FAQ: Tips for Introducing Non-Programming-Problem Discussions

First and foremost, please ask!

A core goal of community is to be a friendly place to chat about topics related to data science, R, and RStudio.
We know that posting to technical forums can be intimidating. But know that many here would love to see you overcome your inhibition and engage with us.

Here are a few tips some folks here think might be helpful.

Title

Put extra effort into your title. Be as clear and compelling as possible.
For many your title will be the only thing they see before they completely ignore your post :see_no_evil:

Content

Besides asking the core of your query,

  • State Your Goals: Some community-members are quite task-oriented here. Stating specific goals for the topic can be helpful.
  • Give Some Background: Don’t forget about context and background. Readers often need a pointer or two to understand where your topic is coming from.
  • Reread your post: Writing is hard, we know, but think about your reader.

Tagging and Category Selection

Feel free to gratuitously (if accurately) tag your topic -- best-practices or recommendations, for example. If you’re unsure of where to post (categories and tags), do you best, and ask early in your post.

Shepherd the conversation

You started the conversation, please help guide it. There is no requirement to do this, but excellent discussions here often occured with steady guidance from the original poster. Encourage, refocus, ask additional question.

Send us Feedback

We are always trying to improve things here. If you have feedback please post to meta-community, or contact an admin privately (@economicurtis is one volunteer), or email community@rstudio.com.

Examples of successful discussions:

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