Before posting English/Engelsk

[Cristian]

Updated: 09/07-08

Before you start reading. You have been guided to this thread, to make you a better 'poster' which is informative and understandable.

Before you ask.


1)


Before asking in an e-mail, newsgroup or forum.


• Be particular about your thread.
  
• Try and find your answer, by searching the archives of the forum you plan to post a thread in.
  
• Try and find your answer, by searching the Internet (google).
• Try and find your answer, by reading the manual.
• Try and find your answer, by reading the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions).
• Try and find your answer, by experimentation.
• Try and find your answer, by asking a skilled/professional friend.
• If you are a programmer, try and find your answer, by reading the source code.
  
• If all items above, doesn't solve your problem(s), then read on.
2)

When you ask, find the right forum for you're question

Be sensitive when you ask, consequences are that you might be ignored or treated like a loser, if you:


• post your question to a forum where it's off topic.
  
  
• post a very elementary question to a forum where advanced technical questions are expected, or vice-versa.
  
  
• cross-post to too many different forums.
3)


Use a meaningful, specific subject header.

On forums, the subject header is your golden opportunity to attract qualified users.


• Don't waste it on babble like "Please, help me"
  
  
• Don't try to impress us with the depth of your pain, use the space for problem description instead.
  
  
  
• Stupid:
  
  - Help, script doesn't work, help plz.
  
  
• Smart:
  
  - Bot script, on text, doesn't react, I'm added as user, pasted necessary information below.
  
  - The Script does A, but should do B.
3.a)

In some forums when a thread is solved, they add [solved] or similar in the header,
so others know that the thread doesn't need attention.

4)

Size is not precision


• You have to be precise and informative, and that is not served by dumping over 200 lines of code.
  
  
• If you have a large source code, try and trim it, to make it as small as possible.
5)

When asking about code.


• Don't ask others to debug your broken code without giving a hint what sort of problem they should be searching for.
  
  
• Posting a few hundred lines of code, saying "it doesn't work", will get you ignored.
  
  
• Posting a dozen lines of code, saying "after line 7 I was expecting to see <x>,
  but <y> occurred instead" is much more likely to get you a response.
  
  
• Posting small pieces of code, where half is missing, might not be answered, cause a debug is impossible.
6)

Something to think about, when writing your thread.

Is the work not paid, then:


• Don't expect that everything is made for you, even if you have followed these fine guide lines.
  
  
• Don't expect help will arrive instantly.
  
  
• Don't expect that they only are here for you.
  
  
• Don't expect that the universe circulate around you.
  
  On the other hand:
  
  
• Expect a fine voluntary piece of work, for free.
  
  
• Expect that some users spend their spare time for you, when they have the time.

Some of the text have been translated (twice), from a site I stumbled over. http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questio ... disclaimer
Some were added later.

Do you have suggestions/corrections to this list, please mail me on "Christian 'A' sp00fed.dk"