Do we really help much?

[KingBahamut]

Probably the wrong place to ask, but....Id like to think that the direction I give has some benefit......=)

[sophtpaw]

Probably the wrong place to ask, but....Id like to think that the direction I give has some benefit......=)

I only recently joined Ubuntu and you and other people, already too many, to mention now, have all been invaluable in helping and giving the right direction as you say. It's what makes Linux and particularly in my experience so far, Ubuntu woth it. and that is just one aspect of the benefit of GNU/Linux!

So, in short, a resounding Yes!

--
sophtpaw

[void_false]

I only recently joined Ubuntu and you and other people, already too many, to mention now, have all been invaluable in helping and giving the right direction as you say. It's what makes Linux and particularly in my experience so far, Ubuntu woth it. and that is just one aspect of the benefit of GNU/Linux!

So, in short, a resounding Yes!

--
sophtpaw

I've learnt from forums more than from books. ;-)

[sapo]

I've learnt from forums more than from books. ;-)


Same here :grin:

[xequence]

YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES!

This forum is great, when I was just starting ubuntu two days ago I got so much help... Every question I asked was answered. I really really really dont want the people here to think theyre help goes unnoticed and appreciated because it most definitily DOESENT :) IN all my time on the internet ive never seen any community so nice and willing to help new people as much as this one, and probably the linux community in general.

[TristanMike]

Dude, if your looking for a pat on the back.........here it is *pat*pat*pat. :razz:

Thank you very much for your, and everyone else's work here. It is an invaluable asset to help grow as a fresh Linux/Ubuntu user. With all of the gracious help here, I look forward to my years under Linux/Ubuntu and hope I can contribute to keep the spirit alive.

TristanMike

[KingBahamut]

Been Kinda down lately...not lookin for a pat on the back , just a yeah, you do help kinda thing.

Probably shoulda put this in the Community forum.....And Im sure there are others way more helpful than me that deserve way more of a pat than I do.

Its cool.

[az]

Yes, we help, but muchof the help we dish out is wasted. The forums are huge (I think the Ubuntu community is the largest linux distro community around - Ask Jdong for his statistics)

By nature of how big we are and the one-on-one help the forums give, a great tip posted last week is harder to find than if it were on an ubuntuguide-type knowledgebase.

I have been planning the mass-motivation of forum users to contribute to the wiki (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UserDocumentation and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/forum) but forum administration has been in a standby mode for a month now...

We need a user-contributed knowldegebase so that we can better help the community! I encourage every user to look at the UserDocumentation page on the wiki and contribute to it the one or two bits of information that they find themselves contantly repeating. Then, refer to the wiki page when posting a reply to the problem.

Also, when someone posts an elegant solution to a problem, encourage them to put it on the UserDocumentation page.


When Breezy is released, this forum will be swarmed with new users with good questions. It would be great to have a knowledgebase already built by then.

Thank you.


P.S. Anyone can PM me if they want to join a knowledgebase task force. We need bodies!

[KingBahamut]

Yo Ho, <raises hand>.

[sophtpaw]

Been Kinda down lately...not lookin for a pat on the back , just a yeah, you do help kinda thing.

Probably shoulda put this in the Community forum.....And Im sure there are others way more helpful than me that deserve way more of a pat than I do.

Its cool.

KingBahamut,

pick yourself up, there is a long ways to go yet! \\:D/


--
sophtpaw

[KingBahamut]

KingBahamut,

pick yourself up, there is a long ways to go yet! \\:D/


--
sophtpaw
hmmmm...nothing a good 12 ounces of Glenfiddich 25 and no ice wont fix.

[TristanMike]

Been Kinda down lately...not lookin for a pat on the back , just a yeah, you do help kinda thing.Oh, guy, I was just totally joking, my kinda sarcastic humor, please don't take me seriously. The help is VERY much appreciated, and for the effort you all put in, you deserve a whole forum section called "Pat's on the Back's" where we could go in and express our appreciation for all your help.

But if ya been down lately, this always makes me smile.....

"Cheer up KingBahamut, you know what they say, Some things in life are bad, they can really make you mad, other things just make you swear and curse. When you're chewing on life's grissle, don't grumble, give a whistle, and this'll help things turn out for the best, so.....Always look on the bright side of life!"

[sophtpaw]

Probably the wrong place to ask, but....Id like to think that the direction I give has some benefit......=)
To cut a long story short i ended-up looking up this review for Mepis
http://www.linuxquestions.org/reviews/showproduct.php/product/453

It said, Ubuntu had unstable sound issues! unfortunately he may have been kinda right there :-(

but that aside i was kinda impressed by what mepis has to offer, so went and checked out their forum
Well, can i tell you that it does not compare in quality both in style and content with Ubuntu's forum here.
Our forum Rocks! it was reassuring and good to know, so i thought i'd share that ;-)

--
sophtpaw

[KingBahamut]

Nah, sometimes you know, nothing else goes right in your life, and you wish that it would. You sit down in front of yer terminal and you really wish there was more to it?

Some days I honestly feel the only solace I get comes from a terminal window. Alright that be said, I really do enjoy supporting everyone here. I havent heard any flames, fires, or wars in here. Thats a good sign that the Moders do their job properly. Its clean , neat , and everyone in here is a good sort. Im rather proud to be a member o this community, and my ability to help it along.

Ok, Cryin in the beer session is over.

Everyone back to work.

[RastaMahata]

I need beer...

I think everyone helps here, even newbies with their questions.
Call it a cicle (mufasa and stuff), but people who know and are willing to help those brave enough to try something now (linux) are the best people in the forums, building a knowledge base, helping newbes become users, and users become experiences users, and so on.
You're doing a great job, as these people you help will hopefully some day help others too. Everyone has been a newbie and had problems once. It's up to "gurus" if you may call them like that, to pick newbies and help them in their way.

Great job ;)

[KingBahamut]

Im not a Guru.

Im not 00B3r.

Im just some 30something guy from atlanta, ga tryin to make his way.

Tryin to help those who need it along the way.


Really guys , I swear, Shows over.

[kleeman]

Yes, we help, but muchof the help we dish out is wasted. The forums are huge (I think the Ubuntu community is the largest linux distro community around - Ask Jdong for his statistics)

By nature of how big we are and the one-on-one help the forums give, a great tip posted last week is harder to find than if it were on an ubuntuguide-type knowledgebase.

I have been planning the mass-motivation of forum users to contribute to the wiki (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UserDocumentation and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/forum) but forum administration has been in a standby mode for a month now...

We need a user-contributed knowldegebase so that we can better help the community! I encourage every user to look at the UserDocumentation page on the wiki and contribute to it the one or two bits of information that they find themselves contantly repeating. Then, refer to the wiki page when posting a reply to the problem.

Also, when someone posts an elegant solution to a problem, encourage them to put it on the UserDocumentation page.


When Breezy is released, this forum will be swarmed with new users with good questions. It would be great to have a knowledgebase already built by then.

Thank you.


P.S. Anyone can PM me if they want to join a knowledgebase task force. We need bodies!
azz,

Just checked out and added to the wiki documentation. It is in much better shape than when I last looked. Added some info on enabling dma for dvds which I have repeated many times on this forum....

[the_purulent]

You guys have been excellent!
Everytime I had a foolish question you had a simple answer within a few mintues :)

[matthew]

Yep, we sure do.

http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20050815

:grin: :grin: :grin:

[az]

azz,

Just checked out and added to the wiki documentation. It is in much better shape than when I last looked. Added some info on enabling dma for dvds which I have repeated many times on this forum....


You rock!

Encourage others to do the same and give them pointers on how to use the wiki.

[Stormy Eyes]

Probably the wrong place to ask, but....Id like to think that the direction I give has some benefit......=)

Don't the people you've helped thank you afterwards? They usually thank me when I steer 'em in the right direction.

[xequence]

Ive never used a wiki before... Except I read on wikipedia alot. Ill take a look :)

[xmastree]

Don't the people you've helped thank you afterwards? They usually thank me when I steer 'em in the right direction.I usually thank those who help me. Usually. :roll:
Sometimes I forget as once I've fixed the problem, I'm too busy again...

But I've certainly received help here, and given some back in return. It's a great place to hang out. :grin:

[ssck]

the forums have been a great help ....wouldn't have been where i am today with ubuntu if not for all the help that i had received ....

putting all the information on a wiki is great :)

thank you.

[crane]

I think this community is a very important part of Ubuntu. A good operating system with lousy help and support is no fun at all. There are a couple of distros that suffer from this.

I think it's great the way people are treated here. I have learned a great deal from everyone here and on irc. I help when I can and just read when I can't.
Ubuntu and it's family ROCKS!!

[matthew]

the forums have been a great help ....wouldn't have been where i am today with ubuntu if not for all the help that i had received ....

putting all the information on a wiki is great :)
I have to agree wholeheartedly. The community here in the forums is fabulous. I have contributed to and benefitted from both the wiki and the forum immeasurably.

[lyricmuse]

These forums are where I get all my information for Linux. I am a new user and have been frustrated (as I am now) with the lack of support for many distros. I just want you to know that YES\\:D/ You are all a big help!!! This is one of the main reason I keep coming back to Ubuntu.

[zorba64]

Sure...some are more helpful than others.

Some people's "approach" could be modded a bit...a lack of manners I think.

But, you get people like that in any forum.

As a community goes, this one is pretty good.

But this is from a bloody minded individual who keeps mostly to himself, as seen in the huge number of posts since I joined. \\:D/

Michael

[poofyhairguy]

Yall mind if I move this?

I say the community helps a lot. It helped convince Mark to give $10 mil to Ubuntu....

[Brunellus]

Yall mind if I move this?

I say the community helps a lot. It helped convince Mark to give $10 mil to Ubuntu....
Azz has shamed me into making my own (vanishingly small) contribution to the wiki.

Although I am reminded of an old thread about the schism between ubuntuguide users and the folks down at #ubuntu, who denounced the ubuntuguide as "stupid" among other things, because it was simply a list of console commands without explanations...also because it usefully enabled people to get their multimedia running.

[poofyhairguy]

Azz has shamed me into making my own (vanishingly small) contribution to the wiki.


When Breezy comes, I have some plans to FORCE (kinda) people to contribute to the wiki.

[GreyFox503]

Though many posters don't respond after their problem has been fixed, I can say that these forums have helped me a lot.

I'm a new linux user this summer, and none of my friends uses it either, so it was pretty much just me, my 'net connection, and my comp.

These forums helped me so much either by directly answering questions, or by pointing me to the right source!

That's one of the beginner's problems: where do I look for help? Where is the guides, HOWtos, and documentation? After browsing these forums long enough, I now have an impress list of bookmarks to great help sites I use.

Also:



I have been planning the mass-motivation of forum users to contribute to the wiki (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UserDocumentation and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/forum) but forum administration has been in a standby mode for a month now...

We need a user-contributed knowldegebase so that we can better help the community! I encourage every user to look at the UserDocumentation page on the wiki and contribute to it the one or two bits of information that they find themselves contantly repeating. Then, refer to the wiki page when posting a reply to the problem.

Also, when someone posts an elegant solution to a problem, encourage them to put it on the UserDocumentation page.



I've seen this a little bit, but I'm not very familiar with our wiki pages. There should be a sticky in the forums explaining about the wiki. Many new users to Ubuntu look to the forum for help because they already know what a message board is, but many of them have never heard of a wiki, or know that we have one.

[TristanMike]

I've seen this a little bit, but I'm not very familiar with our wiki pages. There should be a sticky in the forums explaining about the wiki.Or even better, a wiki in the wiki telling you how to use the wiki.

[GreyFox503]

Or even better, a wiki in the wiki telling you how to use the wiki.

wiki... huh?

I had to read that three times before I got it :roll:

[heimo]

Or even better, a wiki in the wiki telling you how to use the wiki.

Something like this?
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WikiCourse/BasicIntroductionHandOut

[sophtpaw]

hmmmm...nothing a good 12 ounces of Glenfiddich 25 and no ice wont fix.


The story of Uncle Bob
------------------------

The teacher gave her fifth grade class an assignment: get their parents to
tell them a story with a moral at the end of it. The next day the kids came
back and one by one began to tell their stories.

Kathy said, "My father's a farmer and we have a lot of egg-laying hens. One
time we were taking our eggs to market in a basket on the front seat of the
pickup when we hit a bump in the road and all the eggs went flying and broke
and made a mess"

"And what's the moral of the story?" asked the teacher.

"Don't put all your eggs in one basket!"

"Very good," said the teacher. "Now, Lucy?"

"Our family are farmers too. But we raise chickens for the meat market. We
had a dozen eggs one time, but when they hatched we only got ten live
chicks. And the moral to this story is, don't count your chickens until
they're hatched."

"That was a fine story Lucy. Johnny do you have a story to share?"

"Yes, ma'am, my daddy told me this story about my uncle Bob. Uncle Bob was a
Green Beret in Vietnam and his helicopter got hit. He had to crash land in
enemy territory and all he had was a bottle of whiskey, a machine gun and a
machete. He drank the whiskey on the way down so it wouldn't break and then
he landed right in the middle of 100 enemy troops. He killed seventy of them
with the machine gun until he ran out of bullets, then he killed twenty more
with the machete till the blade broke and then he killed the last ten with
his bare hands."

"Good heavens," said the horrified teacher, " What kind of moral did your
daddy tell you from that horrible story?"

"Don't f*ck with Uncle Bob when he's been drinking."

[N'Jal]

That's a classic!!! No matter how often i hear it.

Here's another

An irish man walks into a confession box sit's down, look's rather disappointed but say's nothing, the priest look's at the man, the man shake's his head and look's away again, the priest is confused and look's at the man again, the man again look's back and shakes his head. The priest, confused eventually raps on the window and the irish man look's at the priest and say's...

...'It's no good there's no paper in here either!'

[TristanMike]

Something like this?
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/WikiCourse/BasicIntroductionHandOutHa, ha, ha, yeah, exactly like that. :)

EDIT: I went to the main wiki page, but couldn't see a link to page above, not very easy to find the wiki about the wiki....or something like that.

[teapot]

For simple, easy stuff, yes the folks here help a lot.

For difficult stuff, no. Sorry, but that's my experience.

I'm not complaining, just stating how I feel because you asked.

[Brunellus]

For simple, easy stuff, yes the folks here help a lot.

For difficult stuff, no. Sorry, but that's my experience.

I'm not complaining, just stating how I feel because you asked.

To quote the Seabees (US Naval construction batallions):

"The difficult, we do at once--the impossible takes more time."

[Evil Monkey]

After making the fun decision to jump right in and switch solely to Ubuntu from Win XP SP2 after only about three days of dual booting, the forums, wiki and user guide have been awesome. Although I haven't actually asked any questions, just searching through the forums has often helped me with problems or given me ideas on something to add to my system.

[teapot]

To quote the Seabees (US Naval construction batallions):

"The difficult, we do at once--the impossible takes more time."

Now if I could only find a Seabee who was into Ubuntu and knew something about video drivers, driver installation, and felt like helping a newbie, I'd be just fine.

As is, I've got to either buy a video card that Ubuntu recognizes (and I don't yet know how to figure that one out) or I need another distribution.

[Brunellus]

Now if I could only find a Seabee who was into Ubuntu and knew something about video drivers, driver installation, and felt like helping a newbie, I'd be just fine.

As is, I've got to either buy a video card that Ubuntu recognizes (and I don't yet know how to figure that one out) or I need another distribution.
www.ubuntuguide.org

www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/

Both have the information you need in terms of driver installation.

As far as video cards, the consensus seems to be in favour of NVIDIA over ATI, since NVIDIA's binary drivers for Linux are superior to ATI's.

[az]

I've seen this a little bit, but I'm not very familiar with our wiki pages. There should be a sticky in the forums explaining about the wiki. Many new users to Ubuntu look to the forum for help because they already know what a message board is, but many of them have never heard of a wiki, or know that we have one.

That would be the point of a task force. Nobody reads stickies, but if you have a real person advising you go "put this here and copy that there" as well as "it is described here, on the wiki" it would be something that is easier to use.

It's like behaviour shaping.

[Brunellus]

That would be the point of a task force. Nobody reads stickies, but if you have a real person advising you go "put this here and copy that there" as well as "it is described here, on the wiki" it would be something that is easier to use.

It's like behaviour shaping.
Behaviour shaping? are there treats involved?

[matthew]

Behaviour shaping? are there treats involved?
Stop! I'm salivating...

Hey, why is that guy still ringing the bell, can't he see I'm hungry?

[teapot]

www.ubuntuguide.org

www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/

Both have the information you need in terms of driver installation.
.

If it was that simple, it'd already have been accomplished. It's not like I'm a dummy who doesn't know how to read even the basic information available. I've asked elsewhere in the forums for assistance, but it's not forthcoming. Probably because it's complicated. Which was my whole point in my original post. :)

[kleeman]

Yeah I saw your post, looks like you "lucked out" with your graphics card and 3d in linux. Linux is for fiddlers so if that is you :smile: why don't you buy a cheap nvidia card (after checking their website for linux compatibility of course). My nvidia cards have always worked really well with 3d and the drivers are easy to install in ubuntu.

BTW the problem you have is not the fault of Ubuntu or linux it is simply a result of the fact that not many people use linux on the desktop so far so that manufacturers don't give a damm....