Exactly. Narrowing down the issue tells us you know what you are doing to an extent, and also
makes it easier to help.
*the words of the wise, wise sage, “If you know what it isnt, you know what it is, and if you know what it is, you know what it isnt…”, which is the easiest thing to follow when debugging. 
In most cases, the person asking just doesn’t know that, yet.
I think the only way to fix that is to politely tell them, and the ones who adapt have the best chance of receiving help. Maybe we could have something relatively official we could link to as a quick guide to posting here (help section in particular), so we don’t have to type out the same dismissive-sounding speech over and over. That would also give it a bit of legitimacy, to let new users know that this really is how things are done here, and not just the opinion of a poster.
Thats a really good idea.
Agreed. That’s a great idea.
It should be in the new user onboarding. And be 100% mandatory.
But I don’t see the Godot Forum devs doing anything about this. Which sucks, because it’s a easily mitigatable issue.
Honestly, talking about the forum’s problems bores me to death. Because there’s will never be action taken.
That’s why I like discord a LOT more.
I believe this short film by GDQuest would make for an excellent resource to link to. It even mentions these forums by name. The only important thing it doesn’t mention is how to use markdown to format code.
This video is fantastic. I’m going to start linking it to people who don’t give us enough info.
This video is a bit long-winded but not bad.
A “how to ask questions so they get answered” sticky is long overdue on this forum. It’d save us from a lot of annoyance. Maybe we shouldn’t expect forum admins to do it but knock some draft up ourselves.
Just in passing, I asked a few questions on here but got near zero responses. Need to brush up on that etiquette I guess… Which reminded me it’d be in order to answer my shader passes optimization question from few weeks ago, as I found a decent (but still not ideal) solution.
Most of my questions don’t get answer either, but I think it’s because they’re very niche and hard to answer.
I get the feeling there’s not a lot of admin presence here?
I’m for writing something up that can be linked to. I may be biased, but I loathe being given a video as an explanation when a paragraph or two of text will suffice. Also, the video from earlier isn’t under our control or official in any capacity, though I suppose if we decide it is, it’s gospel 
Yeah, definitely should be written and to the point, perhaps with a couple of links, like a link to the xy problem page or how to make a minimal reproduction on stack overflow (if it’s still up there).
A video like that could be optionally linked in additional posts.
FYI, there is one forum moderator who has also been active as a forum participant recently.
You think?!
It’s been like that for YEARS! It’s likely the #1 thing I hate about this forum. And it’s the complete opposite of Godot’s entire mission too.
For reference in case anyone is trying their hand at writing a guide, here is Stack Overflow’s article about how to ask a good question.
I would answer more questions but I don’t know enough yet.
Yes, and he’s a volunteer and has a job outside of forum moderation. There are actually a couple others who are around and post occasionally as well, and there is at least one team member who is around who is not a mod but participates.
The problem is the team is small and we generally do ok on our own. But if a post gets reported, it gets handled in a day or so. Plus the new template was update by @wchc I believe.
I’ve taken the liberty of putting together a fairly brief rundown of how to make a good help topic. It’s put together from discussions I’ve come across on the forums, this thread, the linked Stack Overflow article on the same subject, and a dash of common sense
Have a look and offer any corrections / improvements / additions you can all think of. Not sure if it should be made its own topic, or here is fine for now… I’d like it to ultimately be based on community consensus, so it represents the community as well as possible.
Also, I considered linking to examples of good and bad help topics - what do you guys think? And do you have any examples on hand?
You’re in luck! You’ve come to a helpful and friendly corner of the internet, where ordinary Godot users will try to help you, and each other, create games.
To get good help however, you should prepare your question well. Bear in mind that you’re asking a community of volunteers - the least you can do is to make your question as clear and understandable as possible. The more effort you put in, the more effort you’re likely to get back.
Relying on the community should not be your first reaction to a problem. Check the Godot documentation and Google your problem before deciding to post on the forum.
code block (or use the button “preformatted text”). This formats the code when it’s posted, making it much easier to read for others.Then, explain the problem you’re having - what’s happening, what do you expect to happen, and how / when did the problem arise? Be sure to post relevant code, and copy/paste any errors you get.
Before posting, re-read your question to make sure it’s clear and presentable - then hit “create topic”, lean back, and wait for help to arrive. If you later notice something that can be improved, you can edit your topic.
In some cases, help is provided within fifteen minutes, but more often it takes time. Since help is on a volunteer basis, be aware that your topic might not receive attention quickly.
Most help topics require some back-and-forth, as other users try to understand your problem. You may need to provide others with further explanations, code, screenshots, and so on - this is normal, and often essential to narrowing down the problem. Don’t be frustrated if others don’t immediately understand your problem - it’s a collaborative effort, and they have only your descriptions to go on.
Finally, someone has provided the solution to your problem! When this happens, be sure to mark the post as the solution, and thank the person(s) who helped. This tells others that the topic is solved, and no longer needs attention. It’s also polite.
This is really good. Thank you for putting this together. Do you see this more as a pinned post somewhere, or as the placeholder for new topics? I think both have their pro’s and cons, but curious on your thoughts when writing this.
Thanks for taking a stab at this.
I don’t think linking bad examples is appropriate. It might come across as shaming. It’s also negative reinforcement. From a psychological point of view, we want to focus on telling people how to do it right so that is what sticks in their head.
I’m not sure the best way to do edits without making a really long post, so I’m just going to add in what I think should be added. Which is just a revamp of the one section:
Topic Description
Give the topic a descriptive title that captures the problem accurately - it’s the first thing people will see of your help topic. “Problem with CharacterBody2D” is a bad title, “CharacterBody2D doesn’t trigger collision during move_and_slide()” is better.
Use The Template
Use the help topic template - fill in the Godot version you’re using and any plugin versions as well.
Format Your Code
Post any code that is relevant. Resist the urge to only give the code you think is relative, and post the full script causing the problem. Please format your code correctly. Failing to do so will likely result in your first reply being a request to format your code. Do not post screenshots of code. These are hard to read on some devices, and also make it harder to get a good response. When your code is text and formatted correctly, they will often correct your code for you.
There are three ways to format code:
code block. Adding “gd” after the top set will format your code as GDScript and make it even easier to read.
) in the toolbar. This is the best option for people on Mobile devices, and people using non-English keyboards. Note you can still add “gd” at the end of top three backticks to make your code even easier to read.This:
```gd
#Paste your code here
```
Turns into this:
#Paste your code here
Describe Your Problem
Explain the problem you’re having in detail.
I think we should decide together, but I imagined it as a topic on the forum, ideally not bound to a user… not sure what’s possible.
Excellent
Very valid points added. I wouldn’t mind compacting it, a lot of the people reading it will be young, desperate and in a hurry.