ubuntu forums usage is a mystery

[wwahl11]

I am struggling with how to make optimum use of these forums. What I have seen up to date is a fair bit of information on forum 'netiquette' and some very specific questions such as I have hardware/software X and am trying to use it with ubuntu Y but something is wrong so how can I fix it.

I guess that I was expecting more structure in the forum. So that if I had questions about hardware/software X, I would follow some tree structure to get to what I am looking for. I have typed in a few searches only to be faced with 100s of hits, many of which are only peripherally useful. I am also unclear as to what happens to a thread which reaches a resolution. Is there some mechanism for solutions to be 'moved' to a definitive thread. Although not part of the forum per se, I saw an entry referencing the Hardware Compatibility list at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupport/; however, was unable to navigate to there from the ubunto home site.

I guess my questions is really as to whether or not there is some documentation on how to use the ubuntu forums to find information (i.e. best practices) or is this something that you gain through experience?

TIA

[overdrank]

Hi and welcome, you may look at the Guide to Forum features (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1006656)
Moved to Forum Feedback & Help

[H2SO_four]

My first resource is Google. Usually it points me to a specific thread here. Try that.

[jenkinbr]

+1 for google search.

I've found the forum search tool to be sub-par, although I have heard that this is to be fixed in later versions of vBulletin.

For now, I use a google query consisting of the following: <search terms> site:ubuntuforums.org

Works much better then UF search.

[tgalati4]

Wouldn't that be a trip:

Use Microsoft Bing to simplify Ubuntu Forum searches.

[jenkinbr]

Wouldn't that be a trip:

Use Microsoft Bing to simplify Ubuntu Forum searches.
Google == Microsoft Bing :confused:

[wwahl11]

Thank you to everyone for the very useful hints, even the ones that were very tongue in cheek because they brought a smile to my face. Special thanks to 'overdrank' for the 'Guide to forum features'. The cookie crumbs above the page, twigged me to the fact that I overlooked that 'The Ubuntu Forum Community' is actually a hyperlink ... duh! This gives me lots more stuff to check out.

Thanks again and take care

[zacktu]

I set my forum search preference (in advanced search) to be titles only. That retrieves many fewer forum entries, but they are usually more specific to my question because the titles have the same keywords as I would use.

[drubin]

Google == Microsoft Bing :confused:

No comment....

[gettinoriginal]

I gave up on Google, and now use googlubuntu as my search engine, it only gives results concerning ubuntu and it's dirivitives. :p

[x33a]

I gave up on Google, and now use googlubuntu as my search engine, it only gives results concerning ubuntu and it's dirivitives. :p

thanks for the tip.:popcorn: