Reflections on the Ubuntu Forum

I think there should be another section for the forum—Absolutely Absolute Beginners Talk. When I first registered yesterday, the top Sticky Thread was about how to effectively report bugs. I read it, (it included code examples) and it was so far over my head that I felt intimidated. And it was directed to absolute beginners!

I looked around, and came across a link to a list of reading material for us newbies. At the top of the list was Free Ubuntu Pocket Guide by Keir Thomas. I gratefully downloaded a copy and saved it in my IRLS672 folder.

I wanted to spend some more time today getting acclimated to the forum, and learn how to effectively navigate it. It was a good thing I saved the Pocket Guide because I couldn’t find it on the site today. It took me several minutes and false starts to get to where I left off yesterday. (I guess it wasn’t obvious enough by the title of the thread: “New to Ubuntu? Start here...”) One of our classmates mentioned that he had determined how valuable a thread was by looking at the number of views it had. That certainly helped me find the thread again today. What a good tip—I hope to remember that one.

Since we haven’t run Ubuntu yet, most of the other threads, dealing with specific problems, were of no interest to me. I have started reading the Pocket Guide, and find it understandable. I will continue reading it to give myself a headstart with our work on Ubuntu.

I noticed that the forum has a large and active community. At one point there were over 12,000 people online; the majority guests. A lot of Ubuntu users must be searching for answers to their problems. One of the threads I got caught up in advised users how to effectively search for answers in the forum. ZabiGG explained that because the forum is so heavily used, a question that was asked only 30 minutes before may already have moved to the third or fourth page. (ZabiGG advises putting a term in quotes when desiring a phrase or adjacent proximity search.)

I was saddened to see a prominent thread warning users about offerings of malicious codes. It made me feel vulnerable, in my current state of not knowing anything, to think that some malevolent might enjoy destroying another’s computer, files, and possibly source of revenue.