Basics
Too long, won't read? Watch Jorge's video.
You can log in with your Launchpad user by clicking the Launchpad icon on the Login page.
Unlike forums and mailing lists, this concentrates on highlighting the good answers, and downvoting the incorrect or bad answers. It's not a replacement for discussion, just a more efficient way to get answers. The about page has a picture which illustrates this best.
After you get some reputation make sure you are voting good questions and answers up, and bad answers down! Check out this guide if you need help deciding on criteria on how to vote.
A ton of value comes from finding a question and answer via a search engine. We want a good answer to be the top hit for "How do I use the me menu?" Don't worry if the questions are scrolling by too quickly on the front page, this isn't about tracking discussions.
What is Stack Exchange and Stack Overflow? Joel's announcement for stackoverflow.com mentions the motivation behind this method of Q&A. More information on Stack Exchange in general can be found in the Stack Overflow community FAQ (much of it is general, some is specific to SO).
Asking good questions
People will upvote your question based on it's quality, so put some effort into it.
You don't need to put "Ubuntu" or the version in the question title, use tags instead. For example, instead of "How to install foobar in Ubuntu 10.04?" you can say "How to install foobar?" and tag it with [foobar] [install] [10.04]. This makes the questions easier to read on the front page.
There is no bumping. However, please continue to work on your question with updates on what you have tried and additional details you have discovered. This will give it a natural bump, and people will be able to watch your progress in adding more detail. People tend to help/upvote people who are actively trying to investigate their problem.
As you add to your question, if you end up finding the answer, then answer your own question (example) so that future readers can benefit from it!
If someone answers your question, accept it as the answer. This is an important part of the process and rewards the people trying to help you.
Giving good answers
Don't only link to random sources on the Internet. Any person can type their answer into Google and do that. If the information is good and under an open license, just put it in the answer (don't forget to link to and attribute the author). Try to make your answer the definitive answer to the question and also send them to the official documentation your team supports.
Edit, edit, edit should be your mantra. — If you've got a good answer and someone adds more detail, integrate it, and remember to always respect an individual's work.
Comments are like "meta" for the answer. Don't ping pong back and forth in comments with new data, when someone leaves a comment with more info or something, just add the information to your question directly. If people post updates to a comment ask them to add it to their question; that's where the power of SE comes in: updates on people answering their question happens in the answers and the questions, so that when you are finished people don't have to track the conversation, just the final answer and solution.
Integration tips for Ubuntu teams
Many teams keep FAQs on the Ubuntu Wiki. Since Ask Ubuntu has tags, you can use this system as a "living FAQ". See the [kernel] tag for an example.
"I am already a subject matter expert on foo, give me rep and stuff to start weeding out junk." — No. It doesn't work that way. If you're an expert start answering questions it works itself out. This is the same system that keeps the junk out, so if you are an expert then you'll have no problem.
This is not a replacement for how-to guides your doc teams have been working on for years. This is a place for answers to individual questions. Do ensure that in the answer you do link back to the place in the documentation that your team is already maintaining. Consider this another avenue that users will use to get to your information.
This is not a place to report bugs, though we will get new users that will want to do that. Be patient by pointing them to the right place and voting to close those questions (flagging for moderator attention if necessary and you're sure it should be closed). You can downvote for asking a poor, unclear, or not-useful question, but downvoting for asking in the wrong place isn't necessary.
Existing Ubuntu Contributors: Fill out your user page (example) with what you do for the project. This will help people learn who you are and your level of expertise.
Spread the word
- We need help getting the word out, we have some ideas on how you can help, especially in places where users are already asking you for help.
