Yes, it is lengthy, but worth reading!

www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Tammo ter Hark

Hi, Tammo,
this was overdue, and I hope anybody will read it.

Here the two leaders in my ranking:

1. Lack of courtesy.
In my opinion too many start their post without a salutation and close without something like "Thank you in advance" or "Kind regards" or whatever.
I already was going to add to my profile a standard text like "Salutations are not inserted by the forum software. You have to do this manually."

2. The way of writing.
This is not WhatsApp. Please do not write as if you write to your friends, without punctuation and without linefeeds.
Here are many who try to read a text that is not written in their mother tongue.

Both things are not suitable to increase my willingness to answer, since it does not show any appreciation of the work of all the volunteers here.

Kind regards
Joffm

Hi Joffm,

I agree with 2. I don't know if 1. is that necessary. I mean I do it usually, but as long as the way someone asks is educated, I am fine with it. We do not need to spend too much time on formalities.

What annoys me the most are those that expect to receive an answer immediately, and if this doesn't happen they "report" the post to the moderator or send private messages. I think the response time in the LS forum is often sensational. If you need to wait a little bit longer, so be it. But I compared to other forums that I frequent, the LS forum is either excellent or doesn't have to hide. Other forums where I received excellent support are Openmediavault, pbxinaflash and lately Shotcut.

But so far, I am amazed by the help and patience (e.g. Tpartner and also you Joffm). I sometimes am inclined to write something evil, but then rather skip the question...

Maybe we could also help user to state their question clearly: could we in any way present some text on the empty screen for a forum post when a user wants to ask something.

Something like:

---

If you have a technical question please specify at least:
* your version of LimeSurvey (bottom of the page in the administrative interface. State the version and the build number)
* are you using a standard template, a template that you customised or a template that you downloaded?
* what question type are you referring to?
* what version of PHP (if relevant)
* what server and version (if relevant)
* attach a survey with only the question(s) that are relevant for the question. Don't make support people search for you example!
* attach a sketch of what you want to achieve? Don't expect support people to make their own sketches of you problem.
* ...

And be patient. Support people are real live persons. They will not walk faster when YOU are in a hurry. They do not fix what you screwed up.
And by the way: did you already google your problem?

---

Hi

Eternal issue : ask user to improve questions .

See mantis/bug and www.limesurvey.org/community-services/bug-tracker difference :)

DenisChenu: I see many "first time" users here and users from which I suspect that they are not from Open Source communities. It would possibly help them by prompting a trext that can guide then in asking their question...

tammo wrote: DenisChenu: I see many "first time" users here and users from which I suspect that they are not from Open Source communities. It would possibly help them by prompting a trext that can guide then in asking their question...

Yes, you're right : nothing is shown in mantis.

And the topic www.limesurvey.org/forum/installation-a-...efore-you-write-here can be improved

BTW, this document sounds as a great "read more..." resource for the "king" of all LS forum entries Read this before you write here.. .