Electronics Forum

Important

The Homework Help Forum at Electronics Pub is not a free homework service; we are here to help your understanding, but fully expect the users of this forum to dictate the course of their own learning.

When posting a request for homework/coursework/assignment help, you must provide details of your attempts at the questions. Any thread that just posts up a copy of the questions without any attempts on the part of the opening poster will be directed to this thread and will be given 48 hours to satisfy the requirements detailed within. Help us, help you.


Asking Questions:

1. Before posting a question.

Use the forum search facility to see if a similar question has been asked before. Chances are your question is similar to an earlier one. Also check to see if your query is covered in the All About Circuits On-line Textbook or if it has been covered in the Newsgroup Archive.

If your question has not been asked previously, then create a new thread. Please do not hijack another user's thread.

2. Give your posting a descriptive title.

Give a short concise statement of your problem in the subject. Attention attractors like "Please", "Help", "Urgent" etc, while great marketing tools, you are seeking assistance, not selling a product or service. To the readers, your post has the same priority as all the other posts on these forums. Practice your marketing skills elsewhere. None descriptive subject lines are more likely to get skipped over by some readers faster than descriptive topic lines. Bad descriptors don’t help your cause, examples include:

* "I can't figure this out!"
* "Stupid question..."
* "Newbie needs help"
* "Help me! Urgent!"

3. Be descriptive.

Your opening post dictates the direction of the topic and discussion, therefore if you are asking a question, be descriptive. Include in your posting:

* A description of your homeworks objectives.
* The problems you’ve identified.
* The steps you have taken to date, to overcome the problem; including any research and work your have already undertaken.

Additionally:

* Post all your attempts at the questions and details of any information you have been given as part of the homework/coursework/assignment.
* If this is a circuit-related question, post a schematic of your circuit and include a link to the original circuit if your design is a modification of the original.

We strongly advise that attachments are made using the Printed Document Format (PDF). This is both for the protection of the original authors Intellectual Property (IP) and in the wider interests of security of the members at AAC. To create PDFs of most documents and images formats on-line, go to http://pdfonline.com.

Any post that demands information with little input from the user will be promptly dismissed and closed by the moderation team. Remember getting help on these forums is a two-way process; what you put into these forums you will certainly get out.

4. Be persistent.

There are those who learn each time they help someone. It may be as simple as being reminded of the mindset of someone just starting out in electronics.

In worse case scenarios, the posters will argue with the each other. There is nothing wrong with discourse, but remember, you came here for help. If you don’t understand the responder’s response, by all means, ask them for clarification. The most important question is the one someone is afraid to ask.

5. If you are not going to take advice and acknowledge the efforts of others, don’t ask the question.

Often times, people post questions with the wrong mindset from the very beginning. This is a shared knowledge base on these forums. A number of people are willing to assist you in solving your problem. They are not here to solve your problem for you, but to guide you down the path to a solution.

Acknowledge their efforts as they are acknowledging you and improving your baseline knowledge. Don’t let the discussion become one sided as we all can learn from the poster and the responders. Keep people in the loop concerning your progress and if they have been helpful.

6. Remember that when people help you, they are doing you a favor.

Irrespective of the egos on the board, it’s not someone else’s privilege to troubleshoot your circuit or your misunderstanding of the theories. The members here are doing you a favor. If no one answer’s your inquiry very fast, consider this is a worldwide resource and some may be sleeping or at work.

Being snippy or rude will only stop people from responding and lead to your query being flamed.


Responding to threads:

When responding to threads, please follow three key rules:

1. Treat all members with respect.

Remember the members here have different levels of knowledge and understanding; please take this into consideration when assessing the validity of their questions.

2. Authors vary in their clarity.

If you are unsure of the original question, ask for clarification. When answering a question reply in a manner that you would like someone to respond to your query. Where appropriate, cite sources where the questioner can read more about the topic.

3. Think before you reply.

Your response is how people perceive you in this worldwide forum.