How to ask a question

From: Jonathan Hays (nomad@gfoyle.org)
Date: Tue Mar 30 2004 - 15:00:38 GMT-3

In the hopes of teaching people how to get better responses to their
GroupStudy posts, I offer this link by Eric S. Raymond and Rick Moen:

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

Here's my favorite excerpt:

- - -
"Before You Ask

Before asking a technical question by email, or in a newsgroup, or on a
website chat board, do the following:

Try to find an answer by searching the Web.

Try to find an answer by reading the manual.

Try to find an answer by reading a FAQ.

Try to find an answer by inspection or experimentation.

Try to find an answer by asking a skilled friend.

If you are a programmer, try to find an answer by reading the source
code.

When you ask your question, display the fact that you have done these
things first; this will help establish that you're not being a lazy
sponge and wasting people's time. Better yet, display what you have
learned from doing these things. We like answering questions for people
who have demonstrated that they can learn from the answers."
- - -

HTH,

Jonathan

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