Tips for posting to the Drupal forums

The following best practice tips can make participating in the forums a more pleasurable and productive experience for everyone:

"Always use context-sensitive forum post titles."

Good titles are just as important in forum posting as they are in email. Many newbies believe that the easiest way to get support is to scream "HELP!!!" in all caps in a subject line. However, the Drupal forums and issues are very active. Many Drupal members check the tracker page and scan the titles. They prioritize how they may use their limited time by offering support where they feel they can provide direct assistance. So a post like "Getting error X in installation" or "Help with thinking through corporate Internet site design" is more likely to attract someone who can assist with your problem.

"Provide detailed specifics."

Often, before someone may be able to assist you, they will need to know the Drupal version number, the hosting environment, the specific error generated, and other information. Vague support requests just end up requiring a volley of question and answer, lengthening the time it takes to resolve an issue. If you are using Drupal 5, you can find a status report in the administration screen, ready to be pasted into a forum topic. Of course you should still provide enough context for the information to be useful.

"Ignore flames and rude tones."

Drupal is a large international community. Since many members are not native English speakers, realize that a brusque tone may be a result of language differences and should not be immediately interpreted as rude. Regardless, if you feel like another user has flamed you, the best response is to ignore the offense and continue working toward discussing productive solutions.

"You get more bees with honey than with vinegar."

While it is very easy to become frustrated when grappling with a problem, remember that Drupal community members donate their time in offering support. People are more likely to respond to posts which ask nicely for assistance over those that demand it or complain. Politeness can make a difference.

"With volunteer support, not everyone gets a response."

If your post has gone unanswered, perhaps no one that has read your post has the solution to your problem. You might also consider whether the title for the post is specific enough. And if you feel like support response could be better on drupal.org, please donate some of your time, too, to answering support questions. In a volunteer effort, the only way to improve support is for everyone to participate.

"Enable your contact tab!"

So that people may offer assistance privately by email, be sure to edit your user account and check the Personal contact form box. This feature does not share your email address, but rather forwards the message to you via drupal.org.

"Please see the handbook."

If people provide a link to the information, please read it. Information in the handbook is to cut down on repetition so if you have further questions after reading, then try and refine your question further.

Additional reading:

• How to Troubleshoot
• How to narrow your search to just the forum boards or the documentation handbooks.