Newbie-Posting Document

[kander]

Hey everyone,

I was wondering if the following text could be made a Sticky in the 'Email Help Needed' Forum, to improve the quality of the questions asked.

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Suggested Title: Read this before asking a question!

If you are here looking for help with regards to email, you have come to the right place. Please observe the following guidelines when posting, to help us help you (or 'to increase the chance of getting a useful answer').

1. If you have a question about either Fastmail, Runbox, Gmail or BlueBottle, please post in their respective Forums. This Forum is meant only for issues that do not pertain to those services.

2. Use a meaningful subject. A subject like 'How to send mail with ProviderX' is good, 'HELP! URGENT!!' is not. On a related note, don't label your stuff as URGENT. It tends to look as if you consider your problems to be more important then those of others. Just wait for an answer, like everyone else.

3. Do your homework. It's pretty annoying to answer questions that can be answered by Googling easily. Also, show that you did your homework, if it's relevant.

4. Indicate clearly what you want/expect in your answer. If you are looking for advice, say so. If you want a clear yes-or-no answer, tell us.

5. Be concise, but precise. Don't fluff up your question with needless information, don't omit stuff that can be vital to helping you with your issue.

6. (Vital!) Be Polite. You don't need to suck up or anything, but show consideration for the people reading your question by trying to use proper spelling and grammar. Spellchecker programs are your friend. Don't flood us with pointless smileys. Don't use extraneous exclamation marks.

7. Report back if the problem is solved. I don't know how others think about this, but I surely enjoy hearing back from a person after helping, telling me the solution I suggested works/doesn't work. It's what motivates me to help people on EMD.

8. (General Forum Etiquette) Stay on-topic. If you have an issue that is different from the one being covered in current threads, don't 'hijack' a thread for your issue. Just start a new one.

Thank you for your consideration,
Kander
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Perhaps it's a bit overkill, but from time to time posts pop up that make no sense at all.. I think having this available somewhere visible and linkable could/would decrase the amount of such useless-question posts.

--K

I'm not sure a newbie will read this long document when they need to get their mail working urgently...

[kander]

Bah. You're right (as usual). Hmm... There has to be a way to motivate people to write clear questions, without forcing them to read through a long set of guidelines... :/

--K

[fmnewbee]

I embarrassinly still fail to read such texts. Maybe I am the exception hopefully? Am I?

Trew

Kander: point 5.

edit: Have you seen Rob's guidelines thread?

[Killer]

Originally posted by Daniel T
I'm not sure a newbie will read this long document when they need to get their mail working urgently...

No one will read them, unless it is set to popup at every time the forum loads!

[SusanUKF]

I do not think that the newbies will take the time to read all of this quite frankly!! They are too preoccupied even trying to figure out how to use the quotes, how to start a new thread, etcetera, and they do not generally read a lot of "mini-documents" before posting IMO!

Susan.

[Killer]

Originally posted by kander


3. Do your homework. It's pretty annoying to answer questions that can be answered by Googling easily. Also, show that you did your homework, if it's relevant.

Do homework and helping is two different things. Just because you are an expert in the field of homework doesn't mean everyone knows them. Many are just normal people that register a forum and post their questions. If you have the answer be happy to share it. Asking them to do homework is rude here.

[SusanUKF]

Originally posted by Killer
Do homework and helping is two different things. Just because you are an expert in the field of homework doesn't mean everyone knows them. Many are just normal people that register a forum and post their questions. If you have the answer be happy to share it. Asking them to do homework is rude here.

Doing homework is really important ofcourse!! Some people who are just joining a forum may not be as good as using the searching capabilities and everything of Google. Not everyone is on the pc as much as some of us are.

Susan.

Killer, do you think it is too much to ask people to read the FAQs before posting a question?

[Killer]

Originally posted by kander
6. (Vital!) Be Polite. You don't need to suck up or anything, but show consideration for the people reading your question by trying to use proper spelling and grammar. Spellchecker programs are your friend. Don't flood us with pointless smileys. Don't use extraneous exclamation marks.

Not everyone are good user of the English language. I am one of them and I am doing my best not to type in unreadable words or sentences. I think if we can read and understand them it is good enough. Unless this is a place for "high class" users. Smileys isn't excatly pointless. They are being "flooded" by some users new and old and have been ongoing but somehow no one take notice.

[Killer]

Originally posted by Daniel S
Killer, do you think it is too much to ask people to read the FAQs before posting a question?

Daniel, FAQ are meant for certain unusual happenings. Common things everyone knows. Like being polite to each others. Too much of the same "FAQ" becomes rules. We know that being nasty is breaking of the rules but some forum allow nasty stuffs. So there is a thin line between FAQ and rules.

[SusanUKF]

Originally posted by Killer
Not everyone are good user of the English language. I am one of them and I am doing my best not to type in unreadable words or sentences. I think if we can read and understand them it is good enough. Unless this is a place for "high class" users. Smileys isn't excatly pointless. They are being "flooded" by some users new and old and have been ongoing but somehow no one take notice.

It is an International board, and we must respect those users who do not have a total grasp of the English language. Although extraneous smilies can get on my nerves as well at times, I always use atleast one in my posts.

Susan.

[Killer]

Originally posted by kander
5. Be concise, but precise. Don't fluff up your question with needless information, don't omit stuff that can be vital to helping you with your issue.

How would one know if it is too much or too little informations, useful and useless? Which is why we ask questions if we answer them base on the informations provides. Example a problem could be caused by hardware, software, OS, conflicts, external vendors, user behavours..... Too much or too little here?

[SusanUKF]

Originally posted by Killer
How would one know if it is too much or too little informations, useful and useless? Which is why we ask questions if we answer them base on the informations provides. Example a problem could be caused by hardware, software, OS, conflicts, external vendors, user behavours..... Too much or too little here?

That is the problem, we need to have enough information, and sometime the surrounding information can give us a better idea of what that person may be able to use (ie: the difference between going free or paid, and so on).

Susan.