Ask Ubuntu

Ask Ubuntu is a website of community-driven questions and answers for the Ubuntu OS. It is a segment of a network the Stack Exchange which is running a similar software like Stack Overflow.

All members gain influence which is based on the response of the community to their various questions and answers. Influence indicates trust for many users within the answers provided. Every privilege is provided based on the level of influence along with users using the highest influence having the same privileges to all moderators. Every user-generated content has been licensed upon the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license.

On October 10, 2010, the site came out of beta that is launching with the 10.10 version of Ubuntu. Ask Ubuntu contains approximately 925662 registered users and 373339+ questions as of 2021 March.

Ask Ubuntu is distinct from IRC mailing lists and web forums in that rather than chronologically solve an issue they solve it by changing and updating data, even if we haven't specified it. As we know that there are always a few things that could be improved over the site for keeping the freshness and quality improving over time. The traffic (95%) to the site is coming from search engines. Hence, reviewing content to be accurate is important constantly.

History of Ask Ubuntu

Ask Ubuntu has become popular as a proposed question and answer site for Ubuntu developers and users over the Stack Exchange area 51. Stack Exchange was selected for launching Ask Ubuntu in the private beta using other users of the internet supporting the side proposal through "commitment".

The site eventually came out of a public beta along with the Ask Ubuntu name which was selected from the process of a community voting and it was published with the 10.10 version of Ubuntu Maverick Meerkat in 2010 October.

Ask Ubuntu was permitted for continuing with an isolated UNIX and LINUX site despite the policy of the Stack Exchange against fragmentation after voting and deliberation.

Ask Ubuntu has acquired support from Canonical Ltd. that has permitted the site for using its trademark. Also, Canonical Ltd. has supported the site designing ensuring that the theme of Ask Ubuntu follows the brand guidelines of Ubuntu.

Format of ask Ubuntu

The website permits its users to answer and ask questions. All users are provided the ability for voting the questions and answers down or up. Also, they can receive "badges" and reputation points for their several contributions to the website.

For instance, a user is compensated with 10 reputation points when their answers to any question earn an upvote.

Every user can also submit changes to the questions and answers in the style of the wiki with having their recommended changes go through the process of a peer review.

With 2000 or 2000+ reputation points, users can directly change the questions and answers without having the changes go through the process of the same peer review. A few posts are developed as "community Wiki" that have a less reputation requirement to edit.

Ask Ubuntu contains two subsites which are mentioned below:

• A 'meta' in which users can answer and ask questions related to the site itself.
• A collection of chat rooms (real-time) as a segment of the Stack Exchange site network.

Get started with Ask Ubuntu

Ask Ubuntu continuous with the concept of "reputation" to provide us access to different segments of the website. So, similarly, like a video game, we need to unlock many privileges that are received by gaining reputation. It is awarded to us by peers if participating in the website. The maximum reputation we earn the maximum the community trusts us and the maximum things we will be permitted to accomplish over the website.

One of the best ways for getting started with Ask Ubuntu is to go through the Ask Ubuntu guide. Then, we can get begin reviewing Greatest Hits, Existing Frequently Asked Questions, and Unanswered Questions for freshness and quality.

Tips and tricks of Ask Ubuntu

1. Answers that frequently receive higher upvotes bug reports of launchpad, cross reference documentation (official), and other sources (official). They are informed if they are required to be and contain step-by-step instructions and screenshots. Anyone can give an answer to a question by pasting inside a command then the best answer gets in the knowledge any user would require to teach themselves.
2. We need to focus on fixing the structure of the post such as grammar, spelling, and so on if we are not any technical users. We can do it on many posts that we might not even know technically. We will begin to pick up technical details over time as we review content and anyone can learn a lot about Ubuntu only by content reviewing for quality.
3. Almost all users do not know the importance of being unique. If we see any question with a normal title such as "Wireless doesn't work" or "Firefox problem", then we can update that question for improving it along with content using their body. Hence, "Wireless doesn't work" could become "How do I get a Broadcom BCM12345 to work?" and "Firefox problem" could become "How do I get Firefox to print?" and so on.

Features of Ask Ubuntu

As we know that Ask Ubuntu is a website of question and answer for the developers and users of Ubuntu. It is created and run by us as a segment of a network of the Stack Exchange of questions and answers sites. They are working together with our help for building a library of several answers to all questions about Ubuntu. We can pursue the 'Ubuntu Code of Conduct' if participating in this community.

• Ask questions receive answers no confusion
  Ask Ubuntu website is completely based on getting answers. It is not any discussion forum and there is no chit-chat. All excellent answers can be voted up and appear on the top.
  It means the best answers display a first so that these answers are always found easily. The user who asked could mark a single answer as "accepted". But accepting does not mean it is a great answer, it means that it is implemented for the user who asked.
• Get answers to detailed and practical questions
  We need to concentrate on questions about a real problem we have faced including information about what we have done and what we are trying to do exactly. Not every question implements well in their format. They can ignore questions that are mainly opinion-based or likely to produce discussion instead of answers.
  Note: Questions that require improvements might be closed until anyone solves them.
  • Ask about...
    • Actual questions or problems that we have encountered
    • Services that are given by Ubuntu
    • Improvement on Ubuntu
    • Running applications of the third party on Ubuntu
    • Administering and using Ubuntu using official Ubuntu derivatives.
  • Don't ask about...
    • Anything that is not directly corresponding to Ubuntu, officially supported derivatives, or its community.
    • Questions using several possible answers or will need a longer answer
    • Questions that are mainly opinion-based
• Tags make it convenient to search for interesting questions
  Every question is tagged with its areas of the subject. All can have up to five tags, since the question may be corresponding to various subjects. Press on any tag to check the questions list with that specific tag or we can go to the list of tags for browsing each topic that we like.
• We receive reputation if people vote on our posts
  The score of our reputation goes up if others vote up our edits, answers, and questions. We will unlock new privileges such as the ability to comment, vote, and edit the posts of other people as we receive reputation.
  We will have access to unique moderation tools on the highest levels. We will be able to operate with our community moderators for keeping the site helpful and focused.
• Improve posts by commenting or editing
  Our aim is to have the best answers to all questions, so when we see Q&A that could be improved, we can change them. We can use edits for fixing mistakes, clarify post meaning, or improve formatting.
  We can use comments for asking for more details ok clarify Q&A. We can comment on our questions and answers always. Once we earn 50 points of reputation, we can comment on the post of anybody.
• Unlock badges for unique achievements
  Badges are unique achievements that we earn to participate on the website. These badges come in 3 different levels which are mentioned below:
  • Gold
  • Silver
  • Bronze
  In fact, we can earn or receive a badge just to read any page.