Tips for posting to the Drupal forums

It could be very useful, the one thing I would add is a note about people enabling their contact tab, people often ask questions that are better answered off line but do not have the contact enabled.

Looks good. I like that it stresses the point about Drupal being a volunteer community and that people can get involved themselves, as well as the point about Drupal being an international community and that sometimes users can come across as abrasive or rude because of a language barrier.

I've attached a new version that just fixes a couple minor spelling things.

I think you should remove the centre paragraph of the /node/add/forum and replace it with the 6 bullets. That, and a link to the handbookis a very good thing IMO. People hardly read a lot of text, but do read bullets. If they are interested they will read further, i think.

Ber

I would maybe do:

* Please [search] (link to search) and check the [handbook] (link to handbook) before posting.
* Please use descriptive titles -- this allows people to better assist you.
* Include detailed specifics -- Drupal version number, specific error messages, steps you've tried, and so on.
* Ignore flames and rude tones -- remember that English is not everyone's first language.
* Be polite -- you are more likely to get a helpful response.
* Remember that with volunteer support, not everyone gets a response -- please do what you can to help out!
* Enable your contact tab -- this allows people to contact you outside of the forums if required.

This is still not *too* wordy, but expands on the points more than just the bullets themselves. I also changed "context-sensitive" to "descriptive" titles, because the former is a bit unclear, imo. And I added a bullet point for the search and handbook, per Boris's comment.

It needs to be top level in the handbook. (maybe use blink tags or highlight it red or something)
Some suggestions, a new section starting.

• Drupal.org README
• New comers guide -Start here

We need an introduction to the community. I have started an attempt at one, but as I got into it, I realized I was writing an introduction to the handbook (not a bad thing, just got distracted and missed my target).

Perhaps something along the lines of...

Welcome to the community. The drupal.org community is comprised of a diverse group of people; from developers to neophytes, contributors to non-contributers. Using Drupal as a foundation, you can build a powerful flexible website. As with all powerful tools, what you get out of it depends on what you put into it and your current skills. With a base Drupal install you can build a fairly powerful site without knowing php. If you need something beyond what is provided with the base install and currently available contributed modules, you will need to be familier with php and databases (primarily MySQL) , willing to learn or pay someone for their services. If you are familier, then you will need to be willing to spend the time learning Drupal's api and Developers Guide. As with all communities,

Here are some methods to use Drupal.org effectively.

[sub page] Tips to posting to the forums
[sub page] How to use the handbook
[sub page]

Let's try it without a missing quote in a an href tag.

Welcome to the community. The drupal.org community is comprised of a diverse group of people; from developers to neophytes, contributors to non-contributers. Using Drupal as a foundation, you can build a powerful flexible website. As with all powerful tools, what you get out of it depends on what you put into it and your current skills. With a base Drupal install you can build a fairly powerful site without knowing php. If you need something beyond what is provided with the base install and currently available contributed modules, you will need to be familier with php and databases (primarily MySQL) , willing to learn or pay someone for their services. If you are familier with devloping, then you will need to be willing to spend the time learning Drupal's api and Developers Guide. As with all communities, we have our disagreements on various approaches and viewpoints that we try and keep civil as well as our helpful support people and occasional troll.

Here are some methods to use Drupal.org effectively.

[sub page] Tips to posting to the forums
[sub page] How to use the handbook
[sub page]

I would change the italics to bold as the italics seem to disappear in the text, but I guess that's just personal preference. What about including something related to searching the issues / feature / support requests of contributed modules, and how to do that properly? I think also including info on how to use blockquote, code, and ?php would also be helpful.

Ok. I will review and edit my idea a bit this week and get it added at the top of the About Drupal page.
Change the <strong> to <em> as well.

I will open another issue on it in the next day. Where the 'sub' links are is not important. Links from this page to them would work just as well as sub pages. I just think we need it to A. Point people to and B. help set their expectations per your idea.

Oh the heck with it, http://drupal.org/node/35172 I posted it. Review/edit as needed. I figured we needed something sooner than later as a start.

so I should use more words in the future? :)

Some comments:

The italicized phrase "what you get out of it depends on what you put into it" looses some punch because of what follows it. I think if you end the sentence right there (omitting "and your current skills") it will read much better.

Later in that same paragraph, "familier" should be "familiar."

In the last paragraph, "... then contributors" should be "... than contributors"

I would remove the first sentence of the last paragraph and make a number of other changes, so it would read

Open source communities work best when everyone jumps in and helps out. This handbook mentions a number of ways anyone can contribute. Once you have installed and begun configuring your site, you can easily lend a hand by assisting others in the fourms who have the same basic questions you once had. Whether you help in the support forum, write or revise documentation, review patches, or create patches, your help is always welcome.

If you want to mention revising and writing handbook pages here, add a link to a page describing how to do that.

Also, I think the link "Developers Guide" should read "Developer's Guide".

closing.