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Forums » dotnetspider » [About DotNetSpider] »

Best Practices on Answering Questions


Posted Date: 21 Apr 2009      Posted By: www.DotNetVJ.com      Member Level: Diamond     Points: 25   Responses: 11




Introduction



Just like any one, when we see any question in forums, we want to answer them. If we have the answer in our mind we write few lines about this over there. If we do not have the straight answer then we go to the Google and look for the answer and post the link in the answer section of question.

There are so many Answers already



If some one else already answers the question, but still you want to answer the question then you need to read all the answers before you post your own answer. This is very important. This way you will learn more about subject by reading other answers. If your answer matches to the existing then please do not duplicate the answer. When you are answering the question please do not refer to any external link unless the question is very generic.
Let’s go with example. Question “How to implement Replication in SQL Server”. For this kind of questions you can’t answer in few lines, you need to refer to the links. The question, which can be answered in few lines please put your own words to answer the question. Explain your answer with examples to understand in better way. Explaining the answers with real-world examples always improves your knowledge and others knowledge.

Think beyond



If you are just answering the question, then it is good. But this is not enough. You need to think beyond. Let’s go with example. Question is "How to Delete Duplicate Records in a Table". If you search for this in Google you will get different ways to delete the duplicate records. You post the link or your own query in the answer section. Do not think your answer is completed. Your answer is not yet completed.

This is where you need to think beyond. Does my solution/answer handle all the different cases? Let’s take some of the cases in deleting the duplicate records.

1) How many records you have in this table?
2) Who is data provider to this table?
3) Is this table available on 24x7?
4) What is % of the duplicate records?
5) Is this partitioned tabled?
6) Table has any Primary Key or Foreign keys with any other table?

Obviously you can't answer these questions on your own. The one who raised the question can only answer these. This way you are not only thinking beyond but also helping all the other people who are reading the question. This way the quality of your post is increasing.

Learn with your answer



If you are simply posting the same information by copying it from other sites then it is not great. Your main aim should be, learn with your answer. If you keep on doing this then at some point of time you don’t have to refer any other sites or links because you already have good knowledge on the subject.


Can I copy other articles into the answers section?



No. This is very easy for you to copy but this will create problems for the people who are maintaining the website. The Admin of the website gets into Copyright violation issues. Please do not copy the articles from other sites. Try to read and understand the article and paste the summary of that article in your own words and refer to the link.

What will I get by answering?



The biggest advantage is, this will improve your knowledge. If you are marking your presence in your project team it is not great. You need to mark your presence in the world. One day your pocket will be filled up with awards and rewards.

I don’t have time to answer the questions?



You don’t have to answer all the questions, but if you answer one “Unanswered question” or “Answer with good and real world example” will certainly improve your knowledge. Try to answer 1 question with real good example then one day you will be one of the top members in the forum. Do not treat this as burden. Just spend 10 minutes to learn something new or share your knowledge.



Thanks -- Vijaya Kadiyala
http://www.DotNetVJ.com
Microsoft MVP
Me & My Little Techie



Responses
Author: Satish Kumar J    22 Apr 2009Member Level: DiamondRating: 2 out of 52 out of 5     Points: 2

Hi VJ,

You have explained very nicely, I am wondering if we have bump kind of feature in forum, so that if some one has posted an answer that question will be displayed as fisrt question, we have this in article section if we implement this in questions also members will have more visibility of answers to their questions, in this we can avoid posts like "To member name".

And members who are answering the question will also see if there is any update to particular question.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Regards,
Satish.

Regards,
Satish
My Blog


Author: greeny_1984    22 Apr 2009Member Level: DiamondRating: 2 out of 52 out of 5     Points: 2

Hi,

Thanks for guiding us on how to post good answers in a forum Mr.Vijaya Krishna.

I Aggree with Mr.Satish and like to add one more point to the problem he arised .We can have a column named "Last posted by" in forums section containing the name of the last poster for the thread.This is not a new feature and can be found in many forums but through this other members can know whether there is a response from the thread starter or to the thread starter that members have posted a response.

Regards,
Greeny_1984

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Author: Anil Kumar Pandey    22 Apr 2009Member Level: DiamondRating: 2 out of 52 out of 5     Points: 2

HI ALL,

I think there is no need of posting the last posted option or Jumping the Forum which is recently answered, coz the site has the facility that if there is a new answer is posted to the forum the user who has asked the question is informed by a Mail from this site, so the user can check his question...


and there are facility to categories ed the question based on Answered or Unanswered so we can easily check that which forum does have answers and which dont..


we just need to make the User more aware and responsible to do not Post some forums which inappropriate title and repetition..

Thanks & Regards
Anil Kumar Pandey



Author: Satish Kumar J    22 Apr 2009Member Level: DiamondRating: 2 out of 52 out of 5     Points: 2

I agree with you Anil,
using send mail notification is good for the member who is asking the questions.

We need to brain strom on, what can make a member who is answering the questions will get notifications when one of the questions he answered has a new answers so that he will go, check and reply to that.

I am aware of the section my answers, however I dont think the member who is answering will always go there and keep checking that section.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Regards,
Satish.

Regards,
Satish
My Blog


Author: Anil Kumar Pandey    22 Apr 2009Member Level: DiamondRating: 2 out of 52 out of 5     Points: 2

hi,

But that should be in practice that if a member is asked any question, he has to check his old question instead of posting it again and again.

coz some time people answer the question on the next day, so ultimatly he can get the answer, and if he is not getting any answer then there may be some other problem like may be the question is inappropriate or the Description is not complete..

So it will be good to suggest the good practrises for posting and Answering the question as well.

Thanks & Regards
Anil Kumar Pandey



Author: Satish Kumar J    22 Apr 2009Member Level: DiamondRating: 2 out of 52 out of 5     Points: 2

What I can sense from you reply is Members should be educated how the forum could be used to make best out it.

I AGREE.

Regards,
Satish
My Blog


Author: greeny_1984    22 Apr 2009Member Level: DiamondRating: 2 out of 52 out of 5     Points: 2

Hi,

I agree that members should be educated .How many fellow posters will see a post once they have answered very few thats why forums are filled by posts containing member names as subject.By displaying the last name we can immediately know the response from the poster and give our feedback.


In case we assume all the fellow poster's go to "My answers" to review their threads but they will never know whether a new response has been posted untill he remembers the number of posts in a thread.In that scenario it is very difficult if the number of answered posts are more, by displaying "Last posted by" we can know the name of the poster and reply immediately.

Regards,
Greeny_1984

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Author: www.DotNetVJ.com    22 Apr 2009Member Level: DiamondRating: 2 out of 52 out of 5     Points: 2

Hi
I am glad to see people are really using this article to post accurate answers and thinking beyond :)
one example is :
http://www.dotnetspider.com/forum/ViewForum.aspx?ForumId=202292&

Thanks -- Vijaya Kadiyala
http://www.DotNetVJ.com
Microsoft MVP
Me & My Little Techie


Author: Shankar    23 Apr 2009Member Level: DiamondRating: 2 out of 52 out of 5     Points: 2

Hi Vijay,

Fantastic !
You had explained clearly about answering questions.

I also agree with sathish. Because the mail will be sent to the mail id.Most of the companies will not have access to mails.So we dont know whether we got any queries for the answers we had posted from the person raised the post.If the posted person is really in need of assistance, then he wont get that immediately.


If v got any other indications like messages in DNS/or any indication to the question that needs assistance it will be better for tracking.

If u need any clarifications pls mail me.

Thanks and Regards,
A S.




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Author: Pradeep Iyer    27 Apr 2009Member Level: DiamondRating: 2 out of 52 out of 5     Points: 2

Hi,

That was a good post anyway...

Guidelines like this will help the new comers a lot :)

Regards,
Pradeep Iyer


Author: kaleeswaran    06 Oct 2009Member Level: GoldRating: 2 out of 52 out of 5     Points: 2

Hi,

Nice one



Regards,
Kaleeswaran,
http://4xchange.blogspot.com

Regards,
Kaleeswaran
Vist this site fisrt If u go for investment...


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