Guidelines For Posting In The New Users Lounge

[Alessandro17]

1) When you start a topic with a question, ask yourself what other users might need to know in order to help you: your hardware? (especially your motherboard and your graphics card). What method did you use if you have already tried to install? (Retail? A distribution? Which one?).

2) Do not post twice or more the same topic or 2 very similar ones.

3) Try and avoid very old distributions. Your chance to succeed and to get help will be low.

4) It would be nice, just common sense and politeness if, when you ask a question and you get one or more replies, you came back and said something, like "it worked, it didn't" or just a thank you.

This would motivate more senior users to come here and try to help.

5) Many of the questions you ask have already a reply. Make at least one attempt at searching before you post.

Use either the search engine here or google.

If you use google, search like this: "keywords" + insanelymac.

6) Absolutely no bumping.

7) Keep the topic title as informative as possible. First impact, do you remember? If you write a title which we have seen one zillion times already, your chances of getting help will be much lower. Also, no words like "urgent", ASAP and similar in your title. Nothing is urgent in this forum, this is a hobby after all.

8) Absolutely no huge fonts. That is equivalent to screaming and it won't be tolerated.

9) Try not to be arrogant. We have all been newbies at some stage, but if you reply with arrogance to somebody trying to help you, you won't get any more help. We might even suspend your account.

10)About questions. Some questions have already been asked countless times, and won't probably get any answer.

Some examples:

A)"Still waiting for root device"

Search please! Here or google.

"Will my hardware work?"

Pretty meaningless question, forbidden by the forum staff guidelines. For your existing hardware, download a recent distribution or, better, buy a copy of Snow Leopard or Lion and try. Or search here: http://wiki.osx86pro...x.php/Main_Page You can also use the search engine, of course.

You can also google. Write the most relevant "part" of your hardware (normally your mobo. Or, if you have a laptop or a complete, branded desktop, its full name) + insanelymac (or "os x")-

Examples: "asus p5q insanelymac". "dell inspiron xx insanelymac".

C)"I want to build a hackintosh. Can you tell me what to buy?"

Question heard one million times, if you search this forum or the internet, you'll find countless topics about it.

Also see the Wiki.

Suffice to say that what counts most is your mobo, you graphics card and your drives (you want to buy SATA).

Also, you don't want to build an AMD/ATI hackintosh (a recipe for a nightmare). You want Intel/Nvidia.

D)"Which is the best distro?"

There is no such thing as "the best distro". The best is the one which works for you, preferably chosen among recent ones.

I have seen too many people asking for help, who were trying a distro several years old.

E)"Can you help me step-by-step?" Another question forbidden by by the forum staff guidelines.

It means that you don't want to help yourself at all, that you want your fellow users to nurse you. And no, moderators aren't your nurses either.

F)"Is this legal?" http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...=205396&hl=

Posts and topics containing one or more of the above questions will be deleted at moderator discretion. Complaints will lead to official warnings and/or suspensions

I want to explain what I mean even better. The main aim of this forum is to provide people with a huge database.

After you have searched, learned, tried over and over again, if you still have a genuine question, then ask.

But if, just arrived, you write: "Heeelp! I am a n00b. Guide me step by step", you have completely missed the point and we will do our best in order to prevent that.

And finally: leave the moderating to the staff!

Do not argue with your fellow users because you believe they have broken a rule or they are wrong in any other way.

If in doubt, just use REPORT and carry on.

P.S. If your main aim is to revive old hardware, you are in the wrong place. For this project it is recent, compatible hardware which works best. Older hardware might not work at all or might require an awful lot of effort. For your old hardware you should choose a Linux distro (or stay with an older version of Windows).