FAQ - Etiquette - and how to get an answer

There are several FAQs about the Oracle database scattered around the Internet, and many ways of finding answers to the simpler questions about Oracle very quickly.

The following list is a suggestion of where you might find answers to questions that you feel should have an easy answer.

The Co-operative Oracle Users' FAQ
http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk/faq/ind_faq.html

The archive for this news group
http://www.google.com

    select the GROUPS tab
    then work through the list to

        comp -> databases -> oracle

A search engine for searching the manuals for current versions of Oracle software which includes 8.1.7, 9.0.1 and 9.2 for the database, 9.0.4 for the application server and Collaboration suite exists at
http://tahiti.oracle.com

Collaboration Suite 9.0.4 is currently searchable from http://otn.oracle.com/pls/cs904/cs904.homepage

Oracle technology Network (free registration) which includes documentation free, but limited use, software, and sample code fragments
http://technet.oracle.com

Oracle Metalink (requires a support licence) contains a number of forums, a searchable knowledge base, and a searchable bug database.
http://www.oracle.com/support/metalink/index.html

Thomas Kyte is an Oracle employee who writes the popular Ask Tom column in the Oracle magazine, and maintains a website holding many real-life questions and answers at:
http://asktom.oracle.com

Steve Adams is a highly respected member of the Oracle community and his website, apart from the wealth of information it contains, also has a search engine which indexes a select sub-set of the Oracle-related websites that are on the Internet. http://www.ixora.com.au

If you want to help the newsgroup help you then:

1. Check the at least the first two resources above before posting your message. They may contain a discussion document that gives you more help than a direct answer to your specific question could. It is worth mentioning the resources you have checked as a lead-in to your question.
2. Quote the Oracle version number, and operating system that you are running on. Answers that are good for version 7 may be 2nd-rate for version 8 and completely stupid for version 9.
3. If something "doesn't work", that doesn't give anyone a clue about the problem. Always quote any error messages you get, and tell us a bit about the environment (e.g. SQL*Plus, VB, pl/sql called from Pro*C).
4. Feedback is important - if you find a good answer to the question you asked, post it to the newsgroup. (If it is an article on a website, email me below with the question, site, comment, and the URL and I can add it as a reference to the FAQ).
5. If someone has got you out of a hole, it's quite a nice touch to thank them (possibly be direct mail) And if they haven't managed to help, it's quite useful for everyone to explain what went wrong when you tried their solution.
6. RTFM is not a civilised answer. Although there may be questions that you feel deserve this response, please it would be better to phrase it as a URL or other pointer to the appropriate bit of the manual.
7. If you have used one of the search methods above, and subsequently see a question asked on the same topic, please consider posting the address of the resource to the person asking the question.

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Regards

Jonathan Lewis
http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk