Do we need a better FAQs section?

[floke]

I've been pondering this for a while now, and an intrigued to know what everyone else thinks.

The idea (which is far from original) is that the forum should have a properly laid out, and clear FAQ's section to deal with (guess what?) the most commonly asked questions. I keep noticing that many people come to the forum asking basic questions that, really, there is no need to ask - such as 'can I use both KDE and Gnome'. In cases like this, I get the feeling that people simply couldn't be bothered to use the search box, or didn't know it was there - but either way it's not a good state of affairs. This is only likely to get worse as Ubuntu becomes more popular, and I can see a time when the forum is swamped. If we took a lot of simple stuff and put it on an FAQ to which people could be directed, this would save people a lot of time: both the questioner and those who take the time to reply to them. The forum could then devote more space (in terms of time) to people with more specific issues that cannot be answered by a general response.

I am thinking, then, of questions such as (in no particular order):

Can I use both KDE and Gnome? How do I install KDE/Gnome? What's the difference between KDE/Gnome? How do I set up a filesharing system? What's Beryl? How do I install Beryl? Do I need to defragment my hard drive? Do I need an anti-virus/firewall? What's the difference between free and non-free software? Why can't I play my DVD's? How can I play my DVDs? etc. etc. - you get the picture.

Lest anyone think that I am trying to flame noobies here or anything, the intentions are exactly the opposite - and I include myself (as a noob) in all of this too. Last night I spent ages trying to get DVD's to play in Feisty; searched the forum for info on it, tried the restricted codecs wiki for Edgy (libdvdcvs2 thingy is not in the Feisty repos), and tried Medibuntu (didn't like it, and it didn't work anyway), before asking for help in the forum and being told about VLC, which I had never heard of before. If there was an FAQ on this, I could have simply looked at this and there would hopefully have been an entry saying - for example 'blah blah about codecs etc. - but you can use VLC, which doesn't need them'. A quick sudo apt-get install vlc and I would have been away, and wouldn't have had to ask on the forum.

Before anybody mentions that we already have something like this - we currently have (AFAIK), a sticky that says...

'How can I find out if my question has been asked/answered before I post?
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 clicking "Search" and selecting "Advanced Search."'

And there is an Ubuntu Document Storage Facility, which is along the right lines, but doesn't have much on it. What I have in mind here is a community/forum maintained wiki, to which people with already answered general questions can be directed.

So, apologies for the ramble. What do you think?

[RedSquirrel]

Well, I said "no". :evil:

I think there is already a fair bit of information out there. On the other hand, it wouldn't bother me one bit if a FAQ like the one you've described was created. I'm just not sure we need it.

One problem with a FAQ is that I'm not sure it would cut down that much on new user questions.

The reason I say this is that some people like to ask questions before they do research. That's part of the reason that the search function doesn't get used as often as it probably could be. And there's nothing wrong with that, in my opinion. It just comes down to how people operate. Some people read instructions. Some don't. Some people want to know how things work "under the hood". Some people couldn't care less; they just want the thing to work and they just want to make good use of it.

So, it doesn't bother me if new users ask questions that have been answered elsewhere. They can be pretty easily referred to another thread or some tutorial elsewhere.

The other thing is that, as far as setting up different programs or hardware, there are often many ways to accomplish the task. (I now know of three ways to install the JDK, for example). How would you handle these cases? Which one do you recommend? It just seems like a headache to me.

We already have a whole section of tips and tutorials, the community docs, the official docs, ... we can just refer new users to them, I think.

Totally my opinion, off the top of my head...

[floke]

Well I agree with much of this. The point, really, is to put all this info in one place so that it can be easily accessed. For example: someone posts asking a 'basic' (i.e. answer many times) question. Now, they get given the answer on the forum, or directed to a thread/Howto etc. that gives them the info. They get the info and everyone's happy. But this doesn't give them any more info on what to do for future inquiries. So when the next issue arises, they return to the forum and ask a question.

With a really good FAQ's section, the questioner could just be directed to the relevant link/section etc. and would see that there was a whole host of useful info there. Next time, then, they would start at the FAQ's rather than jumping straight in to the forum.

As for the multiple ways of doing things. The section would simply state that: 'There are various ways of installing XXX. For option (a) you need to do ..... For option (b) do this.... etc. etc.'.

If the FAQ doesn't provide the right info, then the person simply posts on the forum, which is what they are doing now anyway.

It's a sort of Feisty-esque 'control-centre' for questions and answers (although I'm not sure if this is a useful comparison since most people, myself included, couldn't stand the CC!)

[bwallum]

The point, really, is to put all this info in one place so that it can be easily accessed.

HERE, HERE!!

[floke]

** Never mind **

[jdoben]

If this is what I think it isThank God. I have been looking around this forum twelve hours a day for a week trying to find the *real* place I should start.

In fact the only reason I'm unsure if this is what your talking about is because when I look at my screen everything is kind of blurry now, so I only made it half way through your post. Please forgive me. I really do love these people though.
Good luck.

-JD

[hikaricore]

Please. Thank you. Brain hurts sometimes from responding to posts.

[fragos]

The FAQ could give us a place to go where we know that the information is valid. There are misconceptions and well meaning flawed help that are unavoidable in forums. I'm not against the forums but would also like a place to go for information that favors the use of the Ubuntu repositories. There's a lot of confusion for example on video drivers. And frequently the problem is fixed by using Synaptic to install nvidia-glx or its ATI counterpart. The FAQ on the other hand should present tested and well understood solutions. The forums are well suited to interactive problem identification and still perform a necessary function.

[504harry]

The FAQ could give us a place to go where we know that the information is valid. There are misconceptions and well meaning flawed help that are unavoidable in forums. I'm not against the forums but would also like a place to go for information that favors the use of the Ubuntu repositories. There's a lot of confusion for example on video drivers. And frequently the problem is fixed by using Synaptic to install nvidia-glx or its ATI counterpart. The FAQ on the other hand should present tested and well understood solutions. The forums are well suited to interactive problem identification and still perform a necessary function.

We now have the Beginner Team feature that is attempting to resolve the issue

Thank goodness.

Sorting out years of using ( fighting?) the OS from - you-know-who . . .will not be easy IMHO, however we must remember that the developers at Ubuntu have their own history of OS's and I think computing could be a lot easier - heck, even a simple cheapo PC has more computing power that the Moon-landing ( er, so I understand, that is never having been there.) - so why not make the PC do the hard bit?

I would say, though that FAQ sections are usually laid out in a most-unhelpful manner - indeed, I suspect most of the FAQ's are written by the developers, since they usuall y (appear to)... send you round in circles....

It is a considerable skill to index ( things like FAQ's) - and it needs clear rules to assign them into some order. If a beginner is faced with several pages of FAQ's in no particular order, their eyes glaze-over . . . making it easier to ask their Q on the Forum. Hence something that is asked regularly needs to be made easier to understand.

Many of the words ( technical terms) are somewhat confusing, |I think and this hardly helps the beginner to absorb the information that's available.

[bodhi.zazen]

Thread moved as it is not a support question.

Yes, I would like to see a FAQ . I have a list of :

Download Ubuntu :


Burn iso :

Windows : https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BurningIsoHowto

Ubuntu : https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CdDvdBurning


Installation :

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/GraphicalInstall
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Installation
http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/installing

Install form alternate CD: http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/


Accessing partitions :

Mounting and permissions depends on the file system:

Windows: Psychocats Mount windows (http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/mountwindows)
For read-write: vfat (FAT) use umask=000
ntfs use ntfs-3g (http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/NTFS-3g) and a fstab entry something like this:
/dev/hda1 /media/windows ntfs-3g defaults 0 0
An alternate is ntfs-config. ntfs-config uses ntfs-3g to mount windows partitions via a gui :)
http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/Ntfs-config

Linux: Psychocats Mount Linux (http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/mountlinux)
To set permissions, mount the partition, then chmodsudo chmod 777 /mount/point

To mount at boot you will need to edit /etc/fstab (as outlined in the links above).
For an overview of fstab see: How to fstab (http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?&t=283131)

For access to ext2/3 from windows see : http://www.fs-driver.org/


Permissions :

FilePermissions
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FilePermissions

Partition management :

Basic partitioning : http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?&t=282018

Resizing partitions : Best to manage your partitions from a live CD as they can not be resized or moved if they are mounted. Gparted is the standard application and is on the desktop CD. If you have problems try a more up to date version of gparted, either on the gparted live CD (http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php) or Gutsy (Ubuntu 7.10) will ship with a newer version of gparted.
Documentation: Documentation (http://gparted.sourceforge.net/documentation.php)

It is possible gparted live CD will not longer be maintained in which case you may consider Partedmagic (fork of gparted):

Home page (http://partedmagic.com/)
Documentation (http://partedmagic.com/docs/introduction.html)
Download (http://partedmagic.com/downloads.html)

fstab :

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?&t=283131
http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/fstab.html


GRUB :

Best Guide: http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/p15.htm
Supergrub : http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/SuperGrubDiskPage.html

Restore grub after windows :


command line :
Command line tips:
http://www.pixelbeat.org/cmdline.html
http://doc.gwos.org/newdoc/doku.php/clibeginner
http://www.justlinux.com/nhf/Command_Reference
http://www.ss64.com/bash/

Commands
http://www.unixguide.net/linux/linuxshortcuts.shtml
http://www.reallylinux.com/docs/admin.shtml
http://www.reallylinux.com/docs/guru.shtml
http://linuxcommand.org/


Root access :

To perform admin activities as root preceed the command with sudo :

The easy way for root access is :

sudo -i

To set a root password : sudo passwd

To lock it again : sudo passwd root -l

And the classic link : https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo


https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo

If you want to run graphical applications as root (nautilus for example) use gksu (kdesu for kde users)

Code:

gksu nautilus

kdesu for kde users

If you want to perform a number of activities as root use sudo -i


Ubuntu guides/online books :
Wiki : https://help.ubuntu.com/6.10/ubuntu/desktopguide/C/index.html
Official book : http://ubuntu.co.in/files/OfficialUbuntuBook.chm

O'Reilly Ubuntu Hacks (http://book.opensourceproject.org.cn/distrib/ubuntu/hacks/)
Sams ~ Ubuntu Unleashed (http://book.opensourceproject.org.cn/distrib/ubuntu/unleashed/)
Addison Wesley Professional ~ Moving to Ubuntu Linux (http://book.opensourceproject.org.cn/distrib/ubuntu/movingtoubuntu/)

Window managers :
http://xwinman.org/

Online guides :

UDSF :

http://www.cs.cornell.edu/~djm/ubuntu/

"unofficial guides"
http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/

That is what I have so far.

Feedback welcome.

Is there something (a FAQ) you would add ?

Should this be a sticky in Absolute Beginners Talk ?

[glotz]

The page is here

http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/FAQs
Takes me to
http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/doku.php with the following error:

The page isn't redirecting properly

Firefox has detected that the server is redirecting the request for this address in a way that will never complete.

* This problem can sometimes be caused by disabling or refusing to accept
cookies.

I most certainly will not accept cookies to look at a FAQ page...

[PriceChild]

the extra /index.php isn't needed... I guess the link's broken since an upgrade or something.

[glotz]

http://doc.gwos.org/FAQs gives me a 404

[John.Michael.Kane]

http://doc.gwos.org/FAQs gives me a 404

Because you are using the wrong site address. http://doc.gwos.org/doku.php

[floke]

What can I say?
I gave up!

Have deleted previous post.

[epimeteo]

I do believe that a FAQ is needed and needs to be on the stickies. I believe it is essential to get it done.

The search engine of the forum is quite strange and newcomers find a hard time to find the info they need: so they post and they post and they post the same old questions - good for bean hunters, but I find it very discouraging for newcomers to open the forum and find so many threads about the same questions.

Could the "Absolute begginers team" track which are the most FAQ and create a FAQ?

[fragos]

An FAQ is a good idea. It should however be carefully moderated to insure the accuracy. It might also be best grouped by release and perhaps even windows manager. Some forum participants although well meaning provide advice they are unsure of and on occasion has great risk or bad side effects. Forums are somewhat buyer beware, FAQs should offer distribution supported solutions.

[bodhi.zazen]

There is always this :

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=232059

Which goes to show you, no one reads the stickies :)

[teryowen]

I dont know where the FAQ is to start with lol. ill go and find it now.

[bsmith1051]

There is always this :

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=232059

Which goes to show you, no one reads the stickies :)
The important thing about FAQs is that they have to be monitored and maintained. This also includes things like the title, i.e., I don't think "READ FIRST prior to posting etc etc" is a very good title. If it was simply labeled, "FAQ" or "General FAQ" or even "Frequently Asked Questions" then I absolutely would read it. As is, the title sounds like it's going to be a rant about using the search function first.

I also think the FAQ needs to be better organized. It's got a lot of great info but it's too long. Adding a TOC with in-page links would allow you to group everything.

[hyper_ch]

I think people wouldn't use the FAQ even if there was a really good one...

I mean there's psychocat's starter tutorials, there's ubuntuguide.org and there's the ubuntu wiki. Three ressources that would probably solve over 60% of the threads in the beginner's section but I doubt anyone would just first read that if there's a FAQ about it.

You normally get a response in a very short amount of time so why even bother spending 5min on researching a FAQ when I can post a question in 1 minute and get replies with the data within 2 min?

[bodhi.zazen]

Perhaps we should post a link to the "unofficial" ubuntu guide :

http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Gutsy

Or the main page :

http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Main_Page

[pmasiar]

why even bother spending 5min on researching a FAQ when I can post a question in 1 minute and get replies with the data within 2 min?

This is scary: so the good work we do in answering FAQ again and again (and again) trains newbies not to bother to read FAQ and just ask. Because by asking, they save own time, even if wasting time of someone else.

In fact, they waste expert's time (in theory more valuable than newbie's time) and they waste expert's time twice: once to write FAQ, and once to find and post a link to FAQ.

So this is either
- not a problem at all: we happily waste time answering FAQ, or leave if we don't) or
- acculturation problem: we need to find a way when asking FAQ will be less "profitable" than finding and reading FAQ. That assumes good FAQs are available of course, which might be not the case: maybe FAQs needs to be made easier to scan for relevant info.

I am not sure about how it is done in ubuntuforums.org. I know there is special "newbie friendly" policy, and if newbies are not expected to bother reading FAQ, nothing can be done.

Or if goal is to "train" newbies, then some changes could be proposed, and we could discuss them.

[p_quarles]

Because by asking, they save own time, even if wasting time of someone else.
If you choose to answer a question that you feel is a waste of your time, you cannot lay the burden of that choice upon anyone but yourself. Period.

I am not sure about how it is done in ubuntuforums.org. I know there is special "newbie friendly" policy, and if newbies are not expected to bother reading FAQ, nothing can be done.
My own understanding of the policy isn't so much that it's "newbie friendly" but rather "not newbie hostile." No one is expected to do any handholding here, but everyone is expected to refrain from making demeaning and disrespectful comments -- even in response to questions that have been answered thousands of times before.

[fragos]

This is an issue of a thoughtless person without a sense of personal responsibility or the consideration of others that thinks the rest of the world is there for their bidding. A policy has no impact on lower life forms. Stupid is as stupid does.

[pmasiar]

If you choose to answer a question that you feel is a waste of your time, you cannot lay the burden of that choice upon anyone but yourself. Period.

Sorry this language is too "high" for me. I'll try translate it to plain English as I understand it:

Do you mean that if I think responding to FAQ is waste of my time, I should ignore the question? That could work... And if someone else's response is misleading and off from FAQ, step in and provide link to FAQs anyway?

So seems like no improvements are possible and not considered, ever?

My own understanding of the policy isn't so much that it's "newbie friendly" but rather "not newbie hostile." No one is expected to do any handholding here, but everyone is expected to refrain from making demeaning and disrespectful comments -- even in response to questions that have been answered thousands of times before.

You mean that me thinking about how to make FAQ better equals to "demeaning and disrespectful comments"? Or using "waste of time" is so?

Is thinking about improving this forums and it's FAQ also "waste of time"?

[Forrest Gumpp]

Oh dear!

You mean that me thinking about how to make FAQ better equals to "demeaning and disrespectful comments"? Or using "waste of time" is so?

Is thinking about improving this forums and it's FAQ also "waste of time"?



The provocation of such unfortunate contention was utterly unintended, if it in any way arose from this: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=4299064&postcount=25 or this: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=4296260&postcount=24

How about some form of site visit tracking of posters to the Forums?

Could it be engineered that one, or any number, of 'stars' (or 'beans'?) could be attached to any question posted to the Forums in the instant of its posting, such that it is visible in the index to all viewers? Such award of 'star(s)' to be based upon a poster's having visited and viewed, for a deemed to be adequate amount of time, both the FAQ index and one or any number of seemingly relevant FAQs to their question.

Then, upon posting, it would be plain to all as to whether a poster had performed the rudiments of research and site familiarisation before asking their question.

Failure to accumulate 'stars' need not constitute any barrier to members volunteering help in any given case, but it could be gently emphasised to posters of questions (or even endless strings of questions) that the aquisition of 'stars' as evidence of having shown some respect for the effort of those who had gone before them to compile the FAQs may enhance their prospects of constructive replies from more knowledgable members or Forum staff.

Alternatively or additionally, suggesting the posting in the question, as a link, the URL of a seemingly relevant FAQ page (or, perhaps, other reference) as evidence of at least having gone through the motions of research may also assist in sorting the sheep from the goats, without the necessity to brand any of them.

Enough of all my presumptuous nOOb suggestions of undoubtedly complex website engineering and design.

All this nevertheless brings to mind an old Larson cartoon, in which a self-satisfied looking bloke coming out of the gents bathroom in a restaraunt or hotel was depicted as being blissfully unaware of the enormous illuminated sign above the exit saying "did not wash hands"! Hehe.

And just to indulge in a little vindictive fantasy, could it not even be engineered that there be an outer darkness (perhaps like a bat cave) to which the askers of certain questions could be consigned, to be known as the Hall of the Help Vampires?

[broekskw]

i for one am in favor of this FAQ, I am some what a noobei, most of my post are all question trying to get my system up and running, and have tried the search window but most of the time with no succes, i find that most if not all the time the search window will not work for me,so i start a new thread and that page works better then the search window, everything that my new thread question ask comes on a list that matches my question, then i search threw them first to see if it solves my question.only then if not i continue with my new post.

THIS SITE HAS BEEN A LIFE SAVER FOR ME, IN USING UBUNTU:popcorn:
A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL HERE FROM ME:lolflag:

[Forrest Gumpp]

YAY! Found the Forum FAQ!

Now for some questions to all my answers without having to run the gamut of the 'Larson Illumination'. (See post # 27)

teryowen (from post # 19),

It is the last option in the drop dead menu that falls down when you click on the Forum Help button on the menu bar at the top of any Forum page.



Suggestion 1

Perhaps this button could better be named 'BEYOND Forum Help', and the last option in its menu better named 'The Last Resort - the...', with a full-title pop-up on the hovering of the mouse pointer named by way of extension, as presently, 'Forum FAQ'. That way it could be hidden a little better, revealing itself only to the idly curious, and then but momentarily to those who linger long enough over this option and are actually watching what they are doing.

Seriously, though, why not give it a go? We all know curiosity killed the cat, and another cat that probably lost an eye because of it. If there are any site statistics already held on Forum FAQ click-throughs they could then be compared to click-throughs after the changes have been emplaced as a possible objective measure of their effectiveness in encouraging visitors, let alone Forum members, to find the FAQs. Workers of the Forum, is there anything to lose but their claims (on your time)?

Suggestion 2

Perhaps there could be a treasure chest (containing beans, and a puzzle/quiz) to be found among the FAQs. Members finding it and solving the puzzle/completing the quiz could be allowed to keep the beans and be awarded the YOHOHO, the Order of the Dead Man's Chest, in recognition of their ability to dig up buried informational treasure as a sort of first decoration in their ascent of the Ubuntu learning curve. This decoration, displayed in their member's profile, could act to enhance, in the eyes of more knowledgable Forum members, their status as ostensibly worthy questioners deserving of at least a read of their question. In the process of earning the award aspirants may have been tricked into absorbing at least some of the information in the FAQs, HowTos, and Stickies as they are forced to familiarise themselves with the site in the hunt.



I have never before appreciated the juxtapositional relationship of the well known exhortations "Abandon hope all who enter here" and "arbeit macht frei" (work makes you free), but its all starting to come together for me now. Burnout is always a risk, I suppose, but ....

Linux - just a matter of concentration.

[moose53]

I'm a new user (couple of days). Come from a Windows ME environment.

I've got over 13 years of experience as senior-level user support person in Windows environments.

It is *NOT* that people are too lazy to search. I have spent HOURS searching for something as simple as why can I not open the folder of URLs that used to be links on my old computer. I can't be the only person that needs to do this.

I want to get my Outlook Express mailboxes converted. I spent hours trying to find out how to do it. Finally found some mention of KDE

There seems to be the assumption here that information was converted BEFORE the user switched from Windows to Ubuntu. That is not necessarily always the case. I had to reformat my hard-drive and then download my files from an online repository. I did not have the option to convert as I went along.

There should be someplace that has a brief (10 pages??) bulleted list (FAQs) of problems that new users are going to run into. I.e.:

* how-to convert mailboxes.
* how-to convert links
* how-to convert favorites
* what causes files downloaded from a Windows environment to be named like this: SCOOTERCOVERpdf or ScanMaker 4600url and how do I fix that?? I certainly don't want to batch rename 10s of thousands of files because the filename does not have a period in it.

This 10-page bulleted list of possible/probable problems could then point to solutions already in the database.

The two biggest issues that I see for a new user are:
(1) We don't know what the heck you call things. If we don't know what the name is, how can we look it up??
(2) People solve a problem that they have and they don't bother entering the solution and the word SOLVED in the message title so that someone coming along in the future doesn't have to reinvent the wheel by doing the same searches over-and-over again.

If you keep seeing the same questions turning up every time a new user joins this forum, then obviously the solution to that particular item needs to be documented somewhere.

I know how hard it is to maintain documentation. It takes over your life. Even something as simple as quick-and-dirty HOW-TO can grow to be "The Beast That Ate Belmont".

What I think would be a better way around this 'issue' of maintaining documentation (FAQ) would be if the FAQ were editable by everyone. Then, when a solution is entered, it has to be tried by at least one additional person. For example, if I come up with a solution to a problem that seems to hit all newcomers, then I should document it in the FAQ and have one other person make sure the METHOD works and both of us sign and date the fact that it has been tested and it WORKS.

There's a learning curve for me to go from Windows ME to Ubuntu Feisty. It would be *NICE* to not have to go on the hunt for solutions to problems that many/most other people have already worked out the solutions to.

JMHO. Thanks.

Barb

PS: Thanks to all those who have helped me so far.

[aysiu]

It is *NOT* that people are too lazy to search. I have spent HOURS searching for something as simple as why can I not open the folder of URLs that used to be links on my old computer. I can't be the only person that needs to do this.

I want to get my Outlook Express mailboxes converted. I spent hours trying to find out how to do it. Finally found some mention of KDE

There seems to be the assumption here that information was converted BEFORE the user switched from Windows to Ubuntu. That is not necessarily always the case. I had to reformat my hard-drive and then download my files from an online repository. I did not have the option to convert as I went along. There should be someplace that has a brief (10 pages??) bulleted list (FAQs) of problems that new users are going to run into. I.e.:

* how-to convert mailboxes.
* how-to convert links
* how-to convert favorites
* what causes files downloaded from a Windows environment to be named like this: SCOOTERCOVERpdf or ScanMaker 4600url and how do I fix that?? I certainly don't want to batch rename 10s of thousands of files because the filename does not have a period in it. I'm not seeing the connection here.

Of course one cannot assume that an uncommon situation is impossible, but I don't see how you can go from that uncommon situation to it all of a sudden being included in a list of problems new users are going to run into.

I've been on these forums for almost three years helping people with literally hundreds, if not thousands of problems. A lack of conversion of mailboxes and favorites from Windows is an extremely rare scenario. In most cases, new users anticipate the change to Ubuntu and have already used Windows' Thunderbird to convert Outlook to a more palatable format and used Windows' Firefox to convert Internet Explorer favorites to a set of bookmarks.

You had an unfortunate (and, in this case, rare) situation, where you could not anticipate the need to convert these things while still in Windows. Sorry. That doesn't magically make your problem needed to be included in an FAQ. If, however, you do find the solution, feel free to post it somewhere, so that another person in your rare situation can find it in less than a few hours through a Google search.

[fragos]

When you search / Google a subject, add "howto" to the search. There are two ways in Linux to identify a file's type -- mime type and .ext. Some applications use both ways. Ocassionaly a package depend on the .ext only. User editable FAQs are called WiKis. FAQs are usually well managed and reliable. Wikis are less reliable in my opinion because there's no way to control the quality of anonomously provided information. Ubuntu has a Wiki.

[LaRoza]

When you search / Google a subject, add "howto" to the search. There are two ways in Linux to identify a file's type -- mime type and .ext. Some applications use both ways. Ocassionaly a package depend on the .ext only. User editable FAQs are called WiKis. FAQs are usually well managed and reliable. Wikis are less reliable in my opinion because there's no way to control the quality of anonomously provided information. Ubuntu has a Wiki.

Not all wikis allow anonomous edits, and not all wikis allow anyone to edit.

Ubuntu's wiki is very good and I constantly recommend others to read it.

[pmasiar]

FAQ editable by everyone, or at least more people than just mods and admins... Wiki! That would be nice, having wiki, with same logins and without need to leave this site.

We in Programming Talk tried to create multilevel FAQs, where Top level is just page linking to different FAQs, and second layer FAQs are open discussion threads maintained by more people - by expertize.

BTW Ubuntu will grab your favorites from Windows/Firefox. Email is harder: you have to do pennace for using Outlook! :-)

[Forrest Gumpp]

Credit where credit is due.

In post # 27 in this thread, while indulging in a little vindictive fantasy, I used the term 'help vampires'.

It was not original. I had read it in an article recently but could not remember where. I also could not remember that I had bookmarked the article. (Oldtimer's disease - short-term memory loss.)

Here is a link to that article by Amy Hoy: http://www.slash7.com/articles/2006/12/22/vampires

I think the content may be of some relevance to the subject matter of this thread. (Now I just have to hope that the original reference that put me on to it was not a link from somewhere earlier in this thread!!!)

[pmasiar]

Why you want to give bad name to honest vampires?

IMHO since forever those people were called "leeches". Same blod sucking, but leaches are ugly, slimy and with no backbone. :-) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leech

Good link BTW.

[glotz]

I think vampires suck. I like oranges though.