Please Read: Before Creating a New Thread/Posting in this Forum and all other Forums!
 

I have had many emails come thru stating that there are just too many threads being started in this forum, Linux - General, that don't belong here.

Here are a few tips on posting in this forum and should be followed to ensure that your posting in the correct forum:

1. If your post or new thread contains anything regarding Microsoft, it most likely belongs in General.
It might be a good idea if you have a thread that even mentions Microsoft or Windows, to just place it in General. The only reason to not place it there is if your setting up Samba or a dual boot system, anything that is a technical question asking for technical help if its alongside Linux, etc.

2. If your post has nothing to do with Linux at all and your fully aware of this, most likely it also belongs in General.

3. If your post is some sort of "Hey I got this working in Linux" type of thread, most likely it belongs in Member Success Stories.

4. If you post a thread that is going to start any type of debate, regular type discussion, and is not directly related to a Linux technical question, it belongs in General.

5. News stories that pertain only to Linux belong in our News Forum.

6. If your asking a specific Distribution question, like the most popular "Which distro is best?", it should go in the Distributions forum. Or if you have a question regarding Redhat or Slackware, it may fit better in one of the specific Distribution forums we have. Currently we have them for LFS, Slackware, Debian, Arch, Connectiva, Mandrake and Redhat.

7. Do not post Linux vs. Microsoft type threads. We have several threads already covering that, either contribute to those or post it in General as these seem to slide off topic and belong in General.

8. This forum is mainly reserved to technical questions that you may have about your system, setup and so on that you don't think fits in any other category that starts with Linux in it on this site.

9. Do not post or link your email address if your only going to ask somone to email you for solutions offline. This is prohibited and is not the point of these forums. If someone asks the question in the forums and you have a solution to provide, give the solution in the forums for all to see.

If anyone thinks I've missed something here, feel free to email me and I'll have it reviewed/added, etc. If your confused by any of these, email me and I will answer your questions.

Regards.

-trickykid

Redhat Support - Fedora
 

Recently there have been many concerns and threads being started concerning the Redhat ordeal, where they are no longer going to be supporting their existing desktop distributions.

I ask you now before starting a new thread to contribute to the existing threads that are discussing this. The main one you can find here: This Thread

For more information I'm sure you can either go to www.redhat.com or http://fedora.redhat.com/ about Fedora which is the project that is taking over the Redhat desktop distribution.

Regards.

www.mslinux.org - Yes, It's Fake!
 

I thought I'd never mention this in a sticky since we have usually more serious information posted in our stickies, but I would like to mention a thread that seems to get brought up very often as members seem to not realize that yes, they are not the first one's to find this site.

The site is: http://www.mslinux.org

Yes, its a parody site. Its not real. Its intended for a good laugh. Now that we all know about it, lets stop creating new threads regarding it.

Regards.

What is the Best Distro?
 

It seems that there are more and more threads being started that are asking "What is the Best Distro?" and so on along those lines.

I couldn't emphasize this enough but this is asked quite often, too often in fact. Searching in the Distribution forum will most likely find your answer or give you an idea of a possibility of in your choosing the best distro for yourself.

LinuxQuestions also has a Reviews section as well. I suggest anyone looking for a distro to check that out as well.

Another great resource is at www.distrowatch.com which pretty much covers about every distro made just about. This is also worthy of looking at if your asking this same question.

If you still have a question, please ask it in the Distribution MegaThread. Any "which distribution" questions asked here will be closed or merged into this thread.

Some more general information to keep in mind when posting on the forums, not just in Linux - General. I'm only posting this cause it just seems this is occuring more often since the number of members is only getting bigger, etc.

1. Be considerate and only post your question/thread once as its a rule to not post more than one time.

2. When replying to your threads after posting a question, be sure to reply to your own thread to keep the discussion all in one place. Posting a reply by creating a new thread is considered double posting.

3. If your question/thread has gone unanswered for a substantial amount of time, feel free to bump it back to the top after at least 24 hours has passed by. Any sooner is just plain rude and inconsiderate especially since members answer questions freely here and most of the time will give you solutions more quickly than most paid support services. If you do bump your thread, try to post more information you might have left out, a simple "anyone know the answer" or such just doesn't help as you should realize if you haven't recieved a response, maybe its cause you didn't provide enough details or explained your question in better details.

4. Please do not type in ALL CAPS, its rude and comes off as you yelling at us.

5. And again, if it has the word Microsoft or Windows in your thread and it's not a question regarding Linux in any way, most likely it belongs in General.

6. If you feel you posted your thread in the wrong forum, don't post it again in the forum you think its more suitable in. That's double posting and is against our rules. Kindly report it and a moderator will move it accordingly in most cases.

7. Please try to refrain from emailing questions to moderators and members. Post your questions here in the forums, its most likely the faster way to seek a solution to your question.

8. Don't report posts or threads to seek faster answers, only report posts if a member is breaking one of our rules found at http://www.linuxquestions.org/rules.php

If anyone feels anything else needs to be added to this thread to help cut down double posts and or anything I've mentioned in this thread, feel free to email me with your ideas.

Where is the <Distribution Name> Forum?
 

Do not ask why there isn't a forum for Gentoo or any other distribution. Please search first as this is asked all the time and we explain our policy in adding specific forums each and everytime. Search the Distro forum for the numerous explanations if you want more details, especially this sticky thread that goes into more details of the process: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...distro-513876/

If you have a specific distro question, feel free to ask it in the general Distirbution forum.

What is this program called?
 

Inspired by a recent post in which it dawned on me that this is asked way to often, I am adding it to this sticky to help eliminate this question from being asked to often here:

If you see a little panel in people's screenshots and it has like all the system type specs, before asking what this application is go to this site:

http://www.gkrellm.net

It is called gkrellm. Now you don't have to ask this in the forums.

"GKrellM is a single process stack of system monitors which supports applying themes to match its appearance to your window manager, Gtk, or any other theme."

How to handle closed threads?
 

Clearly members should realize that if you have a thread that gets closed for any reason, that does not prompt you to start another one stating the same thing or re-wording the thread to continue the discussion, thinking it will not get closed again.

If you have a thread that is or has been closed and misunderstand why it was closed, email the moderator that closed it or Jeremy the site administrator.

Also, do not start another thread to bash the moderator or start a negative mission against the moderator or site, as such actions will not win you any cookies in your favor. Upon such actions, you may find yourself without privileges to this site if you continue to do so and publicly humiliate yourself in the process.

Populate the HCL!
 

I just wanted to update this thread and let all the members who are not aware that LQ.org has a HCL (Hardware Compatibility List) to try and make this a great resource for all that seek answers when dealing with Linux and especially Hardware.

Its easy, if you run Linux then most likely you have hardware that might not already be listed in the HCL. One machine running Linux can probably create 5 to 10 HCL entries to let others know what works and what doesn't work in Linux.

So help populate the HCL. Currently there is a contest going on as well, so even just one entry in it can better your chances of winning, along with a Reviews entry and you must have at least one post in the forums as well.

To view the HCL, go here: http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/index.php

Cheers,

-trickykid

IBM Linux Commercial
 

For some reason people love commercials and keep asking about the IBM Linux commerical. I'd like to make everyone aware that we have merged all the threads discussing this here: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...hreadid=139190

So we keep the discussion all in one place as we had over a dozen different threads created to discuss it, ask where to download, etc.

So before you create a new thread regarding the IBM/Linux Commerical, why not contribute or read the existing one, cause if you do decide to not search this site and create a new thread discussing this, your thread will get closed. Its not rocket science to find something so obvious now at this time.

Microsoft - Get the Facts!
 

So we all know about Microsoft's Get the Facts Campaign. We don't need new threads created in regards to this as it's been posted dozens of times already on this site.

And let's try to keep the Microsoft FUD out of the Linux technical forums, especially Linux - General which is not General.

Thread Titles
 

Been seeing a lot of really bad thread titles around, so figured this causes for an update to this sticky..

The rules to good thread titles:

1. Decent thread titles enable users that browse and search the forums to know what your thread is about, without actually reading it.
2. A good thread title allows members the ability to know whether or not they can help you by just reading the title. (You can waste members time by making thread titles that don't describe your actual problem. Instead they have to open up your thread and read it before knowing if they can help or not.)
3. Creating a good title would enable most to almost know the exact solution to provide without even reading the thread itself in some cases.
4. Never place 'Urgent', 'Important' or any other attention grabbing words as they don't work and sometimes members will actually avoid threads titled in such manners. Your question has no priority over any other members questions.


-------------------------------------
Bad Titles - Should be avoided at all times.

"help"
"help me"
"please help me"
"need help"
"urgent linux doesn't work"
"i need help, its urgent"

-------------------------------------
Better Titles - Gives slight insight and clues to your question/thread.

"modem doesn't work"
"can't connect to the internet"
"my hard drive isn't being detected"
"linux keeps rebooting itself"
"can't receive email"
"ethernet card not detected"

-------------------------------------
Excellent Titles - Gives more details in title.

"External Motorola Modem Model 100CTX Blah doesn't work?"
"Cannot connect to internet but can ping IP addresses?"
"Installed new hard drive not detected: Maxtor Model Number Blah 80GB SATA"
"Fedora Core 4 new install keeps rebooting itself after kernel upgrade"
"Sendmail installation, can't recieve new mail but can send?"
"Installed 3com NIC, not detected?

-------------------------------------
Pure Genius Titles - The type of title that most could probably give a solution to without reading the actual thread.

"Fedora Core 3: External Motorola Modem Model Blah no dial tone when dialing?"
"Slackware: 3com NIC detected with IP address but can't reach web sites"
"Redhat ES3 MySQL 4.0.21 RPM installation issues, Error: error here blah blah"


If your in doubt of what to title your thread, simply pasting the error message is always a good start. Or if your not getting an error, stating the distribution used or application is always another good start. If its generic like a networking issue that you have no clue on what is going on, a simple "Network Issue: Brief description of what your doing here" works as well.

Clarifications on the Advertising Rule
 

The rules about advertising are a little vague and are misconcepted of what is allowed and what isn't allowed.

Here is a list of the things members should definitely not do when posting links as they are usually 100% judged as a type of advertising, direct or indirectly:

1. Your only intention for your thread is to redirect traffic to a commerical site you own or operate, etc.
2. The link you post contains code that benefits you to attain prizes, money, etc, by others clicking on it.
3. Do not link to your eBay auctions or any other auction for that matter.
4. If it looks like spam that you get in your Inbox, it's probably not suitable here in the forums.
5. Do not create threads just to link users to your own personal site; regardless of if it's a non-commerical site.
6. Link members to your own survey's.
7. Do not create threads to giveaway stuff, even if it's free. Linuxquestions.org is not the classifieds.

Here is a list of things that are sort of borderline and usually the moderators will discuss and come to a conclusion from that discussion of what actions to take:

1. Members who are spreading the word about Open Source non-profit software, projects, etc. In other words, if you have your own project that is listed on sourceforge.net or any other site, it's GPL'd or Open Sourced and want to create a thread to spread the word about the project and unsure that it would be considered as classifieds, contact Jeremy or a Moderator before posting it.
2. Members who link members to software downloads to test software they might have written themselves, etc.
3. Creating threads that link to your own articles that are in relation to LinuxQuestions, Linux or Open Source technologies written on your blog or personal website.
4. If such threads are approved to be posted that link to your own site for any reason, do not link members to your article on your site in any or relevant thread that is created on the forums. Feel free to link to the actual thread on the forums.

This list will surely evolve and grow as LQ grows, if you have any suggestions or comments, additions, please email me, another moderator or Jeremy.

Remember as well, these rules are not specifically on the rules page in this type of detail but going by this list here is how the majority of the moderators here will handle such situations.

I thought I'd never have to mention something like this or ever dream of bringing it up but here goes:

If you have a loved one or know someone and this so-called person is in a close circle of friends or family, and this person happens to die, we don't need short undescriptive threads created detailing that someone you knew or loved died. LinuxQuestions.org is not an orbituary for people we don't know or have never heard of. It's sad and I'm sad to say people die everyday, but posting or creating threads of such events are pointless on a public forum where no one knew such person. If you really need some kind of closure or need to talk about it, you should seek professionals or professional help or family for condolences, LQ is not the place for such things to be honest.

What's That Program Called - Again
 

As a follow up to this post (some 3 years later), that program is probably no longer called GKrellM. Time has moved on and the program is likely to be called SuperKaramba (if you run KDE) or gDesklets (if you run Gnome). So now you know.

SuperKaramba is bundled inside the newer versions of KDE and you need to download plugins for it. Your distro will probably package gDesklets, particularly if it's a Gnome based distro.