Answer by PolyGeo for How to ask a smart question
A Question is composed of three distinct parts:bodytitletagsBodyBy far the most important is the body of your question because this is where you pose the all important single question that you would...
View ArticleAnswer by Pop Stack for How to ask a smart question
Just ask a simple question There are no stupid questions..., answers may be stupid!
View ArticleAnswer by Arjan for How to ask a smart question
As linked from the How to Ask page that is shown to every new user asking questions on Stack Overflow, and which is always linked in the rightmost column when asking a question:Writing the perfect...
View ArticleAnswer by ChrisW for How to ask a smart question
There's now an official page on this topic: see How to AskIf you want to suggest any improvements to this page, you can do that as a feature-request on Meta.
View ArticleAnswer by Jon Skeet for How to ask a smart question
I've now written up a whole article on how to write a question effectively for Stack Overflow.The key in my view is to read your question as if you were trying to answer it, and see whether it gives...
View ArticleAnswer by fretje for How to ask a smart question
Just found another nice and relevant "How to ask a question" article. (Thanks to HN again).
View ArticleAnswer by Lennart Regebro for How to ask a smart question
Main problems in my experience:1. Look at the possible duplicates!When you type in your title, a whole list of question appears underneath. You are supposed to look at those questions, to see if your...
View ArticleAnswer by Gordon Gustafson for How to ask a smart question
Whenever possible, don't just dump all of your code on us and ask us to fix it "even if you give us the error messages." That means we have to compile/view it in a browser to analyze it. Be nice, and...
View ArticleAnswer by Jeff Atwood for How to ask a smart question
This was covered in Podcast 26:Atwood: Have you read Eric Raymond's How to Ask Questions? Like this epic, 100,000 word--Spolsky: Yeah. And that's the thing that he tried to encourage people to use as...
View ArticleAnswer by user1228 for How to ask a smart question
For SO, I think asking questions the smart way includes describing the problem as clearly as possible with the least amount of waste (keep it short and to the point). Format your text into paragraphs...
View ArticleAnswer by Robert Cartaino for How to ask a smart question
The people who don't ask questions the "smart way" are the same users who would never read such a document.The prudent user (most users) would first observe and watch the site for awhile to get the...
View ArticleAnswer by mmcdole for How to ask a smart question
I generally dislike people who link "How to ask questions the smart way" on Q&A sites and on IRC.One, it is off-putting to a new user who, upon reading the basic FAQs, finds a 20-page manual on how...
View ArticleAnswer by John Saunders for How to ask a smart question
I'd like to point to T-SQL Grouping rows from the MAX length columns in different rows (?) as a good example of how to ask a question about a database. It provided the DDL for table definitions and...
View ArticleAnswer by David Thornley for How to ask a smart question
Have a clear idea of what question you want to ask. Have a clear idea of what an answer would say.Search SO to see if it's a duplicate. If so, learn from those answers.Write a good title, which should...
View ArticleAnswer by Sam Hasler for How to ask a smart question
There's no point having a guide for asking questions because the people it is aimed at are the least likely to find it and act on the information, but don't worry it doesn't matter.Stack Overflow was...
View ArticleAnswer by rizzle for How to ask a smart question
I think the biggest issue is to make sure it's not a duplicate so:Search firstAlso make sure it's a question that can be answered without purely subjective responses:No troll bait (apple vs pc...)Make...
View ArticleAnswer by Jonathan Leffler for How to ask a smart question
The particular question highlighted was a rather egregious example of 'how not to ask a question'. There was an interesting question on the inside, spoiled by appalling presentation. The original title...
View ArticleHow to ask a smart question
The title of the oldest revision of this SO question is, "Is it posible [sic]?" This doesn't provide any information at all. It should be mandatory for everyone asking questions on the Internet to read...
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