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@seanedwards
Last active May 26, 2016 17:42
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Asking for help in a helpful way.

IRC and Slack channels can be a great resource for debugging confusing problems, and people are often very willing to jump in and work through it with you, however there are some things you should provide upfront when asking a question. Filling out this template will help you get an answer faster, and will make it easier for someone to jump in and help.

Goal

Describe what you expect to happen when the problem is solved.

Problem

Describe the specific problem you're seeing. Start with the thing that made you notice there was a problem and follow your investigation forward from there.

If you're getting specific error messages, copy and paste the whole error. If it's a problem with a user interface, attach screenshots.

History

Include a little bit about what you've already tried, or possibile causes you've already eliminated.

I thought it might be ______________, so I tried ______________ but that didn't solve it.

It's definitely not ______________ because ______________.

I think it could be ______________ but I don't know how to test that.

Attachments

Attach any relevant files, like config files, log files, screenshots, or small snippets of source code, and briefly describe the function of each one. Don't forget to remove sensitive data!

Solution

When the problem is solved, describe what the problem was and how you fixed it. People encounter the same problems all the time, and having a description of the problem alongside a real-world solution will help people (like yourself) when googling about this problem in the future.

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