Have you ever posted a question or comment, only to find that you?re not getting any feedback what so ever?
NewsgroupDirect has 10 great tips to get the most from your post and your question answered fast:
- Stick to the topic: Each day the internet is becoming saturated with useless information. Anyone looking to speak their mind can online. The problem arrives when done in an unstructured way, making finding information fruitless. Each newsgroup has a particular subject matter, stick to that subject and don?t start rambling on about irrelevant things.
- Ask for help in a smart way: When asking for help, don?t make it too hard or too unrewarding to help you, and don?t annoy the people responding. Your English doesn?t have to be perfect. But long paragraphs and ?kewl? spellings make you harder to read, which makes it less likely someone will answer.
- DON?T YELL! Posting in ALL CAPS is the written equivalent of shouting, and many people consider it very rude.
- Give specifics: Make sure to give all specifics upfront. If the reader has to ask a question, they?ll probably just move on.
- Receive answers polity: If you ask it in the group, read it in the group; you will antagonize people if you ask for answers in e-mail. This also keeps the answers from others interested. And make sure to check and respond regularly to the suggestions left. If you post and never return, people will remember and not bother with you next time. If you find the answer yourself, make sure to post it for everyone else.
- Post in plain text: Don?t post pictures, HTML or other binaries. If you need people to see a picture, post the URL.
- First, try to find the answer yourself: The easiest way to make people not respond is to ask the same newbie question as everyone else. Check the newsgroup?s FAQs before you post.
- Post an article once and wait to post again: ?My question is urgent. It?s been two whole hours and nobody has responded. Maybe they didn?t see it. I?ll just post it again.? or ?I don?t see my article in the newsgroup. It must not have gone through. I?ll post it again just in case.? Usenet is not e-mail, it takes time for articles to reach all the servers. Hard as it may be to be patient, wait at least a couple of days. And then, put the notation ?(REPOST)? in the subject.
- Crosspost, don?t multipost: You should always post in the newsgroup that best fits your topic. However, when the article genuinely fits multiple groups, crosspost, don?t multipost. And don?t post an article to an irrelevant group just because you hang out there, or because your message is so important that everyone should see it.
- Quote it right: The principles are easy: put your comment after what you?re commenting on, quote just what is necessary and keep track of who said what.
Most people can only spend a few minutes at a time in these newsgroups, they don?t have to waste it trying to decipher cryptic or rude messages.