Your teacher may have told you once before in the classroom that “there are no dumb questions here” to encourage free speech and no firing questions away without inhibitions, however, in the world of coding, asking a smart question will definitely elicit a helpful answer. Especially if you need an answer to an extremely difficult question. However, those with the most knowledge are usually also the busiest, afterall.
While in your haste for answers, you may be tempted to just post a quick question. However, these questions are usually not thought out clearly and readers can tell. Not only is this disrespectful and huge time sinks for other developers, you may also receive a just as hasty and unhelpful response back. Most of the time, at least going through the motions of thinking through your problem and clearly describe it, the solutions you have tried, and any other helpful information may increase your odds of having your questions answered. You may even end up figuring it out yourself!
A good question will look like “JavaFX problem with zooming into the 3DShape java.lang.NullPointerException at com.sun.javafx.sg.prism.NGShape.renderContent(NGShape.java:237)”. It has both the object and the issue succinctly stated in the title. The user also gives a little disclaimer that this is the first time he is posting t ask for forgiveness if he is not following proper forum etiquette, describes his problem in depth, and the processes, steps, and solutions he or she has tried and their result. Code is succinctly included with a short contained test case and a clear request is stated. Readers can tell this user put in the time and energy to provide all the information that would make it easiest for those helping to help him.
A bad question could look like “A simple java program”. The title doesn’t provide much help or insight at all to what the issue is having trouble with. These questions are, most of the time, immediately discarded. The problem clearly seems like a homework question that could be answered in a more appropriate location. And the language used lacks courtesy or even a simple thank you to the reader for their time. Even if he fixes nothing, a little courtesy could have definitely helped increase the odds of the user’s question being answered.
Looking over good questions and bad questions can definitely help one distinguish between the two. In general, one should carefully choose the correct forum to ask questions and then use meaningful and specific subject headers to increase one’s odds of having their questions answered. Making sure to use clear, grammatical, and correctly-spelled language in the body of the question, having a clear problem and goal, and describing the problem’s symptoms in chronological order are just the minimum required to help the reader get directly to your problem. Don’t forget the courteous thank you and you’ll be on your way to being a good member of the community.