no real community

[dawnlove]

Why is Ubuntu forums so unhelpful? On Open Suse forums you would be helped most of time. Ubuntu forums have offered little to no help when I post. Is the Ubuntu community so large that there's no real community?

[philcamlin]

what issues are you having with?

most threads i post are answered asap

what thread do you need help with? id be glad to help :popcorn:

[Deamos]

I've found the Ubuntu community very helpful. If you have a problem, you post in the specific forum and explain your issue clearly. In addition, it always helps to use the search feature to see if anyone else has already had the same issue as you.

Finding answers to problems and question is not going to be a 5 minute task. It usually takes hours or even days before you reach the answer and it requires you to be proactive in the solving.

Best of luck getting your issue worked out.

[gjoellee]

I don't think the Ubuntu community is to big. Because it is so large I usually get helped within 10min. Never had any problems.

If you have made any previous posts and never got any answer may have been because none of the currently online users knew how to solve your problem, or some may have skipped your post. I think your case may be very random.

EDIT: Using Google Chrome, and spacing works fine now. Post is easier to read now!

[Nevon]

I kinda sorta agree with him. When I write a support thread I usually try to include as much info as I can, I always make sure that my posts are easy to read, and I try to be as polite as possible. Yet out of the last 10 support threads I've created, less than half ever got even a single answer.

Still, it's much more helpful than any Microsoft forum I've ever been on. And the people who do answer are usually quite helpful.

[SunnyRabbiera]

Ubuntus community is big but really it can be helpful where you need it.
It all depends on your issue

[gjoellee]

Still, it's much more helpful than any Microsoft forum I've ever been on. And the people who do answer are usually quite helpful.

Please don't judge Microsoft in this matter as well! Microsoft Window and Ubuntu Linux has two different philosophies and two different ways of managing their supporters.

That is just the way it is.

[rr1024]

Please don't judge Microsoft in this matter as well! Microsoft Window and Ubuntu Linux has two different philosophies and two different ways of managing their supporters.

That is just the way it is.


Microsoft sucks and is probably the worst OS, there is no pride in workmanship, no dedication to testing, documenting or finding more effienct ways of doing things.
Ubuntu and Microsoft are on total oppesite sides of the spectrum

[overdrank]

Back on topic not bashing windows. :)

[JDShu]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I suspect that not so many of us can solve the really specialized problems. I had a problem with my laptop model that was encountered by others, and I posted a question. Two weeks and no answer. I eventually found the fix through some pretty back bending searches. On the other hand, simple problems are answered pretty snappily. Personally, when I read the support forums, I'm not usually able to answer any questions.

[dawnlove]

what issues are you having with?

most threads i post are answered asap

what thread do you need help with? id be glad to help :popcorn:

thanx for responding my big issue now is xorg.conf so I can use PCI vide
see link
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1222483&goto=newpost
thanx again

[benj1]

in my experience these forums have always been helpful.

unfortunately if you have a more advanced/difficult problem then fewer people will be able to help.
"how do i minimise a window?" will get more responses than how do i write a driver for xyz?"

regarding your video card problems, that is probably on the harder end of the spectrum, and something fewer people will know how to solve, the only answer to that is to bump it if you havent had a reply in 24hrs.

regarding turning off xubuntu power saving, i am suprised there wasn't any replies to that, i don't use xubuntu so i cant say for sure but in ubuntu its with the screen saver settings, if thats a help.

[dawnlove]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I suspect that not so many of us can solve the ". I had a problem with my laptop model that was encountered by others, and I posted a question. Two weeks and no answer. I eventually found the fix through some pretty back bending searches. On the other hand, simple problems are answered pretty snappily. Personally, when I read the support forums, I'm not usually able to answer any questions.

Yes to be fair my 10yr's of using linux means my questions are "really specialized problems" now. When I used Open Suse my questions were probably much simpler.

[Mr. Picklesworth]

I kinda sorta agree with him. When I write a support thread I usually try to include as much info as I can, I always make sure that my posts are easy to read, and I try to be as polite as possible. Yet out of the last 10 support threads I've created, less than half ever got even a single answer.

Still, it's much more helpful than any Microsoft forum I've ever been on. And the people who do answer are usually quite helpful.

I find that a lot, too. Either I get a bunch of answers asking for more information, then silence once everyone realizes how much I have broken something... or I get silence outright for the same reason. That's mostly because I ask really complicated, specialized questions due to how I use Ubuntu. Simpler problems and things that aren't technically problems (eg: "what's a good application for y," or "how can I do x") get really good answers here, from my encounters. It's kind of the nature of community based support when there are boatloads of threads. Giving a complex answer doesn't always feel 'worth it' since it ends up being buried under new threads, never to be seen again, within minutes.

The tutorials people post up here are great. They aren't usually in response to any particular questions, but really help. Having said that, there are many which should be on the Wiki but are not, and the Wiki really serves as a better way to organize these things to begin with. Searching for a tutorial on the discussion forum when we have a functioning wiki seems completely silly.

To be totally honest, I usually point new Ubuntu users to Launchpad Answers. It doesn't get as much attention as it deserves, but it's a great way to get and give help. (Things are organized as a bug / support tracker, as opposed to a strictly temporal forum). Most importantly, I think it serves as a good introduction to the open source movement as a whole, since questions get linked with bug reports and code branches pretty routinely; people can really experience how the process works. It's cool, unique, and a way to teach people more about this community without being obtrusive.

I, for one, would be among the people smiling if Ubuntu Forums underwent a massive pruning to fit within the array of Ubuntu web services, rather than as a sort of outlying (and occasionally redundant) entity.

[bodhi.zazen]

Why is Ubuntu forums so unhelpful? On Open Suse forums you would be helped most of time. Ubuntu forums have offered little to no help when I post. Is the Ubuntu community so large that there's no real community?

Moved to FH&F

Obviously that is somewhat of a charged statement, and certainly many would disagree.

What would you suggest we do to improve ?

Also I moved you post from the cafe, you do know the cafe is not a support forum ?

[23meg]

To be totally honest, I usually point new Ubuntu users to Launchpad Answers. It doesn't get as much attention as it deserves, but it's a great way to get and give help. (Things are organized as a bug / support tracker, as opposed to a strictly temporal forum).
Most importantly, I think it serves as a good introduction to the open source movement as a whole, since questions get linked with bug reports and code branches pretty routinely; people can really experience how the process works, which is cool and important.


I agree entirely. It's particularly a good idea to make sure that people who are dissatisfied with the support they (can't) get at the forums know that there are other venues of community support as well.

Since you forgot to drop a link to the Ubuntu answer tracker at Launchpad, here it is:

http://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu

[dawnlove]

I agree entirely. It's particularly a good idea to make sure that people who are dissatisfied with the support they (can't) get at the forums know that there are other venues of community support as well.

Since you forgot to drop a link to the Ubuntu answer tracker at Launchpad, here it is:

http://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu





this could be very helpful-thanx