Rank: ? (767)
Member #: 11085

My goal for this post is a simple one, I intend only to inform of the propper way to post a question, not only on this, but on all other programming forums as well, so that the question can be answered as fast as possible. (Which is what everyone wants, right?)
Hopefully some of you will feel the following information is obvious, however, to assume it is for everyone will only drive you to frustration and annoyance.

Well, first off is posting a descriptive, decisive, title for your question. A good length for a title is about 5 words, give or take 2. Most often you can give a good title in that amount, but if you cant, well, thats what the description field is for. It is also important to note that you should never, EVER post a title such as "HELP". It is obvoius you need help, if you didn't, you probably wouldnt be posting, just shouting help as loud as you can type in a title is not only annoying, but it also forces someone to open up your topic to see what your actual problem is before they can help you or not, which just isn't good.

Now on to how to properly post the body of your question. This should start with a short, informative, well written, paragraph describing the problem you are facing and any methods of solving this problem that you have already tried. The key phrase in that previous sentence was "well written". A well written paragraph should at least have proper punctuation (the exception being apostraphes) and no more than 2 emoticons (however, 0 is prefered). If you want, you can even capitalize a letter or two here and there. This is a forum, not AIM, which means that "lol" is not punctuation. I am not saying this because I'm a grammer stickler, but because it makes your question much easier to read, easier to understand, and lowers the probability that it will be misread. Also, when applicable, post a code sample. Now, that is a sample, not a page. A sample generaly consists of no more than 20 lines, and should stay within the range of 10. This code should be properly formated, commented (if not well commented), and between [ code ] [ /code ] tags.

Before you go an post your question with all your new found knowledge, however, there are two things you should ALWAYS do first. The first is to search to see if your question has already been answered. This is hard on this particular forum, as it does not have a search function, but you could at least scan the title of about the first two pages. If doing searching doesnt yeild an answer, the next step would be do check the manual. I've seen at least 15 questions in my short time here that could have been answered in a 5 seconds trip to the PHP Manual or more specifically, the PHP Function Reference. If after you have done both of those, then you can post your question. And remember, only post your question once, in one forum. Posting the same question in multiple forums will probably result in both being deleted or left unanswered.

Oh yes, and one last thing, if you are computer illiterate, you should not be programming. People that say there is no such thing as a stupid question are quite incorrect, you must always go into a situation with a certain amount of required knowledge on the subject. If you are in a programming forum, it is expected that you know how to use a computer. This may seem incredibly obvious, but I helped a user in a situation that went something like this:
user: I have a problem with sessions... (more stuff and code here)
me: Your problem is that session_start() is not first in your code, simply move it to the top
user: How exactly do I do that?
me: try cut and paste.
I really do hope the above never happens again, for the sake of my own sanity.

That concludes my short question asking tutorial. Feel free to flame me all you like, but is is almost certain that if you follow the guidlines above, your questions will be answered faster, and with more willingness from those answering it.

Rank: ? (883)
Member #: 3

pinned

relpats_eht, you have a link at the beginning you could edit out too.

Rank: ? (767)
Member #: 11085

oh, sorry bout that, didnt realize i didnt delete it. (i never remember if this place uses link or url tags)

Rank: ? (171)
Member #: 11947

probably a good idea to post this in every forum under programming languages...

good post BTW

Rank: ? (883)
Member #: 3

yea, good point guys!

Rank: ? (767)
Member #: 11085

It wouldnt matter. Almost no one reads any thread marked "Important" on any forum I've ever been on, and the only ones that do dont have to because they have been on forums long enough to know the general rules and whats generaly accepted.

Though, I suppose an advantage is you have a reason to quickly delete anything that doesnt conform.

Rank: ? (856)
Member #: 2

This is good. We certainly could do with some better formatting of posts around here.

Would you be interested in becoming a moderator of the PHP forum, relpats_eht?

Rank: ? (767)
Member #: 11085

Ok, why not? Feel free to make me a mod at any time.

Rank: ? (856)
Member #: 2

Oops, forgot about this.. Done..

Rank: ? (767)
Member #: 11085

Thank you for the honor.

Rank: ? (91)
Member #: 26322

Thankyou for the advice relpats!
It is much appreciated, and duely noted for future refrence.