We're in an odd situtation as "stackers" have had a long-established community, and so has Ubuntu. We need to ensure that we communicate best practices to existing Ubuntu teams. Since I am a new "stacker" myself I have been learning how this works, the culture around it, and thought I would write these down for other Ubuntu folks. Basics ------ - If you are too lazy to read this just [watch this video][1]. - [Read the FAQ][2]. - What is StackExchange and Stackoverflow? Joel's [announcement for stackoverflow.com][3] mentions the motivation behind this method of doing Q&A. - If you want to use your launchpad ID use `launchpad.net/~yourusername` in the openid field (leave out the http). We're working on making that more obvious. - Unlike forums and mailing lists, this concentrates on highlighting the good answers, and downvoting the incorrect or bad answers. It's [not a replacement][4] for discussion, just a more efficient way to get answers. The [about][5] page has a picture which illustrates this best. More information on the way stackers do thing can be found on the [stackoverflow.com FAQ][6]. - *After you get some reputation make sure you are voting good questions and answers up, and bad answers down!* - 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. 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, use tags for that. So instead of "How do I do foobar in Ubuntu 10.04?" you can say "How do I do foobar?" and tag it with the proper tags. This makes the questions easier to read on the front page. - There's no bumping - if your question is unanswered the community user will bump it on occasion. - Feel free to continue to work on your question, edit, edit, edit. 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][7] so that future generations can benefit from it! - If someone answers your question, accept it as the answer. This is an important [part of the process][8] and rewards the people trying to help you. Giving good answers ------------------- - Don't link and run 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 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][9], 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. How you can help us ------------------- - We need help getting the word out, [we have some ideas][10] on how you can help, especially in places where users are already asking you for help. Tips for integration into your existing Ubuntu team ----------------------------------- - Many teams keep FAQs on the Ubuntu Wiki, since the exchange system lets you tag questions, you can use this system as a "living FAQ": See the [kernel tag][11] 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 the Howtoguides** 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** - while we get new users people will want to do that. Be patient by pointing them to the right place and downvoting the question. - Existing Ubuntu Contributors: Fill out your user page ([example][12]) with what you do for the project. This will help people learn who you are and your level of expertise. [1]: http://www.youtube.com/ubuntudevelopers#p/a/u/0/rDMsQNAl90Y [2]: http://ubuntu.stackexchange.com/faq [3]: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/09/15.html [4]: http://meta.ubuntu.stackexchange.com/questions/234/why-this-over-the-ubuntu-forums [5]: http://ubuntu.stackexchange.com/about [6]: http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/7931/ [7]: http://ubuntu.stackexchange.com/questions/3126/upstart-supervised-apache-in-ubuntu-10-04 [8]: http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/5234/accepting-answers-what-is-it-all-about [9]: http://meta.ubuntu.stackexchange.com/questions/252/how-do-i-demote-my-own-answer-and-encourage-people-to-see-the-more-detailed-one [10]: http://meta.ubuntu.stackexchange.com/questions/171/help-spread-this-site [11]: http://ubuntu.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/kernel [12]: http://ubuntu.stackexchange.com/users/235/jorge-castro