How to answer questions in scripting help

[tannnxr (tanner)]

I have seen too many times where inexperienced developers or answerers try to find a solution and miserably fail simply by confusing the OP. I have seen this mostly in #help-and-feedback:scripting-support, so I decided to make this.

To learn how to ask a question go here: Guide to Making a Proper Scripting Support Topic - Resources / Community Tutorials - Developer Forum | Roblox

Understand the Problem

Understanding the problem the asker is having is paramount to having a good answer.

Whether the actual question was written well enough or not is not the main issue here. If someone asks a question, start looking up what they are talking about on the docs and get a greater understanding of what is happening. In one of my solutions, I tried asssiting someone with their problem, and not being able to figure it out until I had actually looked at the docs and found extremely important information. After sharing my discovery I ended up getting the solution.

Time and time again I see people trying to post replies, that are either entirely untrue or extremely misleading. So before you post a reply, look up the documentation, test it out in your own studio or leave the question alone and allow someone else to answer the question. Whenever someone posts something that isn’t helping they’re just futher confusing the OP.

TlDr; Make sure you know what you’re talking about before actually posting a reply.

Read other Replies

I have seen too many duplicate replies, people giving the same solution but not actually helping. When you are posting a duplicate reply, you are just not helping at all. Simply read through the replies. You might just see someone is on the right track, quote them and then add onto their reply. Stop posting the same thing over and over again, it just floods the post with unnecessary things that the OP has to read.

STOP SPOONFEEDING

Spoonfeeding is where you literally just give the person the code they need rather than helping them towards the solution.

Say for example we have this tidbit of code.

local part = Instance.new("Part")
Part.Touched:Connect(--etc)

Instead of copy pasting the code and correcting the issue, reply with this:

I see you have a typo in line 2 where you are referencing Part when your variable is initialized with the name of part, try correcting that and your error should go away.

(although this example is super simple, it is meant to explain spoonfeeding)

Explain your Solution

Instead of just spoonfeeding, or posting a small explanation of what they’re doing wrong, actually take the time to explain the solution so that they can understand it; as well as anyone else having this problem. While yes, this forum is meant to solve issues, you should also be educating people on WHY they use the solution, and WHY their code was wrong. Explain the mistakes, explain your solution and they might just learn and become a better scripter. Time and time again I see people just posting a response and not actaully explaining what they are doing.

You don’t even have to type and essay, literally just link the pertinent documentation at the end of your reply so they can explore the topics more. THIS IS WHY THE DOCS EXIST!!! To explain things, so people can understand how the Roblox Engine API works. A good explanation can go a long way. Remember these posts are public and don’t just dissapear when someone has a solution. Other peopple come across these posts when they have issues and your explanation may just help them out a little more.

Double check if there's already a solution

Some people posting questions may not see that a problem was already solved, and you can easily just say

Here check out this post: [link to post!!]

This can go a long way by redirecting people to the solution of the other problem. It saves everyone time if you do this!!!.

Lastly be nice and respectful when giving a solution. Don’t just be condescending, it hurts everyone, not just the OP. Follow these steps and I promise, you will be helping hundreds if not thousands of people with their issues. Stop being lackluster and go the extra step.

[ValiantWind (Val)]

Thanks for linking my guide.

However, I had already added a guide on how to assist others in scripting in the same guide in the extras section

Edit: I renamed the extras section to “6: Assisting another scripter” to make it more clear on where it’s located.

@ValiantWind

Extra 1 - Asking General-Scripting Questions

If you’re creating a topic asking for a general question about scripting that you don’t understand or of how to script a certain thing, all you need to do is describe what you don’t understand or what you want to know. Provide code examples for better clarity if necessary.

---

Extra 2 - Attempting to help another scripter

Not everyone will follow the steps above the create a problem. That being said, the developer still needs help regardless of the topic structure. If you want to help a fellow scripter with their problem, here are some tips:

Properly encouraging them to include relevant information

If they did not include relevant information that is crucial to solving the problem they are having, you should tell the user to provide said information in a positive tone. Phrasing things in a positive tone will give the developer seeking help a sense of comfortable and reassurance.

Bad:

Why didn’t you provide the code? We need the code to help you solve the problem. Always provide the code.

Good:

Hey mate, can you please provide the code where the problem is occurring?
Otherwise, it will be very difficult to help you solve the problem you are having.

Don’t criticize parts of their script that are unrelated/don’t affect the problem

The developer is seeking help for the problem they have. They are not asking for others to criticize the way they script. They are asking for others to help solve the problem they are having. So help them solve the problem they are having by guiding them instead of criticizing their code.

That being said, you could recommend some ways they can improve their code by pointing out some bad practices after they have found the solution to their problem. If you do decide to do this, ensure that you describe why you think this part of the code should be change

Guide them towards the answer

I know its tempting to just provide the answer right away instead of taking the time to guide the developer towards the solution because it could save lots of time. However, the developer won’t learn from the problem if the answer is provided towards them. When guiding them towards the answer, try leading them through the steps to the solution. When providing them with code, add comments so the developer will understand the code and learn from it.

Have Patience

Not everyone is as skilled as you are. It’s best that you do your best to help guide them through the problem. If they don’t understand a concept, try your best to explain it to them so they will get a better understanding of the problem and how to find the solution.

Avoid telling the person seeking support to figure it out by themselves

Even if the solution is obvious to you, it might not be obvious to them. Instead of telling them to figure it out on there own, give them the benefit of doubt and guide them towards the solution.

Same goes for if the developer did not try to troubleshoot on their own first. You should still help them, but also include that they should next time try to troubleshoot on their own while also giving tips on how to debug and such.

Linking the documentation

When there’s a concept that’s crucial to solving the problem that is explained in the Creator Documentation, try linking the specific documentation article any other relevant documentation links when guiding them towards the answer.

For example, if you’re trying to explain RemoteEvents to another developer, give them a brief run-down of RemoteEvents and then provide a link to the Documentation article on RemoteEvents so the developer can get a detailed explanation on how they work.

Another example would be if the solution to the problem is using a specific method, such as MarketplaceService:PromptGamePassPurchase

You would give a brief rundown on how the method works, as well as how it relates/solves the problem and provide a link to the method on the documentation.

This is a very good guide though. There are some things in this guide that I could’ve included in mine.

[tannnxr (tanner)]

I saw that, however your guide went off topic and I wanted to post one SPECIFIC to answering questions. I linked your post so people could get more in depth for both topics as well. I may also update this guide to be more in-depth and provide more value.

[ValiantWind (Val)]

@tannnxr

however your guide went off topic

Can you explain this to me in PMs? I’d like to know where I went off-topic so I could fix it.

Also, don’t get me wrong: I believe your guide should definitely exist. It definitely goes more into detail about answering questions than mine did

[https_KingPie]

I don’t think ‘spoonfeeding’ is something that should be discouraged. I remember vividly when I was first getting a handle of programming that having someone send me working code in response to a question was tremendously helpful. It gave me something that worked which I was then able to deconstruct and figure out how it worked (in addition to the explanation they provided). This was often faster than just giving an explanation (for both parties), because it resolved ambiguities and forestalled “like this?” questions.

In many cases, providing code is very helpful for someone just getting started, because they lack the full breadth of fundamentals and it’s not always immediately obvious to the person answering the question that this is the case.

[tannnxr (tanner)]

The unfortunate fact of spoonfeeding, and the reason it SHOULD be discouraged is because not everyone is like you. After a while it becomes something that someone feels entitled to, they don’t expect to actually have to work to fix. They’re just expecting someone to post a working glob of code in there.

While spoonfeeding can save time, that is NOT what this forum is for, people should be actually learning. Spoonfeeding is bad, and that is the objective truth.

[bluebxrrybot (blueberry)]

You should at least try to explain how the code works. If they don’t get it, they will not improve, and end up asking another question tomorrow.

[tannnxr (tanner)]

This is exactly the reason, thanks for explaining it a little better.

[https_KingPie]

@https_KingPie

(in addition to the explanation they provided)

Totally agree, hence the caveat. However, I still standby that spoonfeeding should not be discouraged. I don’t quite buy OP’s point that providing working code doesn’t allow people to learn - in fact I think it’s off the mark entirely (who here has learned from open-sourced code before, I know I have!)

[Scottifly]

And @ValiantWind both of these are good.
I’m by no means a great scripter but I do try to help if I can, or give a link to solutions I’ve seen posted by others.

My biggest issue is that they don’t have a filter so post titles like ‘my script is broken’ or ‘help me’ or ‘why isn’t this working’ come up constantly.
I did make a feature request to have a filter that warned people using these and similar titles to describe their issue in their title. I doubt it’d take much at all to set up and it’d save all of us some time and effort.