number of other alternatives].

The channel has some basic rules:

1. Don't ask to ask. Just say what your problem is. Be specific! Say what version of Debian you're running, what you're trying to do, what command you typed (if you typed anything), and what the error message said (if there was one). In short, [http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html ask smart questions], not stupid ones. Put your whole question on one line if at all possible. Having to follow broken sentences across two minutes of busy IRC channel traffic makes us cranky.

2. Don't repeat until at least 5 minutes after your first try. #debian is a busy channel, and we may not respond immediately. It doesn't necessarily mean we didn't see the question.

3. Read and re-read the [http://ursine.dyndns.org/Jargon:doc docs] first, then admit it if you really don't understand. You're wasting your time and ours if you haven't at least tried. The docs include man pages, --help for the command you're running, GNU info pages, [file:///usr/share/doc/ /usr/share/doc/]PACKAGE/ for whatever package you're using, [http://lists.debian.org/ Debian mailing list archives], and [http://www.google.com/ Google] -- not necessarily in that order.

4. If your problem isn't solved, come back in 8 or 16 hours. We're very international; most people in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland,_Oregon Portland] are just getting to work while most people in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London London] are just starting their way home, for example.

5. Be polite and patient. Read http://www.freenode.org/policy.shtml and http://www.freenode.org/channel_guidelines.shtml. You might want to read the [http://debstats.dontexist.org/ channel stats] too, while you're waiting for someone to answer.

6. If no one can answer your question, try the debian-user mailing list. You can sign up at http://www.debian.org/MailingLists/subscribe, and post your questions to debian-user@lists.debian.org . It is open to non-subscribers, but the default is to NOT CC the original poster with replies (i.e., they only go to the list) so, if you don't subscribe, you'll have to set your Mail-Followup-To header to include both you and the mailing list and/or crawl the mailing list archives on http://lists.debian.org/ . Since the list is so high-traffic, it's important to [http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html ask a smart question]. Include all the information you think is relevant, and make sure you tell us what documentation you've looked at, what you've tried and what symptoms led up to the problem. Use a good subject line; subjects begging for HELP or claiming to be URGENT tend to get deleted without being read. Get over yourself -- your problem isn't urgent to the rest of us.

[http://www.linuxmafia.com/~rick/faq/index.php?page=netiquette#privatereply Do not ask for private replies!] You will likely receive angry, unhelpful replies about your selfishness if you do! If you want private help, go [http://www.debian.org/consultants/ hire someone]. When replying, please make a real effort to [http://ursine.dyndns.org/Top_Posting avoid top posting] for the sake of clarity; it's a busy list, and you're likely to go unhelped if people have to work to read your question before they work to solve it.

7. Don't [http://ursine.dyndns.org/Jargon:flood flood] the channel (our [http://ursine.dyndns.org/Jargon:bot bots] will kick you automatically after 4 lines). Don't [http://ursine.dyndns.org/wiki/index.php/Jargon:spam spam] the channel. This includes ?AdvocacySpam about your project. If it's cool, we'll find out about it. Don't [http://ursine.dyndns.org/Jargon:troll troll] the members. Don't ask questions about other distributions or operating systems (this includes Knoppix and Ubuntu; Knoppix and Ubuntu are not Debian, and we cannot support them). [http://ursine.dyndns.org/Away Please disable any public "away" or "back" messages]; if everyone announced every time they get up to go to the bathroom, we'd never get any conversation in. Don't CTCP people without asking permission or perform other actions that may bother members. The channel tends to average well over 600 people, and if everybody descended to such [http://ursine.dyndns.org/Jargon:luser luserish] behavior, the channel would quickly become unusable.

8. Don't demand help. Don't ask specific people for help -- ask the whole channel. Especially, don't send private messages to people asking for help. You may, however, send private messages to the bots -- in fact, this is strongly encouraged. The bots have an impressive set of information available, both in the form of static factoids and hooks into the Debian package lists. A bot may already have a canned answer for your question, which helps reduce the load for the human helpers. If you want private help, [http://www.debian.org/consultants/ hire it]! Be aware, that the bots might only respond to you, if you joined a channel, they are in, too.

See the ?OtherChannels page for a list of other Debian-related IRC channels. This is particularly important for people who don't speak English well, or who are using architectures other than i386. See the ["OtherFAQs"] page for further FAQs.