# How to Ask a Question Here!



## rajas (Jul 21, 2005)

*How to ask a question*

After posting a question to a professional forum or newsgroup and waiting for a while, you get the following answer(s) from the active forum/newsgroup members:

_"Your question does not contain all the required information needed for us to help you. 
           Please re-write your question, this time make sure you have all the needed info and 
           we'll try to help."_

Another symptom of this error is getting the following answer:

_  "You question has been answered a zillion times. Please use a decent search engine 
           and/or search our archives before posting any future questions"_
 or
_   "RTFM"
          "STFW"
          "Google is your best friend"_

and others.

Other variations of the same answer exist, all depending on the forum/newsgroup quality and percentage of hackers or open source enthusiasts on the forum/newsgroup members list.

In some severe cases, when trying to reply to this answer yourself, you may find out that the nickname you've been using to post on the forum, or that the alias you've been using to read and post on the newsgroup has been banned for any future use.

This article is a loose how-to guide for correct forum and newsgroup question-asking and general etiquette. 

Continue reading at Microsoft

[Edited Deep]


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## desertwind (Oct 23, 2005)

*How To Ask Questions The Smart Way*

On Web forums, the subject header is your golden opportunity to attract qualified experts' attention in around 50 characters or fewer. Don't waste it on babble like â€œPlease help meâ€? (let alone â€œPLEASE HELP ME!!!!â€?; messages with subjects like that get discarded by reflex). Don't try to impress us with the depth of your anguish; use the space for a super-concise problem description instead.

A good convention for subject headers, used by many tech support organizations, is â€œobject - deviationâ€?. The â€œobjectâ€? part specifies what thing or group of things is having a problem, and the â€œdeviationâ€? part describes the deviation from expected behavior.

*Stupid:*
_HELP! Video doesn't work properly on my laptop!_

*Smart:*
_XFree86 4.1 misshapen mouse cursor, Fooware MV1005 vid. chipset_

*Smarter:*
_XFree86 4.1 mouse cursor on Fooware MV1005 vid. chipset - is misshapen_

Be precise and informative about your problem

-> Describe the symptoms of your problem or bug carefully and clearly.
-> Describe the environment in which it occurs (machine, OS, application, whatever).
-> Provide your vendor's distribution and release level (e.g.: â€œFedora Core 2â€?, â€œSlackware 9.1â€?, etc.).
-> Describe the research you did to try and understand the problem before you asked the question.
-> Describe the diagnostic steps you took to try and pin down the problem yourself before you asked the question.
-> Describe any recent changes in your computer or software configuration that might be relevant.

Do the best you can to anticipate the questions a hacker will ask, and to answer them in advance in your request for help.

How To Ask Questions The Smart Way

I know there's a sticky on the same subject, but its locked. i request mods to merge this thread to the sticky, i they want.
Source


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