HOWTO post a request for help that will most likely get a response

[andrewhsu]

Dear Fellow Sugar Forum Posters,

It can be frustrating to post a request for help in a forum and not receive a reply that helps the issue at hand or not receive a reply at all. To alleviate some of the frustration, there are a few guidelines that can help elicit a response more quickly. There are plenty of Sugar experts that monitor the forums daily and many are more than willing to lend a helping hand if they know how to help. What follows is a guideline for forum posters seeking help so that the others that monitor the forums can more easily assist.

First do a search for a posting that may have had the same issue that you have. If you can find somebody with the same issue as you, chances are that people have already put some thought into addressing the issue. You can perform a search by using the Sugar Forums Search Form:
http://www.sugarcrm.com/forums/search.php. Also, the Sugar Wiki contains valuable content gleaned from forum posts and technical documentation. The Sugar Wiki is continually update so please be sure to check there as well.

If your search proves fruitless, then consider starting a new thread in the forums for your issue. Start by choosing a proper title for your new thread. A good example would be "Uploading patch for SugarSuite 4.2.0 error: Please specify a file and try again" because it has some of the error message text and a clue to the situation that surrounds the issue. A not-so-good example would be "Problems upgrading to 4.2.0" because although it specifies a version number, there is not much of an indication to what is the issue and therefore might attract stray posts that do not address your problem at hand.

A proper thread title will help people identify the issues quickly and may even help others identify that they have the same problems. Plus, once you choose a thread title you cannot change it so people will always identify with the thread title once you create it.

The next step would be to supply as much information surrounding the issue as possible. Listed below is an example of what type of information that would greatly help others try to address the issue. Granted, one may not be able to gather all of the information but what can be gathered would be of help. And it is always not a bad thing to deliver too much information rather than too little.

Sugar Version (e.g. 4.0.1d, 4.2.0)
Sugar Edition (e.g. SugarSuite, SugarPro, SugarEnt)
Category (e.g. Accounts, Opportunities, Upgrade, Install)
Operating System (e.g. Windows XP, Fedora Core 5, Mac OS X)
PHP Version (e.g. 4.3.11, 5.1.2)
Database (e.g. MySQL 4.0.25, Oracle 10g)
Web Server (e.g. Apache 2.2.0, IIS 6)

Steps to reproduce
e.g.
1. Clicked on the "Upgrade Wizard" link in the Administration: Home screen.
2. Clicked on "Browse..." button, selected the SugarSuite-Patch-4.2.0.zip file as the file to upload.
3. Clicked on the "Upload" button and received error message at the top of the page.

Error message or issue presented
e.g. Notice: Undefined index: module in /var/www/html/sugarcrm/data/SugarBean.php on line 87
Error message was at the top of the page.
Can still see the tabs but no other text fields or buttons on the page.

In closing, a final post back to the forum by the original person who posted the issue saying whether the problem was fixed or not would be greatly appreciated. It helps in two ways: 1. it boosts the egos of whoever helped solve the problem, 2. people stop losing sleep over the issue with the comfort of knowing that the issue has been closed (and there are a number of SugarCRM support staff that lose sleep over the especially tricky issues until they are solved). If you had found a previously unmentioned solution in the thread, please post that too if you have the chance so we can use your experience to help others.

To summarize:
1. First search for your issue in the forums to see if your issue has already been addressed.
2. If you don't come up with any useful results after your search, start a new thread and be conscious of the title you choose for the new thread.
3. When describing the issue you have, provide as much info as possible and give a clear list of steps to reproduce.
4. When you have received a resolution on the thread, post a message indicating if it worked or not.

And remember: common courtesy is not wasted in the forums. A gracious acceptance of contribution to the solution can make one's day. A simple "Thanks, that worked!" reply goes a long way especially in encouraging people to help you again if you come across another problem in the future.

Cheers,
Andrew

[JohnnyB]

These are solid rules for posting in ANY forum (where you're seeking support).

Thanks for the refresher!

[ncamillone]

Do you have any additional suggestions on what to do regarding the large number of posts that have, for example:
* no reply, yet many views
* no resolution still
* extra pleadings from posters with critical needs?
I ask because many of us are doing our best to follow you lead and suggestions, but to no avail. (Perhaps we should be looking in other places for assistance, as well. Do you have any pointers alond these lines?

[zemplen]

Perhaps a forum that deals with just install issues would be helpful and cut down on some of the frustration.

[louiseg]

Many Thanks for the guidlines.

[pfo]

Dear Fellow Sugar Forum Posters,

It can be frustrating to post a request for help <etc><etc>

Well said! Probably guilty myself. It may be worthwhile to post this as an email to every new recruit to the forums.

[andydreisch]

Not a bad idea, pfo. I'll see how we can weave this into the introductory email.

Andy

[lilies34]

thanks for the tip! i've been wondering why i don't get the response that i wanted. now i know what went wrong! hehehe...

[netron]

is there an IRC channel?

it would be useful for questions that aren't too detailed and just require a simple answer.

e.g. how do you expand the my calls dashlet to show 10 records instead of 5.
answer: add $this->displayRows=10; in MyCallsDashlet.php

[clint]

is there an IRC channel?

irc.freenode.net in channel #sugarcrm