[Abagail]

[Credit goes to ****** for recreating this and myself for rewriting the BBCode from the original topic).
Firstly, read this article:


Solve your problem by almost asking a question on StackOverflow (also applies here).

Naming topics:

I should point out that the forum rules mention using good topic titles. This means that not only is it good practice, but is actually required!

If you have a problem where your vehicle is not changing colour correctly, call your topic "Vehicle not changing colour correctly" (or even clarify "correctly": "Vehicle changing to wrong colour" vs "Vehicle doesn't change colour at all" gives even more information). Calling a topic "help" doesn't help anyone get to know your problem. If you didn't want help, you wouldn't be posting in a help section, so that title is both unhelpful and redundant.

Similarly poor topic titles:

• Scripting help - You just copied the title of the forum section!
• Please help me - More polite, but still useless...
• Errors - Run-time? Compile-time? What are you doing when you get them?
• Script not working - Of course it isn't! If it was working you wouldn't be posting!
• My server - Well you're unlikely to want help with someone else's!
• OnPlayerCommandText - That's a callback, not a problem!
• sscanf - Again, a plugin not a problem. That fact should in itself tell you the correct place to ask any questions about it, it has its own topic that people who know the system are often subscribed to, so are MORE likely to see your question.
• Vehicles code - This is a LITTLE more specific than just "code", but not really that much more! What exactly do you want to know about code for vehicles?

And there are many many more. There are several reasons for using good topic titles:

1. You want people to help you, so help them out first by summarising your problem.
2. People's time is precious. If they have to open your topic to discover that you are asking about a topic they don't know, then you just wasted their time. If you want help with "y_ini" and user X doesn't know about "y_ini", then there is no point in them reading your topic - so don't make them hate you by forcing them to!
3. I don't know about other people, but half the time I know the solution to a problem before I even open the topic because I've seen it before and the title told me what the problem was.
4. If you use good titles, then other people can search when they have the same problem and find the answer. Something you should have done in the first place (and could have done if other people had used good topic titles).
5. Even if you disagree with all these points, using good topic titles IS a forum rule and people HAVE got in trouble for not doing it (I think a few people have actually ended up banned they have done it so many times in a row)

[tooMuch]

That's good topic, sad that alot people don't act like this and create a topic with off-topic title.

[Crayder]

Also read this old thread:

http://web.archive.org/web/201203140...d.php?t=305148

Get some tips from this article:

http://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-ask

More notes:

• Adding to reason 1 from above, you should provide code. Whether it's what you've already tried or what you think will be relative.
• Try searching first!
• If you need minor help, go to the minor queries thread.

To the rep hunters:

This is for all of the people that post random shit in inappropriate places, mainly the help section.

• Stop acting like you know something about the users problem. I hate when I see people replying with things like "oh well that seems simple, maybe this will work" then posting things that are hardly related.
• If you don't know how to help, don't.
• EXPLAIN how you fixed code. I've seen so many posts that just include fixed code, but no explanations on what was done. It's a Scripting Help section, not a request section.
• Much more that I will remember to mention later.

[AndySedeyn]

Would be great if we had a few active section moderators. Because let's be honest, people might not even read this and if they do, who's going to stop them from giving their threads absurd titles and/or badly formulated questions? We can redirect them to this thread but I guarantee that before they even finish reading this they'll do it again.

[Crayder]

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndySedeyn Would be great if we had a few active section moderators. Because let's be honest, people might not even read this and if they do, who's going to stop them from giving their threads absurd titles and/or badly formulated questions? We can redirect them to this thread but I guarantee that before they even finish reading this they'll do it again.

Yes, the best thing we can do is show them this thread. And that's fine by me. These things generally aren't against the rules, they just ruin the questions! Complying with these only help the people who are asking, so it's up to them whether they will or won't.

Funny thing, improper titles are apparently against the rules.