Internet Chat (IRC)
The GNOME and GIMP projects maintain a series of servers to provide a world wide network enabling an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) system for discussion on issues related to those projects including a discussion channel dedicated to Gnumeric. This is a system by which people can communicate directly with each other by typing lines into an IRC client which are then broadcast to everyone listening in a particular channel. Unfortunately this manual cannot provide a full explanation for how to obtain, install and use an IRC client. There are a number of such programs available, many of which provide users all the freedoms which Gnumeric provides and instructions for these can be obtained from the world wide web. More information and access to such software can easily be obtained by running a search in any world wide web search engine for "IRC" and "client" and the name of the operating system of the machine which will run the software.
The Gnumeric IRC discussion channel is named #gnumeric (although the number symbol, #, may not be needed) and is hosted on the series of servers called GIMPnet. The best way to connect to GIMPnet is using the IRC server irc.gimp.org. That hostname points to a variety of different servers in the United States. If you live elsewhere, after you are connected you can use the chat command /links to find a server which is closer on the internet to your location.
If you decide to join the discussion, please be polite, post a question or comment and be prepared to wait a little bit for someone to address you. Several of the developers are permanently connected to the channel and check every half hour or so to see if anyone has asked a question but are working on something else in the meantime. Your question may be answered right away but asking questions using the mailing list may prove to be more efficient since it would not require paying attention to the IRC channel discussion, even if it ultimately requires longer to obtain an answer.