The Apple Support Communities

Not directly related to security but i wanted to make the readers of this blog aware that Apple has a support forum on their website where you can ask any Apple related question you want. The support community has some incredibly smart and skilled folks amongst their users that take time out of their day to answer user questions. They take pleasure and pride in helping users out and sometimes learn new things in the process. I know because i used to be very active on this forum sometimes hours a day and it felt great to be able to help. Due to my current job i am prohibited from assisting on the forums but as soon as i can i will be back there again. So how is this in any way related to security? If you are in a pinch and need expert help fast, help you can’t get from AppleCare Support, the Genius Bar or many hours of searching the web, the forums are an amazing resource. It’s very rare that you do not get an answer to your question within the hour or sooner.

A few tips if you decide to put your question in the support community:
– Mention all relevant information but don’t write a novel. If more information is needed, they will ask you for it.
– The forums are accessible by anyone so be careful with personal identifiable information, spammers and scammers browse those forums too just like everywhere else online.
– If an answer is helpful or solves your issue (or both), mark that answer by using the buttons that say “This helped me” or “This solved my question”. This will earn the person that gave you the answer points. With those points they build up a rank (or Level) that shows other users how knowledgable or experienced they are. Of course getting points adds to the good feeling they get when helping someone out. This does not mean that someone with little or no points doesn’t know what they are talking about but it does clearly show who almost definitely knows what they are talking about.
– Offer your knowledge, experience and expertise to others if you can. A support community can’t survive without help from the community 🙂

Link to the support communities here.
You’ll need an account before you can ask or answer questions, an account is completely free.