How do I use this forum? 0

[Architecht]

What kinds of questions should I ask here? And if I'm answering questions, what are the best ways to do that? Are there any guidelines for doing these things in the proper way?

[Architecht]

Hello,

This forum is a good place for new members to ask any kind of newbie questions you'd like, but there are a few simple things to know to get the best value out of this area.

 

People with Questions

If you have a question, you should do a few things:

1. Review the popular questions, and search this forum before posting a question. Many of the basic questions may already have been answered, so it is ALWAYS good forum etiquette to try to find existing answers first. People do get tired of answering the same questions over and over again, so a new question that's already been answered may not get much of a response.
    
2. Highlight the EXISTING QUESTIONS that were helpful to you. If you find an interesting question with a great answer that taught you something important, then GO TO THE TOP of the post, look to the LEFT of the thread title, find the up-carrot icon and click it to up-vote the whole question. If you found it helpful, then there's a GREAT chance that other people will as well. This will help them find it.
    
3. State your question briefly and clearly in the title. It's very helpful to those answering questions AND to other newbies with the same question to be able to read the actual question you have right there in the title. This helps generate better answers, and helps future newbies to find that same information without have to ask again.
    
4. Try to ask GENERAL questions that would be helpful to many people. The general idea is to ask how-to kinds of questions that could be helpful to anyone and that will teach you to "fish" for yourself instead of just handing you a fish. i.e. "How do I find the value of a comic book?" is better than "How much money is an Action Comics #1 worth?"
    
5. Highlight the answers that helped you the most by up-voting and marking the best answers. When you get answers, you can do two things to help highlight the helpful answers. Any answer that was helpful, you can click the up-arrow to the left of the post to add an "up-vote" to the answer. This helps push that answer to the top so it can be quickly discovered by anyone reading the thread in the future. It's also a "thank you" to helpful responders.
   
   A STRONGER form of this is to click that check-mark icon on the left of the post. If you are the person who asked the question originally, you can set a particular answer as the BEST answer to your question. And that really makes it easy for future readers to get a great answer right away. It also moves that answer to the top of the responses so it's read first. Please do this. It helps other people know if a question received an answer that solved the issue. This allows the experienced collectors to move on and focus time on the questions WITHOUT a best answer
    

People Reading / Answering Questions

If you are either reading or answering questions, you can also help highlight the best questions and answers to make the board more valuable and cut down on repeat questions and answers.

1. Answer questions with good context / general information. Often people with newbie questions won't know quite what to ask or where to begin. So it's super-helpful to offer a bit more background rather than just answer their specific question.
    
2. Highlight the questions that seem the most helpful to many users by up-voting. When you find a question that seems general enough to be of good use to many people, or uncovers an important area of collecting that people just plain should know about, then at the TOP on the LEFT of the thread, you can find an up-carrot looking icon that allows you to up-vote the whole question. This will help highlight the great questions for other people.
    
3. Highlight the most informative answers by up-voting. On any answer that was helpful, you can click the up-arrow to the left of the post to add an "up-vote" to the answer. This helps push that answer to the top so it can be quickly discovered by anyone reading the thread in the future. It's also a "thank you" to helpful responders.