How do I get help with the Fedora Project?

Maintained by Colin Charles, <byte@aeon.com.my>

Since Fedora is "unsupported", getting help means performing a little work of your own. This may involve searching the archives, using Google, and lastly, posting to a mailing list or even asking on IRC. Keep in mind that everyone's a volunteer, and there is no support@fedora.com, for instance - so play nice.

Netiquette

If this is your first time posting to a mailing list, or asking for help, please read How to Ask Questions the Smart Way, by Eric Raymond and Rick Moen. It is an excellent guide, giving you very useful information as to how questions should be worded, and gives you a good chance at getting an answer in a timely fashion.

If you do post to a mailing list, please post to the correct mailing list. Posting to the wrong mailing list just increases traffic, and makes everyone less productive (and reduces the chances of your question getting an answer). Being off-topic is another evil - it unnecessarily increases traffic to lists (so don't ask Red Hat 9 questions on a Fedora list, for example).

If you are subscribed to a mailing list for a while, do not hijack a thread, if you have a new topic. Start a new message with a new posting, so that people with threaded mail readers don't get confused.

Be patient. Don't expect answers immediately; things take time, and its volunteer time. So make a volunteer's time worthwhile.

How do I get help?

Search the archives of an appropriate mailing list

fedora-list archives - the list where all questions about the current Fedora Core release gets answered
fedora-test-list archives - the list where all questions about the current Fedora Core test release gets answered

Use appropriate resources to find answers

#fedora Unofficial FAQ - get started, find out terms like what "dag's repository" means, and so on.
Fedoranews.org
Fedorazine
Google

Still cannot find the answer to your question? Take out a subscription to fedora-list or fedora-test-list, depending on which one is more accurate to the nature of your question.

As of this writing, questions about Fedora Core 1 should be sent to fedora-list, while questions about Fedora Core 2 test1 or even Fedora Core 1 AMD64 Release should be sent to fedora-test-list.
Post sensibly and expect a response in a timely fashion.
Under no circumstance should you subscribe to the other lists listed in The Fedora Project: Communicate. The other lists are specific, and do not require more traffic.

Even if you think it's cool to subscribe to the developers list, or the documentation list, you better be working on those projects before you ask a question. Do not make the developers spend time on your question, which could be answered in either the fedora-list or the fedora-test-list lists.

IRC is a good way to "hang" (and get almost immediate responses). Join us on Freenode (irc.freenode.net) at the #fedora channel. It is now a restricted channel, so please register your nickname with the NickServ (/msg NickServ help).

And lastly, thank you for reading, and following on with got practices. Enjoy Fedora!

Created: Wed Feb 4 04:57:01 EST 2004
Last Updated: Sun Feb 8 18:17:16 EST 2004