Anyone who’s a member of help forum or mailing list know that people ask the dumbest questions. From Java forums to PHP mailing lists to any help-related website — none are safe from stupid questions.
I could very well be the last person to come across this, but I had to post a link to Eric Raymond’s and Rick Moen’s guide on How to Ask Questions the Smart Way. The document is linked to on many forums, websites, and mailing lists as a guide to asking good questions in order to get good answers.
Among the gems in the guide:
- Choose your forum carefully
- Use meaningful, specific subject headers
- Write in clear, grammatical, correctly-spelled language
- Don’t claim that you have found a bug
- Grovelling is not a substitute for doing your homework
[ via Nelson ]
On the other hand, if everyone ignores your question and you’re going to act like a complete asshole you should read this and make sure you get it right ;) Already a few years old, but still as relevant today.
I read either this guide or one very much like it.
It was worth reading just to laugh at so many of the points being utterly shattered by the average forum post at the place I frequent.
Alot of this stuff should be common sense, but aparetly isn’t.
Great link, Diogo. :)