Re: Questionable Quality Questions

[stephen]

Right on... Here's my experience, for what it's worth. I find that one of PerlMonks' best features is the way it forces me to clarify the question. A bunch of times, I've had questions about Perl. As soon as I sat down to write the question, my mind filled with the imagined voices of monks:

"Um, what do you mean by 'it didn't work'? What did you expect it to do?"
"Can you isolate the problem to a particular patch of code, and post it?"
"Use CPAN. CPAN is your friend."

Frequently, just the act of starting to type the question (and listening to the happy voices in my head :) ) is enough to solve the problem.

The process can be frustrating. The best way to improve, I've found, is to try to answer other supplicants' questions. Trying to answer other monks' questions sharpens your analytical skills. I've learned, frequently the hard way, to pay attention to every detail of the problem and watch for hidden assumptions.

Also, read SOPW. There are monks out there that pose questions (and answers) very effectively. Try to emulate them. Some problems are very poorly stated; figure out what the poster did poorly and watch for it in your own posts.

Best of luck.

stephen