There is nothing wrong with asking questions to get help with our problem(s). But, before we ask for help, we need to at least try to solve the problem on our own. There are a lot of ways we can do this like searching the web. For sure there are other people who had the same error or problem before that we are experiencing and may have posted a solution that they came up with or things they tried to fix the problem. Other things that we can do before we ask and post a question is to read the manual or ask a skilled friend. We need to at least try to solve the error or problem so we can come up with a “smart” question.
People often say “There is no such thing as a stupid question.” But is there really no stupid questions? People only say that just to be polite and to encourage people to ask questions. Don’t take advantage of that and just throw any questions and expect experts to answer them. Ask in a smart way. Put yourself in the position of the person who will see and answer your question. When you see the question ask yourself: is this question worth your time and effort to answer? Did this person at least tried to fix the problem? Is this an easy fix problem and the person just didn’t put any effort?
To ask a question in smart way make your question specific and clear. Also, provide the solutions or steps that you have done prior to asking for help to eliminate other possible solutions that will be given by the experts or skilled people. By providing the solutions or steps that you did, it might give the person who is answering the question an idea how the problem occur and how to solve it.
For more tips on asking smart questions, you can read Eric Steven Raymond essay “How to ask questions the smart way.”
Not smart question example from StackOverflow:
This person is asking how to create a specific shape using css or any other technique. He provided what needs to be done to the shape that he needs to create , but he did not provide anything about what he tried to create the shape. It looks like a homework and he is just waiting for someone to give the solution.
Smart question example from StackOverflow:
How do I prevent dnsmasq from appending my domain name to invalid domain requests?
This person is asking how will he prevent dnsmasq from appending his domain name to invalid domain requests. He gave details about the problem that he is experiencing to make his question clear. He also provided the steps that he did and the results that he got.