Show Some Effort

Show Some Effort

An important thing to remember, when posting a question to Java Ranch (or any other forum), is that the people who will help you are not getting paid to do so. They're going to take time from their own work (or from leisure activities) to help solve your problem, for free.

While it's nice to SayThanks, the best way to show your gratitude for their effort is to try not to waste their time.

There are lots of ways to waste someone's time. Cross posting and not reading the FAQ section before asking a question that's been asked numerous times are some good examples. Please, CarefullyChooseOneForum and SearchFirst before posting your question.

Another way to waste someone's time is to be lazy when typing your question.

For example, saying:

     'My class files are under /myapp/web-inf/classes'

instead of saying:

     'My class files are under /myapp/WEB-INF/classes'

This will waste the time of someone trying to help you. That person will assume that you've accidentally created the 'web-inf' directory with lower case letters (a bug in J2EE app servers). They will spend the time to point this out to you only to find out later that the directory name really was 'WEB-INF' but you were too lazy to hold down the caps lock button when typing your question. If you're lucky, that person might continue to look at your problem to see what else might be wrong. More likely, that person will just move on and find a question asked by someone who values his or her time enough not to do something like that.

There is a phrase in the English language called "A Red Herring" (see link below) used by lawyers to describe the practice, of distracting police from real evidence, that could help them solve a crime, by planting false evidence. Take the utmost care not to drag a red herring (see the last example) across the path of someone trying to help you. (See: AvoidRedHerrings) Doing so will almost certainly cause them to walk away from your thread.

Another example would be to say:

   'I've added all the necessary properties to the config file.'

It would be just as easy, and a lot more useful, to cut and paste the relevant parts of the config file into the message. This would allow the person helping you to verify that you have, indeed, added the necessary properties without needing to take the time to ask you and wait for you to post the contents of your config file.

By far, the most insulting way to waste someone's time and effort is to skimp on punctuation or to not UseRealWords. It's much more difficult to determine the nature of someone's problem if you have to burn your brain's CPU cycles translating childish contractions like 'ur' instead of 'you are' or 'plz' instead of 'please'. It's also very draining to read a block of text if there is no punctuation at the end of each sentence, especially if there is no capitalization at the start of the next sentence.

'Golden Rule:'

Put as much effort into presenting your question as you would hope someone will put into answering it.

Do not insult the people who would help you by implying that their time is so much less valuable than yours, that you can afford to be lazy when typing your question; especially if your laziness causes them to have to expend more effort just to figure out what you're asking.

See the other tips on HowToAskQuestionsOnJavaRanch.