Q&A best practices

Q&A Best Practices

Let's help make our mods job easier ;)

Avoiding getting mfd'd

Note: MFD is an acronym for "Marked For Deletion". When it gets added as a tag to your post, your post will automatically be deleted after 24 hours

1. Use the search bar

Using the search bar first is very important in order to avoid duplicated questions, that is questions that have been asked before. Also note that the Q&A search bar is not like Google, so when searching use tags or keywords such as "C++" instead of "What is C++".

2. Don't start [OFF-TOPIC] threads

If you've seen any threads marked as [OFF-TOPIC] you should've also observed that the date of the threads are usually a year or more which was before there were moderators in the community. So don't get upset if your [OFF-TOPIC] thread gets mfd'd.

3. Don't spam

Except you're a certified tester, you shouldn't spam in the Q&A. "nnngddd", "gggghhhh" or "hi" aren't tolerated. Remember the Q&A is not for starting conversations so please avoid "Hello's" and "Hi's".

4. Use Google

Please, before asking questions like "What does meta charset do" use Google! I can't emphasize that enough. I've seen so many questions that I simply copied and pasted in the Google search bar and got lots of results. Except in situations were you've Googled and haven't gotten any results, or if your question is more direct and Google can't answer it then you can go ahead and ask it in the Q&A.

5. Avoid asking open-ended questions, or questions that have no definite answer

Questions like "What is the future of {x} programming language" or "What's your opinion on {x}" aren't allowed in the Q&A and are suitable for your feed.

6. Ask questions that are clear or easy to understand

Please, try as much as possible to make your questions clear and easy to understand at first sight. It's pretty annoying when questions like "How to do this" are asked without any description or code explaining what exactly the question is about. That way, you're most likely to not get any answers to your question and the probability of your post getting mfd'd is very high.

7. Take the courses

One way to avoid being mfd'd by asking questions such as "What is HTML" is to take the courses. They're all there for you at your disposal. Read them and learn! You probably won't ask such questions like the above mentioned when you do so.

8. Avoid asking family related questions

It's best to avoid asking questions that have things to do with your family or perosnal life. For example, questions like "What should I do, my mom won't let me use this app to learn" don't need to be asked. Keep family related issues within your family =)

Best practice when asking questions

1. Use relevant tags

Always use tags that are related to your question. Avoid using tags like "python" if your question has nothing to do with Python. Also, avoid using your tags to ask a question. Instead, use your tags as keywords by which people can kind your question.

2. Avoid using ALL-CAPS

When asking questions, avoid using all capital letters in your question like "WHAT IS THIS". When you do so, you give the impression that you're screaming at everyone, and no one really likes being screamed at y'know.

3. There's no need for so many question marks

I don't know if it's only me, but it kinda bothers me when people use so many question marks in their question. For example "What does {x} mean in Python language?????????" I find it seemingly rude, and your question will definitely still be a question with only one question mark ;)