Etiquitte and information

[Bookworm]

It seems that we're attracting a large number of non-english speakers, at least as a first language.

Is there any way we can possibly streamline their questions?

Maybe a suggestion on "If you're having a problem, be sure to give us all of the following information"

Right now, I'm too tired to really come up with a list, but I wanted to get input from people - what would be good for a list of things?

Examples

1) What linux distribution, and which revision level of that distribution, are you running?
2) Is this your first installation of Linux?
3) Is this your first installation of a mail server?
4) At which point of the installation are you having problems?
5) Could you cut and paste the exact error, as well as what you typed just before the error occurred?

Also - the habit some people have had of breaking out of their original question posts to create new topics, which would be better served to continue in the original.

When do we give up on people, and tell them to RTFM, or other, similar, statements?

BW

[tomse]

well about the RTFM part, we can ask if they have reinstalled their mail-box 3 times, following each line from the quide, before asking them to
RTFM..
It might not be polite, but it also seems that the site is attracting alot of newbies (inclusive myself), and some who don't want to do alittle bit of work for researching by themselves..

Another way.. a reference to the whole chapter..
like, read chapter 9 and see if you've missed a spot..
(am I being too harsh ?)


Language problem.. Well most ppl here speak english, and the guides are in english, so shouldn't the support be in english ?
We could tell the ppl who posts in other languages than english that they
might not get support since there are so few ppl speaking their language
here on the site.

[metalized]

well i think that RTFM is a very polite thing to say to someone. I myself am a relatively new Linux user, and I got directly in to the deep waters having to install samba servers and fileservers for MAC without having any prior experience of Linux whatsoever. RTFMing got me out of troubles, so i don't mind if someone reminds me to RTFM every now and then. And I think now, after 1,5 years of linux usage that it is not in the Linux spirit not to invest some research and just wait for answers in a forum. Hmmm....


Qmailrocks rocks. :)

[metalized]

Language problem.. Well most ppl here speak english, and the guides are in english, so shouldn't the support be in english ?
We could tell the ppl who posts in other languages than english that they
might not get support since there are so few ppl speaking their language
here on the site.If i start posting in greek it would not be very polite i assume :twisted: , right? Generally linux users know english. nobody minds if we make a spelling mistake. if we get the point that is important. maybe someday there will be a "englishlanguagerocks.org" site and we will all learn perfect english from that, but till then mistakes could b excused. but not posting in other languages. (well only a bit for fun maybe)