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Thread ID: 45978 2004-06-09 03:33:00 Discussion: How to Ask Questions the Smart Way, and How To Become a Hacker Chilling_Silence (9) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
242962 2004-06-09 03:33:00 Greetings,

During my Travels across the WorldWideWeb, I came across these two interesting pages:
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way (www.catb.org)
How To Become A Hacker (www.catb.org)

Just thought these may be of interest to some people, probably n00b's asking questions and not getting much answers.

Anybody have any thoughts on the two pages?


Chill.
Chilling_Silence (9)
242963 2004-06-09 03:41:00 how to ask questions smart.Might actually help my grammar.!!!

Still reading through it.Its a long long page !!!
yingxuan (3330)
242964 2004-06-09 03:43:00 Some of the things in there are a quite useful.lol.!! yingxuan (3330)
242965 2004-06-09 05:38:00 I have to say Chill, that posting or preferably linking "how to ask questions etc" on PF1 as an FAQ would be a very good idea.

It is well written, considered and moderate in its language (with the exception of a couple of F's) and a very useful guide to help users from noobs to experts get the best out of the Forum.

Cheers

Billy 8-{) :|
Billy T (70)
242966 2004-06-09 05:54:00 Interesting, I follow their advice and never get help....

Ok well mostly....
Growly (6)
242967 2004-06-09 07:06:00 While good in theory that web page in the first link is not very well constructed as...

a) A newbie is not going to read anything that long
b) The tone is not particulary nice and has arrogant undertones given some comments like their questions not to ask and the likely reply you will get.
parry (27)
242968 2004-06-09 07:31:00 LOL Chill . Nice one .

I had similar thoughtd to Billy while reading it, would require the authors permission to post it though . Might need a bit of editing, not the F's but just to bring it in to line for a more general forum and average attention spans .

Reading the some of the sections brought to mind some of our more robust members :) RTFM & STFW induced a smile in particular . . hmm, where did I see that last . . . good advice anyway .

As usual I ended up on a link trail . Great .

Cheers Murray P
Murray P (44)
242969 2004-06-09 09:11:00 Good article Chill. mikebartnz (21)
242970 2004-06-09 12:16:00 Hey Billy,
How to Ask Questions has been stickied in OCNZ for yonks and has had marginal success.
forums.overclockers.co.nz

Most of the time when someone asks a stupid question, they're forwarded to that thread, but they simply reply with something nonsensical like "huh? I dont get dat thread lol ^_^ jst answa my qn lolgraarrrgel@!!!"

*sigh*

The problem is the people who EXPECT to have their hand held and EXPECT answers to be given. Seeing as I do work in customer support on a corporate level, I can say it's surprisingly nice to field a call where the user says "my name is x, the problem I'm having is y, I have tried z"

Bit of a change from the ones who scream and whinge and demand that their problem be fixed right now!

I agree completely with the mentality of How to ask questions the smart way, and dont see it as arrogant at all.
whetu (237)
242971 2004-06-09 12:23:00 > The problem is the people who EXPECT to have their
> hand held and EXPECT answers to be given. Seeing as
> I do work in customer support on a corporate level, I
> can say it's surprisingly nice to field a call where
> the user says "my name is x, the problem I'm having
> is y, I have tried z"

Whereas the correct script for those calls are.

"I've broken x, it's your fault, I didn't do z, honest, I didn't, and what's your name so I can continually ask for and harass you till you've fixed my failure?"
whiskeytangofoxtrot (438)
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