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Originally posted by JeffCT on 10-19-2001 03:51 PM in PHP Forum
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I figured this was necessary because a lot of people come in and post threads without thinking, and without realizing that there is no possible way they could get help because of the way they posted the question. Here are some general guidelines.
USE SEARCH FIRST!
There is a pretty good chance that unless you have some
really odd or unique problem that it has been addressed on this
forum before (or even hundreds of times before for some issues).
Use the forum's search feature first to see if there are already some good threads on the subject. It's easy to search - just click the "Search" button at the top right of the page.
Be DESCRIPTIVE
I cannot stress this enough. We cannot possibly help you if you simply post a thread, copy and paste your whole script and say "it has errors what's wrong with it?". Keep this in mind:
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 PHP error? Your own error reporting? MySQL error? Or is it just not doing what you want?
3. Remember that you know a lot more about your script than we do. Don't assume we know just what it does.
Don't use stupid topic names
Post a descriptive topic name! Give a short summary of your problem IN THE SUBJECT. Don't use attention getting subjects. They don't get attention. They repel attention and annoy people.
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
Generally ANYTHING similar to those is unacceptable. Just post your problem.
Here is a good example of a way to post a question about ereg() and regular expressions / validating emails
"Need ereg regular expression help"
or even better:
"validating emails w/ ereg() regular expressions"
These are
bad examples:
"I can't figure this out!"
"Stupid question..."
"Female newbie needs regex help"
"Help me! Urgent!"
ONLY POST THE PART OF YOUR SCRIPT THAT HAS PROBLEMS!
PLEASE do not post your entire script in a message. And if you have to use 2 messages that's a good indication that you're going to annoy people. 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. And if you post the entire script it's going to take us a lot longer to find the problem.
PUT YOUR CODE IN in php vB code!!!
Hundreds of times per week we see people post a huge ugly script right into the message. There's a problem with that. The tabs don't work. There's no syntax highlighting. That makes it difficult to read!
There's a really neat vB code built in that will format and syntax highlight your PHP code when you post it. You can use that easy PHP button right above the box where you type your message. The result will look like this:
PHP Code:
// this is some easy to read PHP code
if($your_code_is_easy_to_read)
{
people_like_it();
}
If you get an error on a certain LINE, tell us what's on that line and what's on the few lines above it!
It's not too helpful when you mention an error on a certain line but don't tell us what code is on that line. Because errors can sometimes be caused by lines of code above the one the error is mentioned on, please post a few lines above that line.
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'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 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 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".
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