Yet Another Code Site

Advice For New Newsgroup Users

If you have never spent time using Internet newsgroups, here is a little background and some advice. I suggest you read this before posting messages for the first time. At a minimum, read the Posting Advice section below.

What Are Newsgroups?

Newsgroups are message forums where people with common interests can post questions, answers, comments, opinions, and so on. In some ways, it is like e-mail. Just as anyone can send you an e-mail message, anyone can post a message to a newsgroup. Unlike your personal e-mail, anyone who is interested can read the newsgroup messages.

There are literally thousands of newsgroups available on the Internet. They are generally divided into topics, or groups, devoted to specific areas of interest or to general mayhem. The ones devoted to specific interests are sometimes "monitored," that is, there are people who read the messages and delete those that are unacceptable, e.g., contain profanity or are "off-topic" (i.e., the message deals with subject matter not appropriate for the newsgroup). Other newsgroups are unmonitored. Be aware that unmonitored groups may contain messages that you find offensive.

Just as you must configure or attach to an e-mail server, or "post office," you must attach to a newsgroup server to read the messages stored there. Not all newsgroup servers are available to the public at large. For example, Borland operates a public newsgroup server for anyone who cares to use it as well as a private server for internal use and for beta customers to share information. Further, not all servers carry all newsgroups. For example, Borland's server carries only newsgroups relating to Borland products.

To participate in Borland's newsgroups, you will need to set up your newsgroup reader to attach to:

forums.borland.com

See your browser or newsgroup reader help file for information about adding a newsgroup server. Borland also provides information on setting up your newsgroup reader at http://www.borland.com/newsgroups/newsinfo.html.

Posting Advice (And A Few Personal Opinions)

These are my tips for happy newsgroup participation and improving the chances of getting your programming questions answered. Be aware that none of these are absolute requirements and, further, some of these suggestions are simply my opinion. They are also slanted toward the Borland programming newsgroups (and, I suppose, other newsgroups where people pose questions and ask for answers).

Read The Posting Guidelines FAQ. Before you post your first question to a newsgroup, see if you can find a "posting guidelines FAQ." This will explain any rules the newsgroup may have. For example, Borland's posting guidelines prohibit profanity, forbid HTML posts, discourage excessively long messages, and do not allow posting messages with binary attachments (that is, non-plaintext files attached to messages). Read the Borland Newsgroup Posting Guidelines
Browse First. Spend some time reading messages before posting to a particular newsgroup for the first time. This will give you a chance to get an idea what topics are typically covered by the newsgroup and who posts there regularly. In fact, you might find your question already posted by someone else and, hopefully, answered.
Search The Archives. Before posting a question, you might want to search a newsgroup archive to see if the question has been previously asked and answered. DejaNews is one such archive, but there are others. DejaNews archives pretty much all public newsgroups and it is free, so point your browser to http://www.dejanews.com/ and give it a try. Note: Google.com has taken over the DejaNews newsgroup archives.
RTFM (Read The Fine Manual). If you want to jump into a newsgroup and pass yourself off as an expert, just watch for a couple of days. You will find countless questions that are easily answered by searching the VCL and Windows API help files that ship with Borland's C++ Builder. On the other hand, if you wish to start out admitting that you are not an expert, I suggest that you do a little research yourself. At a minimum, search the help files. If you do that, you may not find the answer that you need, but you will probably learn a lot of things not directly related to your question and you will be much better prepared to understand answers to more difficult questions.
Make Your Message Subject Meaningful. Most of the real experts monitor more than one newsgroup. Their time, like yours, is precious, so they frequently read only those messages which have a subject line that "interests" them or sounds like something that they can help with. To improve your chances of getting a useful answer to your question, use meaningful subject lines in your posts. For example, if your question is about how to solve a problem with Rich Edit controls, include "Rich Edit" in the subject. Do not use non-descriptive subject lines such as "Urgent!," "Help!," "How Do I Do This?," "Must Have An Answer By Monday," "I Am Truly Lost!," or the like without including the real topic. If you do, you are reducing your chances of getting a useful answer to your question.
Do Not Cross-Post. Posting a question to more than one newsgroup is called "cross-posting" and is strongly discouraged. Post your question to a single newsgroup and wait a couple of days for an answer. If several newsgroups seem to be related to your question, pick one and post your question there initially. If you are really uncertain which newsgroup is appropriate for your question, you should still post a single question to a single newsgroup, but you can include a request to "please direct me to the best newsgroup for this question if this is not the right place to ask" in the message. Rest assured that someone will point you to the "right" newsgroup if you are in the wrong place.
Watch Your Replies For Cross-Posts. If someone has posted a message to multiple newsgroups and you are replying, you can easily cross-post the reply. Most newsgroup readers automatically post replies to all of the groups where the original message was posted. So, when you are replying to a message, look at the list of destination newsgroups and, if there is more than one, pick the best one and remove the others.
Be Courteous. We all have opinions and newsgroups generally encourage everyone to feel free to express them. With rare exceptions, no one is trying to start an argument. If you watch closely, you will find that those that try to be disagreeable are generally met with silence. If you think that someone is deliberately being rude, I suggest that you simply not respond. If you feel compelled to respond, send your message directly to the e-mail address of the person posting the message.
Never Post Private E-Mail In A Newsgroup. E-mail messages are private communications. Posting any portion of such a message to a newsgroup without the sender's permission is simply not acceptable. (If you really, really must post any portion of a private e-mail message, either get the sender's permission or remove all information that might indicate who sent you the message.)
Nerver Post Copyrighted Code In A Newsgroup. The companies that host newsgroups frequently include in their newsgroup posting guidelines terms that assert that the company has rights to use anything posted in the newsgroup. Borland is one of these companies that claims rights to all information posted. So, if you did not write the code, do not post it to a newsgroup.
Quote Selectively. When someone posts a response to a message, it is common practice to quote, or copy, parts of the the original message in the response. This is such a common practice that most newsgroup readers -- and, for that matter, e-mail readers -- have an option to automatically copy the original message into the response. This is fine, but delete the parts of the original message that do not really relate to your response. For example, if you posted a question, someone posted a response with source code to solve your problem, and you are responding with "thanks for the response -- you solved my problem," delete the source code from the response. On the other extreme, please do quote relevant portions of the message to which you are responding.
Think Globally #1. Keep in mind that you are speaking to the world. If English -- especially American English -- is your native language, remember that it is not the native tongue for the majority of the world. Frankly, you are lucky that so much of the rest of the world bothers to learn your language. Be thoughtful and respectful -- make it easy for those for which English is a second language to understand you. Try to:
1. Avoid abbreviations. You may know that "I would've" means "I would have," but non-English readers may not. Do not make them get out their English textbooks. On the other hand, use your own judgment -- Kenneth de Camargo, a diligent Netizen of a non-English native tongue and frequent participant in the Borland newsgroups, tells me that "would've" was too easy. I am not so sure, since he is most lucid (usually <g>) and uses better English than most Americans, at least in newsgroup posts.
2. Avoid slang. "Ain't" is probably not understood worldwide. Let us hope that it will never be considered acceptable English anywhere on this planet.
3. Avoid colloquialisms. "Raining cats and dogs" is probably as funny to a Russian speaker as "laying a pig on your stoop" is incomprehensible to you. Again, Dr. de Camargo informs me that this admonishment may be overly enthusiastic -- and again, I am not so sure. Use your best judgment.
4. Be gracious. Never make fun or jokes of another person's lack of mastery of English. I should not have to say it, but it does happen. Personally, I am convinced that those who do such things fall into one of two classes: (1) Those who never attempted to learn another language (and, therefore, do not understand the difficulty of learning a second language) and (2) those who tried, failed miserably, and resent those who did not fail equally as miserably. Do not give others reason to classify you this way.
5. Ask for further elaboration. If you did not understand the question, try to help out. For example, ask "Do you mean [this] or [that]?," "Shall I suppose you request help with [your best guess]?," and the like. It is better, in my humble opinion, to try too hard to help than to try too little.
6. Keep cool. Most often, offenses arise from mere misunderstanding. Some expressions may have connotations that were not originally intended when translated literally from one language to other, and across cultural borders. I have observed that non-English speakers sometimes think that "bummer" is vulgar. Although it is not vulgar to Americans, the fact that they find it *possibly* vulgar should demonstrate to you that cultural differences run deep. You should first assume that anything potentially offensive was not meant that way. Remember that what is sacred or profane has a wide degree of cultural variation.
7. Post Code. Remember that program source code is probably the clearest way to answer a non-English speaker's question.
8. Remember that you are from a very, very small world. After all, the "World Series" is not considered a "world event" by anyone outside of the US. This, of course, has little relevance to the subject at hand -- but Ken made me say it. <g>

[ Thanks to Dr. Kenneth R. de Camargo for many insights on this topic. ]

Think Globally #2. If English is not your native language and you are not proficient (good) with English, please understand that many English-speaking people, and the vast majority of Americans, never learn even one other language. So please treat us as idiots and post a sample of any code that you are having trouble with. It is better for you to post a long message stating a question three different ways than to assume that a single sentence will be understood.
State Questions (And Answers) Clearly. The most common reason for not getting a correct answer is not stating the question clearly. Where possible, post a very brief source code example of your problem. On the other hand, if you are trying to understand something that is new to you, ask for links to sites and sources of information rather than asking a specific question. You can always come back to the newsgroup to ask specific questions after learning the basics. For example, if you are starting to learn about Rich Edit controls, post a request for information sites before asking how to implement multi-level undo/redo in Rich Edit 2.0 controls.
Say Thanks. If you post a question and someone posts a response that solves your problem, take the time to post a brief message of thanks. On the other hand, if the proposed solution did not work, keep in mind that the responder was trying to help and ask yourself if your question was clearly stated. Post a response saying thanks anyway and, if appropriate, explain your problem again. This lets both the person responding and anyone else following the thread (an original post and all of the related replies) know that the response did -- or did not -- solve your problem.

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