How To Ask Good Questions

[David Miller]

Gervase Markham wrote on 6/28/07 8:10 AM:
> In mozilla.support.bugzilla, we have recently been getting a large
> quantity of (what I see as) low quality requests for help.
> 
> I sometimes point people to:
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
> but it's very long, and hard to read and digest, particulary if English
> is not your native language.
> 
> So, I have come up with this:
> http://www.gerv.net/hacking/how-to-ask-good-questions/
> 
> What do people think of the page?
> 
> I am eager to keep it to the most important things, so suggestions for
> additions will need good rationale.
> 
> And more generally, is it worth starting to point more people to a
> resource like this earlier in the process?

I think this is great.  I've added a link to it to the text that is
mailed to non-subscribers who post to the support-bugzilla list via
email. (The one that tells them they need to subscribe before they can
post and warns them that it's a public forum and not a private support
channel).

That text now reads:

-----8<-----
Your message to the support-bugzilla mailing list was automatically
rejected. In order to prevent confusion from users, thinking the
support-bugzilla list address is a one-on-one support venue, non-member
posting has been turned off.

Messages to the support-bugzilla mailing list are in public (including
each sender's email address), and archived on Google Groups, at
http://groups.google.com/group/mozilla.support.bugzilla .

To post to the support-bugzilla mailing list, you must subscribe to the
mailing list. You can do so (for free, of course) by going to
https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/support-bugzilla .

Enter your email address (your posts will be in public).

Create a password.

Re-enter the password.

Then click on "Subscribe".

A message, asking you to confirm your subscription, will be sent to the
address you entered. Click on the link in the confirmation message. In
the resulting web page, click on "Subscribe to list support-bugzilla".

Before posting your question to the list, please take a look at
http://www.gerv.net/hacking/how-to-ask-good-questions/ for some guidance
on how to get your questions answered the most quickly and completely.

*This is an automated message*. If you have any questions about the
support-bugzilla mailing list, send them to
%(listowner)s .
-----8<-----

-- 
Dave Miller                                   http://www.justdave.net/
System Administrator, Mozilla Corporation      http://www.mozilla.com/
Project Leader, Bugzilla Bug Tracking System  http://www.bugzilla.org/