New Members Please Read

[firebird999]

ok, there are at least what, 20 new members who now, within, like, 2 months, have over 200 posts, and you STILL DON'T GET IT. if you are posting a thread like "new drag car" or "awesome paintjob", people expect pictures, but 80% of the time they just get a question. IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS PLEASE CHECK THE TUTORIALS! if those don't help title your thread "which tires are the best?" or "what paint should i use?", it is very annoying that almost every time a cool project comes up, it's really just a question from one of the new, 150+ post, members.

[DrIfToRDIe]

ok, there are at least what, 20 new members who now, within, like, 2 months, have over 200 posts, and you STILL DON'T GET IT. if you are posting a thread like "new drag car" or "awesome paintjob", people expect pictures, but 80% of the time they just get a question. IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS PLEASE CHECK THE TUTORIALS! if those don't help title your thread "which tires are the best?" or "what paint should i use?", it is very annoying that almost every time a cool project comes up, it's really just a question from one of the new, 150+ post, members.

+1.
I reference to this in my signature kinda

[TheB1GDude]

Members new or old creating threads with vague titles and little or no useful information in them with receive infraction points, so be warned think about what you are writing before hitting the post thread button.

If you want to ask the other members a question such as "what tires should I put on my dragster" then that's fine just be sure to research into what wheels are available and then ask people which they think would work best with your overall theme......

[meme405]

Members new or old creating threads with vague titles and little or no useful information in them with receive infraction points, so be warned think about what you are writing before hitting the post thread button.

If you want to ask the other members a question such as "what tires should I put on my dragster" then that's fine just be sure to research into what wheels are available and then ask people which they think would work best with your overall theme......

Adding to this. There is a basic amount knowledge needed to understand how a forum operates and how to use it properly.

Thread Etiquette:

ALWAYS:
...diligently use the Search feature prior to starting a thread.
...state in the intitial post, all the conditions that currently exist, and the desired outcome.
...test posted code AS IS, before declaring: "that don't work!"
...address EVERY respondent by NAME. NEVER write: "thanks guys" or "cheers, well done."
...remember that YOUR project is YOUR responsibility.
...remember that EVERYONE who responds to your thread is a VOLUNTEER, not your employee.
...start a NEW thread, for a NEW problem.
...treat others the way you would demand to be treated.

NEVER:
...write: "I want..." or "give me..."
...criticize anyone's code, nor any person.
...abbreviate, nor omit: "please" and "thank you." It's disprespectful and lazy.
...expect someone to write all the code you desire.
...try to manipulate others with cries for sympathy: e.g. "I'm a total noob, go easy on me."
...declare that your problem is URGENT.
...piecemeal your problem. e.g. "Okay, that works, but what I REALLY want is..."
...write "Thanks for that, now, my next problem is..."

IF a FORM is involved:
ALWAYS post the complete form HTML and all JavaScript that you've written concerning that form.

If an ACTIVE PAGE on YOUR site is involved:
ALWAYS post a link to the document.

NEVER post an extraneous or marginally relevant comment in ANY thread. e.g. "well, what's wrong with just doing...?", or "I noticed that so and so forgot to close the form tag, ha ha!", or "yes, I agree with so and so."

Whether you agree or disagree is irrelevant to the stated problem, and whatever error might exist, allow the author of the code to correct it.

If you have ORIGINAL code of your own to offer in solution of the stated problem, or a link to someone else's code, post it.

Otherwise, move along.

If you have an EXISTING relationship with another respondent, direct your comment to that respondent, and confine it to his or her previously posted code or comment.

Complete Forum Etiquette:


1) Very Important - use SEARCH feature.

This actually is a great feature, and believe me in most of the cases your question, chances are, have been answered multiple times already.
This will save lots of forum resources as well as it will save you to from waiting anxiously for your question to be responded to.


2) Post in the MOST APPROPRIATE category, and do not post twice.

Posting in the appropriate category will help you lots. If you have a JavaScript problem, post in the JavaScript category. Some people only visit categories that they specialize in, and if your post isn't at the correct place, it'd probably never get answered.

You MUST NOT post your problem twice in different categories. Instead of getting help you'd probably get fire from us.


3) Be very DESCRIPTIVE

I can not emphasis more on this one, I hate to see threads which are vague and leave us (volunteers) guessing that what
could have been wrong or what the poster actually meant. So please be kind and describe your question as much as you can, Phrases like these "Why my code does not work" or the worst ones are where you post several hundred lines of code and heading only says "Can you help me?", are a total no no.

Please follow these guidelines for your sake as well as volunteers sake:

1. Explain to us what your script DOES (or what it's supposed to do).

2. Explain to us what exactly the error is. Is it a JavaScript error?
Is it some server side related error Or is it just not doing what you
want?

3. Remember that (or so we hope) you know a lot more about your code than we do. Don't assume we know just what it does.

4. Most of the volunteers at this site are really good at what they do; however, do not expect them to know about every piece of garbage code, that is scattered all over the internet.
So phrases like "I took this code from XXXXX site why doesn't it work", means nothing. Please be descriptive as in item 2 above.


4) Stupid topic names, that MUST NOT be used

Post a descriptive topic name! Give a short summary of your problem IN THE SUBJECT field.

Below is a list of some universally agreed upon topic headings that YOU SHOULD NOT POST:

1) Help me
2) Hello please help me
3) this is driving me nuts
4) newbie alert
5) Newbie needs help
6) Challenge for JavaScript gurus
7) XXXXX doubt
8) This is too complicated for me
9) Is this possible?
10) Very urgent
11) I have a question
12) I have a problem
13) Stupid question
14) Something wrong
15) Pulling my hair out
16) Its probably easy for you

Generally ANYTHING similar to the above is not descriptive enough.

Here are few good topic heading examples

"Error: getting a NaN error"
"Getting an object required error when loading"
"text1 is null or not an object error!"


5) ONLY POST THE PART OF YOUR SCRIPT THAT HAS PROBLEMS!

PLEASE do not post your entire script in a message. Only post the part of your script where you have problems.
That's it. Just a very small piece of it. It's not hard. Just find the
part you think doesn't work and post that. WE DON'T WANT TO SEE YOUR ENTIRE SCRIPT (unless requested). And if you post the entire script it's going to take us a lot longer to find the problem. And if you must then please upload your file as txt or zip file.
Do not expect us to go through several hundred lines of code to figure out where you have omitted a comma.


6) Line Number!

Please let us know that which line caused the error and what that line's code is supposed to do when it works.
Tell us what,in general, your script is supposed to do and why it
"doesn't work". Or if you don't know why it does not work then at least tell us what the offending code is supposed to do.
When you come in and say "it doesn't work" or just "it has errors", that means NOTHING. There could be hundreds of things wrong and no one will know where to look.


7) POST A LINK!

If you do have an online version of the problem, it's much easier to view and debug.


8) If you're not going to take the advice, don't ask for help.

Often times, people post questions about their script with the
wrong mindset from the very beginning. Soon they are receiving replies, and silently debugging their code, making no effort to even acknowledge the people helping them! It becomes one sided, and the poster isn't aware that many of the people helping them hope to learn something as well! Letting people know of your progress and how their suggestions apply (or do not apply) will not only help you figure out your problem quicker, but you'll be returning the favor to those of us who learn more by helping.

In even worse scenarios, sometimes the poster will argue back even when they don't know what they're talking about. Hey - if you know it all, don't ask for help.

When people give you free code that may solve your problem, by all means, try it out! And if it's not what you need, at least thank them.

And if you find some responses over your head, ask them for a better explanation. Don’t come back arguing that it wasn't what you need,if you knew what you needed you wouldn't have posted a question in first place ,would you?.

Remember when people help you, they are doing YOU the favor.

Regardless of how big your ego is, it is NOT someone else's
privilege to debug Your code. It is not their privilege to have them
help you. It is YOURS. Remember that when people help you they are doing YOU the favor. You are not doing them a favor by letting them see your incredible buggy application. Be patient help people out by posting good descriptions of what you need help with, and not snapping at people with garbage such as "if you aren't going to help don't waste my time replying".


Other Notes:
Generally, most threads get answered. There are a couple of possible reasons why some posts never gets replied to:

Your post was hard to understand, or longer than anyone wanted to sift through.

There were few people on who answer questions at the time you posted, and the thread got sent down the page a ways, and out of sight.

Also, as no one get's paid to answer questions, if you need something that will require more work than someone wants give for free, your question may just get skipped over...

There are really a lot of reasons why a question may not get answered, but we try our best...

These were copied from another forum I am a part of and though a little weird in referring to code (its a java script forum...) the same general things apply...

With a forum this size most of these problems shouldnt be a big deal at all. But you see the problem starts because the members our forum subject attracts are usually young and have not been a part of many forums before.

If you want a prime example of what this forum would be like if it were bigger take a look at Pinstack.com, that forum is such a mess if you look in the 8100 category you will see that the same two things are repeated over and over (color pearl, and red light of death or dead pearl). If all the members took the time to read and search they would find that those questions had been awnsered 100000000 times before... Unfortuantly the amount of people that log on each day is so high that it cannot possibly be handled and the moderators have given up and simply just awnser the question 100000000 times and move on.

With all that said about pinstack it is even more regretable that this forum i now realize would be 10000000 times worse than pinstack at that size...

[jabari]

Seriously though. I do agree 100% with what firebird999 is saying.