How To Ask Questions the Smart Way

[Brandon Martus]

I stumbled upon this article and, although it's related to mailing lists, I think it has many great points that coincide with the use of these (and similar) forums. And, as John pointed out below, there is some slight profanity, but nothing major or overdone.

Veterans: there is also a section on how to answer questions in a helpful way, which wouldn't be a waste of time to read.

Link: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Contents:

• Introduction
• Before You Ask
• When You Ask
• Choose your forum carefully
  • Web and IRC forums directed towards newbies often give the quickest response
  • As a second step, use project mailing lists
  • Use meaningful, specific subject headers
  • Make it easy to reply
  • Write in clear, grammatical, correctly-spelled language
  • Send questions in accessible, standard formats
  • Be precise and informative about your problem
  • Volume is not precision
  • Don't claim that you have found a bug
  • Grovelling is not a substitute for doing your homework
  • Describe the problem's symptoms, not your guesses
  • Describe your problem's symptoms in chronological order
  • Describe the goal, not the step
  • Don't ask people to reply by private e-mail
  • Be explicit about your question
  • Don't post homework questions
  • Prune pointless queries
  • Don't flag your question as “Urgent”, even if it is for you
  • Courtesy never hurts, and sometimes helps
  • Follow up with a brief note on the solution
• How To Interpret Answers
  
  • RTFM and STFW: How To Tell You've Seriously Screwed Up
  • If you don't understand...
  • Dealing with rudeness
• On Not Reacting Like A Loser
• Questions Not To Ask
• Good and Bad Questions
• If You Can't Get An Answer
• How To Answer Questions in a Helpful Way
• Related Resources