FAQ

How is the Jazz Forum different from a typical forum?

The Jazz Forum is different from a typical discussion forum because it uses a pure Q&A model, focused on finding answers to questions, rather than general discussion on topics. In a Q&A model, answers tend to be less subjective.

What kinds of questions can I ask here?

Questions should be relevant to Jazz-hosted products within the IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management solution or related products (anything that is found in our Downloads section). Also, make sure to search for similar questions that have already been asked.

What kinds of questions should be avoided?

Please avoid asking questions that are not relevant to the IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management solution, are too subjective, or are argumentative.

What should I avoid in my answers?

Avoid not answering the question! If you just have a comment on the question or want to ask for clarification, post a "comment" on the question instead of an "answer". Answers should attempt to answer the specific question!

Why are email notifications so important?

Email notifications are the bedrock of a successful question and answer community. These notifications tell you about important events, including:

• When your questions have been answered
• When one of your posts is commented on by another member
• When other members post new questions, answers, or comments in your areas of interest

Who moderates the Jazz Forum?

While the IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management Team moderates the Forum, the reputation system allows active users to increasingly gain moderation rights.

How does the reputation system work?

Your "reputation" is a measure of the community's trust in you, based on the perceived value of your participation. As your answers or questions are "liked" by others, your reputation increases. Various moderation rights are also gradually assigned to you based on your reputation.

For example, if you ask an interesting question or give a helpful answer, your input will be "liked" by others. On the other hand if the answer is misleading, it will be "disliked" or down voted. Each vote in favor will generate 15 points, each vote against will subtract 1 points. There is a limit of 200 points that can be accumulated per question or answer. The table below explains reputation requirements for each type of moderation task.

• Add comments: 2
• Re-tag questions: 150
• Close own questions: 60
• Reopen own questions: 120
• Delete comments: 400
• Edit any answer: 400
• Delete any comment: 400
• Open any closed question: 600

Why can other people can edit my questions/answers?

Allowing experienced members of this community to curate the questions and answers improves the overall quality of the knowledge base content.

Why was my question closed?

We don't like closing questions, but sometimes it's the right thing to do. We value the time and effort that community members contribute to our forum, and we don't want to waste it by duplicating their effort or distracting them. Reasons why your question may be closed include:

• Duplicate question: Someone already asked this exact question. We'll link to that one and close yours. Please do at least a cursory search for existing answers before asking your question -- it's the polite thing to do.
• Question is off-topic: We like all sorts of technical topics but the only ones we can answer here are about Jazz-hosted products for IBM Engineering. So, for example, while we think Eclipse is cool, if you are just looking for some Eclipse help, you need to ask in their forum.
• Too subjective or argumentative: It's an interesting question how our products compare to those of our competitors, but that's for the marketing folks to argue about. We just want to help you use our products to build yours. If you ask something that doesn't have a technical answer, or any real answer, we may close it and might choose to delete it.
• Issue is not reproducible: If people have tried to help but cannot recreate, even after asking you for more details, we may close the question so that more people don't spend time unsuccessfully trying to recreate it. If you are adamant that you have a real issue that needs investigation, it may need investigation in your environment and that sort of work has to be done under a PMR and your support contract.
• It's not a question: Since moving to a Q&A model, we realize we've lost an easy way for community members to post announcements that may actually be of value and interest to the community. Depending on the content, we'll try not to just delete these, but we will close them so that they are not confused with questions that need answers. Because it's all about the answers.
• No longer relevant: Our forum has been active for over 15 years. Some versions of the product are no longer under active support and certainly aren't interesting to our active community. If we close a question for this reason, there's a good chance you don't care about it anymore either.

If you think we shouldn't have closed your question, feel free to send email to webmaster@jazz.net with a link to your question along with why you think it doesn't fall under the guidelines above and we'll reconsider.