[Forum Guide] How to help/How to recieve help
Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2008 1:44 am
It's come to my attention that the majority of people here either lack the skill to ask for help in the most effective way, or to help in the most effective way. So I thought maybe a little guide would come in handy.
The first section will be on asking for help.
How can I get help?
There's a few steps you can take to get help faster, and reduce the confusion of those who are helping you.
1. Clearly state your problem.
Don't do the "I was doing this one thing and that one thing came up and made that one program crash".
No. That helps no one; not you, not the helper. The more proper way would be to give them the process in which you were using to try to accomplish whatever it is you were trying to accomplish. Then, tell them of any errors that came up, maybe even post a screenshot of the error. This will come in handy.
2. Be clear when you ask questions.
If you want help, you need to clearly ask your questions properly.
"Can I get models into Halo?" Won't work. You need to state your question clearly. There's a lot more questions attached to that question, then there would be if you asked it properly.
For example, if you're wanting to know how to inject just remodels, you need to give that information out. Otherwise, people won't know whether you're talking about remodels, or custom models.
3. Search before asking.
One of the biggest nags I've noticed is when people ask when they haven't taken the initiative to even look into it themselves. There's thousands of topics on the forums, use the search tool and just type in key words. If you want a tutorial on maybe AI, all you have to do is type in AI in the Keywords field, then depending on what game you want to know about AI on, you would change it to the appropriate forum (Halo PC, Halo 2 Xbox, etc).
4. Speak English please.
This is an English forum, and we expect you to know English when posting. This isn't an attack on foreigners at all; what I'm getting at is, if you are asking a question, we need to be able to understand what you're saying. You need to know how to spell, and use proper grammar.
"I dont knw how to use the tool to injekt the modl and im having problems the error comes up and i click cancle then it crashes and i cant use all the fucntions unless i clik the buttn".
I see this constantly on the forums, you can't understand the sentence because they fail to understand that proper spelling, punctuation, and a little bit of description will take them a long ways.
5. Use the advice given to you
Another problem I see a lot is people think they know exactly what they're doing, so they don't take a minute to think that maybe the one giving advice is right. They don't want to think that their way is inefficient and, basically wrong.
I also see a lot of people overlook the majority of everyones tips. They focus on one person, and toss out everyone else. If you want help, take in advice from everyone. I see a trend in members who do this, and it turns me away from helping them. No one is going to want to help if their advice isn't at least tried.
On to the next section, helping.
How to help people on the forums.
More often than not, I see people fail at helping rather than people failing at asking. And it seems like people just post for the sole purpose of having a bigger post count, or maybe getting a chance at a shiny new emblem. So, here's some tips on how to actually help someone.
1. Do what you can to understand more about the question being asked.
Although I had discussed in the 'How to ask questions' section of this guide on how to give all information about the question, it's more common that people won't do that. So, ask the users questions on their problem. Ask them if any errors came up, or even what they're trying to accomplish. You need to know everything before you write them, or support them with a tutorial, otherwise you may end up putting in more effort than expected (nothing wrong with putting in extra effort, but I know most people who help don't exactly want to do that ;p).
2. Don't post useless crap.
This is the one that grinds my gears. Users think it's acceptible, and even helpful (rediculously), to tell the users:
"Use the search tool"
Or
"olol, u see dat buttun up dere wif da magnafineglass? clik it 4 ur answr"
In my opinion, that's just spam. If you don't want to help, don't even bother posting in the damn topic. You're just wasting everyone's time.
If you really want to help, support the person asking the question with a tutorial. Put in the extra effort and search for a tutorial and give them a link, or maybe even write them up a tutorial. That's help; people will be able to learn more if we just help them out as much as we can. Eventually, they will become more independent and search for themselves. I've noticed that's what more matured members do.
3. Collaborate with other users, don't compete.
One thing that is clearly noticeable in topics in which one requires help, is that users compete over who helps him. If you're all trying to help him/her at once, you're going to flood the person with information. Not that information is bad, but too much is a little discouraging. Build up on other user's information and tutorials.
Not only is info-flooding an issue, but repeated tips occur frequently. "If you click that and inject this, you should get what you want", "Click that and inject this, that might help", repeat. Don't say something if it has been said, just back off and keep watch on the topic in case there's a spot in which you can help.
4. Speak clearly, and write in tutorial format.
Somebody asks you a question in which would result in a multitude of answers. What do you do? Do you either; A. Write in a big cluttered mess of a paragraph vividly hitting on topics in which would help the most. Or B. Type in a step by step matter that hits all the important processes that would work in the most efficient way.
A poor written post would look something like:
First click that button then you go over to the right hand corner and click the button that you want then you go over and click the subject to extract the meta which you want to extract recursivley. Now you want to inject this into it and go to the left and click that button and then go down and highlight that.
A nice, clean helping post looks like this:
1. Click that button.
2. Go over to the right hand corner and click the other one.
3. Extract the meta.
4. Inject this into that.
5. Go to the left and click that button.
6. Go down and highlight that.
Also, you could take advantage of the list code provided on the forums, which would result in your post looking like this:
5. Include pictures if possible
Some of the more efficient tutorials and helpful posts have pictures with highlighted information. It gives the user a sense of location, and just helps a lot more in the end. They won't have to make new posts asking where that button is, or where that tool is.
In the picture, try to highlight the important areas with just a box tool surrounding the key points. So maybe your tutorial would look something like this:
Click that button:
Then enter that code in that one box:
It's also simpler than trying to describe the location of the area in question, so its easier on you to just open the program, then take a screen shot and highlight the area in a photo editing program.
That's it.
Hopefully, this guide will help people out along the way of trying to receive or give information; giving a more fluent, pleasing forum out in return. People respect those who take the time to help, or take the time to post clear questions/problems.
The first section will be on asking for help.
How can I get help?
There's a few steps you can take to get help faster, and reduce the confusion of those who are helping you.
1. Clearly state your problem.
Don't do the "I was doing this one thing and that one thing came up and made that one program crash".
No. That helps no one; not you, not the helper. The more proper way would be to give them the process in which you were using to try to accomplish whatever it is you were trying to accomplish. Then, tell them of any errors that came up, maybe even post a screenshot of the error. This will come in handy.
2. Be clear when you ask questions.
If you want help, you need to clearly ask your questions properly.
"Can I get models into Halo?" Won't work. You need to state your question clearly. There's a lot more questions attached to that question, then there would be if you asked it properly.
For example, if you're wanting to know how to inject just remodels, you need to give that information out. Otherwise, people won't know whether you're talking about remodels, or custom models.
3. Search before asking.
One of the biggest nags I've noticed is when people ask when they haven't taken the initiative to even look into it themselves. There's thousands of topics on the forums, use the search tool and just type in key words. If you want a tutorial on maybe AI, all you have to do is type in AI in the Keywords field, then depending on what game you want to know about AI on, you would change it to the appropriate forum (Halo PC, Halo 2 Xbox, etc).
4. Speak English please.
This is an English forum, and we expect you to know English when posting. This isn't an attack on foreigners at all; what I'm getting at is, if you are asking a question, we need to be able to understand what you're saying. You need to know how to spell, and use proper grammar.
"I dont knw how to use the tool to injekt the modl and im having problems the error comes up and i click cancle then it crashes and i cant use all the fucntions unless i clik the buttn".
I see this constantly on the forums, you can't understand the sentence because they fail to understand that proper spelling, punctuation, and a little bit of description will take them a long ways.
5. Use the advice given to you
Another problem I see a lot is people think they know exactly what they're doing, so they don't take a minute to think that maybe the one giving advice is right. They don't want to think that their way is inefficient and, basically wrong.
I also see a lot of people overlook the majority of everyones tips. They focus on one person, and toss out everyone else. If you want help, take in advice from everyone. I see a trend in members who do this, and it turns me away from helping them. No one is going to want to help if their advice isn't at least tried.
On to the next section, helping.
How to help people on the forums.
More often than not, I see people fail at helping rather than people failing at asking. And it seems like people just post for the sole purpose of having a bigger post count, or maybe getting a chance at a shiny new emblem. So, here's some tips on how to actually help someone.
1. Do what you can to understand more about the question being asked.
Although I had discussed in the 'How to ask questions' section of this guide on how to give all information about the question, it's more common that people won't do that. So, ask the users questions on their problem. Ask them if any errors came up, or even what they're trying to accomplish. You need to know everything before you write them, or support them with a tutorial, otherwise you may end up putting in more effort than expected (nothing wrong with putting in extra effort, but I know most people who help don't exactly want to do that ;p).
2. Don't post useless crap.
This is the one that grinds my gears. Users think it's acceptible, and even helpful (rediculously), to tell the users:
"Use the search tool"
Or
"olol, u see dat buttun up dere wif da magnafineglass? clik it 4 ur answr"
In my opinion, that's just spam. If you don't want to help, don't even bother posting in the damn topic. You're just wasting everyone's time.
If you really want to help, support the person asking the question with a tutorial. Put in the extra effort and search for a tutorial and give them a link, or maybe even write them up a tutorial. That's help; people will be able to learn more if we just help them out as much as we can. Eventually, they will become more independent and search for themselves. I've noticed that's what more matured members do.
3. Collaborate with other users, don't compete.
One thing that is clearly noticeable in topics in which one requires help, is that users compete over who helps him. If you're all trying to help him/her at once, you're going to flood the person with information. Not that information is bad, but too much is a little discouraging. Build up on other user's information and tutorials.
Not only is info-flooding an issue, but repeated tips occur frequently. "If you click that and inject this, you should get what you want", "Click that and inject this, that might help", repeat. Don't say something if it has been said, just back off and keep watch on the topic in case there's a spot in which you can help.
4. Speak clearly, and write in tutorial format.
Somebody asks you a question in which would result in a multitude of answers. What do you do? Do you either; A. Write in a big cluttered mess of a paragraph vividly hitting on topics in which would help the most. Or B. Type in a step by step matter that hits all the important processes that would work in the most efficient way.
A poor written post would look something like:
First click that button then you go over to the right hand corner and click the button that you want then you go over and click the subject to extract the meta which you want to extract recursivley. Now you want to inject this into it and go to the left and click that button and then go down and highlight that.
A nice, clean helping post looks like this:
1. Click that button.
2. Go over to the right hand corner and click the other one.
3. Extract the meta.
4. Inject this into that.
5. Go to the left and click that button.
6. Go down and highlight that.
Also, you could take advantage of the list code provided on the forums, which would result in your post looking like this:
- 1. Click that button.
2. Go over to the right hand corner and click the other one.
3. Extract the meta.
4. Inject this into that.
5. Go to the left and click that button.
6. Go down and highlight that.
5. Include pictures if possible
Some of the more efficient tutorials and helpful posts have pictures with highlighted information. It gives the user a sense of location, and just helps a lot more in the end. They won't have to make new posts asking where that button is, or where that tool is.
In the picture, try to highlight the important areas with just a box tool surrounding the key points. So maybe your tutorial would look something like this:
Click that button:
Then enter that code in that one box:
It's also simpler than trying to describe the location of the area in question, so its easier on you to just open the program, then take a screen shot and highlight the area in a photo editing program.
That's it.
Hopefully, this guide will help people out along the way of trying to receive or give information; giving a more fluent, pleasing forum out in return. People respect those who take the time to help, or take the time to post clear questions/problems.
But yes, doing what Scotty said would be a great idea, or a title like, "CLICK HERE FOR HELP ON EVERYTHING RELATED TO MODDING!".