The Rules of IRC Support

After finally getting my act together, I have written down the rules for IRC support that I've been playing around with for so long While they exist on my website, I was told that it would be a good topic for my first blog entry So, here you go:

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1 Ask, don't ask to ask

You are on IRC, and we are here to help eachother. You are always allowed to ask a question, so asking for permission to ask a question is entirely silly, and will only increase the time between your wishing an answer to a question and getting the actual answer. Introductions are good, but don't wait for a response before asking your question.

2 Be exhaustive

To be able to give a good answer, the question must also be a good one. Make sure when you construct your inquiry that you are exhaustive when describing the problem. This could be the version of the program, the versions of any libraries that might be interesting, which operating system and version you are running the program on, or indeed any other relevant information. In short, give people information to work with. Saying that the program doesn't work is hardly enough information to be able to give you a proper solution to remedying that situation.

3 Wait

IRC may be instant communication, however a concept exists on IRC called idling, something which means that while people's names might appear in the list of names of the people in an IRC channel, they may not actually be physically present at the computer. Sometimes they may have gone off for a longer while, maybe even to work or elsewhere that might take hours until they return. What this means is that, while the person with the answer to your question may be present in the user list, they might not be able to answer your question before a while later, sometimes even hours.
So, remember to wait. Asking a question and then only waiting a few minutes before quitting is not helpful, neither to you or the person who might be able to help you out. They are there to help you, they would in all probability not be there otherwise, but if you won't wait around and let them help you, you are not letting them help you.

4 Help yourself

If the answer to a question is for example "Read the FAQ", it means that you are in no way the first person to ask the question, and that an answer is already available elsewhere. So, remember to try helping yourself first, before asking others to do it for you. Documents were written to help you, by people who want to help you, they were not written to take up space on a website.

5 Give back to others

After you have received your help, remember that you are now in possession of information that could help someone else with the same problem. You are now in a position where you can help others. Just as people have helped you, others might now benefit greatly from your help.

6 Remember yourself

When presenting others with help, remember that you were in this position yourself once. These people are not stupid, they have simply not yet received the knowledge you possess.