I'm new to this site. My short experience here is that some of this community have the intention (nowhere evident when a new user joins) that this group be only for experts, whereas others are keeping up the traditional Linux ethos of welcoming all learners as potential future developers.
This question is a great addressing of that problem: people are being downvoted on this site for not being experts, when there is nothing in the description of the group that suggests we shouldn't post if we are just midlevel or new people seeking advice. How were we supposed to know that nonexperts would be downvoted/ put on hold? That needs to go in the description. Why not have one group "Unix and Linux Experts" and another general one?
I posted a question last night when I wound up here at random after various Google searches came up empty. I got the answers I needed, which I have come to take for granted because every Linux usergroup I've ever asked a question on was very encouraging and supportive to new users.
But I was surprised when my question was almost immediately put on hold for being "too broad". And this was a false pretext. Because the comments told a different story: those who kindly answered me were totally clear on what I was asking, and no one expressed confusion about what I was asking. They merely complained that my level is too basic.
"This is more a fit to security.stackexchange than here. An IT illiterate person would be better off paying a competente professional (expensive) or selling that system and buying an iPad."
"The computer won´t run alone and the expectations of taking care of it via Internet boards might be a bit too optimistic." (Spoiler: Ubuntu does run itself, if you install the updates. It's actually designed to do that. I've been running it like that for years.)
"Nevertheless, this kind of answers do invite lowering the quality of this forum with very lower quality questions that are not a fit here."
"This forum is not intended for... end user support." (Well, actually, everyone who uses Linux is an end user. So this person is saying that it is only intended to support expert end users. And we'll get downvoted or put on hold if we're not experts. And we have no way of knowing that.)
I've never had pushback telling me to get out of their online space from any other Linux usergroup. Maybe an occasional surly comment, but a platform never before came to a consensus to put my question on hold.
My question:
My ex set up my computer and is a little possessive still. I want to make sure they can't monitor my computer usage, access files, etc. I wonder if there is a blanket setting in system preferences or something that I can use to decline/ reset all ssh permissions? I'm concerned they may have installed some kind of back door or something, with all good intentions at first for being able to help me out maybe, and I don't really know what I'm looking for. I'm running Kubuntu, the most updated version, and don't know any of the lingo or jargon. I just want to make sure my computer is closed to the outside.
My edit:
I see that this question is now on hold because certain people feel it's "too broad". I had a number of responses clearly telling me that the only way to be sure of blocking all remote access is to reinstall the system, and no responses that answered a different question. So I'm confident that my phrasing clearly communicated the single, targeted question that I was asking, as well as why I was asking and what language level I needed the responses to be at. My thanks to the multiple users who provided the response I needed!
I'm reading that "too broad" is being used as code for "not advanced enough for our group". If you don't want requests for basic level help posted on this site, maybe consider renaming it to "Unix and Linux Experts". Or even create a separate group, because there is clearly a great willingness among among the community to answer questions like the one I asked, in the short time before it was blocked! Props to the helpers!