Asking Questions About Your Code

• How to Ask Coding Questions
  • Before Asking Questions
  • When Asking Questions
• Where to Drop Coding Questions?
  • Slack
  • GitHub
• How to Utilize Slack for Asking Coding Questions
  • Including Code Snippets in a Message
  • Using Tags
  • One Topic, One Thread
• Resources
• Appreciation

• Go through your code line by line.
  You want to know what your code is doing so you can answer questions. Take some notes if necessary.
• Do some research before asking questions.
  You want to avoid asking questions you can figure out by googling your problem. You can also improve your skill in finding solutions by googling yourself.
• Check for some typos.
  Sometimes an error arises from a single typo.
• Google the error that you encounter by copy-pasting the error message.
  Most of the time, you can find some answers from people who have faced the same problem as yours.
• Debug your code.
  You can check out Nick Taylor's Lunch and Learn sessions below about debugging:
  • Debugging JavaScript and Front-end
  • The Web Dev Debugging Hour

Getting Started

• A simple "Can someone help me with {something}?" is enough to start a conversation.
• Be specific about what you're looking for.
  "Does anyone know why my MongoDB authentication failed?" is better than "My app is crashing."
• For a more general question or when trying to grasp a concept:
  "Does anyone have experience with {something}?" or "Can someone explain {something}? to me like I'm five?" is a good starting point.

Asking Questions

• Specified details as much as possible, such as:
  • What language, framework, or library version are you using when encountering the error?
  • What operating system (e.g., Windows, Mac, Linux) and version are you experiencing the problem?
• Provide relevant code along with your question, if possible.
• Explain the command or steps that you run to reproduce the problem.
• Describe what you have tried to fix the problem.
  It's okay if you need to figure out where to start but share whatever you have already tried/ruled out.
• Read through your question.
  You want to ensure that your question makes sense and you've included all information needed for other members to help you.

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Look for the channels that are suitable for your questions. If you need more clarification, ask the moderators on which channel you can ask the questions. In Virtual Coffee, we have these channels for members to ask coding questions:

#help-and-pairing

Ask questions about your code or ask other members' help for pairing in this channel.

You can also ask for opinions about your project, resources, help to fill out surveys, or any other support related to tech.

#dev-... (backend, code-challenges, devops-and-cloud, frontend, fullstack, ml-data-ai, vue-crew, wordpress)

These channels are here for you to ask questions if you need help with your codes or anything related to the topic of the channels.

#accessibility

This channel is all about questions, comments, tips, and answers around accessibility.

#random

If you are still figuring out where to ask questions, you can ask them here. Some members will crosspost your question to the appropriate channel(s) for better exposure.

Discussion Board

Some communities utilize discussion boards on GitHub to ask questions or throw ideas, and so does Virtual Coffee! Do check out our discussion board on GitHub!

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Inline Code

Use a single backtick (`) to share technical jargon or a one-line code in a sentence. For example:

If you use `npm`, run `npm list -g` to see all packages you've installed globally.

Code Block

Use triple backtick (```) to share a code block and keep a clean format. For example:

```
function greetings() {
  console.log("Hello there!");
}
```

Unless you are a moderator or granted permission by a moderator, you want to avoid using @here or @channel. Using these tags will notify everyone in the channel. It might be an afternoon at your time, but it is midnight in some parts of the world.
At Virtual Coffee, we highly respect our members. And we are a very active community. So, someone will answer you as soon as possible, even without the tags.

When you need to add more information to your message or want to answer a question, reply in the thread and not create a new message.
Keeping one topic in one thread can prevent confusion, making the conversation easy to follow and questions easy to answer.

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• How to be great at asking coding questions by Gordon Zhu
• Stack Overflow Question Checklist
• How do I ask a good question?

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