User blog:Veralann/Tips on asking for technical help on Community Central

Hello everyone, I'm Vera, and today I'll be offering some tips on how to ask for technical assistance on this wiki. I'm certainly no expert with code (far from it, actually) but I've seen a few things and just want to help improve everyone's experience on CC.

Chat
One of the most common things I see users asking for help with on chat is importing scripts, frequently from the Wikia Developers Wiki, or Dev Wiki if you prefer. It can be really easy to get confused with imports, so the first thing to do is make sure you read the script's instructions correctly. If after doing this and it still isn't clear to you, or it has none, then would be a good time to ask for help. This applies to pretty much any technical aspect of the site as well, such as adding CSS or making use of parser functions in templates.

Now, I can't stress this enough, the most important part of this process is patience. You will likely have to wait a short time for someone to respond, and even if someone responds instantly, they will likely have other things to work on and might not be able to answer every question as soon as you ask them. It also isn't a good idea to spam chat with your question or send a bunch of random users a PM, because that could potentially lead to getting banned from Community Central Chat.

If somebody helps you and you still have trouble, one of the things you don't want to do is start complaining. It could be a caching matter or something that just takes time. Even if you are frustrated, you should be respectful in voicing as much. For example, you don't want to do this:

This is disrespectful to the user who kindly offered to help you, and there's a good chance they won't want to continue helping you afterward.

You should also refrain from bombarding somebody with questions, especially if they're unrelated. "How long do you think this will take" is generally an acceptable question, while "What is your favorite anime?" is not on-topic to what you're talking to the user about.

Forums
Several of the above guidelines apply to the forums here as well, but due to the nature of them, there might be an even longer wait before you get a response. Also, since forums are less temporary than chat, you should try looking to see if anyone else has had a problem similar to yours, since there may already be a response to it. If not, or a response didn't work, go ahead and post a thread. Be clear and concise, and of course, be respectful of other users.

Message Walls
Generally speaking, I try to refrain from asking other users for help on their message walls unless I was directed to it by the aforementioned user themselves, a particular discussion about one thing ended up getting off topic between myself and the other user, or to follow up later on from a chat conversation, if necessary. Once again, most of the above guidelines apply, and you should take the hint if a user stops responding and not spam their wall with "where are you why arent you answering??" and everything should be fine. You should also be cautious of hijacking other people's threads on message walls with either your own question or answer, as that can get annoying rather quickly.

That's pretty much all I have to say for now, and I hope this blog helped you out some. Thanks for reading, and have a good day!