The importance of knowing how to ask a question can often be overlooked; it’s structure can usually determine the quality of answer received. The question I chose to research on Stack Overflow was, “How to create a server in Javascript.” I chose this question because the task of creating a server in any language can be quite challenging so question structure is very important. After looking at a couple of questions on this topic, I found that precisely explaining your problem, along with examples of your code and the errors, along with your intended goal, produces the best quality answers.
In one post the OP explained his goals along with what he wasn’t trying to achieve. When asking a question, I never really thought of including what I wasn’t trying to do, just where I wanted to get. This technique helped members pinpoint the direction he should be headed and were able to give him the help he needed.The OP also posted what code he already had, giving others a visual sense of where he currently stood in his problem.
Another post of the same question was not as amazing as the last. To start off, the post was declared a duplicate, this means that the OP probably did not do any searching beforehand and just asked for the sake of asking. No code was given nor was his goal clearly stated. This post seemed rather lazy, even if anyone wanted to help they would have to clarify a multitude of other things first before they could even get to the actual question. Asking for help should be a collaboration, with both the asker and answerer working together to fix the problem, in this case it didn’t seem like the OP was putting much effort into his question. The answers to this post were of significantly less quality when related to those of the last; since the post was a duplicate, it technically wasn’t answered since the answer was probably already in another post.
This small relation has shown me the importance of understanding how to structure a question. Quality put into a question will most likely mean a quality answer will come out of it. Helping people understand a problem by explaining, not just stating, can improve the likelihood of others being willing to help. In my eyes there is no question that is stupid, curiosity is normal, however, it’s presentation definitely makes a difference in the eyes of others.