Suggestions For Proper NewsGroup Usage
Christiane
Post your question to only one newsgroup. There is rarely a need
to post the question to more than one newsgroups. Those people who
spend a lot of time answering the questions review all the relevant
newsgroups, so posting to more than one group is of minimal benefit.
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Post to the most appropriate group. If you question is regarding
worksheet formulas, post in the formulas group, not the programming
group. If you are unsure or which group to post to, post to the
miscellaneous group.
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Write clearly. If your post is too long, poorly written,
ambiguous, or just badly written, there is a good chance that no one
will take the time to reply with a response. At a bare minimum, run
the message through a spell-checker.
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Be nice. Those of us who answer the questions (many of us have
individually racked up well over 30,000 replies over the years) do not
work for Microsoft. We are simply individual users who enjoy helping
others and tackling the complicated problems that sometimes arise in a
newsgroup post. We don't work for Microsoft and we can't change
Microsoft's policies. We're merely helpful civilians. Don't compain
about Microsoft software. Microsoft doesn't read these newsgroups and
there is nothing we can do to change Microsft's software.
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Economize your question. Before posting a message, break your
code down into logical units and find the code that is causing the
problem. If you post perhaps a dozen lines of code, you'll likely get
an answer. If you post a hundred or more lines of code, you won't get
an answer. Post the least amount of code that illustrates the problem.
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Post code that can be copied and pasted from the newsgroup
message into a VBA module. If a responder has to spend a lot of time
just to get your code to compile, you will likely not get an answer.
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Remember that we don't know your business or your lingo and
slang, or your abbreviations. Don't assume that we know what you are
writing about. Explain your terms.
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Don't post attachment files. While it may be so that an
attachment can clarify a question, we don't know who you are and thus
we cannot trust that your attached code won't start deleting all the
files on the hard drive.
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Be polite. Nothing destroys a newsgroup conversation faster than
personal attacks. Often, when I see a conversation leading toward
personal confrontation, I mark the conversion as read so it will be
ignored. Among the various Microsoft newsgrops, the Excel groups are
the most cordial and polite. We want to keep them that way. Personal
attacks contribute nothing the newsgroups and are a sure fire way to
have your post ignored.
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Top Posting Or Bottom Posting: This is a debate that has been
going on since the earliest days of USENET. When replying to a
message, you can put your reply before and above the original message.
This is top posting. Bottom posting is when you put your response at
the end of the message, after all of the original text. This debate
raises suprisingly strong conflict -- some people take top posting as
a cardinal sin. Over the years, the Microsoft newsgroups have
informally adopted the top posting model. You should adpot it, too.
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International Issues: Because USENET spans the world, not
everyone speaks the same language or expresses values in the same
manner. For example, in some countries, the date 04-09-2008 indicates
the 9th day of April, 2008. In other locales, the same string
indicates the 4th day of September, 2008. When working with dates,
express them in an unambiguous format, such as 9-April-2008.
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We don't know your abbreviations. Before using an abbreviation,
spell it out in the full words, and explain what it means. Many of us
are generalist programmers, developing applications for a wide variety
of industries and we cannot be expected to understand some
abbreviation used within your industry.
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Always indicate what version of Office and Windows you are
using. A solution that may work in Excel 2003 may not work in Excel
2002.
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Use a meaningful subject line. A subject like "Help Me" or
"Urgent" will not garner much support. Instead, briefly state the
problem in the subject line. For example, "Trouble With Filters In
Excel 2003". By the same token, don't explain everything in the
subject line and leave the body of the message empty. Use the body of
the message to explain the detals of the problem.
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Tell us what you have tried, the data you used, the results that
came back, and the results you actually want. This will make debugging
the problem much easier. Isolate the problem to as few lines as
possible and post only those lines. Don't expect us to spend 45
minutes to just configure a workbook before getting to the actual
testing.
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Be very specific with error messages. If the code displays a
message box, include the exact text of the message. Do not say just,
"It doesn't work".
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Wait for your question to be answered. While some messages are
answered with hours, even minutes, others aren't answered for a day.
If you don't receive an anser after a day passes, don't just repost
the question. Rewrite the question, omitting irrelvent details and
clarifying the problem. Many posts go unanswered because the responder
has no idea what you are attempting to do.
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Provide technical documentatin about your system. Inclue the
manufacturer name, the model name, the operating system you are using,
the version of Office (including what Server Packs are installed --
available from the "About" item on the "Help" menu), the amount of RAM
you have installed, and other technical details.
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USENET was originally and still is primarily a text-based
system. Post your meesage in plain text format, not HTML. Don't try to
format the text for bold or italics. Plain text should suffice.
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The Excel newsgroups are not "I hate Microsoft" newgroups. There
are plenty of other venues for this sort of commentary. Honest and
sincere critcism does have a place here, but generic rants about
Microsoft are strongly frowned upon.
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Microsoft employees do not read these newsgroups. These are not
the forums to complain about existing features or to suggest new
features. New feature requests can be sent to ms-...@microsoft.com.
Note that everything you post to a public newgroups is visible by
anyone anywhere in the world. Proof read your message before sending
them to ensure they are grammatically correct, polite, and do not
contain any private information.
source: http://www.cpearson.com/EXCEL/HintsAndTipsForNewsgroupUsers.aspx