SlingCommunity Guide - How To Best Get Help and Ask Questions (Page 2 of 5)
Before You Ask
Before asking a technical question by e-mail, in a newsgroup, or on a website chat board, do the following:
- Try to find an answer by searching the forum you plan to post to.
- Try to find an answer by searching the Web.
- Try to find an answer by reading the manual.
- Try to find an answer by reading a FAQ.
- Try to find an answer by inspection or experimentation.
When you ask your question, display the fact that you have done these things first; this will help establish that you're not being a lazy sponge and wasting people's time. Better yet, display what you have learned from doing these things. Folks like answering questions for people who have demonstrated they can learn from the answers. Use tactics like doing a Google search on the text of whatever error message you get (searching Google groups as well as Web pages). This might well take you straight to fix documentation or a mailing list thread answering your question. Even if it doesn't, saying I googled on the following phrase but didn't get anything that looked promising is a good hing to do in postings requesting help, if only because it records what searches won't help.
Take your time.
Do not expect to be able to solve a complicated problem with a few seconds of searchine or Googling. Read and understand the FAQs, sit back, relax and give the problem some thought before approaching experts. Trust us, they will be able to tell from your questions how much reading and thinking you did, and will be more willing to help if you come prepared. Don't instantly fire your whole arsenal of questions just because your first search turned up no answers.
Prepare your question.
Think it through. Hasty-sounding questions get hasty answers, or none at all. The more you do to demonstrate that having put thought and effort into solving your problem before seeking help, the more likely you are to actually get help.
Beware of asking the wrong question. If you ask one that is based on faulty assumptions, someone is quite likely to reply with a uselessly literal answer while thinking "stupid question...", and hoping the experience of getting what you asked for rather than what you needed will teach you a lesson.
Never assume you are entitled to an answer.
You are not; you aren't, after all, paying for the service. You will earn an answer, if you earn it, by asking a substantial, interesting, and thought-provoking question one that implicitly contributes to the experience of the community rather than merely passively demanding knowledge from others.
On the other hand, making it clear that you are able and willing to help in the process of developing the solution is a very good start. "Would someone provide a pointer?", "What is my example missing?", and "Where should I have checked?" are more likely to get answered than "Please post the exact procedure I should use because you're making it clear that you're truly willing to complete the process if someone can just point you in the right direction".
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