How to make the forums a better and more useful place.

And SEARCH! Please search first.

Lesson: Posting an effective question in the forums.

Oooh… Sticky!

As Podz mentions in his excellent link above, it’s nice to say “Thanks, it worked!” or something similar if an idea you find here works. Not only are you being polite, you’re letting others know that the idea provided really is a working solution. A lot of threads just stop after an idea is given with no feedback from the OP (or anyone else) about its effectiveness.

(I know it’s a duplicate. My excuse: there’s real, long-term benefits in following up on your posts. Do it.)

There is also benifits in giving a answer.
Many posts do not get a answer.

@vistronic:
Yes, some posts do not get an answer, and after being around here for over a year, I’ll try and explain why.

1. The post is badly worded to the point that what is actually being asked for cannot be worked out. Although we could ask for more info, the poster should be giving lots of information first.

2. Every answer given relies upon that fact that someone else somewhere has come across the problem and posted a solution. If someone is running WP on some obscure Linux code, then we just cannot help unless someone else is too and they have experienced the same problem AND they come here to tell us. This forum relies on information to keep it going.

3. The link in the top post leads to a page where it states that if your post has not got an answer, ask yourself why. Just “*bump*” will not do – it tells us nothing more, and is annoying. Think about how you can help us to help you. The regular forum supporters already spend a great deal of time here answering questions – make it easier for us maybe ?

4. If you do not speak English as your first language, please say so. There are increasing resources (I know of german, italian, japanese, french (?) ) and we may be able to direct you somewhere better.

Overall, just remember something:
Don’t get mad at us for not answering. We come here to help because we like WP, we want to continue to build on what is a great community and we want to assist others in being able to use and enjoy WordPress – it’s not in our interest to leave questions unanswered.

I’m sorry, Podz. I just feel that this needs to be present in this thread more than once.

WE ARE ALL VOLUNTEERS! WE DO NOT RECEIVE PAYMENT IN ANY WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM!.

Right manx! Moreover, I have just been officially “diagnosed” as addicted to the net and WP forums, and the psychiatrist (who happens to be the woman sleeping in the same room with me… LOL) will ban me from here if I have to answer the same questions all the time ??

thank you message recieved…
i to like word press and os

vis.

For my 2c – since 1.5 the developers possibilities are now unlimited. There are also now huge numbers of new users and the volume of those is accelerating. This may not be fair entirely but a lot of folk indicate in their questions that they are trying something very ambitious, but at the same time indicating they are not really clear on even the basics. Those are very difficult questions to answer.
Finally the really cool themes do have a side effect. The forum helper probably wont have seen it before and has no idea about the underlying file structure. Heck – I do not even understand my own theme hackery. ??

Oh gosh, Root – NOW I feel better! I don’t understand mine either….

I think the biggest thing is simply to be polite and express appreciation for those who try to help, even if you aren’t getting the information you think you need. And patience IS a virtue, even though our world does not lead you to believe it’s necessary….

Just a newbie perspective on this topic. I can not imagine what it must be like to be one of the people building and supporting (for free no less) something as popular as WP. But you guys need to know that you are hugely appreciated. In my opinion people like the WP group and the larger WP community is what the internet was supposed to be like ‘way back when’. I thank you guys, and I am sure if some of the ‘bizzillion’ people out there using WP thought about it for a minute..they would thank you as well.

To all who help out here on the WP support forums I wish to express my sincere thanks.

I use WordPress avidly on a number of sites and come here looking for answers. 9 times out of 10 a couple of searches and 20 minutes reading through the resulting threads answers those questions – or gives me enough info to accomplish what I need.

Kudos to the experts here, and also to those who ask the questions, because without such diverse questions this forum would not be the wealth of info it is and will continue to be.

Thanks all!!

Respectfully,

Paul Short
https://BlogLogic.net

And just a note to everyone following this wonderful mushy thread.

As outlined in the lesson on posting an effective question, you can also find more information on how to get help in the VERY helpful WordPress Codex, our “wiki” of information and vast resources to help you get going. Many of the volunteers who help to answer your questions also contribute to this resource, often using answers uncovered here in the forum.

There are also very helpful articles in the Codex on :

Getting More Help About WordPress
How to Use the Support Forums and Get More Help

There is also other resources and information like the WordPress IRC chats – ain’t it amazing how many wonderful ways people are helping to not only develop and improve WordPress, but sharing information to help everyone using WordPress. Amazing.

A short note for those asking for help with a plugin:
Provide a link to the plugin in question (where did you download from).

Please add a FAQ’s section, for the most common questions and answers!

Grazie!
8bites