Asking Questions
 

I've noticed a lot of new threads appearing with questions that are only a sentence or two long. For example "I can't do this.". No error message, no explanation of other things they've tried, just simply "I can't." I will reply, asking for more information, because I *WANT* to help these users, but I can't without the information.

So, this article is both interesting to me and may be useful to those who have a hard time deciding what to put in their questions to make sure we have enough information to answer these questions: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

I don't mean to criticize people, but it works out a lot better for everyone if the right questions are asked. And then, of course, answered.

You might put a link then to that article in your signature, or point these types of people toward it.
Just reply to these posts indicating you need more information and a possible way to attain that information.

a link like i've had for 3 years now? hehe... i keep it there but no one relevant will EVER rad it.. it's the implicit nature of the problem isn't it?

if people don't realise that to get other people help, they need to help themselves first, then there's no way to get them too.

I even Wrote a Tutorial (http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...icle&artid=277) and it's had over 2000 views. But still the "Heeeeeeelllllllllpppppppp" type threads are started.

Does anyone have any ideas on how we can get better thread titles?

Oh, and I too have ESRs article in my sig block.

Maybe we could not give the option to have a thread title?
Just several text boxes like this (using Linux-software as an example, change questions as neccessary):
Name of problematic program or script:
Brief descripton (less than 100 characters):
Please describe in great detail the problem:

Then have the thread titles auto-generated from the first 2 boxes, and the body be the 3rd. We'll just then have to keep people from putting "Linux" in the first box...

If the post was to go in Linux-Hardware, make the structure something like this:

Kernel Version (output of "uname -r"):
Brand/Model of hardware you're having trouble with:
Brief descripton (less than 100 characters):
Please describe in great detail the problem:

It would be a big task doing this for each forum, but may have some benefits...


Might even try this on one forum, say Linux-Software, to see if it helps any before applying to other forums...