The Best Way To Post

Being the first to post isn't helpful for anyone, even you. The average accepted solution is the 5th or 6th post in the thread, so it's worth while taking your time and reading the thread to really understand the problem before you post.

You won't know who will read your help responses. Even if the person you're answering knows what you mean, someone who sees it later looking for help might not. You need to make sure that you use everyday words without technical terminology so that everyone can understand.

There's no point in having lots of posts if it's difficult for the less technically savvy members to follow them. Quality is always preferable to quantity.

Not everyone is knowledgeable about the difference between an APN and an API, so try to keep in terms that even the most stone age great aunt would be able to understand.

If a member doesn't know what an agent is, let alone how to contact one, then the shorter answer is no good at all. The longer one is also more personal and explains why they should contact an agent which will reduce frustration.

Because the Help forum moves so quickly new questions that are in the middle of threads can get lost. To get the most advice they should be posted in new threads.

I'd much rather have one post that welcomes the member and is super helpful than have loads of rushed posts. Quality always trumps quantity and speed.

Giving too much detail might confuse the member, especially if you're just taking a scatter shot approach. You should give the best information that you can and then subscribe to their thread so that you can give more information if they need it.

Being not marked as solved doesn't necessarily mean that it isn't solved, it just means that no one has marked it yet. You should make sure that the member hasn't asked any follow up posts and then see if you can add anything new to the advice already there.

If there is too much information then finding the bit that they need to actually help them will take longer than it should. It's much more helpful to give advice that is tailored to the members question than to try and answer questions that they haven't asked in the same post.

Not every member will be able to use computers and the site easily, so make sure that you give step by step instructions to help them find their way around.

If you said "port" to your average stranger on the street they would think you're either referring to fortified wine or shipping stations. They wouldn't know where to start with "APN". You need to explain it in terms that everyone can understand so that anyone reading the post later for advice will be able to follow it.

You should only give information that they need to solve their problem. Giving too much information is actually unhelpful as it makes it difficult to find the relevant advice. Of course, if the member was vague and didn't give enough details about their problem it's a good idea to ask them to give more details.

Giving a link with no explanation isn't very helpful at all. It's important to make sure the member understands what has gone wrong as well as what they need to do. It's also very impersonal to just give a link. Giving lots of links is even worse as the member won't know which one is the one they should read.

Members often reply to their threads with some additional information. It could completely change the answer that they need, so if you don't read it you could be answering the wrong question. It also allows you to see if they have been solved or not so you can spend your time helping people who still need it.

The Help forum moves very quickly so replies to the threads can be missed quite easily. It's good to get into the habit of subscribing to trickier threads once they've died down a bit to be able to pick up on replies from the member looking for help.

If you don't know what they are asking then chances are you won't guess correctly, so you will give them useless advice and potentially even confuse them. You should ask them for more information and then subscribe to the thread so that you know when they've replied with more details.

"A lot of people are experiencing this" doesn't give the member any information on how to solve their problem. They need advice on how to solve their problem and they will probably just find that response frustrating.

It's easy to ask an agent if you know how, but if you're a new member who isn't even sure what an agent is then you won't know where to look. Walk them through it and they'll appreciate it much more.

Being friendly is very important. People are often frustrated when looking for help so if you add a few nice words to your post they'll appreciate it a lot more.

People come to the community for help, so sending them away from it is unhelpful. If they do leave the community to Google it might even take longer to find their answer than if you'd said nothing at all.

It's easy to get confused or frustrated when your phone doesn't work, so obviously reassuring them to make sure that they are reassured is a good idea :)

Fewer helpers will notice if they post it in the existing thread, so they should start a new one to get the best help they can.

A link on it's own is pretty impersonal. It's the equivalent of you asking a someone in a shop where the cornflakes are and them wordlessly giving you a map of the shop. Technically it will help you, but it's a bit rude.

All of these are good reasons for reading the thread before posting. The average accepted solution is proven to be unrelated to the speed at which the answer is posted, so there is no need to rush to post.