed bugs: #123, #456, ... Resources --------- Homepage: http://fooutils.org Documentation: http://fooutils.org/docs Download: http://fooutils.org/download Bug Tracker: http://fooutils.org/newticket Mailing Lists: http://lists.fooutils.org/

Example

See also

Further reading