Why questions don't get answered, or "No, I've already RTFM, tell me the answer!"

[James Wilkinson]

Charles Howse wrote:
> I agree on all 3 steps.  I also agree with Craig that verbosity is not a
> good thing when posting for help (so I guess I am wrong when I try to give
> as much information as I think will help)....
> 
> However...the more things I've tried before posting leads to a "wordier"
> post when I finally do ask for help if I'm going to try and avoid a bunch of
> "I tried that, it didn't work."
> 
> So how do we balance the amount of information we give vs. avoiding
> verbosity vs. "Oh, I see the OP has already tried what I was going to
> suggest." vs. getting the problem solved?

I'd suggest newspaper-style reporting: include the important stuff
first, and give less important stuff later.

If you think about the way you read a newspaper, you might scan the
headlines for something that looks interesting. When you find an article
that looks intriguing, you read the first paragraph or so to see if it
does interest you. If it doesn't, you'll either skim the rest or ignore
it.

So newspapers put the most important stuff first, then put the added
points, *then* go back and tell the story from the beginning. It helps
catch the reader's attention, and doesn't make them read long articles
to see if they're interested.

It's the same way with reading mailing lists. Mostly, I can tell if I'm
going to be interested in an e-mail from the subject and the first few
lines. I can also tell if I'm likely to respond. If I'm interested, or
I'm likely to respond (maybe I've got a hunch), *then* I'll want to read
the rest to see if my hunch was right. That's when I'll want to know
what else you tried.

Some of us even sort the mailing list based on keywords in the subject.

So, for example, I might suggest:

Headline (subject line): what's wrong

First paragraph: repeat what's wrong in one or two sentences, including
why you think something is wrong, and what you might expect to happen.

Next paragraph or so: this is where you go into details about the
problem. This is where it's appropriate to suggest theories. If you
think your troubleshooting has closed off major lines of enquiry (e.g.
"it works under Windows so it's not hardware"), you might mention this
here. If you have particular reasons for suspecting a particular area,
you can say so here. You should also post what you consider to be the
most relevant data.

Rest of the e-mail: what else you've tried, package / hardware details
(if appropriate).

James.
-- 
E-mail address: james | "!" sez I.  And "?".  After a few speechless seconds
@westexe.demon.co.uk  | I come out with "%^&*".  Unless I come up with
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                      | special characters.  -- Ben at lspace.org