sorry 😀 .. it is the most appropriate title I could come up with i.e Questions about the questions in the TR questions section.
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First let me state right off the bat it is probably my favorite part of TR .. I sometimes find answers to questions I did not know would pose a potential problem .. after shamelessly free-loading off of it for sometime, I finally registered to try and give back some as well.
now lets get to the criticisms and things that can improve:
1- Do not ask a question unless you provide some background into the scenario that has led you to ask for help, some technical answers are not necessarily the best ones depending upon your specific case.
2- Try to avoid asking direct technical questions like how do you make software X do Y .. which is freely and easily available in much more detail than could possibly be answered by on TR, such as online help forums created to deal with specifically that product or Administrator guides that accompany it.
3- ‘Thumb-wh0ring’ for the lack of a better term .. no doubt most of the people with high number of thumbs up have provided valuable assistance to people and should be commended but some of the stuff is just ridiculous.
4- ‘give some status info’: A simple I have done X,Y and Z but I still cant figure it out. saves you and the potential answerer alot of time since he/she does not have to suggest X,Y and Z again and it shows your not a lazy bum who did some legwork first.
5- Follow up, if someone has taken the time to assist you the least you could do is answer the questions he/she is asking. i.e. help them help you.
6- Educate, if you have taken the time to answer a question … try to educate the person after answering the question by suggesting resources that helped you with that kind of problem.
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Questions I consider really good:
1-an approach to solving a technical problem.
2- how to make a tool function in a way it was not designed for(software/hardware),but solves a problem
3-advice during planning stage of a technical project .. you could ask for potential problems … or horror stories of the more experienced TR members
What do you think ? Please add your thoughts to both list.
