Dear Webmaster,

this mail refers to the webpage http://fedoraproject.org/en/get-help - where, in the first paragraph, you cite IRC: #fedora on irc.freenode.org as a typical place where to find support - and you put it in the subchapter as place where to get realtime support.

I would like you to reconsider such a choice and either remove or declass IRC as a source for help - this is why:

I am a long-time Fedora user, who kept using Fedora since the fork from Redhat Linux back many years ago. Recently, with the switch to Fedora 9, I have started experiencing random kernel lockups. This is continuing in Fedora 10. I have tried to look into bugzilla and forums to find either a solution to my problem or similar issues, with no luck.

This evening I have gone into your website and following the /en/ge-help advice I joined the #fedora IRC channel. To my questions about this lockup, the answers I got have been "switch to windows". Other users did nothing else and not a single answer has been sent to be - the little I have received was useless and not even close to polite.

I know the Fedora community is absolutely not responsible for what happens on the IRC channels - but as a webmaster *you* are responsible for the contents of the fedora websites and suggesting the IRC as a good source of realtime support. It's not. Directing end users to such places where you can be happily ignored or worse offended is, I think, the absolute opposite of what the Fedora community should try to do and for sure can have VERY detrimental effects - like this email.

If I were a new linux user this would be enough to return (and remain) to Windows. As a long-time linux user this is enough for me to switch to a different distribution.

Best regards,
Fabio d'Alessi