HOW TO POST A QUESTION - READ New Users

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June 15th, 2004, 03:42 PM

jacktasia

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HOW TO POST A QUESTION - READ New Users

The javascript forum needed its own "READ FIRST" sticky...for all the new members whose first post is here. Please Read This In Full. This is almost an exact port from JeffCT's wonderful PHP verison. I only added some stuff, most of his is quoted at the bottom.

<edit>
javascript is NOT java!!! please read below to be informed.

define javascript
</edit>

1. SEARCH FIRST!
The odds are that your problem has been addressed multiple times before, so try searching first. Heck, it makes sense: you get your answer faster, and you save everyone's time.

FORUMS BUILD IN SEARCH
USE GOOGLE TO SEARCH ONLY DevShed FORUMS

Most of your questions will probably be answered using one of those.

2. USE CODE OR HIGHLIGHT= TAGS!
I can't even say in human words how important it is to use the CODE or HIGHLIGHT= tags. Not only does it set your code apart from your normal post, but it also helps keep your FORMATTING, so we can all see your indentations...which of course, make it much easer to understand your code....

EXAMPLE

THIS:

[CODE]
for (var i=1;i<=10;i++) {
window.alert(i + '/10');
}
[/CODE]

becomes this:

Code:

for (var i=1;i<=10;i++) {
	window.alert(i + '/10');
}

AND THIS:

[HIGHLIGHT=javascript]
for (var i=1;i<=10;i++) {
window.alert(i + '/10');
}
[/HIGHLIGHT]

becomes this:

javascript Code:

Original - javascript Code
for (var i=1;i<=10;i++) { window.alert(i + '/10'); }

 
for (var i=1;i<=10;i++) {
    window.alert(i + '/10');
}

3. MEANINGFUL THREAD/TOPIC TITLES

This is simple: just describe your problem as specifically as you can.

Here's a great list of topic subjects YOU SHOULD NOT POST by freebsd:

1) Help me
2) Hello
3) You must know the answer
4) Please help this female newbie
5) Something wrong
6) Come on PHP gurus
7) This one for you
8) Just wondering
9) This is too complicated for me
10) possible?
11) Very urgent
12) I have a question
13) Stupid question
14) Newbie needs help
15) pulling my hair out
16) this is driving me nuts

4. Miscellaneous Items (although not less important)

A. Don't Submit right away. Preview Your Post.
B. You CAN edit your posts. (don't over do it though, don't wildly change them. This is mainly for spelling/grammar etc. Anything else just make a new post in that thread.
C. DON'T BRING UP OLD THREADS! just because it's remotely related to your problem. Start a new one.
D. there must be more....

Other Things You MUST Keep In Mind

I couldn't put this in better words myself...so a direct quote:

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffCT

ONLY YOU KNOW WHAT "DOESN'T WORK" MEANS
Please tell us what your script is supposed to do and why it "doesn't work". Or if you don't feel like explaining what the whole script is, 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 a million things wrong and no one will know where to look.

IF YOU ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE 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 people post code that is over your head, ask them for an explanation. Too many times I see great solutions posted, then the original poster doesn't understand it and goes hunting around the PHP manual and finds some function they think will solve their problem but really has Nothing to do with their problem! The solution you are given may not always be something you are totally familiar with, so just ask for a better explanation!

REMEMBER THAT WHEN PEOPLE HELP YOU, THEY ARE DOING YOU A 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 a favor. You are not doing them a favor by letting them see your incredible 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".

Basically, normal human manners apply on these forums.

I am sure I maybe forgetting something, if you see errors/typos or anything that you think should be added PM me.

<edit by ChiefWigs1982> I've updated this to include instructions
on the HIGHLIGHT tag in section 2.

Comments on this post

oldgirl agrees: Thank you. It's very clear and easy to understand. (Can't change the zero in the drop-down. It won't
let me!)

OldMainFramer agrees: Thank you for the rules of the road.

vbrtrmn agrees: New users will need to learn how to read, first.

usha rao agrees: It really helps people ask questions in better way and help avoiding spam.

__________________
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Last edited by ChiefWigs1982 : August 16th, 2005 at 09:56 AM.

August 9th, 2005, 02:45 PM

ChiefWigs1982

Cunning Linguist

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Join Date: Jul 2003

Location: I used to live at home, now I stay at the house

Posts: 10,180

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Time spent in forums: 3 Months 3 Weeks 5 Days 19 h 54 m 23 sec
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New Syntax Highlighting...

Hey everyone, the admins have implemented a new hack to the
forums, allowing you to post your code with nicely coloured text
rather than just the normal black or the old php stuff.

More details can be found here:
http://forums.devshed.com/t279108/s.html

Html code:
[highlight=html4strict]your code here[/highlight]

For example:

html4strict Code:

Original - html4strict Code

 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
   "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
<title>Untitled Document</title>
</head>
 
<body>
<h1 class="header_text">
    Nice One!
</h1>
<p id="main_content">
    <span style="color:red;">Lorem ipsum</span> dolor sit amet, consectetur
    adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore
    magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco
    laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in
    reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur.
    Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia
    deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
</p>
</body>
</html>

The same goes for JavaScript code:
[highlight=javascript]your code here[/highlight]

javascript Code:

Original - javascript Code
<script type="text/JavaScript"> function doStuff() { //declare vars... var foo='bar'; var o=document.getElementByid('something'); /* -Take the value and convert to a float. -alert the value */ var v=parseFloat(o.value); alert(v); } </script>

 
<script type="text/JavaScript">
function doStuff()
{
    //declare vars...
    var foo='bar';
    var o=document.getElementByid('something');
    /*
        -Take the value and convert to a float.
        -alert the value
    */
    var v=parseFloat(o.value);
    alert(v);
}
</script>

The same goes for CSS highlighting:
[highlight=css]your code here[/highlight]

css Code:

Original - css Code
/Comments/ body { property:value; } body, div { property:value; }

 
/*Comments*/
body
{
    property:value;
}
body, div
{
    property:value;
}

As you can see from the thread I linked, there are many many
other languages supported, but these three examples are more
likely to be used than any other in this particular forum...

Have fun with it, and please do use this feature, I'm sure it will
make things much easier for us to read/understand, rather than
just posting chunks of code.

Enjoy!

--Jon.

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