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Ubuntu Open Week - Community Support with Ubuntu Forums - Mike Basinger - Thu, May 1, 2008

=== jcastro changed the topic of #ubuntu-classroom to: Ubuntu Open Week | Information and Logs: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek | How to ask questions: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek/Rules | Ask questions in #ubuntu-classroom-chat, prefaced with "QUESTION:" |See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek/JoiningIn to filter out channel noise | "Community Support with Ubuntu Forums" - Mike Basinger

[20:59] <jcastro> Next up is Mike Basinger ... Community support with ubuntu forums!

[20:59] <jcastro> take it away Technoviking!

[21:00] <Technoviking> Greeting all

[21:00] <Technoviking> I'm Mike Basinger an admin on the Ubuntu Forums and a Forums Council member

[21:01] <Technoviking> The Ubuntu Forums starting back in 2004 by Ryan Troy (ubuntu-geek) at a community driven 
support forum for Ubuntu

[21:02] <Technoviking> The forum is large community with over 71000 active members in the last month alone

[21:03] <Technoviking> btw, ask questions at any time

[21:03] <jcastro> QUESTION: Are there any plans on providing full-featured technical support from the Ubuntu staff at 
Ubuntu Forums (a  private zone or something)?

[21:04] <Technoviking> Not as of now, but that is an interesting idea

[21:04] <jcastro> < Venko> QUESTION: Are there any plans to switch to a free (as in freedom) forum software? Using 
proprietary software for Ubuntu  discussion seems somewhat hypocritical.

[21:04] <Technoviking> We do have people who on Ubuntu and Canonical post to the forum regularlly, plus vendors who 
use Ubuntu (such as Dell)

[21:05] <Technoviking> Venko: a famous question, we have consider other forum software, but we are afraid they could 
not handle the load

[21:06] <Technoviking> the week Hardy came out, we `had over 24000 viewing the forums at one time, quite a load

[21:07] <popey> Technoviking: venko has further points

[21:08] <Technoviking> Venko: I feel it is no more hypocritical than Launchpad, to be honest

[21:08] <Venko> vBulletin has been compared to other forum software before and has been shown to be quite inefficient 
in terms of load. The software is aimed at features and control, not effiecincy

[21:09] <Venko> I do not see the forums using any specific features that available from vBulletin so it seems odd to 
me, that's all. I used to be involved in forum discussions for another community.

[21:09] <jcastro> ok, moving on

[21:09] <Technoviking> Venko: the features that vBB adds are very popular with our community

[21:09] <jcastro> < eragon> QUESTION: how does one become a moderator on the forums?

[21:10] <Technoviking> eragon: by showing to be a helpful forum member

[21:11] <Technoviking> when we look for new staff, we ask our current staff who are good people in the forums 
community

[21:12] <Technoviking> I would like to talk about asking for and providing support on the Ubuntu Forums

[21:13] <Technoviking> There are two ways to use the forums, as a guest (view only) or as a member

[21:14] <Technoviking> to join the Ubuntu forums you will need to lookm at the Forums code of conduit

[21:14] <Technoviking> http://ubuntuforums.org/index.php?page=policy

[21:14] <Technoviking> it is basically the same ideas as the Ubuntu Code of Conduct more designed for the forums

[21:15] <Technoviking> same idea applies, "Don't be a jerk"

[21:15] <Technoviking> after joining you may question question in the forums

[21:16] <Technoviking> but before to do, I suggest searching the forum

[21:16] <Technoviking> The forums has a fantastic search engine, which is very quick

[21:17] <Technoviking> you can do a basic search by entering a term in the search box in the uppoer right hand corner 
of the forums

[21:18] <Technoviking> if you click on the serach link on commond ba near the top of the forum main page who can do an 
adavanced search

[21:18] <Technoviking> you can search by title only, or limit it to a single forum

[21:19] <Technoviking> also, the forum has been spidered by Google, so search via Google work well also

[21:19] <Technoviking> in Google just type

[21:19] <Technoviking> serach term site:www.ubuntuforums.org

[21:20] <Technoviking> to search forum via Google

[21:20] <Technoviking> any questions so far (search or otherwise)

[21:20] <Technoviking> ok Let talk about posting

[21:21] <Technoviking> Posting is very easy in the forums, even to a new user.

[21:21] <Technoviking> The post editor is a nice WYSIWYG interface

[21:22] <Technoviking> When you post first think about where to post

[21:22] <Technoviking> The

[21:23] <Technoviking> Absolute Beginner Talk forum is a great place to post with any such of beginner question

[21:23] <Technoviking> or you can get more specific in our other forum areas

[21:24] <Technoviking> There are areas for specfic hardware (amd64, Apple, Dell) and areas (wireless, 
multimedia,etc..)

[21:25] <Technoviking> When you are asking a questions on the forum, provide as much detail as possible

[21:26] <Technoviking> Include machine spec, OS version, 32 or 64 bit

[21:27] <Technoviking> Also tell people if you have any third party software installed ( Ubuntu/debain packages, not 
provided in the Ubuntu repos)

[21:28] <Technoviking> We also provide prefixes to post titles  (such as Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, etc...) to help 
people uderstand what your problem maybe

[21:29] <Technoviking> Always follow the Code of Conduct when posting, ask for help, don't demand help

[21:29] <Technoviking> Remember people are volenteering to help you so be nice:)

[21:30] <Technoviking> and be patient, sometimes you may have to wait for someone to respond to your question

[21:31] <Technoviking> BE sure to post question to the whole forums and don't ask for help via a private message. That 
way more people see you problem

[21:31] <Technoviking> any questions?

[21:32] <Technoviking> ok, lets move on answering questions

[21:32] <jcastro> < Heartsbane> QUESTION: Would you care to comment on the nature of distruptive commentary in the 
forums (i.e. people who post the  solution being 'rm -rf /') has it subsided? are there any plans in the future to 
curb those types of comments?

[21:32] <Technoviking> Heartsbane: I was just getting to that

[21:33] <Technoviking> last year we had some forum member who thought it would be funny yo trick users into typing 
sudo rm -rf

[21:34] <Technoviking> sudo rm -rf /, which would delete the root directory of your Ubuntu install.  major bad juju.

[21:35] <Technoviking> The forum staff willing ban any person to post malcious commands on the forums, trying to trick 
people in to using them.

[21:36] <Technoviking> There was a grassroot movement, and you will notice many older forum users have in there 
signature " Don't sudo rm -rf /"

[21:36] <Technoviking> when answeing post would you ask that people do a few things

[21:37] <Technoviking> Be understanding: The person asking the question maybe new to Ubuntu/Linux and maybe afraid of 
the command line and other linux terminology

[21:38] <Technoviking> Explain the solution in detail, once again, the person asking the question may need extra 
details in a answer

[21:39] <Technoviking> i.e., they may not know where the fstab file is located

[21:40] <Technoviking> Also, someone if the answer requires sudo, realize that you are asking someone to give you root 
permission to there box

[21:40] <Technoviking> be a good human being and respect that trust

[21:41] <Technoviking> to find new questions that have been posted to the forums goto

[21:41] <Technoviking> http://ubuntuforums.org/search.php?do=getnew

[21:41] <Technoviking> any questions?

[21:41] <jcastro> < wolfger> QUESTION: why encourage use of the forums instead of use of "Answers" in Launchpad?

[21:42] <Technoviking> wolfger: both great ways to receive help

[21:42] <Technoviking> it is all about personal choice, which way works best for you to receieve help

[21:43] <Technoviking> maybe in the fture the two could be linked some how.

[21:43] <Technoviking> the last thing I would like to talk about is forum governace

[21:45] <Technoviking> The forum staff or moderators are all volenteers that help answer questions, remove spam (we 
get a lot), and keep the Ubuntu Forums a civil environment.

[21:47] <Technoviking> the Forums Council is a Ubuntu team that decides on direction of the forums, and acts to help 
mediator for users problem.

[21:48] <Technoviking> The Forum Council has monthly meetings, and you have view the meeting agenda here

[21:48] <Technoviking> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ForumCouncilAgenda

[21:48] <Technoviking> I got about 10 more minutes, so more questions

[21:49] <jcastro> < Az32> QUESTIONS: Is the Ubuntu Forums team developing some additional features for the forum, or 
you just use the bundled or  external ones?

[21:49] <Technoviking> Az32: there are some social networking feature with the new version of vBB that we are looking 
into.

[21:50] <Technoviking> In the last year we added the Thanks feature, which has been a big hit

[21:50] <Technoviking> You can Thank someone for providing good help. Sort of like karma in launchpad

[21:51] <jcastro> < Yaro> QUESTION: You commented on being helpful members on the forum. I like that. Perhaps you 
could eleborate on many ways one  can be helpful on the forums?

[21:52] <Technoviking> Yaro: Answering questions, being polite to other forum users, etc...

[21:53] <Technoviking> Just being a good comunity member :)

[21:53] <Technoviking> Yaro: right now, with Ubuntu 8.04 out, we have a ton of new Ubuntu users needing help

[21:55] <jcastro> < toobuntu> QUESTION: Is there a wiki page or something that has stock answers for pasting into the 
forums for things like opening  a terminal, editing text files, and similar?

[21:55] <jcastro> last question

[21:56] <Technoviking> toobuntu: not that I can think of, but the wiki is a fantastic place for getting help with 
Ubuntu.

[21:56] <Technoviking> I refer people to it all the time when answering forum questions

[21:57] <Technoviking> also, if you write a guide or how-to on the Ubuntu Forums, be sure to add it to wiki,ubuntu.com

[21:57] <Technoviking> it rocks

[21:57] <Technoviking> wiki.ubuntu.com :)

[21:57] <jcastro> ok, that about does it for time

[21:57] <jcastro> thanks Mike!

[21:58] <Technoviking> thanks all for coming