How to ask an effective question.

[Exception]

Hello, guys!

One thing I've noticed is that sometimes, members can go for days without getting a response, or are sometimes scolded by other members for "asking questions" (as certain complaining members put it.), and one determining factor in the majority of these cases is simply due to inconsistent information, bad formatting, or previous experience. So, for future reference, I'm going to help you with some tips on laying out your question, and how to get **the best response** possible!

**Tip #1** **- Titles are everything!**

This is an obvious one, but I can't tell you how many questions I have skipped over, due to the title simply being dodgy, and many other members are the same. Now, I'm going to ask a question on a common error. Which question looks better:

_[EO2.3] [RTE-9] NPCs will not save._

_My NPC editor is broken!_

Hm…the first one of course! What do you notice? Well, for starters, it contains the base engine used, and it also displays the runtime error that occurs. I can't tell you how many times I've gone into a thread, only to find it uses a silly buggy custom version that I thought nobody used. Going along to that, I should also mention that you use custom versions at your own risk. The only people obligated in any form to offer support for them are the custom version developers.

Tags that you should include should be information such as your graphic library used (Commonly [DD7], or [D3D8]), your audio library used (Commonly [DS7], [FMOD], or [BASS]), and anything else that you think is relevant.

Once your question has been solved, be courteous, and add at the start, and lock your topic! This will help members in future who may have the same errors.

**Tip #2 - State RELEVANT information!**

This is also an obvious one, but yet again, people ask a question, and then decide to not give much details about it, which leads to a very cryptic debugging experience. It also generally leads to people being ignored. Remember, the members here are making the effort to attempt to help you, the least you could do is provide some information!

**Tip #3** **- Copy/Paste breakpointed/highlighted code from your VB6 IDE!**

This is an uncommon one, but one that is extremely helpful, regardless. You should attempt to recreate the error in VB6, and then copy/paste the code around it, and highlight the line that's gone wrong. By doing this, you virtually guarantee that somebody'll be able to tell you what's wrong.

**Tip #4** **- Convey effort!**

This is a serious one. One thing that you need to remember is that we are not here to make your game for you! But, that doesn't mean to say that we won't help you out if you are genuinely stumped. Once you have a problem, rather than running here first thing, try out several things, such as changing some variables, research information relating to the runtime error/matter, or even breakpointing each line to find out where things become systematic. If you show effort, it really comes across that you want to make a great game!

**Tip #5 - Manners!**

The members that post responses here are all voluntary. They are not obligated to do a single bit, and so, if anybody does help you, show gratitude! If you aren't courteous, in term, the members that are trying to help you will just disappear, and you'll leave yourself deep in a hole! As an example, I personally already have a support blacklist of members I won't help for sheer cheek. Don't do the same! Once your problem is solved, edit your topic's title to include the [RESOLVED] tag, and make sure you say thanks to the people that helped you!

And, that's it! By remembering this few simple tips, you can expect the time taken for you to get to the bottom of your problem to decrease dramatically!

_By the way; Sekaru, General Pony, or Rob, feel free to add on._
_Sekaru, try not to make it blunt, if you do._