How to ask questions effectively on blenderartists.org support forum

Support Tutorials, Tips and Tricks
21

(dunno how to quote :wink: so I’ll do it the old fashioned way
“you were to talk to me like that face to face, I would punch you”
been there done that!! not a good idea
we would NEVER smack a child so why smack an idiot?

like the post an you showed me a trick I didn’t know
but PLEASE add “don’t tell us whats wrong with blender, go get a job save like heck buy whatever and bug there forums with posts like why aint this as GOOD as Blender”

22

All right, your right, I am wrong. It is a big deal. Nobody is posting a blend file or image. It is a epidemic. More poor post then good post. My mistake.
Im not telling anyone to post a file anymore just let them figure it out on their own.

23

I think this tutorial is definitely helpful. In regards to you wanting some feedback as to whether it needs to be more detailed, I don’t think so. Most people here are intelligent, thoughtful people and need only to turn to logic to ask effective questions. Your tutorial helps to serve as a reminder about some of the finer points that you may forget as someone not regularly asking questions on forums (like me); so thank you.

24

Yay, first feedback from a new user.

That was what I was going for when I reduced the tutorial to include main points only. Those who read it have to think themselves why these things are important. A lot of points and reasons are hidden in that tutorial **. I couldn’t include them as text and visuals so I had to come up with a different way, but if people don’t leave feedback I don’t know if it’s working or not, so I appreciate this.

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and welcome to the forum.

** Such as:

  • Not only is the .blend file most effective tool for communication and solving problems remotely, but also increases chances of getting more people involved and play the strengths of the community
  • Full resolution screenshots of the whole Blender window give at least 3 pieces of information and that’s before you start to think what to include. Cropped images usually only include one piece of information, which is not enough most of the time.
  • Put some thought on what and how to present information in a screenshot and you might not need to write many sentences in your actual post
  • Including pieces of information about what was done and where things are going after the problem is solved can lead to surprising answers. If you were heading in the wrong direction, that could save you from days or even weeks of struggling, frustration and pain. It could also mean that you get many useful examples that might not even be about the thing you asked, just showing a different approach.

… And a lot more

25

[QUOTE=JA12;2602170]Yay, first feedback from a new user.

That was what I was going for when I reduced the tutorial to include main points only. Those who read it have to think themselves why these things are important. A lot of points and reasons are hidden in that tutorial **. I couldn’t include them as text and visuals so I had to come up with a different way, but if people don’t leave feedback I don’t know if it’s working or not, so I appreciate this.

Thank you for this post, JA12. I am not only a new user but literally born here less than an hour ago. Not to mention, my very first participation in any sort of forum anywhere, anytime, ever. I’m an extreme noob and I am about to research answers to my myriad Blender questions but your post was one of the first titles that caught my eye. While I’ve never posted in a forum before, I do have plenty of experience in old school aol chat rooms, general retail type customer service and more than my daily fair share of my own local cross-cut slice representing 98 percent of the global general pop pie. Your post should not only be a “Sticky” (whatever that is) but it should be an automatic force-fed requirement for any new user. Thanks again!

26

You’re welcome.

Yeah… as mentioned in this thread before, it will be (and was) buried in the tutorials section because other tutorials take its place. Only new comments pushes this on the top section of the tutorials subforum but this won’t be used to inform new users more actively than that.

(Sticky is a thread that is marked to stay on top of other threads on a subforum).

27

I’m not a very new user, I’m afraid, but this thread definitely deserves a lot of bumps. Your guidelines are very informative and quite eloquently put. Your list of differences between what is written and how it comes across to the reader (http://www.blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?322623-How-to-ask-questions-effectively-on-blenderartists-org-support-forum&p=2550012&viewfull=1#post2550012) had me laughing out pretty loud. Loud smiley.

There may be 1 more thing you could add, ie, how to mark a thread as solved. This question still pops up regularly, and I remember having to search for it myself, as it is not that obvious, IMHO. Why can’t you do that when you make your (final) reply? If all posts that contain an answer to the original question were actually marked as solved, many (new, or not so new) users would find the answers they’re looking for much more quickly.

28

Edit your first post, advanced edit, change prefix to “Solved”, save changes.

mark_solved.png1194×1276 199 KB

29

Rise, rise from your grave, head straight to the front page

30

Bump,can we have this stickied in the support > Moddeling and in basic and interface sections please?

31

Just bumping the thread to the top of the list where more users will see it.

32

Awesome job, very pedagogical :slight_smile: I will definitely use this as a template for my next question.

33

Bump.
@JA12, post #29. It is first post, Advanced edit. I still can’t find [SOLVED] dropdown. Win, FF v.34.0
http://www.pasteall.org/pic/79069
I can edit title manually though.

34

@eppo
Maybe that particular subforum doesn’t have solved prefix available. None of the posts there seems to have it. Could perhaps ask clarification on the BA website support forum.

@estellegaillard
Thank you

35

Thanks for looking into this.
Quite frankly could not think of such exception and knowing there are problems finding SOLVED in general… I rarely start new threads and since this one was solved i gave it a try.

Thank you again.

36

While passing the info contained in this this thread:
I did ask BA support and the answer indeed is that “Not all forums have the Solved prefix”.
Thanks again for pointing to the right direction.

37

This was a very helpful post and I will use these suggested tips in my future support posts. Thanks for the guidance.

38

You’re welcome Naticus. Maybe there are others that might be interested if they could find the thread. Bump.

39

So… it is possible to add a displace modifier for a thread. Too bad it needs to be applied too.

40

But now Blender Arties is change. And I can’t ask. you should put a link to submit a question.

Or, plz put my Q: I imported I .dae fill from google skt. For BL Game engine
the problem is I don’t hove shadow where I choose textures, even I ‘Shadless’ and choose different lamp. Export in others formats

thanQ
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