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"Help me" questions
#11
(Jun-16-2018, 06:50 AM)Nwb Wrote: I can understand how people tend to write such titles, they don't realize that the title has to pertain to the topic in question instead of what kind of topic it is.
I can understand when people put their threads in the wrong sub-forum. Sometimes the wording does not fit with their understanding. And yes... sometimes they are too lazy as well. Like to me... I dont understand how people keep asking python questions in the board section. But it doesnt happen a lot. Enough to not get on my nerves.

Using proper titles is a requirement for any forum. Not just programming. I dont know why you wouldnt want to sum your question up anyways. The title is what attracts correct responders. The better the title defines your problem the more apt you are to get a proper response. It gets rid of responders who do not know about that subject and gives a clear and concise idea to the potential responder about the issue. Sometimes its not good to get as many responses as possible as one person may lead the rest in the wrong direction. The title is what keeps people on track.

At worst case scenario if someone doesnt know what to ask for they can do better than "help". For example if i am getting a different outcome than what i expected and i dont know how to ask for help. I could just put "unexpected output". If i knew a little more i might give a couple more words tho help describe it "unexpected output with tkinter". That at least would identify that this is in relation to tkinter, etc. If I get an error and i dont know how to read tracebacks or do not understand it at all, i could just say "syntax error?". More descriptive titles will come in time with learning. But at least they give some idea. That is bare bones expected in any forum.

I feel like facebook only hinders this problem as people are now familiar with just making a post ranting about their problem, and not proofreading their post to make sure its concise as well as get a good title to sum it all up. I can tell you i have read this (my) post at least 10 times, and have deleted unnecessary paragraphs not pertaining to the conversation, as well as rewording sentences over and over again. I think asking questions on forums is a skill of itself if you are not familiar with it. However it is a skill that makes people take you serious and can often be the leading factor to a good response or not. Specifically to programming forums it is a skill that should be learned soon with whatever language as well.

I found the help doc related. The question here could be the title. But our goal was to show people how to ask a question by adding your error, understanding of it, your goal, and the code. In this example the title could be "unknown reason for index error" or at the least put the error "list index out of range". Whereas if the title is "help" or "code doesnt work" that person has already gotten those responding shaking their heads before they even read their post.
https://python-forum.io/misc.php?action=help&hid=19

I didnt understand what i put in each post was so important until i read this....all of it. After i read this i understood there was a code of ethics in forums that i never knew existed. That is why we tell people to read it.
http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
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#12
(Jun-16-2018, 12:25 PM)metulburr Wrote: I think asking questions on forums is a skill of itself if you are not familiar with it. However it is a skill that makes people take you serious and can often be the leading factor to a good response or not. Specifically to programming forums it is a skill that should be learned soon with whatever language as well.
When I got feedback about asking better questions (on this forum around ~2005) I started putting a lot more effort into asking questions well, and that led to me being able to figure out the solutions myself. I wrote up so many posts, realized I had missed including some bit of information, and by the time I would have formed a proper post, the solution was obvious.
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