The importance of posting support questions well is great. By giving all the necessary information in your first message, people will not have to ask as many questions before they can help you. Sometimes, if you do your post really well, you can get an answer without any questions.

Imagine if someone posted a message like this:

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Subject: HEELLLLPPPP!!! Help me please!!11!!1111111

HEELLLLPPPPP!!!! I CAN'T HOST GAMES!!!! IT ISN'T WORKING!!! WAAAHHHHHHHH

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Do you know what is wrong? I didn't think so. A question like that has many possibilities as to what could be wrong.

Now, here is the same problem posted well.

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Subject: Cannot host online games

When I host an online game, nobody ever comes. At first I thought that people just didn't want to come, but then someone told me over ICQ that my server was pinging all the time. I think this means that in the join server list, the number on the far right never changes from a flashing "pinging." Of course, you can't join servers when they are pinging like that.

I used to be able to host games, but after my parents bought this router thing, I couldn't anymore. I've heard of something called "port forwarding," but I have no idea what it is. Can someone please help me?

My Jazz Version: 1.23
Operating System: Windows 98 SE
Internet Connection: Cable modem

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Some of you smart people can probably guess what the problem is there. If I saw that message, I know I could. The problem is that he has a router and he needs to forward the ports for JJ2.

I'll go over what makes that a good tech support question.

Subject: Cannot host online games

The subject is the first thing people see before they click on your topic. Make it descriptive, but don't try and explain the whole problem in it. Avoid posting "panic words" like "HELLLPPP!!" Of course you need help! If not, you wouldn't be posting in this forum!

When I host an online game, nobody ever comes. At first I thought that people just didn't want to come, but then someone told me over ICQ that my server was pinging all the time. I think this means that in the join server list, the number on the far right never changes from a flashing "pinging." Of course, you can't join servers when they are pinging like that.

Always post a good description of the problem. Three sentences minimum. The more detail, the less questions people will have to ask, and the faster we will find a solution.

I used to be able to host games, but after my parents bought this router thing, I couldn't anymore.

This is the most important part. Always always ALWAYS post what has changed. If you don't know yourself, ask around your house. Has your older brother installed a new game? Have your parents installed any new hardware? Try really hard to find out what has changed that caused this problem to occur.

I've heard of something called "port forwarding," but I have no idea what it is.

Sometimes your own ideas are helpful, sometimes they're not, but post them anyways.

My Jazz Version: 1.23
Operating System: Windows 98 SE

These are very important too. For any JJ2 related problem, post your JJ2 version and your operating system.

Internet Connection: Cable modem

Post any other relevant information. As this specific problem is network related, the internet connection was included. For a sound problem, you might include your sound card and version of DirectX. For a joystick problem, you would include what kind of joystick you have. This information is just useful as background.

Can someone please help me?

You should always actually ask the question, and make sure you are polite. I've seen some posts where people explain their problem, but then don't ask for help at the end. It isn't a big deal, but it gives a good impression.

Never post spam or unneccessary things like polls. I've seen polls like "Do you have this problem?", and they are just useless. They give a bad impression to the people reading your post.

That about sums it up. If you didn't bother to read through the whole thing, here is a summary.

1. A descriptive subject
2. A three sentence minimum description of the problem
3. What has changed that may have caused the problem
4. Your own ideas as to what could be wrong
5. Your JJ2 version and operating system
6. Any other relevant information
7. A polite question
8. No spam or polls

One more thing; You may want to use the board's search feature to search through old posts. You can always post a new thread, but your question may already be answered in another thread. You should also check Alberto's FAQ, which will hopefully get bigger as more people submit questions and answers.

And no offense to people who already post good tech support questions. This article is meant mainly for the people who post badly.

If anyone else has questions or comments about this article, just reply.

Great thread for new people coming. I've made this a "Cool" Topic for the masses to read in the future.

Maybe we should find a few of the best technical threads and make a list of them in your post for people to referance.

woo


link fer moderator! WHOS WITH ME??

YEAH! ALL THE WAY!

Wow nice Link i agree and will keep it in mind

All jazzers this is very usefull to read this take your time

YEah Link should be a moderator we latleast give it/him a try

Wow. I didn't know other people thought that I'd be a good moderator...

come on link, you know it

Yes, Link, very good post, really.

Let's see if the people do this from now on, this would take much less time.

Yesh, Link for moderator!

Well Bobby, good idea. I'll try and search through the board for threads.

What topics should I include?

- Routers
- List servers
- Jazz 1 Screenshots
- Jazz 1 TPPATCH
- What else?

- Links to Alberto's exe files, fixed some problems with people I know
- Tell XP users with nVidia cards to update their drivers
- The ports to open with firewall programs

Well, I've looked through some posts, and I'm surprised to find that in a lot of them, the people who originally needed help didn't get the problem solved.

What I'm thinking is if I could make a new topic, and people can post like a one paragraph explanation of how to do something. It would be like a FAQ contributed by everybody.

There are some good articles on J2O (not in the board) about certain things, including Spaz Boy's router article and my TPPatch article. There are other ones too. This topic could include links to those as well.

Originally posted by Link
What I'm thinking is if I could make a new topic, and people can post like a one paragraph explanation of how to do something. It would be like a FAQ contributed by everybody.

I guess with Alberto's FAQ this won't be needed. Just remember if you have something to contribute to the FAQ, send it to him.

Heh, thanks Link.
Also problems can be e-mailed to my mail adress, use this one please.
But read this topic before mailing me, I really agree with what Link said, it's always easier to help when the users give more info about their problems.

Link for mod!

Great article.

This post is not cool. Its just Link being annoying to everyone. Plz ignore him

and that "quote" wasnt mine

Killerrabbit, if you want to ignore this post, you can. But just watch your problems take ten times longer to fix than everyone else's.

This was not intended to be annoying, not intended to offend anyone, not intended as an attempt to get them to make me a moderator, not intended to be a binding rule, not intended to cause trouble in any way, and not intended to do anything OTHER than give people advice on how to post their problems so they will get better responses.

I really don't appreciate you saying stuff like that, especially when I put time and effort into writing it.

Listen to link KillerRabbit, without enough information for us it will be so hard to fix your problem.

gj Link! n.n

This might be usefull but not realy needed Alberto's Faq is enough

FoR me.

This is to be used in addition to Alberto's FAQ. If they can't find their question is his FAQ, they should post it here according to my guidelines.

Because there are questions he is missing, and there are also answers which may not work for some people and they want to post in the forum for more help.

Yesh, go Link. I've used this templatey thing for at least two problems, and I gotta say that it's very useful. Not only that, but Link seems to have an inside-and-out knowledge of the technicalities of the game. So, all I gotta say is:

GO LINK! WOOWOO! ^_^

btw, I'm trying really hard not to flame KillerRabbit here... >_<