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Add content for Supporting Other Users page on why support is a worth…
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…while pursuit and jQuery support venues to participate in. Partially addresses #10.
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ajpiano committed Jan 15, 2013
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---
title: Supporting Other Users
---

With millions of jQuery users all over the world, there's always someone out
there who needs a helping hand. Like many open source projects, the jQuery
Foundation relies on community support channels like
[forums](http://forum.jquery.com), [IRC](http://irc.jquery.org), and
[StackOverflow](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/jquery). Helping out
with support is one of the best first steps you can take to get involved in any
open source community, and is a great way to contribute on an ongoing basis.

---

## Instant Gratification

Fixing bugs and improving documentation ways are surefire ways to prevent
eventual trouble for others, but if you want to have an immediate impact,
nothing beats Q&A. The feeling of moving a stumbling block aside for a
perfect stranger, or triggering a "Eureka!" moment that helps someone become a
better developer (and the thanks you'll receive) is pretty fulfilling — and
can be addictive!

## Broaden Your Knowledge, Deepen Your Perpsective

Making yourself available to help with support is an organic way expand your
exposure to aspects of the API and different techniques you (and your
colleagues) may not have already encountered. Solving an **actual problem** is a
great way to get hands-on experience with something new, converting a piece of
knowledge into an actual weapon in your toolbelt. And even if you can't help with
a particular question, just being around to observe the problem and someone
else's solution is a great way to **learn from others' mistakes**, putting you in a position
to avoid common pitfalls without ever falling into them yourself.

Over time, however, you'll come to recognize the common problems that pop up
time and time again, and maybe even develop a knack for uniting the those in
need of help with that perfect link, no matter the subject. Most importantly,
however, this experience helps set you up to make informed decisions when it
comes to proposing and discussing new features and changes, as you're able to
make judgments and recommendations that go beyond your own particular needs.

## Serve On The Front Lines

There's often a lot of overlap between [bug triage](/triage/) and support.
Unfortunately, many users rush to support forums breathlessly claiming to have
discovered a bug at the first sight of an exception, when the actual culprit is
having misread some documentation or a lack of experience with language
principles. On the other hand, it's not uncommon for a user to come in looking
for help, assuming they're making some sort of mistake, only to discover an
actual bug that needs to be filed and fixed. Working on Q&A puts you
squarely in the middle of this action, an indispensable link between users and
the workarounds they need to continue making progress on their projects, and
core team members and the reduced, confirmed test cases they need to actually
begin solving bugs.

---

## Where To Help

### IRC

Live, interactive support for all jQuery Foundation projects takes place 24/7
in the [#jquery](irc://irc.freenode.net/#jquery) IRC channel on
[Freenode](http://irc.freenode.net), and it's a great place to give and receive
help with small- to medium-sized problems in all sorts of environments. (If you're unfamiliar
with Internet Relay Chat, take a look at our [IRC Help](http://irc.jquery.org/irc-help) page for
information about how to get connected and what to expect once you're there.)

### Forums

Traditional, asynchronous "message-board" style support goes on at the [jQuery
Forum](http://forum.jquery.com/), which presently runs on [Zoho
Discussions](https://discussions.zoho.com/home). There are forums for
discussion of development issues, but the primary support takes place on the
[Using jQuery](http://forum.jquery.com/using-jquery), [Using jQuery
UI](http://forum.jquery.com/using-jquery-ui), and [Using jQuery
Mobile](http://forum.jquery.com/using-jquery-mobile) forums.

### StackOverflow

If features like karma and upvoting of answers appeal to you, there is a
vibrant, independent [jQuery support community on
StackOverflow](http://stackoverflow.com/tags/jquery/info), the popular Q&A
site.

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