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How can I increase the chances of getting my questions read AND answered ? 

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Very good initiative Ray. Question quality does need some push. And since nobody upvotes good questions, they get lost in the crowd.

This forum seems to be mostly for users. For development, coding and debugging, Google has led me to better answers at StackOverflow (and it is a tribute to OpenERP that it gets good attention there)

You are right */Ray/*. The forum is high going. This forum will help OpenERP developer to solve their issues, to the think possibilities of each small functions in each module,extra available modules etc. I had a great experience from here. And can solve all of my issue. Tried to share my ideas here. I 100% vote to this forum. I'l be more specific,if i ask any question. And Thanks to all for sharing their ideas.

The forum has a wonderful search feature. I use it before I think of asking any question because earlier answers gives me insight into how the question could be solved myself.

The perfect idea is what Jan Pompe propose. If we start using those information in all our questions, the forum will increase in level and will transform in a excelent site to search information about Odoo. The questions will be more organized, clean and easy to answer, because the users will understand what they are looking for. I give a positive vote to that idea.

As my father taught me at young age, Money talks ans bull**it walks... I have found that if you speak to Openerp(odoo) senior developers they really know every answer on this forum, good or bad, but it is not their job to answer. I do see some posts from Fabrice and Fabian, but that aside, the company does supply a really nice product for free so they expect some elbow grease in return. I agree some users do not spend the time and effort to solve their issues. But when it comes to framework, inhenit design, only they know it and want to get paid. As we all do at some point. I am working on a very complex project and I can tell you that everything so far that I needed has been done. But no way it could have not been done without odoo. I know Ray knows what I am talking about.....

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I have noticed that a lot of posts are READ but not as many of them are ANSWERED. 

I think many questions remain unanswered because:

1) Some users ask many, unrelated questions in the same post. It is better to start a new post rather than mixing questions. People who see that a post that already has replies may not think they need to open it and contribute.

2) Some users don't write useful, descriptive and specific post Subjects. With many subjects posted, not everyone wants to open a post just to find out what the question is. Pretend the Subject is a tweet and try to get a summary of what you want in there so people know before opening the post.  **REMEMBER*** - a question ends with "?"

3) Some users are not specific enough about the problem they are having and don't post what they have tried to do to fix the problem. How can anyone respond to "doesn't work" or "gives me an error" without further information? What were you expecting to happen? What kind of error? What is in a user's head and what they write are two different things. It is easier to skip parts of a post that provide too much information than guess at missing information.

4) Some users don't search for existing posts or documentation that already answer the question they have. With search engines like google that reach into forums and online documentation, everyone should search first before posting. If you can't find anything, post your search terms in the post so the next person using the same keywords finds it. This also applies to error messages. If you get an error message, paste in into google and see what comes up.

5) Some users have unrealistic expectations. Not everyone who participates knows how to answer every question. People take vacations and days off. People have some time one day but not on other days. Some users are not respectful of people's time and are not grateful for replies. No-one is being paid to read or reply to forum posts and there are no dedicated resources at Odoo that are assigned to answer questions. There are options for paid help from Odoo (Success Packs) and partners (varies by Partner). If you want a guarantee of a reply, contact them. The forums are free and for users to support other users on a volunteer basis.

6) Some users asking "How do you do X?" type questions don't post what they have tried already. If someone says they need help building a house, where do you start helping them? It depends what they have already started, and what they have completed. Someone reading a post might not reply because they don't know where to start helping.

7) Some users don't post which version of Odoo they are using. The version NUMBER is just as important as whether you are working with your OWN install or the HOSTED (aka SAAS) version.  The answers can be different depending on which version you are working with.

If your posts are not getting answered, take a look at the ones that are getting answered and make yours more like them. Also, take the time to answer anything you can. The forums can be a great resource.  If you find them valuable then you should return the favor whenever you can.

Also check out the FAQ for the forums at https://www.odoo.com/forum/help-1/faq

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@Ray Carnes: Your every word is right. I am totally agree with you.

Good initiative Ray, I'm also agree with you! + when the users get their question answered correctly they have to make the answer as a correct one..

Please complete the list to the right use of tags, perhaps the sequence. 1. Version = V7, 2. Module = mail (technical name), 3. Context = setup ......

some posts forced close and advised that read the documentation... but not even let another people to help, may be someone else can. people ask here seniors to get Help.

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Some forums use a template that contains a few questions to answer. One person has to start with a few good questions so others can copy it as a header in their topic. In no time it will be a common use.

  • Version:
  • Module:
  • Module developer:
  • Server details:
  • I searched with keywords:
  • I did this before I got an error:
  • The error I get:
  • My descriptive question:
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I do observe forum since few months. And sharing my opinion beneath.

1. Editor issues -> Recently it's been really hard to correctly post an answer or new post as there were so many bugs... Have an impression that some of them have been fixed so far.. but still there are.

- saving with links injects into the text before link lot of "\" backslashes signs
- link with target _blank are block by odoo forum.. useless functionallity

2. Other thing is motivation problem. There are a lot of forum users that benefit from the certain post, and it's still to hard for them to vote +1, or mark an answer as the best... and very often even to respond. Some people post a question and then behave like they hide, if the answer is correct. It degrades the motivation for answering. 

Guys, if somebody is using his/her priceless time to give you the right working sollution out of charge, please at least grade them with voting, marking the best answer. I've been seeing lot of posts, that have provided right sollution with no feedback from the author. This is annoying, as responders are starting to feel used/sucked of time. There should be reminder tool, or even a line of text with popup, that anybody posting the question should take care about it up until it's closed.


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