Stack Overflow
Search, then ask at Stack Exchange.
In recent years, the Stack Exchange community has become the primary conduit for answering technical and other questions, especially for those projects that are open source.
Search for existing answers first
Because Google indexing is instant, do a Google search before looking at Stack Exchange. There's a good chance that someone has already asked a similar question, and Stack Exchange sites tend to be at the top of the search results. If you don't find any answers on Google, you can then look at sites on specific related topics. Searching with tags allows you to narrow down your results even more.
The search can use both error messages, library names, language names, version numbers, and key API names. there are a lot of historical issues with Stack Exchange, and duplicate issues are usually not welcome.
Observe platform conventions when asking questions
If you still can't find anything useful for your question, post your question on the site most relevant to it. Make good use of formatting tools when asking questions, paying particular attention to adding formatting to your code and adding relevant tags (especially the name of the programming language, operating system, or library/package). When you are asked for more relevant information, edit your posting to add them [translation: instead of posting a reply or answer!] . If you find an answer helpful, click the up arrow to vote for it; if an answer provides the correct solution to a problem, click the checkmark below the vote button to mark it as positive.
This is not formalism. Formatting, labeling, editing additions, voting, and accepting answers are all mechanisms used by Stack Exchange to maintain the quality of the knowledge base.
Choosing the right website
Stack Exchange has grown to over a hundred sites, here are a few of the most used:
- Super User is for general computer questions. If your question has nothing to do with coding or writing programs, but is just about network connectivity or something like that, go here.
- Stack Overflow is asking questions related to writing programs.
- Server Fault is asking server and network management related questions.
If you send the question to the wrong site, it could be closed or migrated even if the question itself is good. Confirming the site scope first is much more effective than explaining it after you've sent it.