Public Forum Archive Policy

Public fora, which include all developer and user mailing lists, wikis, and issue reporting systems, are essential to The Apache Software Foundation (ASF). We strive to do our work in public fora in a spirit of transparency and openness. They are our preferred means of communication. It should be understood that communications sent to such fora may be available to the public for eternity.

Maintaining a publicly accessible archive of those communications is a vital component of the services we provide to our community. They serve as a both a public historical record and a searchable repository of our activities.

On rare occasions it becomes necessary to make modifications to our own archives. This document describes the circumstances and procedures under which such modifications may be made. Please note that it is common practice for others not affiliated with the ASF to provide archives of our public fora as well. This document pertains solely to the archives made directly available through hosts within the apache.org domain.

All communication sent to our public fora - the public mailing lists, wikis, issue reporting systems and any other ASF contribution mechanism - is deemed to be published by the sender of that communication and made public without condition. Any disclaimers that may be attached to said communication that describe it as private or non-redistributable are self-contradictory and thus null and void. The Apache Software Foundation is not responsible for removing or otherwise concealing your communication after you caused it to become public.

We generally only consider requests for editing or exising material contained in the archive when requested by the sender of the archived communication. We will consider each case on its individual merit, and weigh each modification against the damage done by altering the historical record. In the past we have denied more requests than we have honored, in order to protect the integrity of the archives.

We will usually edit or remove information only in the event of an inadvertent disclosure of confidential information, such as a social security number; however, a sender's contact information (name, email address, phone number, etc.) does not fall into that category. We most certainly do not edit the archives as a means of reducing one's exposure to spam.

The sender of the archived communication should submit a request to infrastructure@apache.org. Each request should include the following:

1. A detailed justification, clearly indicating the requisite sense of urgency.
2. A precise description of the material to be edited. Please include specific urls wherever possible.
3. A statement indicating an understanding of this policy.

Each request will be handled confidentially and with appropriate care; however, please keep in mind that The Apache Software Foundation is a volunteer organization. We will do our best to handle each request as quickly as we can.