ghrhg

General Helper Recommendation / Helping Guidelines
(i guess for internets)

People ask the same questions over and over, because products are broken by design - not always intensional, of course. People make errors.

Don't try to cover that up.

Give clear and straight-forward answers.

You can't force people to think (in any specific way). You will keep getting into fights when you keep doing that.

Make sure directing to other sites is reasonable. Copy the answer, if possible. Little is more frustrating than searching for a possible solution, spotting a fitting search result, just to discover the "answer" is "use the search", or, possibly even more frustrating, when a solution was given by a link to another site, which has expired and was not cached by the Internet Archive, for whatever reason. (too short-lived, "robots.txt", forum access permission restrictions, etc.)

If possible, try explaining in your own words - in addition to a quote of the "official" solution. This is about perception and perspective: maybe you see that "the dark side of the moon" is as round as its front, but someone else may need this inside to understand the moon is a spherical object.

People who are looking for help need help. They're exhausted, they're desperate, they're in pain. Give them love and consolation. No name-calling or categorisation. ("internet-troll", "help-vampire", etc.) You'd be insulting yourself.

Feel free to copy and repost.