How to help others ... or, how to write a good answer

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The topic How to help us help you - or How to ask a good question is a good guideline. But help is a two way street.

First and foremost: On the HA home page is Need help? The very first link of that linked page should be something like, New to Home assistant? Start here. That link would have links like 20 things I wished I knew when I started with Home Assistant, The Home Assistant Cookbook - Index and, of course, How to help us help you - or How to ask a good [forum] question Somewhere on that page also should be How to help others … or, how to write a good answer. Knowing how to help actually improves queries of help.

The same questions are going to be asked over and over again. Yes, you’ve answered those questions a bajillion times, but as it is today, the new person doesn’t know that. If the same question is constantly being asked by newbies, the answer should be part of the Start Here page.

Which points out that the Start Here page should have the HELP US IMPROVE OUR DOCUMENTATION footer so that the more experienced person can keep the bajillion+1 time from being asked.

The use of links in help responses is key. It allows the questioner a place to start a search. (When I encounter unknown situations, I usually start with a google search “Home Assistant [insert brief description here]” followed by fine tuning searches. Not all the answers are in the HA forum.

Reminders of basic debugging techniques are sometime appropriate, but not always. (eg. What happens if you remove that line?)

Remember when answering a question, the answer is not just for the questioner, but all seekers of knowledge who happen upon the question. Anecdotal: Questioner wanted to get recommendations for zigbee devices of a certain ilk. Responder ask, “What’s your application? What country are you in?” The responder might be in Zimbabwe and the questioner in Quebec. The responders answer should start with, “In my experience in Zimbabwe …” The next person with this question just may be from Zimbabwe!

If you put RTFM, link it to the part of TFM that needs to be R’d.

Snarky comments are not helpful. In fact, they are a detractor to a good community. I am thankful that this doesn’t happen a lot but it does happen.

The HA forum has a wealth of information but it is open source. As such, it is challenging for all. It’s a struggle for us all

I am in the process of submitting via the help page’s HELP US IMPROVE OUR DOCUMENTATION

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Speaking of RTFM, there’s already a community guide with practically the same title about this. You might have missed it How to help us help them - or How to give a good answer

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Yesterday i copied a “very short” description/“1 liner” from the “New Topic” of OP’s Opening Post, and found

… Of same/similar Topics, And in some of these, The Solution to OP’s Answer

I Don’t find the need to explain this further, You should know What i mean :wink:

How is it even Possible that 1, or 1000 people open a Topic i.e , " picture don’t show up in custom:button-card "
… There are 100 of Topics, And even a dedicated Repos/Card Topic for this Component . People(In Specific NEW such, and + 3 years experienced ) , could simply just copy/paste" the first line of code in his yalm ( custom:button-card ) , or his Thoughts, And Paste it in the Forum Search, and hit Enter

A left-click and draw(copy) and a click&paste in the Forum Search , And another click on the Search-Button … 3 Small F… Clicks, and they would have saved the World from showing their total lack of Respect, Ignorance and ( I was about to add Laziness !, But my fingers “refuse” ) … 3 F… Clicks

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Yes, my research did miss it. Number 13 of that guide mentions that possibility.

I would suggest moving the guide onto the Help page instead of buried in the community guides.

I sincerely hope the person who reads the feedback (which links this thread) I sent via the “Help us improve our documentation” of the Help page will read what we have written here.

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Please open a “Configuration” section, you will see the “how to help us to help you” thread pinned.

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This thread is about how people with experience can effectively give help. A guide already exists, see the link provided in the first response.

The page you reference is about how people without experience or knowledge can ask questions in a meaningful way.

I am proposing that a new page be created for people that are new to Home Assistant and the link to that page be readily apparent on the Home Assistant home page. Both how to ask for help and how to give help should be on that help page.

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The posting guidelines are only for the forums. At most, we will sticky posts for new users that sign up on the forums. These links will not be added to the documentation as they do not apply to all of our social media pages.

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OK, great! Will you be sticky-posting the How to help us help them - or How to give a good answer page?

But how do we get the new user to the “20 Things” and “Cookbook” pages? These are very useful, but not easily found until after one has bumbled around a lot and, ironically, already learned 19 of the 20 things.

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I’m supportive of making the docs and forum easier, but I don’t really get the argument you are trying to make about “Need Help?”. The top navigation bar on ever page in the docs has a link to “Getting Started”, which houses info on installation, onboarding, the glossary, and a number of other new user topics… you literally cannot escape it.

Too many stickies, especially on the main page, are annoying to most users. As it stands, the current stickies seen in Categories and Latest limit the initial view to 2-3 active threads. Personally, I think the current forum “Welcome” post isn’t worth it’s stickiness, since all it does is point users to other sites. And, the “How to ask a good question” post could use a revamp, but it would likely break a ton of links to do so.

The Cookbook index is already sticky in it’s category and there is a cookbook tag… if people aren’t finding it, it seems more likely that they are unfamiliar with the term or they aren’t using any of the available methods to focus their selection and search.

Regarding the “20 Things” post… it’s okay, but I don’t see how that one is any more deserving of being sticky than any of the other similar posts.

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True, However even i haven’t “got use to This Forum” yet, and “something” is hard to find.
It Could be a good Idea to have i.e CookBook and Guides And even a Howto(with updated Solutions) easy Visible
Thou Still For some to Me “unknown” Reasons alot people put more time in Opening a new Topic … Rather than spending Half of their/That Typing, in The Search Function (Instead)

Explain that OP !

EDIT: And even the Urls, to i.e /Integrations / Dashboards(with the Cards) / ETC (ha.io sites). Also “Visible” … might encouraging People to Click those links first Rather than Open a Topic as Fist thing

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There’s a new set of rules that will be posted in the next month or so for the forums. Those rules will cover everything in the “how to help” posts.

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