I've noticed an appalling number of first time posters who post threads with titles like "Help! Urgent!!!!". The posts can be almost as useless as "I'm trying to program something and I'm getting an error. What am I doing wrong?". It would seem that few people are reading and following the posting guidelines. Even simple guidelines like
- Make a meaningful title
- Give sufficient information so the question makes sense
- Supply all relevant information so the problem can be solved
My suggestion is to implement a system in which new posters (perhaps for the first 2-3 new threads) woul be shown the guidelines for a set time (15-20 seconds perhaps) before the editing fields are displayed or edited. I am not a web programmer so I do not know what is easy to implement.
I realize that anyone contributing to a thread gets credited when the thread is marked as solved and I feel like a cheat when I post "show us what you have done" or "can you please clarify the question", then not contribute further when I realize the question is not in an area where I feel I can contribute.