How to ask for (and receive) technical help on the internet

There seems to be a wide range in the quality of the questions asked in this forum.
Maybe we can learn from other forums as to what has worked for them?

In that spirit I share these:

http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

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awesome, this needs to me pinned down on every form.
thanks

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Thanks @barryb . I think weā€™d do well to start pushing for ā€œbetter questionsā€.

Having said that, whilst Iā€™ve been occasionally tempted to refer people to the esr document, I donā€™t do it very often. Most of the document contains very good advice (it is definitely worth a read) but I find that its tone is a bit harsh. Being told in the Introduction that you may be regarded as a loser if you ask a suboptimal question means that Iā€™m not happy to send someone who has just asked a suboptimal question to read it.

On the other hand I really like the first link you posted. Itā€™s much more positive sounding, more concise and is full of examples that are really well aligned to how best to ask 96Boards related questions.

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@danielt,
I would agree with that summary of the two links.

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