1

Though some may feel this is unnecessary, there are more and more posts lately that do not fit these few basic mores. This brief How To will help provide guide lines about creating a post that will not only help us help you, but help you get an answer for your question.

Step 1: Search

Search before you post

Step 2: Write a helpful title

Don’t title your post PLEASE HELP!!! or ITS BROKEN!!! I can’t speak for other members of the community, but I tend to ignore posts with these titles. I want to know exactly what the post is about before I click on the link.

Instead title your post, Problem scanning Windows 7 computers, or How do you track… Be specific, but keep it brief and explanitory

Step 3: Describe your situation

This is where you will give details on your issue. For example:
Are you using a remote collector?
Is it wide spread or confined to a single machine?
Do you get any error messages? (post the error)

You get the picture. Again try to keep it brief and explanatory, I don’t like having to dig through an essay to find the details that will help solve your problem

Step 4: Use proper English (Or other native language)

dnt abreviate. its anying. lk omg ttly. This is a professional community full of professionals. I try to write as if i were communicating with my boss.

ALL CAPS ARE LIKE YOU ARE YELLING THROUGH THE
COMPUTER

Standard acronyms such as DNS and POP don’t need explanation, most of the time, but there are some out there that do. If there is any question, explain it.

Please use proper punctuation and caps (See above)

Step 5: Choose the proper group

Posting your anti-virus problems in the water cooler or spiceworks support is not going to help you, or us.

Step 6: Answer the questions that are asked

Contrary to common belief, we don’t type because we like to. If someone is asking a question, there is a reason they are asking, though it may not be clear at this point. As i said, we can only help you help yourself, no one can solve all the problems in the world on their own.

Step 7: Give credit where credit is due

There are multiple reasons why there are the best answer and helpful posts buttons.

  1. They thank the user for taking their time to help you.
  2. They help other users with similar problems fix their issue.
64 Spice ups
2

Switch #5 to #1.
#2 is an art form to practice & master!

3

This is similar to Andy’s How-To (http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/show/981)

4

You mean we are users too?

5

Just good common sense

6

“ALL CAPS ARE LIKE YOU ARE YELLING THROUGH THE
COMPUTER”

I hate it when people do this in their help desk ticket submissions. (or in Facebook)

7

You evidently never worked with engineers. EVERYTHING THEY TYPE IS ALL CAPS. When I first started there I thought they were all pissed at me for some reason. I soon learned that the cap key was always locked for their drawings in AutoCAD and Solidworks.

8

I would have thought spiceworks would not be the first forum for any IT person so some of the points should be obvious.

I would say though there are sometimes posts i put in water cooler which are more just venting steam / bit of a laugh but get moved to the working end of spiceworks so maybe the titles are not appropriate by that stage?

9

Nice job, from what I have seen people who follow basic forum etiquette get better responses.

10

It also wouldn’t hurt to do a quick search before posting…ALOT of questions have been answered already.

11

I wish I had enough time in my day to stress about the case used in communications! We have enough users that have caps on for standard entry (like accounting) that I don’t take it personally.

Seems to be a decent guide Thomas6320. akp982 had a few good points in his post like posting to the best group that you may wish to add.

12

I’m still kinda new here but it seems to me that picking the right category (forum?) for your questions is important too.

13

Great How-To.

14

+1 for rule #4

15

Very good.

16

If the question has to deal with an issue with a computer system a person should state whether they have a PC or Mac and/or the Operating System (Windows xp, vista, 7 etc) or Snow Leopard etc. They should also include what they were doing at the time of the issue and anything that may have changed lately. Cheers

17

good job
thx

18

“ALL CAPS ARE LIKE YOU ARE YELLING THROUGH THE
COMPUTER”
I don’t know why this bothers me… but it does. Stop screaming your requests through email!

19

Great how-to; everyone should review this.

20

Good rules to follow. Also - to elaborate on #7… whether the solution was arrived at due to some assistance/advice from those who posted or by means of your own, please let the community know the solution. It will let others know the issue is resolved, and may very well assist others with the same/similar trouble.