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General Discussion

Posted by Michael Hicks
Michael Hicks
23,977 Points

How-to Guide: Asking Forum Questions

Aside from the common mistake of not supplying the necessary code to debug a project, I see a lot of questions by users that are incomplete or lacking context. I am admittedly a newcomer when it comes to development, but I am naturally particular about grammar and logic.

Below, I've listed a few points that I think will help us all to communicate more effectively in the forums so that our questions will be more clearly understood and solved more quickly.

  • Write A Clear Headline: You should give members a clear idea of what you’re having trouble with starting with the headline. Clarity will get more members working on your problem faster. “Help with HTML,” is too vague. “How do I nest unordered lists?” is a lot clearer.
  • Be Specific: In the body of your post express exactly what you want to accomplish even if you don’t know how. “Please help with JavaScript” is horribly vague. While asking, “How do I change the color of my paragraph text with an onclick event?” is a lot more detailed.
  • Pre-edit Your Questions: You can be specific without being long winded. Your question doesn't need to be as short as a twitter post, but getting your point across in 4 well written paragraphs instead of 12 unedited paragraphs will usually be more thoughtful, and precise
  • Provide Markup: Don’t wait until someone asks you to provide code to reply with the appropriate markup. Be proactive! Dustin Matlock has provided an excellent cheat sheet for displaying the appropriate markup here. You can also find the forums’ Markdown Cheatsheet at the bottom of your forum page.

2 Answers

Chris Dziewa
Chris Dziewa
17,781 Points
Chris Dziewa
Chris Dziewa
17,781 Points

Agreed! Many questions that could be answered in one post are prolonged by lack of information. Of all of the points you made, I would say providing markup is the most important. I can overlook vague titles and long-winded questions but if I have nowhere to start, nothing gets accomplished.

Michael Hicks
Michael Hicks
23,977 Points

Thanks Chris, that means a lot! I try to distribute this information around some of the entry-level question areas for newcomers, but I also see a lot of intermediate members making the same mistakes in the forums.

James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points
James Barnett
James Barnett
39,199 Points

Trying to get better question on the forum is a bit like tilting at windmills. We need more people around where tilting at windmills if you ask me.

I myself wrote up a very similar guide when the forum was new last year, it was the 2nd ever featured post on the forum.

https://teamtreehouse.com/forum/how-to-ask-good-questions-on-the-forum

Michael Hicks
Michael Hicks
23,977 Points

Wow, that's awesome. I like how your article is organized. You do a great job of distributing information into small chunks without boring the reader. Your post needs to be more visible to all members; maybe it could be featured in a FAQ section or Support tab in the side navigation.