= Installation issues should not be reported as defects

About [NewTicket#Important:ReadThisBeforeCreatingaTicket support] questions:[[br]]
 ''Support and installation questions should be asked on the [wiki:MailingList mailing list] or [wiki:IrcChannel IRC channel], not filed as tickets. Also, please check whether the issue you've encountered has been reported before.''

If you're reading this, it is likely that we closed your ticket with a ''wontfix'' or ''invalid'' resolution. We did so because our policy is to use this bug tracker exclusively for tracking bug reports (''defect''s) or enhancement requests (''enhancement''s) but ''not'' for troubleshooting your installation issues.

Reasons for this are multiple, but the most important ones are:
 - this is distracting us from doing real development on Trac. Unless proven otherwise; the fact that you had some trouble installing or configuring the software is ''not'' indicative of a bug (of course it does happen at times, but it's not the most common situation).
 - '''you'll reach a wider audience on the Trac-user MailingList''' and will likely prompt someone who faced the same issue to help you go through; if that does happen, don't forget to watch Trac-users yourself and give back some of your time if you know how to help someone else!
 
But once again, before sending a mail on Trac-users, be sure you looked at the existing information, either in this Trac or in [http://groups.google.com/group/trac-users past Trac-users mails]. 

For example:
 - if you experience some slowness, go through the check list from the TracPerformance page
 - if you have trouble reaching your Subversion repository, have a look at the TracSubversion page
 - if you have problems with your database, read the DatabaseBackend#BackendSpecificInstallationInstructions and the more specific pages listed from there as appropriate (PySqlite, MySqlDb, ...)
 - and as always, the [/search] page is your friend.