Welcome Newcomers
- From: "Mark Fugatt" <mark@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "[ExchangeList]" <exchangelist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 17 Jul 2004 16:38:53 -0400
Well, as a follow-up to my last post, John Oligario made a great suggestion,
posting something that would help newcomers with posting questions.
Firstly, these are not "rules" they are tips, I don't want to be a member of
a list that has rules, we are all professionals and as such don't need to be
treated like children, the other point I would like to make is I don't run
the list and therefore have no say how the list is controlled.
So, here are a few tips (not in any particular order):
1. When posting make sure you include the version of Exchange your running,
this list covers all versions, also make sure you mention the version of
Outlook your running (Outlook 2000, Outlook XP, Outlook 2003, Outlook
Express) if you have a client issue.
2. Detail as much as you can about the problem your having, i.e error
messages, Application Log errors (inc. Event Id), if you have an install
issue with E2K or E2K3 looking through the Exchange Setup Progress Log file
on the root of the C:\ and mention any errors that may appear is really
helpful.
3. If the problem has recently started, try and think about what has changed
that could shed some light on the problem (i.e you just applied an Exchange
or a Windows hotfix, you just installed a third-party app, a new piece of
hardware was just added, your kids came in the office over the weekend and
played on your machine for a bit :-) )
4. Try and search the Microsoft Knowledge Base for the error your having
(http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;KBHOWTO)
5. Google is your friend (www.google.com) and (http://groups.google.com),
www.eventid.net is a great site to lookup info as well.
6. Don't be afraid to post your questions, but be prepared for the answers,
and take some of them with a grain of salt, don't hold vendettas against
people.
7. If one of the answers helps fix the problem, a quick post back to the
group saying "Thanks xxxx, that fixed it.", by doing this everyone learns
what helped.
8. Try and answer a few questions if you can, you will enjoy it, and it
helps build team spirit.
9. Take a look at this link http://www.msexchange.org/articles/MF024.html,
look at the section about Blogs, there are some excellent Exchange blogs and
RSS feeds available and I strongly recommend people look at them.
10. Try and indicate what you have tried to fix the problem, i.e. "I tried
KB123456 and that did not fix it"
11. This one is from personal experience, if you screwed something up, don't
be afraid to say so, I have spent more time trying to troubleshoot problems
and then have the admin say "oh, yesterday I used ADSIEdit and changed the
permissions on the Public Folder Container and ....."
12. Don't be upset if your question does not get answered, trying posting it
again, but maybe work it a little different, it could be that people just
did not understand the question, here is a great article about getting
questions answered
http://blogs.msdn.com/kclemson/archive/2004/07/14/183334.aspx
13. Don't make personal attacks on people, that does not help anyone.
14. The list is multi-cultural, so keep that in mind, what you might not
find to be offensive others might, so on the flip side consider that the
poster more than likely does not know what you may consider to be offensive.
15. Try to avoid emailing list members directly, your depriving other list
members the opportunity to learn or contribute, and the person you email may
not have the time to answer your question or may not know the answer.
This is a community, and a damn good one at that, but like any community
there are going to be times when people disagree but life goes on,
communities grow and with them the people in the community grow (in this
case, their knowledge level grows), I am a trainer by trade and therefore I
enjoy watching peoples knowledge grow, and am a little more tolerant to the
types of questions that get asked.
I am sure others can think of other tips that will help, but I want to see
the list grow and I want to continue to learn from the list, and I also want
to continue making friends with the list members.
Boys, that's probably the longest post I have ever written.
Mark
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