All good guidelines. It's unfortunate that the people who follow this mailing list most closely (and therefore are most likely to read this post) are probably the ones who are already adhering to best practices.
On Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 6:04 PM, dana tassler <dana.tass...@gmail.com>wrote: > Well said. While language barriers may occasionally keep a member > from asking a question properly, it is TRULY in the best interest of > the user to ask a well-written, intelligent, pertinent question. I'm > a recent college grad and am appalled by the lack of creativity/ > ingenuity/drive displayed by my own student peers. > > It seems common enough for people to find a forum and ask a question, > rather than research the topic themselves. Personally, I tend to > exhaust all resources before asking people for help, and then I take > quite a bit of time in formulating my question. > > Recently I joined Stack Overflow (which many of you are likely > familiar with) and they have very clear information about how to post > on and use their forums. Included in this information is scoop about > asking questions clearly, I think all people who use forums for > knowledge should adhere to similar policies. > > Because really, these forums are our tools and communities combined. > Abuse them, use them poorly, and they'll probably stop working > properly for you. > > On Mar 18, 10:33 am, Edmond Kachale <edmond.kach...@baobabhealth.org> > wrote: > > Railers (if you allow me to you so), > > > > *before_create* > > ============ > > I am not a moderator of Ruby on Rails(RoR) forum, I am not trying to > become > > one, and I am not pushing for any moderation of this sort. However, I am > a > > bit worried that some of the questions we get on this forum are not > really > > Ruby on Rails questions. In addition, some of questions are already taken > > care of by the many tutorials that are available online. > > > > I know that we have different backgrounds and levels of programming > > complexity. I am not in any way trying to scare new Rails developers, but > I > > think we need to draw a line between RoR and non-RoR questions. > > > > *1. Posting Right Questions* > > ======================= > > There are some questions that are not necessarily worthy posting on this > > forum. For example, questions on how to create HTML elements like > textboxes, > > buttons, forms, e.t.c. in Ruby on Rails. These are HTML specific > questions. > > If one wants to create them using Rails helpers there are tutorials that > are > > dedicated to that. All in all, there are guides on how to do that on > > rubyonrails.org (for example this one: > http://guides.rubyonrails.org/form_helpers.html). If one is not sure of > > something in Ruby on Rails, they may search online first, before posting > on > > this forum. Things are happening very fast. It is very likely that most > of > > the "general questions" about RoR have been answered via blog posts or > > various forums already. *We need to know the difference between a search > > engine and a forum*. Only when there is no tutorial or blog post tackling > a > > particular question then we can go ahead posting it here. > > > > *2. Differentiating between Ruby and Ruby on Rails Questions* > > ================================================== > > This is slightly similar to the first one but I think it needs special > > treatment. We need to understand that this forum is not a Ruby forum; it > is > > a Ruby on Rails forum. I know that this is one of the most difficult > thing > > to do on this forum; even myself I admit that I am not good at it but I'm > > trying my best. Some of the questions that we tend to ask here are Ruby > > specific. Most of Railers would not love to respond to Ruby questions, > not > > because they cannot manage to but because a Ruby forum actually exists > and > > this forum is dedicated to seeking help with Rails, announcing Rails > > projects, and discussing all kind of matters surrounding the Rails > framework > > and the community. If we need any help with Ruby related problems or Ruby > > syntax (such as looping, hashing, mapping (e.g. map, each, inject, > reduce), > > e.t.c), let us direct them to the right forum. > > > > *3. Framing Questions and Email Titles/Subjects before Posting* > > =================================================== > > We need to take our time framing our questions before posting them on > this > > forum. Some of the questions do not make real sense at all. It becomes > hard > > for us to figure out what someone is looking for, and (I'm sorry to say > > that) we tend to ignore them. Some of the subjects are too general like > "I > > need help" , "I have problems with my Rails application" or "Newbie > > question". Remember that questions on this forum are searchable online, > > posting search engine compatible questions will do us all good. Having > "good > > questions" and "straight-forward email subjects" will also help others > who > > may be experiencing similar problems like ours. This will help them not > to > > replicate the same questions here. There is one thumb rule: if you are > > failing to ask the question well, then you don't even know what you are > > looking for. > > > > *4. Posting Jobs* > > ============= > > Let me take advantage to remind everyone that when we are posting about > an > > open job position or looking for a Rails developer, we are requested to > > prefix email subject with [JOBS] tag. I cannot say why we need that, but > > that is a request that is clearly spelled out on the forums page. > > > > *5. Readme* > > ========= > > We are all dedicated to providing good and beneficial responses/solutions > to > > questions that come on this forum. Let us make sure that we ask those > > questions that will attract more attention for response, and will in the > end > > benefit more people. Remember that the frequent/regular responders (the > > likes of Brian Crossland, Peter Bell, Fredrick Cheung, Collin Law and > Chris > > Kottom, just to mention but a few) on this forum were not specifically > > employed by this forum to our answer questions, but they do this in the > > spirit of sharing. They too have other projects and businesses to do, and > > they get busy too. Some of them only spend limited time looking at forum > > issues/questions, so they will go for those that are straight-forward and > > easy to understand. > > > > *self.last* > > ======= > > Enjoy your coding! > > > > --- > > Edmond > > Software Developer | Baobab Health Trust (http://www.baobabhealth.org/) > |Malawi > > > > Cell: +265 999 465 137 | +265 881 234 717* > > > > My array starts from 0.5* > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. > To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > rubyonrails-talk+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/rubyonrails-talk?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Ruby on Rails: Talk" group. To post to this group, send email to rubyonrails-talk@googlegroups.com. 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