What information should be given when asking a question?
What should a question not contain?
4 Answers
When relevant, report the Drupal version you are using. It doesn't need to be reported using the relative tag; it is enough the question's text reports it.
If the question involves third-party modules/themes, report the version of those projects.
If the module/theme is not one of the most used modules, a link to the project page could also help to understand which is the module/theme for which the question is being asked. If you don't find the module/theme in this list, consider adding the link to the project page for the module/theme you are using.
If the question is about code that you wrote, and that doesn't work, or that you need to rewrite for any reason, add the relevant part of the code in the question.
This allows the users who answer to point out which part of the code is wrong, and needs to be fixed. It also allows future users to understand what code should be avoided, since questions should be useful to future users too, not only to the OP.
If the question is about how to write code to accomplish a task, specify what you tried and why the code didn't work for you, or why the result was not the one you were expecting.
This would allow the users who answer not to suggest code that has been already tried.
In both the cases, a question about code that doesn't show any code is probably going to be closes, as:
- Without code, users can only guess what the problem is. Even in the case you think to know what is wrong with the code, showing the code would allow the users who answer to point out something else that needs to be corrected or that should be changed.
- Requests to write code from scratch are considered off-topic. If the question shows the code already tried makes the question different, and more acceptable.
If you are not allowed to show the code you are using, try showing at least pseudocode that shows the called functions. That doesn't warrant an answer is possible, but it is better than not seeing any code at all. If this is not possible, the question is probably going to be closed as too localized, since in a question about code the code is the most important part.
As reported in the FAQ:
Please don't use signatures or taglines in your posts. Every post you make is already "signed" with your standard user card, which links directly back to your user page. Your user page belongs to you—fill it with information about your interests, links to stuff you've worked on, or whatever else you like!
See also what reported in Should 'Hi', 'thanks' and taglines and salutations be removed from posts?
Greetings, salutations, and anything that is not strictly pertinent to the question should be avoided.
Describe what you tried to fix the problem; this avoids that users who answer say to do something you already did without success.
Always add an explicit question; simply stating facts doesn't mean asking a question, and an implicit question could not give the expected answers, but it rather invite users to guess what the problem could be.