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Read this before posting questions in the scripting section

Discussion in 'Scripting' started by zine92, Jul 24, 2011.

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  1. zine92

    zine92

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    Nov 13, 2010
    Posts:
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    I see a lot of newbies asking question in this section which isn't bad because the community welcome people who are new to Unity. However i think there's some rule to follow.


    1.) What to do before starting a thread?
    This is a common step that a lot of posters just skipped. Please use the search function first before posting a question. Someone might have (Most probably have already) asked about what you are going to ask.

    Try to search a few keywords. Because some people might post topics like HELPPPP. Which don't make any sense and when people helped the person, another can't find the answer and does the same thing. That leads me to the second point.


    2.) Starting a new thread.
    When you start a new thread. There's several things to take note. Which some of them will be addressed below.

    However these are the bare essentials to have while starting a new thread.

    These needs to be included for people to know what's wrong with your problems than whining about that Unity sucks and javascript sucks and community sucks. How can you want help when you don't offer basic manners and if you include the above, i am sure someone will help you.

    Just give it some time. And read below for more information.

    And please don't use make your text too Colorful or too Big to read.

    3.) How to ask/post for help in this section? (I always see people posting I NEED HELP/URGENT!!!!)
    Please do not post topic title such as HELP!!!! URGENT!!!! Can't get BLAH BLAH BLAH to work. This Script is not working!!!!

    And adding to what Dman suggested,
    DO NOT POST YOUR TOPIC TITLE LIKE THIS!!!!!!!!
    Why, simply it pisses off whoever is reading it and the eyes. Be good to people who are going to help you. Making EXTRA LARGE FONTS don't make your thread replies faster. Just like talking loud won't make you get the most attention. And also fanciful colors are not good either. Why? Imagine someone wanting to help you and see all sizes of fonts and colors, it's hard to read what you want to convey.

    Instead ask something like how do i call a script from the other? Make it constructive and make people who are searching it easier. Like how do i implement blah blah blah in C#. I need help converting a movement script from JavaScript.


    4.) How do i post a code snippet and where is the code tag located?
    Use the tags appropriately, i see people posting large chunks of codes like this.

    var a : int;
    var b : int;
    :
    :
    function DoSomething()
    {
    :
    :
    }

    It would be a mess. Instead use a CODE tag. So how do i use it. Simply type
    HTML:
    [CODE]
    All your codes here
    [/CODE]
    
    One thing i want to remind people is that please when posting chunks of code. DO NOT POST MESSY CODES.
    Imagine
    Code (csharp):
    1.  
    2. function Start()
    3. {
    4. DoSomething();
    5. transform.position.x = 10 * Time.deltaTime;
    6. // other codes
    7. }
    8. function DoSomething()
    9. {
    10. yield WaitForSeconds(0.1);
    11. }
    12.  
    Note the above is bad codes. And it is very messy. Please when posting code snippets. Make an effort to make it neat. like this.
    Code (csharp):
    1.  
    2. function Start()
    3. {
    4.      DoSomething();
    5.      transform.position.x = 10 * Time.deltaTime;
    6.      // other codes
    7. }
    8.  
    9. function DoSomething()
    10. {
    11.      yield WaitForSeconds(0.1);
    12. }
    13.  
    Neater codes make debugging easier especially when posting in the forums. :D

    And suggestions from NPSF3000, if your code snippets are too long, please use http://jsbeautifier.org/ to organize your codes and http://pastebin.com/ for very long codes.


    5.) I have posted my codes and asked my question properly however no one is replying to it. What to do next?

    You can try bumping the threads and wait for some other people to reply. Because most of us are busy with real life, there isn't possible for someone to sit there 24/7 looking at the forum. Therefore give it some time.

    And before you went on to complain that help is slow, why not help the people who are going to help you by adding some form of errors like the ones in the console (Windows -> console in unity). And add some form indication where the errors might be. Like which line number and highlight it using the colors. This is where the colors comes to use and not for fancifully decorating your title.


    6.) Post as much details about your codes as possible.

    DO NOT POST ONLY CODES in the topic. Why? Imagine someone wanting to help you and see lines and lines of code and no description of what you need. It is hard to help you then.

    And sometimes posting images and a package will help. :D


    7.) Someone has replied to my thread but the answer's CRAPPY
    Well i followed your advice and did my best to reply and all i get is a S*** answer like hey you are doing it wrong. Go look at the docs/manual. Or hey look at msdn.

    That wasn't the answer i was looking for. I am looking for CODES. Basically, ask nicely and help will come. And don't expect help to be in the form of. Hi blah blah blah, i have uploaded a working full source code for you. It's error free. You need just to import in and do nothing.

    No. It won't happen unless the person is so kind enough as to post you a small package. Sometimes in the forum when you ask for help, we can guide you but we cannot spoon feed you. Why? Because you and i, we are adults and in this industry, truth be told. Indies learn by themselves. Therefore when people post a link or suggestions, go read it yourself and understand. And if there's still some confusion, feel free to bump the previous thread.


    8.) Posters, please have some considerations when you post an answer.

    Most important thing, be nice. No point flaming people, criticizing them because of some small mistakes. Point out to the original posters where he/she had gone wrong. I guess everyone has to start somewhere and i hope that somewhere would be a great start for everyone.

    And if the starter of the thread is really new to scripting, make some boo boo, just ask them to obey the rules next time and explain to them what went wrong. So be nice. :D


    9.) Last but not least. I think this is quite important. Thank the person

    Remember to thank the person who helped/have help you and make sure to state if your problems have being solved and also state what you did to solve it rather than posting.

    Never mind. I got it.
    Or Thanks.

    Then other people reading the thread have no idea how to go about solving it and will be forced to open a new thread or reply to the old one.


    Have fun in the Unity Community. Hope this would be of some help to people new to the Unity Scripting forum. If there's any error or typo or anything to add. Feel free to tell me. And i will add it.

    It would be nice if this gets pinned. :D
     
    Last edited: Jul 31, 2011
  2. exiguous

    exiguous

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    Nov 21, 2010
    Posts:
    1,749
    +1 for the content
    +1 for sticky

    i would like to add, that the help will sometimes be in a general form. for example a link to the documentation, a keyword to search for, a script in the unify wiki. dont expect that others do your complete project for you. you will have to learn this stuff anyway sooner or later so it is a good time to start now and others will give you the general direction but you need to walk alone. take what is given to you and make something out of it instead asking until someone does it completely for you. its also always nice to see your own effort already (which includes search the forums, the internet etc). threads like "i need a script that makes my plane flying" does not show this effort and only seems to be parasitic.

    also its crucial to decide wether a technique is unity specific or general .net coding (for example). you can find lots of tutorials how to write files and so on for .net and mono.

    so please do a little own (research) work before bothering the community with stuff that has been answered and explained over the whole internet alot already.
     
  3. DanielQuick

    DanielQuick

    Joined:
    Dec 31, 2010
    Posts:
    3,137
    An easier way to display the CODE tags is to place them within HTML tags.

    Like so:
    It would be a mess. Instead use a CODE tag. So how do i use it. Simply type
    HTML:
    [CODE]
    All ur codes here
    [/CODE]
    
    That way you don't have to explain the spaces.
     
  4. hippocoder

    hippocoder

    Digital Ape

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    Apr 11, 2010
    Posts:
    29,723
    Excellent post.

    Remember newbies, we we all newbies once. And we are giving you clear advice that counts in getting noticed. What you really want is help from experienced people. And experienced people hate it when you made silly titles that dont describe the problem, or you don't post code (hint: always post what code you have in
    Code (csharp):
    1.  
    blocks)

    Remember: the more you help people by telling your problem in a clear manner, the more they have the tools to help you back. Get control of yourself.
     
  5. zine92

    zine92

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    Thanks people for the advice and comments. I will add that in later. :D I am doing my best to help others too.

    Thanks exiguous for the advice, you are right. People are often expecting a full blown working codes when they post here. And nice Dman. I was thinking how to type that. Thanks for showing me that. :D

    And thanks hippocoder for the advice too. :D
     
    Last edited: Jul 24, 2011
  6. scratch250

    scratch250

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    Bump and +1 for a great thread
    ohh and +1 for sticky :)
     
  7. zine92

    zine92

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    Great thanks. :D
     
  8. U7Games

    U7Games

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    this and hippocoder´s post with comic dialog are good to newcomers ... and don´t forget manners!
     
  9. npsf3000

    npsf3000

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  10. zine92

    zine92

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    Great suggestions guys. :D. And thanks for the pastebin/jsbeautifier.
     
  11. ravinder

    ravinder

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    Great post zine92

    I have suggested all these to some of the new bies in the past.
    I think Unity should embed these as "guidlines for posting a thread" either on the home page of their forums or in the Unity manual.
    Its really a nice and helpful post but its hard to reach.
    By the way i can see you are doing great work by keeping your thread in your signature so that it can reach more number of people. Nice work. Appreciated.
     
  12. zine92

    zine92

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    Thanks thanks. And i really appreciate it when people redirect them here to read. And yeah suggestions and comments for improvement are welcomed. :D
     
  13. bdev

    bdev

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    Don't really know how you plan on enforcing this, its thoughtful but does it belong on this section? Its kind of annoying to see it bumped here and its not really a question or release but about the forum section directly and it could really apply to almost all the sub forum sections under Unity except for maybe support, teaching and wish list. Maybe it'd be better in the support section or gossip rather than here if it can't be sticky'd and fully supported by Unity's admins.
     
  14. kjartanith

    kjartanith

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    I am not adult, i am only 15 years old.

    But otherwise thanks for the rules.
     
  15. DanielQuick

    DanielQuick

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    Perhaps you should add something along the lines of MAKING TEXT LARGER DOESN'T HELP or coloring your whole post makes us sick.

    Coloring I don't see as much (maybe once every other month) , but the text sizes are a slightly larger problem (saw one today!)
     
  16. zine92

    zine92

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    Great for the suggestions. I really appreciate you guys who redirect people who anyhow posts threads. Yes makes me sick too. :D
     
  17. npsf3000

    npsf3000

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    The big thing that this misses, and I mentioned this earlier but didn't hit the post button, is give us ALL the info:

    The description of what you want to do.
    The code.
    The error messages (or description of undesired function if there is no syntax etc error).

    This needs to be explicitly outlined.
     
    Last edited: Jul 27, 2011
  18. zine92

    zine92

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    Great thanks. Sorry that i miss it.
     
  19. DanielQuick

    DanielQuick

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    +1

    Its one of my biggest peeves when I see someone that says "It doesn't work, its giving me errors." and then never posts the errors.
     
  20. zine92

    zine92

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    I agree. I quoted what both of you had suggested. :D
     
  21. JRavey

    JRavey

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    It's pretty sad that this post is even necessary. I used to be against rating posts (and posters), but with the quality of the forums being what it is, I would like that as well as the option to automatically filter anybody with a low enough rating.
     
  22. DanielQuick

    DanielQuick

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    Yet another piece to add.

    When posting your error, don't forget to mention the line number. If the code is long, highlight the area that the error is occurring or post it in a separate code block as well.
     
  23. bigmisterb

    bigmisterb

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    I hate to be a stick in the mud. Regarding this whole thing. PLEASE DO NOT reference this script as a sole answer to a question. How would you like if you really didn't understand something or even where to begin and the only response you received was a post saying... "Make another post your sucks!"
     
  24. zine92

    zine92

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    Okay added.

    So that means try to explain how it works and such instead of pointing it to a documentation and such am i right?


    Point taken guys. :D
     
  25. Rush-Rage-Games

    Rush-Rage-Games

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    +1 for sticky, this is awesome!
     
  26. zine92

    zine92

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    Hey thanks. :D
     
  27. Rush-Rage-Games

    Rush-Rage-Games

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    No problem, thanks for writing an awesome article!

    This article and hippocoder's thread.
     
    Last edited: Aug 10, 2011
  28. andeeeee

    andeeeee

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    There is already a sticky here explaining good etiquette for writing questions in the Scripting section.
     
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