LinuxQuestions.org Turns Eighteen
 

I'm proud to announce that LQ turned 18 today! I’d like to once again thank each and every LQ member for their participation and feedback. While there is always room for improvement, that LQ has remained a friendly and welcoming place for new Linux members despite its size is a testament to the community.

To say that feedback has been absolutely critical to our success is an understatement. As has become tradition, I'd like to use this thread to collect as much feedback as possible about LQ. What are we doing well and where can we improve? Where are we failing? What can we do to ensure long time members remain engaged and willing to help? What can we do to ensure new members feel welcome? What should we be doing differently?

As part of our 18 year anniversary, we'll be randomly selecting 18 posts from this thread and upgrading that member to "Contributing Member" status for one year. Stay tuned, and thanks again for being a member. Together, I think we can make LQ even better.

--jeremy

Amazing!!! 18 years. I can't believe it. Keep up the great work!

Pros: It seems that even with obscure things, there's normally someone who will provide an answer or at least point you in the right direction.

Cons: Still a bit of arrogance in the posts at times. Pride is a very ugly trait.
It would be good to also teach more. Don't just say "do this" and end the post. Explain how and why something is done. This way we can keep growing. If the person you're helping doesn't really care, that's okay, someone else coming up later might find it very useful.

We have seen a lot of other internet platforms come and go since June 2000. Cool job, jeremy! Congratulations!

Well, I guess the first thing to say is.... Happy B-day LQ!!!

I think to a large extent the answer to your questions in post #1 Jeremy, lies in the word "community" ...

So, if this site's about providing a "community" of Linux users to help one another as well as those who are new to Linux, then we should ask what it means to provide a "community" that's able to not just help, but also support and educate. As I think part of trying to help also involves educating not just those new but also educating the existing "community". So I think given that: it's not just about having the technical no-how to be able to answer technical questions, it's also being able to engage constructively with those we are trying to help. A part of that also involves both the members trying to help, but also, just as importantly, those we are trying to help. In other words: it MUST be a two-way street, it can't be a one-way street - that doesn't work.

We should also remember in the end, I don't know anyone on the face of the Earth that could honestly say they are perfect, I know I can't say that myself, about myself. I also know that I'll never be able to answer all of the questions we see here, and therefore others are critical to be able to answer what I or others can't.

I think people should also remember that a "community" is a group of people, not just one or two people. The point: it takes everyone here to make the place what it is or could be.

I also have to say that personally, I find at least 9 times out of 10 that even when members are disagreeing about something, it more often than not remains quite respectful, and normally very respectful. So I don't understand comments like "Still a bit of arrogance in the posts at times. Pride is a very ugly trait.". As I personally DO like to take pride in what I do, as if I don't take any pride in what I do, it does beg the question in my mind: why am I doing it if I take no pride in it? I don't believe that's the same thing as "arrogance", I'm sorry and WITH all respect.

So I think the better question here would be: how do we educate both ourselves as well as those we are trying to help, to able to help both parties better?

Jeremy must be a very proud father
 

Happy Birthday LQ !! :party:

It feels great to be a part of this wonderful community, where you learn something new everyday. :cool:

The community is the strong point and the moderators steer exceptionally well yet maintain a light touch, they are not interminable beggars like some at other sites.

As for doing better, I worry about the planned 2FA and hope that it does not tie 2FA users into mandatory javascript usage. That would neutralize (at best) the benefits of 2FA. From my own very small experiments with writing 2FA support, it looks like there are many server-side methods available.

However, overall everything is good and 18 years is not just many generations of technologies but starting to get into the realm of multiple human generations. So, congratulations for getting the ball rolling 18 years ago and sticking with it!

The friendliest Linux place on the inner webs!

thank you
 

Found this site extremely useful as someone working in the security monitoring space and not being a Linux trained person can find answers to most questions in the forum-thank you

jeremy, i cannot think of where you are failing so you must be doing everything right

except...maybe...on site privacy and security information.
I am too lazy to search this site right now but might I suggest a link under the main menu heading. Where all the security precautions employed by your site are available for viewing. how to safely surf your site and protect the security of other users. How hard would it be to employ encryption techniques on this site and encourage their use for all internet users. I am sure if i got off my virtual rump i could confirm this on your site already.
httpS:// everywhere...confirmed.

I believe in credit where credit is due. if i come up with a brilliant idea, like this one, and post it to this site, how easy would it be to establish that post as a permanent online record under copyleft conditions? Could all member content on your site be used to establish copyleft protection?

With copyleft in mind, i wonder if LQ could implement the following idea:
Being too lazy and paranoid to donate online I have long thought if only I could donate to a public account run by LQ. A portion of that donation would be available for me to use to as i wish to support other good causes at the push of button. A community chest so to speak, and LQ would allocate other portions to X-prizes suggested by LQ members. [blockchain wallet??]

and one more i hesitate to suggest. after logging in i tried to access the advertisers supporting this site? and luckily could not find any. After logging in, I would be willing to click on a link to a page on this site to view static? advertising to generate revenue for LQ.
i.e. Completely anonymous and untraceable to a single member.

if any of this is already available...remember... i am lazy today.
great site and most welcoming

I'd like to use this event, to say thank you. To all of you. I learned lots and lots here over the years. Jeremy and the mods made it possible but many, many members just shared knowledge -- and I love to learn. So, again, thank you, everybody.

Oh, yes, and happy birthday of course, keep this site as it is, Jeremy, and I for one will be happy.

Still standing through out those tough years.
 

It is nice to know that LQ is still going strong and everyone that can help is, has or had done so and in doing so had helped to keep this forum going. CHEERS to another maybe twenty years!

Happy Birthday LQ !!

Meh.....

Seems like us engineers are always accidentally figuring out ways to screw up our systems beyond what ordinary people do. As a consequence none of my questions ever seem to get answered, because quite frankly they are so unique, no one has ever tackled them before. But hey, you're board is 18 now. You must be doing something right. keep up the good work.

Yeah, you must be the one real and true expert after a whole of 6 posts on the whopping number of 2 (two) threads before coming here.

Signed on october 10th 2017 to first "highjack" a twelve year old zombi-thread and never answering to the solution offered there.

In the other thread (highjacked again) you found one solution yourself, introduced a further problem and solved that also.

If you need LQ just for self profiling why do you complain?

Thanks Jeremy
 

Thanks for an amazing 18 years of community, information and a welcoming spirit. What brought me here has kept me here, the simple fact that there wasn't the arrogance of mistreatment, that questions can be asked and answered with civility and that people do wish to help each other. That is after all, what I want to do as often as possible, help others in need achieve what they want and need. This is indeed a welcoming community with a sense of curiosity, and that is why I have come here for so long.

Thanks Jeremy, and here is to the next 18 years of success!

freecode

LQ is of legal age !
 

Congratulations LQ! I think the page is very good, one of the best for finding answers about GNU-linux and BSD for novices like me. One suggestion: perhaps the revisions of the distributions can be improved, since there are many that are missing such as Trisquel, Dragora, Parabola (supported by the FSF) as well as those based on BSD (FreeBSD, dragonfly, openBSD, GhostBSD)

I'd like to suggest to moderator to create a Devuan sub-forum in Linux Distributions.
It is necessary because Devuan is "deb", but it is not Debian.

Freedom creates wonderful opportunities, many thanks to those @ linuxquestions.org, I learned so much over the last 18 years!!!

Congratulations.

A list of things that LQ could now do if it were British:

https://www.rbkc.gov.uk/subsites/kcc...ightsat18.aspx

In general, life starts (officially) becoming a bit more fun. ;)

Happy 18th!!
 

Most of the time it's where I'll look for information or for questions, and I usually find it. I wish you a lot more birthdays and thanks to everybody participating and especially those that take care of the site. THANKS

That is so true. The number of people that benefit from a thread, is a large multiple of the number of people posting on the thread. We want to always keep in mind that what we post is not only for the benefit of those posting on the thread, but also for the large multitude that will also be reading the threads.

I see a lot of people post on the internet a question, figure out the solution to their question, even if it does not get answered by someone on that thread, but never posting back what they learned about how to fix the issue that they were having. So we want to continue to encourage people to post the solution when found so that everyone else reading the thread can benefit.

Wayne Sallee
Wayne@WayneSallee.com
http://www.WayneSallee.com

I'm pretty sure the reference is to certain people who find it difficult to cope patiently with clueless noobs that won't do their own homework. I'm thinking of TBone in particular. Now, to do him justice, I've never known him to flame anyone who didn't deserve it. The question is, should we flame even people who are clearly asking for it? When I was younger, I tried always to be polite to newbies, because in those days (around the turn of the century), Linux users had a bad reputation for arrogance. But now that I'm getting old, I find it more and more difficult to keep from snapping sarcastically at some of the worst offenders.

Different fora had different policies on this. Ubuntu Forums was always heavily moderated and everyone was supposed to be nice all the time to newbies, but the result was that a lot of people never seemed to learn anything. Debian Forums (which I briefly patronised) was much more abrasive, but not abrasive enough for some old timers, who forked off the Debian Users Forum, where they could say whatever they felt like saying. I think Jeremy keeps a pretty good balance here between too much sarcasm and too much indulgence of stupidity.

I am new in linux one a greath idea for me is the ubuntu one distro how have more distros the odeia to turn all apps in a download like a store and easy to install. Become more easy to me I use windows and four distros linux ubuntu fedora mint and chrome os and I understanding all but to make a help is a possibility to make a help page of search in the system for example I want to install a program how are not in the store I use snap but if the program are not in the two references i say a help search for that is to use an ideas for the user beginning I.A.

New member
 

I am new to LQ and Linux. Thanks for all the geat tips and solutions.

Greg

I can't even use the forum properly, never mind Linux - used (rarely) when macOS High Sierra can't do the software e.g. Xilinx and when I want Scilab on the same VirtualBox but can't really stomach using Windows. One of my issues is when I do certain things e.g. get Scilab working on Fedora 28 and/or Ubuntu but then, at a later date have forgotten how I solved issues {pretty much have Xilinx (& Vivado) operation cracked now}. So my suggestion is a fixed resource for new starters that can be easily found and containing 'Keep It Short & Simple' newbie starting blocks, such as the examples I've mentioned plus fundamental items like running a program in this way "./scilab" use of chown, editing custom.conf to disable use of 'wayland' (to print flickering on an iMac) use of chmod when necessary, sudo distinctions between the distributions I've mentioned. particularly with regard to Fedora 28 e.g. sudo 'passwd' etc. A very clear and simple explanation of symbolic links - at some point and so on and so forth!

I really love LQ!
I do have to say, though... the LQ website would look more inviting to newcomers if it had a (reasonably) modern redesign. It really shows its age, and to newcomers would probably look borderline obsolete (even though it isn't).

Good job, Jeremy! Keep it up!

An exceptional site and I have yet to leave the site without an answer. Thanks Jeremy and press on I am sure we will find other things to test your skills....!!

I have been lucky enough to work with Linux in a commercial environment since before it was acceptable to do so. I helped test out the IBM ServeRAID drivers on the early Netfinity servers under Red Hat before there was an Enterprise version.

I have yet to ask a question on Linux Questions as I always found an answer to the questions I had.

Thanks for being a stable and reliable source of information for so may years!

Mishap

Happy Anniversary LQ!

Yes, this place is a good place
 

I enjoy spending time here unlike some other sites. Keep up the good work. I also want to thank all the people that has helped me.
renny

it appears someone has already spiked the punch at this birthday bash and we have forgotten, it is a birthday party and not the time or place to bash...

in keeping with my belief of credit where credit is due...here is to you, post #21, you know who you are
if only it had been post #22 the rhythm of the rhyme would have flowed through
Wayne, i credit you with stealing...borrowing...clarifying the thought i was too lazy to express at the time of my previous post
dang...i want to 'strike through' stealing...borrowing but cannot quickly figure it out at the moment...did i mention i am lazy today...perhaps someone can help me with that
it brings to mind a star trek episode...voyager? next generation? aha...i believe it was jordie? who was .hijacked. by a group of people who claimed...we are dumb you are smart can you help us

anyways the thread of my idea is unraveling which is the point of post 21, threads need to be sewn together once we have discovered the pattern.blueprint.code of what we wish to make
i am guilty of not tying up my own loose threads that i have originated.tugged at

i am dumb you are smart...can you help me sew together all the threads that lead to the solution to my problem... sew that others may benefit from our collective wisdom of a solution without having to rehash the heavy lifting...

we all have the seed of knowledge but in order to claim credit for the fruit of that seed...we must plant it and care for it until it bears fruit
i only feel the need to claim credit because i need others to share their knowledge with me so i may thrive
i wish to share my knowledge with others but i fear i do not contribute my fair share and feel guilty if i cannot point out my own .claim to credit. for a fair exchange

some comments at this party might be non.appropriate ...off topic perhaps

lets remember the spirit and purpose of jeremy's 18 year old baby and cut out the code of comments that put a bug in our programing

criticism or critique is useful to simplify our programing
but here and now, on this particular thread...its time to PARTY and celebrate LQ
oops...i have forgotten why jeremy invited us all here...party and further participation...politely..

now where is that punch bowl...

Wow! What was all that about?

Am always looking forward to learning more about Linux.

Thanks for being here!

decaf!

Feedback
 

Hi all,

and as a rather new, if not brand new, ok, somewhat new member/user of this forum I've received an email from well, here, to participate in this survey. To give some feedback. Well, as I've said, I'm fairly new, so I don't have that much impressions about the forum or the likes of the community that resides here. So I'm in a situation where I'm an outsider which had no good or bad experiences here. So, now now that it's clear where I'm coming from and where I stand, I'll try to answer the questions. But these are just my thoughts, I'm just trying to return the favor.

Well this place is a knowledge base for anything related to Linux and far beyond, If you know what and where to look for. That would be the doing well part. How can you improve here? Have you though about redesigning the forum, giving it a fresh look and a different, more readable ux, for easier navigation. To be more precise, have you thought about braking the forum into lets say 3 parts, first one would be for beginners with most common issues listed there (installing, gaming, etc), the second part would be for advanced users but for general purpose (more of a place where they can hang out, chat, collaborate on some side projects, or just be goofy) and the third part would be also for advanced users but with specific purpose (networking, security, cloud, etc). This way forum would look more friendlier to newcomers and beginners (it's hard to ask a "stupid" question when the people around you talk in "machine code"), and your long term and/or seasoned users would be "protected" from seeing the basic boring stuff all over again when they are not in the mood for that. But of course, every user could still jump from "site to site". The main idea is to simplify the navigation for new users and beginners, and for the rest of course, and to give those who want it a place where they can share they ideas, works, and have a feeling that they still can grow here and be of help to others, when needed. Basically, different type of users have different needs. And it's all about meeting their needs. For example, although, I'm a newbie to Linux, I would still like to be aware that I can reach to advanced users and topics when I fell like it, want it, or need it. But I would also like to find a solution to my problem without being afraid that I'll step on someones toes with my ignorance and of course, find the solution in three clicks. So that's why I think braking up the forum in some similar way might actually be a better way of doing things. I don't think I have anything else to say regarding this survey(feedback, whatever) and from what point I'm looking at it. I don't know how much I'm on track here either, but that's not the point nor on me to decide, I just tried to give back something to those who give out to others. Oh, and of course...

Happy birthday! All the best! :) So, where's the party? (Don't worry, I wont come... ;))

Happy 18th Birthday to LQ!

:party:

Can we have a party at Jeremy's house?

So who's bringing the punch? :p

Congratulations! Thank you, Jeremy, for your service. Please keep up the good work and here's hoping that the community will continue to help each other and sustain this site for many years to come.

Great work being done here!

frog soop
 

its virtual punch and you are currently swimming in it...:confused:
in reality...it is simply marely frog soup...:study:
but in honour of jeremy's bouncing baby blog...:jawa:
we have .punched. it up so we may raise a glass of cool.aide...:hattip:
...in a good way...by the way
i hope i did not splash anyone as i raced to fill my glass...:redfacefoot:

hmmm...where is the raised glass icon...:scratch:

...there is a fly.bug in my soup...
i wish to send my congrats and yet hesitate to submit reply

i submit my reply with a request the submit reply button be renamed...
send reply

hmmm...i have error ed in my submission
i have over indulged by submitting two many icons in this reply
eight 2 more than six
what to do what to do
i shall hide my face in shame and strike out my embarrassed face and foot face icon
and add a virtual smilie face here... ;]

I'm already here! (My last name is Punch).In school, report cards were issued with the last name printed first. No matter how good my grades were, I always went home with bruises.

Being by far much more a «reader» than a «writer» I have to thank the whole community for the advice I grabbed here and there and helped me so much during my endless quest for taming an Arch Linux system which, by the ways always meet all my expectations (as soon as I discover how to explain what I wish to it).
So happy birthday LQ and thanks again to all the contributors.
From Toulouse, France, with my best thoughts

Yay, 18 years! Finally allowed to be f- sorry, wrong thread.

18! Yes! We're finally legal! :)

Congratulations!!!! 18 years !!! almost catch up my age :shake:

Thanks for all the fish!
 

Thanks Jeremy for keeping this site alive and growing. I find it a valuable resource and have never once seen anyone being rude to anyone else. I guess I have a thick skin, if someone were to be rude, one monkey don't stop the show. Keep up the good work.

Thanks for the site. My suggestion is to have at least one additional prefix such as 'ABANDONED' or 'ORPHANED' -- there are often posts marked 'SOLVED' where the OP fixed the issue and never reported the details, abandoned the effort completely, chose a different route, or the thread simply devolved in chaos. Adding search prefixes that accurately reflect the outcome of aging posts would make research easier and flag topics that deserve further attention.

Jeremy,

Congratulations on your 18th. year! :)

I remember 18 years ago seeing this website across my internet life. Awesome! May the next 18*x be defined, haha,
Merry Xmas!

Long life to LQ!
Congratulations!