Looking through StackOverflow, I found a recent discussion of “Can a parameter be used to create a new object key and as a variable in the same function?” (http://goo.gl/7QSh3d) this developer gets straight to the point on what he isn’t sure about and also gives his input on what he thinks is right as well as providing a small portion of his code that he needs help understanding. This developer has a title that states what he isn’t sure about, then has a small portion of his code that he isn’t certain about, and then leads with what he knows and a concise question regarding his concern. On the other hand I found another developer’s question that’ll clearly show what a bad question looks like.
This discussion starts out as “Remove php pcntl (fork) from code and add php clean code without PCNTL” (http://goo.gl/Mbonhm) the title and then goes on to put a couple hundred lines of code. This is not a smart way to word your question, first being that no one has the time to read through a hundred lines of code to figure out what the problem is. Secondly this developer seems like he is asking regarding out of urgency being that he stated:
“I want to remove pcntl (php) from this script because my hosting provider do not want to use this PCNTL extension … to work without PCNTL and fork. Just clean php. This script in called by a function from a class.”
This developer straight up asks someone to “Just clean php” meaning “can you fix this for me”. This post shows that this developer did no research and did not have any desire to find any material for his problem.
Being that developers have busy lives to live, they want to spend as little time sifting through “stupid questions” and help those who show that they want the help. Stating a precise and informative question may be the best way to attract help. How you state your question may show how much you know about your topic and what kind of situation you are currently in. I see that majority of the questions that are viewed and answered a lot are the ones with a concise and clear title, statements of what he knows and what he doesn’t understand. You’ll want to state all your given conditions so the developers that are trying to help you wont have to waste time asking questions to figure out the other conditions are.