Pro tips for posters and commenters
Ask concisely
The more details you throw at the reader, the more mental energy it takes to assess whether they understand its complexity enough to give you a useful answer. It's easier for them to skip past and answer a more clear-cut question.
Ask a focused question with the minimum amount of detail/context you believe is necessary for an accurate response. If you need to throw in more details to provide context for more questions, consider whether it might be worthwhile to ask one question at a time. Be wary of how digressions or speculation can distract from the crux of your question.
Use the “follow” feature
“Follow” notifies you of top-level replies to a particular post or comment.
For a post, click on the three vertical dots at the top right of the post, then select “Follow Post”.
For a comment, click on the three vertical dots below the comment, then select “Follow Comment”.
Remember the sub’s Rule 1 is be civil
Ask politely, without entitlement. Everyone is a peer generously offering their free time to help each other.
Answer compassionately, without condescension. Everyone was a newbie once, and unclear official instructions can confuse anyone.
Thank people when they’ve helped you get unstuck or think creatively. It's really motivating to know you've made a difference in someone's life!
Heed megapost descriptions
Each megapost has a description at the top of what’s on topic there. If you need to vent a frustration, everyone gets that! We've all had those moments. Just please use the Frustration Station megapost for that, and allow other megaposts and standalone posts to stay focused on issues that peers realistically have ability to solve.
Most megaposts are targeted for people at one specific stage (e.g. pre-application research, preparing forms, awaiting AOR, successful approval), so combining an on-topic question with a question about a wholly different stage is less likely to get good results. Take it to the right megapost for best results.
Participate anytime
There is no restriction on what day you can contribute a question, answer, or announcement to a weekly megapost. “Thursday” etc only refers to what day the post auto-generated anew.
Report problems to the mods
If someone is breaking the rules or otherwise disruptive to the community, please bring mods’ attention to it by using the Report feature located in the same menus as the Follow feature described above. Misinformation and hostility are especially important to report, since these harm both the recipient and onlookers.
Read system messages
Many posts and comments are automatically snagged temporarily by AutoMod initially (including this one!). Its activity message alerts you that a bot took rhe action and a human will review that action soon. AutoMod actions regularly get overridden upon human review, so don't sweat when AutoMod makes a mistake.
Deletion messages are also chock full of information; including how to immediately repost elsewhere in the sub, or find more assistance elsewhere online.
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What pro tips and best practices can you add to this list? Thanks!