Posting Guidelines (when asking or giving for help for example)

This topic explains what guidelines you should follow when asking for help or when you are planning to help someone else who has asked for help.

– If you’re asking for help then (obviously) make sure that you post in the correct forum (so for example don’t ask a question about your 3D printer in the Desktop Software Development section).

– Use descriptive topic titles! And thus DO NOT! use a topic title like: “HELP, It doesn’t work!!!!!!” If your Arduino UNO for example doesn’t works! Instead then use a title like: “Arduino UNO doesn’t work on USB (Windows 10)”

– Offer complete and detailed information about your problem, the steps you have already tried, what your exact problem is, and how others for example could reproduce the problem (if applicable). So again; “My Arduino not working when plugging into USB, what do I do?” is NOT an acceptable question!
Instead you could ask it like this: “My Arduino UNO R3 doesn’t give the USB connect sound, doesn’t show up as USB device, it does turn on (LED’s light up). I have installed the latest drivers, tried several USB cables and tested it on two PC’s. I can’t get it to work. Does anyone have an idea?”

– If you want help on a project, or want to know how to do/use something, then show that you have already made significant effort yourself! Show/tell what you have tried, what worked and what didn’t worked. If you for example have written code, share the code so others can help you with it etc.. Things like: “How do I connect sonar sensor to my Arduino” is not acceptable! You can easily google such things. If you have however connected one, and have written (or used) code for it, and you can’t get it to work, or get ‘strange readings’, THEN you can post the details about your progress and ask others to help.

– Don’t use the forums to let others make your homework for example. Like said before, you should put in your own efforts and and can ask help on your projects. The forum isn’t intended to be used by you so that others will do the work for you though.

– Others who have posted/shared their projects (or which have replied to your question) are not liable for possible damages due to either errors in their reply or for example a mistake you made on your side when following the instructions/help received by others.

– Always double-check information when receiving (or reading) help from others on the forums. Never ever assume that ‘the first thing you read on the internet is true or correct‘!

– Don’t make project “question posts” (or replies) with an obfuscated attempt to (only) promote your product or service! There are obviously exceptions to this rule when it is a legit situation. However if someone for example asks something which could be solved with a simple line of code (or snippet), then don’t start promoting your commercial library for example.

– Don’t bash the projects from others, and don’t ‘talk down on them’ either if they are just beginners for example! Everyone had to learn it at some point, so please keep this in mind!

– Be patient, wait for a reply and don’t start/keep bumping the topic!

– If you get a reply which you didn’t wanted to hear (like for example that your idea/project would be (near) impossible to make), than stay polite and don’t go all wild due to it! You can then choose to ignore the reply, or in a civilized way ask why it would be impossible, way to difficult etc. You could for example also ask if there are alternatives to achieve the same desired result (for example using modules instead of making your own PCB).