This is a SMART QUESTIONS!!

13 Jun 2025

---

We have learned the hard way that without such a notice, we will repeatedly be pestered by idiots who think having published this document makes it our job to solve all the world’s technical problems.

According to Eric Steven Raymond essay, in the internet world, how u ask questions actually makes difference to the quality of the answer. The hackers is nice to people who tried to research deeply before asking questions, or people who tried to find the answer. In his essay, he introduces preparation and techenicsto get great quality answer. It is important to respect volunteer’s time and show them respect by shaping your questions smart. However, as I just read this, I did not even understand what is smart questions. Then, Let’s go stackOverflow and let’s look for the great quality questions and answer and bad examples too!
✅ What to look for in a “Smart” (Good) Question on StackOverflow　
🔹 Clear and specific title
→ Example: “Why does my async function return ‘undefined’ in JavaScript?”

🔹 Provides background or context of the problem
→ Explains the goal or situation that led to the issue

🔹 Shows evidence of prior research or attempted solutions
→ Example: “I tried using await, but it still returns undefined.”

🔹 Includes a Minimal, Reproducible Example
→ A short code snippet that can actually be tested

🔹 Clearly describes both the expected and actual results

🔹 Uses polite and professional language

🔹 Received accurate and thoughtful answers; the questioner responds appreciatively

❌ What to look for in a “Not Smart” (Bad) Question on StackOverflow
⚠️ Vague or unclear title
→ Example: “Help!! It doesn’t work!!!”

⚠️ Poor grammar or messy formatting

⚠️ No code provided, or includes a long, unreadable code dump

⚠️ Little to no explanation of the problem
→ For example: “I get an error. Please help.”

⚠️ Emotion-based language instead of technical detail
→ Example: “Please help me fast! I’m a beginner!”

⚠️ No sign of prior effort or independent troubleshooting

⚠️ Comments from others are critical or frustrated

⚠️ The question has been downvoted or closed by moderators

good example

(https://stackoverflow.com/questions/79665553/determine-length-of-last-word-implementation-is-too-slow)
In this question, I think he follows the rule of smart questions very well.
-As He has understandable and great Title. (Lee challenge ‘Length of Last words’) We can tell what he wants easily.
-As He shares his code with us.
-As he shares his code output with us. He also tells us that he disapointting on the result “2ms”.
-He clarify he wants more efficient code. People can think about better way with him such as discussing by comment.
-His form of the question is really solid. The explanation, code, and question are visually separated, making the structure easy to read and friendly for the reader.

bad example

In this question, His question was this - ‘My div class responsive table missing all the plug-ins when i filtered it with date-time [closed]’
It is not even questions. And He just copy paste his code. (Maybe he got errors) so he just want people revise his code.
He is not even saying the why he is wirtiing this code netheir…
So He did not even follow the rule of smart questions.

Diferrence

You can tell difference clearly, Good question has organized and shaped form of question, visualy separated by code and question. Asking us what he wants, and what is his idea about the his own code.

Summury

This is not simple but not esay.. I might not be able to ask good questions in a lot of situations. I, however, learned these stuff by reading Raymond’s essay, and compareing the questions by myself. Now I know how to make good questions and what is bad questions…