Introduction:

To have an account on the Ubuntu Forums, you must agree to this Code of Conduct. This code of conduct applies in any and all areas of the Ubuntu Forums and is a supplement to the Ubuntu Code of Conduct, which also applies here.

The purpose of the Ubuntu Forums is to provide support for Ubuntu. We also want this to be a place where community can develop and we can enjoy one another's company. To achieve this, we strive to maintain an atmosphere that can be enjoyed by all and we ask all members of the community to be respectful at all times. This means please use etiquette and politeness. Treat people with respect. If you do this, the rest of the code of conduct won't need more than a cursory mention.

All posts made to these forums express the views and opinions of the author of each post. Those liable for the content of posts and private messages are the ones submitting the material, and not the administrators, moderators, webmaster, the Ubuntu community, Canonical, or anyone else.

This is a moderated forum, but only in the sense that we act to deal with content that violates the forum code of conduct when we become aware of it. The staff of this forum attempt to edit or remove any objectionable or illegal material as quickly as possible. However, with the volume of activity we have on our site it is impossible to review every message.

Users agree not to post anything abusive, rude, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, advertising or marketing related, or sexually-oriented. Material that suggests illegal activity or contains illegal content is also forbidden. We do not support circumventing TOS, EULA, etc here. Such threads will be closed and offending users will be penalised with infractions and warnings. Given that our forums could be used by people at work and school we want to ensure they will not encounter material that will cause them problems or cause their access to our site to be limited, so all content should be safe for both.

Users posting any content that violates this code of conduct may receive a warning or an infraction that creates a record of the behaviour and will be associated with the account (this record is only visible by the original poster and staff), may have their posts edited or removed, may have their account or IP address banned temporarily or permanently, and could have a report filed against them to their internet access provider. The IP addresses of all users are recorded to provide evidence or assist in enforcing these rules.

Posts which violate any part of this Code of Conduct may be edited or moved to a special holding area called "The Jail," where they are preserved as evidence. Posts in The Jail are only visible to staff members and the original poster. The only exception is spam, or advertising-related posts, which are temporarily moved to a subforum of the Jail called Spamalot.

Finally, you agree that forum staff have the right to remove, edit, move or close any post, topic or thread at any time they see fit following the guidelines outlined below, or the posting tips which you can find here. You agree that the staff of this forum have the right to send a private message with a warning and/or censor any forum user who is in violation of forum policy.

General Policy:

1. Respect the Forum Staff: We provide a service in our free time to keep the forums running efficiently. We are all volunteers. Feedback is welcome in Forum Feedback & Help , this is also the place to request assistance with forum software issues. If you believe an error has been made in moderation or other staff actions, please post politely in the Resolution Center and help us understand your perspective.
2. Adult Content, Violence, Illegal Activity: Messages containing violent, sexually oriented, or illegal content or links to sites with this content will be saved in the Jail as evidence. Messages with links to or suggesting illegal activity will also be saved in the Jail. Posting or linking to any of these could result in a ban.
3. Trolling, Attacks and Flaming: These are always forbidden.
   • Trolling is posting in a way that provokes emotional responses.
   • Attacks and derogatory terms of any kind are not welcome. This includes references to any operating systems or the companies that produce them.
   • Flames are messages that personally attack or call any people names or otherwise harass. These, along with any generally condescending posts will be edited or removed at the moderators discretion.
   • If a thread is flame-bait (appears to be intended to start an argument or is likely to cause an argument rather than enhance discussion, as in trolling), it will be locked or removed without notice. Individual flame-bait comments in a post may be deleted or edited at the moderators' discretion.
   • If the thread turns into an argument, it can be closed to further comment or removed without notice. Sometimes a moderator may split the thread or jail certain portions in order to keep the discussion going,this is not always possible.
4. Spam We consider spam to be any post or message that dilutes the quality of the content of this forum with irrelevant, misleading, or unnecessary material. Spam is likely to be removed from public view, and the relevant account may have their posting privileges restricted or removed entirely. Spam includes:
   • Unsolicited advertising.
   • Self-promotion that is not necessarily commercial, when this involves creating an account in order to promote one’s blog, YouTube Channel, project, or similar, even when the project is open source.
   • Copy-pastes. Copy-pasted questions or answers from within the forum or from other web-based sources will be treated as spam. The same applies to AI-generated text such as from ChatGPT, if the post consists substantially of AI-generated content, whether the AI source is attributed or not. For more on our stance regarding the use of AI for support, see our Posting Guidelines, here
   • Multiple content-less or pointless posts. These will be treated as spam.
   You are allowed to have links to personal sites in your signature and in your profile, and may post them in threads on occasion (just not often, please) as long as the content of the site linked does not include material that violates this code of conduct and if you are not posting any other form of advertising. A business site, regardless of provenance, will be treated as spam.
   
   
5. Profanity: We have users of all age groups and of all tolerance levels where profanity is concerned. A language filter is in place to catch most major forms of profanity that may accidentally be used. Do not attempt to circumvent the language filter by using variations or slight misspellings of profanities.
6. Politics: This topic has caused serious problems in the past, and as such is subject to tight control. Discussion of the politics of open source is permissible within the Ubuntu, Linux and OS Chat forum. No other political posting is permitted in any form in any other area of the forum.
7. Religion: This is a forbidden topic forum wide. Please find another venue to exercise your freedom of speech on this topic.
8. Thread Drifting/Steering: Please keep discussions on topic. Topics that do not belong in the technical or 3rd party project sections belong in the Ubuntu, Linux and OS Chat forum or the Cafe.
9. Report Posts: If you have found a post or receive a private message that you feel is inappropriate or that violates the forum code of conduct, please use the report function to notify staff. Do not attempt to moderate discussions or correct other users yourself.
10. Images: Be prudent in your use of images; they may help to explain something more clearly or indicate a problem you are experiencing better but you have to remember that not everyone has the same bandwidth. If an image is the best way of handling the information, please use thumbnails or keep your image to a small size and less than 100kb.
11. Links: You may post links to sites with content that is acceptable according to this code of conduct. This is most useful when giving tech support and explaining a topic and then linking to a wiki page or Linux site with more information. You may also link to your personal site.
12. Signatures: Forum signatures are limited to four lines of text, 10pt maximum font size. Signature content must conform to the same guidelines as all content in this code of conduct.
13. Avatars: Images must comply with the content guidelines of this code of conduct. An discreet image from your religion is permissible if it is not ostentatious, disruptive, provocative, or for the purposes of proselytising. Political avatars are not permitted at all.
14. Multiple Accounts: Users may only have one active account. If you feel you have justification for requiring a new account, please contact an administrator to discuss your situation. Users who have multiple accounts without approval of an administrator may be penalized or banned.
15. Private Messaging: Asking support questions via private messages is strongly discouraged. It is unlikely that users will respond to these requests and it defeats the secondary intent of the forums to be a resource for people seeking assistance using internet searches and forum searches. Private messages sent to other users are subject to the Code of Conduct.
16. Editing of posts: When a post breaks guidelines and requires editing in order to bring it back under compliance with this Code of Conduct, the moderator should report the post before editing so that a copy of the unedited text of the original post is copied to the staff area. Only after the original post is preserved as evidence should the original post be edited. In the private message outlining the reason for editing or that message automatically sent when the infraction is issued, the moderator should specify or describe which part of the Code of Conduct was broken. It is not required for Staff to send a message when a post has been edited but are requested to do so when time permits.
17. Cracking: Requests for help about any form of password or encryption "cracking" are not supported. Even though there are packages such as aircrack in the repositories, discussions about cracking or software related to cracking often lead to discussions about illegal activities. Such threads will be closed.
18. Surveys: Before posting your survey, please post a request in the Resolution Center. An administrator will respond to you to let you know if you can post it in the Ubuntu,Linux, and OS chat.
    • Generally, surveys will only be granted to established ubuntuforum.org members who have a significant posting history.
    • Can only used to collect data on open source software, hardware, or licenses.
    • State the reason why you want to post it.
    • Have an end date.
19. Thread Closing: Staff are not required to do so, but are requested to post an explanation in a thread that is closed when time permits. This is a non-exhaustive list of reasons a thread may be closed, but will give the general idea:
    
    • The thread has run it's course and posts have begun repeating themes
    • The thread has degraded into an argument
    • The thread topic is a duplicate of another current and active thread
    • The thread is very old.
20. Jailing of posts/thread: If a post/thread would require a lot of work to bring it into compliance, or if editing the violations would result in a nearly blank post/thread, the post/thread should be moved to the jail instead.
21. Staff: Staff are chosen by the Forum Council. Users who have demonstrated a consistent attitude of friendliness and kindness and who have shown a pattern of helpfulness in their posts may be contacted and invited to serve. Recommendations are made by current staff in the staff forums or other users by private message. All recommendations are considered. Due to time constraints and privacy issues the Forum Council is unlikely to comment publicly on these recommendations.
22. Staff posting and moderating in the same thread: This is generally discouraged. Exceptions include when no one else is available or when content very clearly violates the code of conduct.
23. Appeals: If you have a complaint about a staff action or believe an action was taken in error, the process for dealing with that is to first post in the Resolution Center where a member of the Forum Council will respond. You may appeal to the entire Forum Council if you are unsatisfied. Banned users should use the Forums Council mailing list. After these avenues have been exhausted, you may open a complaint with the Ubuntu Community Council.

This code of conduct may change and evolve with time based on constructive feedback and experience. It is our hope that these policies will foster helpful, honest, and civil interaction. It is the users' responsibility to check this page for updates. All public forum data is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 International License and should be attributed to The Ubuntu Forums (ubuntuforums.org). Please see also our Forum Data Attribution, Retention and Privacy Policy.

Last Updated: 13 March 2023.