Basic Guidelines for Posting

These Forums are here for the enjoyment and benefit of all members, are accessible to all who register. Like any community, they are most valuable when everyone obeys certain basic guidelines and rules for online behavior. These guidelines and rules are presented here so that you know what is expected of you and what you can expect from other participants when using the Forums. By registering you agree to follow these Usage Guidelines, in addition to the Terms and Conditions.

You should periodically check this topic for updates.

General

• Only registered users may post to this forum.
• Only one account per person is permitted.
• Please post in the appropriate forum, and stay on topic. Cross posting clutters up the forums and makes things like searching harder for other users. If you feel your question could fit in multiple forums, please pick the best one and post there. Please do not post about the same subject multiple times. One thread is sufficient. Any posts deemed to be in the incorrect forum will be moved.
• Use common sense - Just because it isn't explicitly stated as one of the rules below doesn't mean it's OK. Use common sense and good Netiquette when posting, replying and browsing these forums. This includes the following:
  • Also see General Guidelines for Off The Wall, which contains additional information suitable to the forums in general.
  • No posts for the sole purpose of increasing your postcount.
  • No "senseless" posts. Yes, its subjective. As a subjective way to help understand, if a coherent conversation cannot be read in the thread, it might be senseless.
  • Keep the forums free from SPAM. This means no SPAM posting, no personal messaging SPAM, no SPAM in signatures or elsewhere in your profile. SPAM includes unsolicited messaging. If it takes you hours to send hundreds of Personal Messages, it is still SPAM. Also, please do not reply to SPAM, just report it.
  • No rudeness or foul language, please.
  • No personal attacks. These forums are not a place for you to take cheap shots at somebody because he/she did something. Do that some place else (or better yet, get over it). You have been warned. Hopefully, this won't be much of a problem here.
• Ask Questions The Smart Way. If you are new to the internet, forums or the world of Linux, or if you just aren't sure what kinds of questions are okay to ask and how they should be phrased, then please read "How To Ask Questions The Smart Way" and "How to Report Bugs Effectively". It covers many of the same points as covered in this guide, but goes into far more detail and offers detailed explanations and suggestions.
• Forum Moderators are here for a reason, and they will act to pull unruly/useless posters back into line with expected standards. If this happens to you, accept it as a lesson in personal development and grow from the experience.

Support Desk Questions

• Posts related to already posted, solved (replied to) or documented bug reports and/or feature request are subject to removal upon the moderators discretion. No notice may be given.
• Make your topic line appropriate to the content of your problem. The topic line is essentially a brief summary of the problem, and this is used during the forum search procedure - so make it relevant, useful and full of keywords! A bad topic is " help me ", good topic lines include:- " missing icon after upgrade ", " hacker attempt warning when editing post ", " forum link doesn't work after new installation ".
• Be complete, and include as much information as you can in your initial post. Nobody can help if you give insufficient detail, and you waste everyone's time if the information has to be dragged out of you one bit at a time.
• No useless posts - ie " it doesn't work ". Sometimes it takes a couple of days to research a problem and formulate an answer. Forum moderators have lives and other commitments too - so there may be a delay in answering. Useless posts will be deleted.
• Another example of a useless post is: " I have the same problem "... Be specific and make sure you include YOUR site's setup and configuration as well. It is not very likely you will have the exact same config as the original poster so including your details helps us rule things out or even get's us on the right track immediately by only reading your posts.... Don't think we'll be able to recollect your setup/config if you have posted it somewhere else already; just do it again and save time on solving the problems rather than us running around gathering information...
• Take the time to thank those who have helped you, and tell people the problem has been solved. If you post a problem and then solve it yourself - post the answer - not just " solved it ". Others who have the same problem would like to know how you solved it; and we do too!

Illegal activites

• Please do not discuss illegal activities on these forums. While such activities might not be illegal in all countries, this server is hosted in the US and, as such, must abide by US laws. By allowing discussions about illegal activities to take place on these forums, we may expose ourselves to unnecessary legal liability. Therefore, any posts that advocate activities that are illegal under US laws may be deleted without notice.

Disputes, Terms, Conditions, Acceptable Use and End User Acceptance

• All posts must comply to our Terms and Conditions posted here.
• These forum rules are an addition to these Terms and Conditions, not a replacement.
• Using our forums and website explicitly states the end-user's acceptance of both the forum rules and our Terms and Conditions.