UbuntuForums
WARNING - This page had been forgotten for several years and has much outdated content. Now rediscovered, it will be rewritten, updating its content, by the current Forum Council. Please check back later.
What are the Ubuntu Forums?
The Ubuntu Forums are the official support forums for Ubuntu.
The Ubuntu forums were originally privately owned by Ryan (ubuntu-geek) and were launched unofficially in October 2004 as a personal project for the newly created Ubuntu Distribution. They were so popular that by November of 2004, Canonical made them official for Ubuntu in English. In March 2006, Canonical offered sponsored hosting and donated a 2x Dual Core Opteron server for the forums. In June 2007, Ryan transferred complete ownership of the domains and the vBulletin license to Canonical.
You may find the Guide to Forum features thread useful.
Ubuntu One SSO Login
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Ubuntu Membership by means of forums contributions
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Getting Help
Check to see if your question has already been answered
Use the search function! You will find it on the main page as well as in the link bar near the top of every page. You can even do more precise searches by using an Advanced Search. You should always search for your problem before making a post, there is a very good chance that your question has already been asked and answered - keep a lookout for threads marked as [SOLVED].
Asking for help
Simply find the section that best suits your question. If you are new to Ubuntu, and are asking a simple question, you may wish to post in the New to Ubuntu sub-forum. Questions will generally be responded to within ten or twenty minutes of your posting. http://ubuntuforums.org/faq.php?faq=policy#faq_vb3_board_usage If you have more advanced questions, consider posting them under General Help or the other, more specific forums in the Main Support Categories.
Unanswered Questions
(From a post by aysiu: http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=82471)
Please don't feel ignored. Someone was probably looking. She may not have actually looked at your thread, but she may have looked at the title. Someone cared or wanted to care. Your thread wasn't ignored--it just wasn't answered.
People here are very supportive and helpful when they can be. I'll tell you that 99% of the time when threads remain unanswered it's because no one knows the answer. Either your problem is too obscure, your hardware is too obscure, or the program you're having problems with is too obscure.
In rare cases, it may be a problem everyone has but doesn't know how to solve. When that occurs, someone (maybe it should be you) usually files a bug report at https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+bugs.
You have a few options if your posts remain unanswered:
1. Search for the answer yourself. The Ubuntu forums are quite comprehensive in terms of what they cover, but sometimes a Google search would better serve you. I've found Googling the exact text of errors is a good way to find how to fix those errors.
2. Wait. I had a couple of unanswered threads that got me down for a little bit. Randomly, they got answered weeks later (I'm not kidding).
3. Give up. If it's a non-essential program, maybe just don't deal with that program for now. If your entire installation doesn't work, maybe Ubuntu isn't for your hardware.
4. Rephrase your post. Sometimes if you give too little information or too much information (especially with no paragraph breaks), people just don't want to spend the extra time to understand what you're saying. Meet people half-way, and they'll more than likely meet you half-way and go beyond that half-way mark.
Please don't feel ignored, though. If I thought it would, in any way, be productive to answer zero-reply threads and just say, "Hey, I can't answer your question, but I care about your problem," I would, but I think that'd just give people false hope when they see that someone has replied ("maybe that one response could be the answer to my problem...").
Also, remember that everyone (including forum staff) is a volunteer here. No one is obligated to help you. People will try to help as best they can, but please don't feel entitled to receive help. If you get it, great, and you probably will get some help, but if you don't get it, sorry--we're not Ubuntu gods here (I've seen some Ubuntu angels, though).
PLACEHOLDER - reminder to integrate link to - Unanswered Posts Team.
Getting Involved
Anybody can be involved on the Ubuntu Forums - simply open up your favorite area of the forum, and if you see threads that you think you can help with, go for it! The community involvement is what makes Ubuntu special, and everybody has a part to play. Of course, you should always be kind and respectful to other users, even if you disagree with them. See the Ubuntu Forums Code of Conduct and the Ubuntu Code of Conduct for more information regarding conduct on the forums.
Staff and Governance
Staff
https://launchpad.net/~ubuntuforums-staff
Governance
See ForumsGovernance
Frequently Asked Questions
See ForumsFAQ - NOTE. This wiki page is neglected and needs rewriting.