A Post to MathGroup. regarding quality of questions.
- To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
- Subject: [mg117956] A Post to MathGroup. regarding quality of questions.
- From: Oliver Ruebenkoenig <ruebenko at wolfram.com>
- Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2011 05:11:01 -0400 (EDT)
Steve,
first of all, thanks for running MathGroup. I learn a lot there.
Steve, I was wondering if you mind me posting a short note on how to write
a good question for MathGroup, to hopefully improve on the quality of
some questions posted to MathGroup.
All comments are appreciated.
Thanks,
Oliver
=======================================
Topic: On how to write a high quality question for MathGroup
Here are some guidelines on how to write a high quality question on
MathGroup that is likely to produce an informative answer.
(1) Give your post a name that reflects the question. "Bug in
Mathematica?" is NOT an example of such a name. Neither are
"XY does not work!!!" or "Is this a bug?" - use for example
"Unexpected result in function XY."
(2) Ask the question you really want answered. If you get perfectly
valid responses to an oversimplification of your real question,
readers might understandably not wish to then look at your "real"
problem.
(3) Make sure you state all of: what it is that you did, what was the
result, and why the result was not expected. All of these are
difficult to guess.
(4) Illustrate your issue with functional code, meaning: try to use
correct syntax. An error on your part, not noticed by readers, means
more time spent debugging.
(5) If you find a crash, or have an issue where a wrong result has been
computed, post the full version information of Mathematica.
(* {"Version", "ReleaseID"} /. SystemInformation["Kernel"] *)
(6) If you have several issues post several topics; in one post try to
stay focused on one issue. Do not crosspost, chose the appropriate
forum.
(7) Try to be conservative with claims about bugs.
(8) Bear in mind that, like yourself, people answering your questions
are actual humans. Posts should avoid insults, as insulted people tend
not to offer assistance.
(9) Read through http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1855 - section 3. seems
particularly relevant.