Free technical support for Joomla is available to everyone 24/7 in the official Joomla forum . If you are developing your first Joomla site, please read or scan the following resources FIRST and spare the volunteers from answering the same 20 questions repeatedly. Web Designers that have never used a database-driven content management system are especially vulnerable to making their first Joomla site an unnecessarily frustrating experience. You need to break your thinking a bit!

• Absolute Beginners Guide
• Joomla FAQs
• Joomla Manual 1.0.xx Series
• Joomla Installation Manual 1.5 Series

I have been answering (and asking) technical support questions on bulletin boards and the internet for 20 years.

Do you feel like you're wasting your time when you post a question on the Joomla forum? Though the majority of questions are resolved, there are still quite a few unanswered topics and posts.

Open source projects are created, developed, managed, and maintained by volunteers. Hundreds of volunteers answer hundreds of questions every day. Do they pick and choose which questions to answer? Is there any way to improve your chances of getting an answer?

Yes! and Yes!

9 tips for getting free Joomla Technical Support.

  Be aware
Let's get one thing straight, you are asking strangers for a favor. You want them to help you by donating their time and knowledge to resolve your Joomla technical support issues. Every volunteer wants to help you. And every volunteer has time and knowledge limits. It is your responsibility to make it easier for them to help you. So, check your attitude before you post. You are not entitled to free technical support!

  Be polite
I know you are frustrated. Something is not working or not making sense. You may be tired and cranky from spending hours or days trying to figure out your problem. You may have extra pressure from a client or a deadline.

Yell and curse at the monitor. Dump on your friends. Tell your mom all about your nightmare. But, please don't take your frustrations out on the volunteers. They genuinely want to help.

Joomla has limitations and quirks and a few bugs. But it is a stable system used with much success by tens of millions of people all over the world.

Your technical support issue is most likely a step that you are missing, a development approach that is backwards for building a database-driven CMS, or simply that you need a workaround for a limitation of the software.

  Be reasonable
Ask for the Joomla help you need. One or two questions per post, ok? It is unreasonable to expect volunteers to think through and complete your entire project for you. Hey, YOU have chosen the do-it-yourself approach.

  Be prepared to learn
Joomla is a content management system platform. It is the foundation for your website. You will add content and functionality to Joomla. You are going to have to learn and maintain Joomla AND any functionality (extensions) you install.

Understand that you should learn the basics of many of the following subjects in order to build and manage a successful Joomla site. Domain names, server hosting, setting file permissions, FTP, creating and maintaining a MySQL database, taxonomy (organizing your content), how to make backups, site security,  template design or modification, graphic design or modification, search engine optimization, and validation of code (CSS and XHTML).

  Be fair
About 90% of posts on the Joomla forum have already been answered. Do your part. You are already online and have access to Google too! Search the forum, the FAQs, the Manual. Volunteers are more apt to help you if you are obviously making an effort. Remember that your time is NOT more valuable than anyone else's time. The volunteers have already invested time in learning Joomla. You must have the time to do your part. Or hire paid Joomla technical support.

  Be patient
Questions on the forum may be answered in minutes, hours, days, or never. Sigh. That is the reality. It is ultimately random as to when or if your question is answered. Perhaps noone knows the answer, or the question is confusing. After a few days without a response, try the following...edit or reply to your original post and add more details about your situation or add a few more things that you have tried.

  Be in the right place
Location, location, location. Post your question in the proper section of the forum. Joomla 1.0 forums have sections named General Questions, Installation, Upgrading, Security, Administration, Extensions, Templates & CSS, Language, Performance.

  Be careful with subject headers
Hundreds of questions are posted on the Joomla forum every day. Take a quick look at the following ten subject headers I copied from the General Questions section. Some are very clear and you instantly know what the question is without opening the message post. Please spare the volunteers from having to open your post just to determine if they can help.  

Bad subject headers : Totally Vague
Questions, questons, questions
Still having problems
I Need Help Bad I want Joomla!

Good subject headers : Somewhat vague, but narrowed
Trouble with the Menu Manager
Contact form giving error message
A question about RSS

Best subject headers : Very Specific
Does anyone know how to get a new banner/image to appear each time u refresh?
Submitting Static Content from the frontend??
how do I find the link path to the back office
Anyone with JSMF Bridge experience plz

  Be clear
You have a much better chance of getting a response if your question is clear, and you have included all necessary relevant information. Don't make the volunteers have to ask clarification questions.

• Describe the issue, question, or problem.
• Include any error message(s).
• Mention diagnostic steps you have already tried.
• State whether you have searched the forum, Google, FAQs, or the Manual.

Possible details to include;

• Exact error message(s)
• URL to your website
• Version of Joomla
• Version of PHP
• Shared or Dedicated hosting?
• Version <s> of extension <s>
• Any recent changes you have made to your site

After your question has been answered and your issue<s> resolved...

• Post a follow-up to let others know the status
• Please go back to your original post and mark your question as solved. You will help others that are having the same or similar issue!  To do this - Edit your first message in the thread, modify the first message and choose the Message Icon [solved] .
• Volunteers help you purely for the joy of sharing, but an occasional thank you is always welcome!
  

German version of article

The Webtool is pleased to announce new (lower) pricing for the most popular Joomla technical support requests.

We have been wanting to try a different commercial open-source support model for some time. So, in honor of our 20th year in the IT business (LCMI, MCS, and now The Webtool), we are going to just throw caution to the wind and lower the pricing for the entire month of October.

We studied our CMS support tickets for the past 4 years (Mambo/Joomla/Drupal) and looked hard at ways to cut the time spent on each service without cutting quality. A streamlined process, a bit of automation, a few templates, some new rules and limitations..and we are ready to start!

We promise to be flexible with our time limits and in return we ask you to be reasonable with your requests. Ask for what you need, of course.

Take a look at the Joomla Services and pricing , and the details for each service.
Then email our support desk with questions or to request an invoice for service.

We welcome feedback!

These Joomla services and prices are available for the month of October 2007, Joomla 1.0.x series only, and must be pre-paid. One Joomla site per service. We reserve the right to limit the number of clients per service - if necessary.

The most useful and thought-provoking book I have read in a long time. A must-read for all businesses and organizations. Within hours of reading this book, I had redefined priorities, simplified processes and got real!

GettingReal is the business, design, programming, and marketing philosophies of 37signals -- a developer of web-based software used by over 1 million people and businesses in 70 countries.

Why is the book relevant?
37signals used the unconventional Getting Real process to launch five successful web-based applications (Basecamp, Campfire, Backpack, Writeboard, Ta-da List), and Ruby on Rails, an open-source web application framework, in just two years with no funding, no debt, and only 7 people.

Read it free online
Absolutely free.

The complete book. 16 chapters and 91 essays. Completely free to read online.

Techsmith is offering the not-so-latest version (7.25) of this awesome incredibly useful utility for free.

Register for a key:
http://www.techsmith.com/snagit/ukdn.asp

Download it:
http://www.oldapps.com/download.php?oldappsid=SnagIt725.exe

Seems to be the same key for all:
Key: YW6RC-4YMK6-SZBBD-C2MCW-Q9D96

Aggregate, collaborate, participate

Interesting new tool - an open-source social media aggregator with a lot of features for a freebie and good potential for continued development..

The BuzzMonitoris a "super aggregator" that helps organizations better understand, monitor and join global conversations of interest to them. Developed for internal use at The World Bank and recently released to everyone under a GPL license. Look at the website, take a tour or download and try it out. Feedback

Features include:

• Elimination of duplicate items from multiple search feeds.
• Automated keyword extraction & tag cloud generation.
• Embedded Alexa and Technorati rank information.
• Digg-style voting within your user base.
• User tagging and bookmarking.
• Internal commenting (visible only to other users on your system).
• Internal tag and search feeds.
  

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Suggested Users:

• Non-profit organizations
• NGOs
• Foundations
• Think-tanks

The BuzzMonitor™, an open source aggregator conceived and sponsored by the World Bank and co-developed by the World Bank, Development Seed and the World Resources Institute.

note: Built on Drupal 4.7.3 - bug and security patches for 4.7.4, 4.7.5 and 4.7.6 are recommended.