JBoss Forums

If you can't find the information you need on JBossWiki, try the JBoss forums.

Use Search First

Use the search function the chances are your question

has been asked many times.

Many people don't use search and the same question gets posted many times. This just means the repeated questions go unanswered or just answered with the phrase "Use search". If you are persistent you will find an answer.

Some forums have FAQ sections. See if your question has been answered in there.

Beginners and Newbies

If you are a beginner or new to JBoss use the Beginners Forum. You are more likely to get dumb

questions answered in here than you are in "Big Boys" forums.

Also try the FREE "Getting Started Guide" in the documentation section.

Good behaviour

• For every question you ask, answer somebody else's question. There are plenty of people in the same predicament as you - help them. Also, you will get noticed by the GURUS and are more likely to get your questions answered by them because you are a good guy.

• Contribute to the WIKI. Again you will be noticed and you are more likely to receive the help you want in future.

• If you see an FAQ (frequently asked question), add it to the relevent FAQ or this WIKI.

• It is not a requirement to say "Thank you". More useful is for you to say how you solved the problem so that others can benefit from the solution.

Bad behaviour

• NOT_READING_THE_MANUAL. If you get the answer RTFM or "use search" it means, you are asking an FAQ. Not only have you probably wasted hundreds of peoples time who had to read your question AGAIN, you have also polluted the search index.

• DO NOT CROSS POST. Posting your question multiple times is bad. When somebody has answered your question on one thread, we are left with all your other posts unanswered. Imagine the poor person who has the same problem and has to search them all to find the one where it has been answered.

• DO NOT Post ME TOO. The person who posted the original question is looking for an answer, not people who have the same problem. If you cannot help, don't add noise to the thread.

• DO NOT HIJACK. Again the person who posted his original question does not want to hear about your unrelated problem. If you are not going to help the original poster, start a new thread. Also, think about the poor person who is trying to find a solution to the same problem. He is going to get very confused by your irrelevant comments.

• WRONG FORUM. Choose your forum carefully. They are mostly based on the specs (which hopefully you have some familiarity with :-). The forums at the top are for user questions. The forums at the bottom are for the people developing JBoss. When it says DO NOT POST USER QUESTIONS HERE it means do not post your problems, discuss potential fixes or improvements instead.

• URGENCY. The forums are entirely voluntary. If you are looking for urgent help you are in the wrong place, buy a support contract. In fact, claiming your problem is urgent will probably mean you get no answers - you look too demanding.

Good questions

• Short and to the point

• Contain relevant configurations or error messages

• The question shows you understand what you are talking about

• It looks like you made an effort to understand the problem before posting

• Interesting questions/bugs - this is the main reason for  the forums to exist - to get feedback on real problems/errors

Bad questions

• Too long - as interesting as you find your application, surprisingly, nobody else is interested

Hello my name is X,

Three tedious and badly formatted paragraphs on your application and its design which is usually totally irrelevant.

Followed by your question.

• Too short - the question can't be answered because there is not enough information

Hello, I have download JBoss and it does not work, please help

• Too much information - don't post your entire log, make an effort to find the relevant section(s)

45 pages of error logging or configuration files

• Too many questions - keep it simple and stick to one question. If you have many different problems, start many threads. Threads with many different questions get horribly entangled and difficult to follow.

• Asking for advice - these forums are for technical problems. If you want advice, hire a consultant.

Other tips

• Most posts should include the following information

1. Your name

2. Your OS (windows, linux, solaris, etc)

3. Your VM (Sun 1.4, IBM 1.3, etc.)

4. The JBoss version (JBoss-2.4.3, JBoss-3.2.3, JBoss-4.0.0DR2, etc.)

• Don't give up - if you didn't get an answer check whether it is because one of the problems mentioned here. If you think you got the wrong answer - argue. Remember anybody could be answering your question, even the GURUS get it wrong sometimes (more often than you would hope/expect).

Related

Asking questions the smart way