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####  NOTES FOR PEOPLE ASKING QUESTIONS ####

If you post a question in Web Development regarding a **specific technology** which has its own Topic Area you may not get an answer in Web Development because the experts for the specific technology will be concentrating their time in the other TA.  Web Development is pretty busy so an ASP.NET expert will probably not want to wade through a dozen other questions looking for your ASP.NET question.

Questions about specific web server administration (IIS/Apache), Java/JSP/J2EE, and .NET are questions you will likely get a faster answers to in the correct Topic Areas.  There is also ASP/PHP and JavaScript TAs but those questions often get answers in Web Development due to the interaction between the DOM, DHTML and server side scripting languages.



#### NOTES FOR EXPERTS ANSWERING QUESTIONS ####

Both the letter and the *spirit* of the MA are considered in my Topic Areas.  The purpose of answering the asker's question is to assist the asker in solving their problem, to provide a complete and accurate answer worthy of inclusion in the knowlege base and only when those goals are met, obtaining points in recognition of your contribution.

To that end, most experts who frequent these topic areas work together, to collaborate in finding a good solution for the asker.

If your purpose is to pick up quick points rather than helping the asker, it will be reflected in your answer style and will likely result in your comments being deleted, if not from the open question, then certainly from the PAQ thread.

A few ways to get your comments deleted:

Hijacking a Question: Being a non participating expert who has a problem similar or related to the question and attempting to steer the comments towards your problem.  Those are off-topic comments which will be deleted when noticed.  If you want to ask a question, open a question.

Naked Links. If you simply post a link without a desription as to why it is relevant it will likely be deleted.
http://www.experts-exchange.com/help.jsp#hi6
http://www.experts-exchange.com/help.jsp#hs4

Do not copy and paste a solution from someone else's site; the preferred method is to link to the page and to give a brief description of what is linked.   If you post a link to a previously answered question, the description should give credit to the person who provided the solution, such as johndoe provided an answer to the same or a similar question here: link. The best answers are from your own first person experience, development or research.

When asked to recommend tools or software, posting a bunch of links copied from Google or Hotscripts isn't very useful.  If you do not have personal knowlege of the products you will not be able to provide followup as required at http://www.experts-exchange.com/help.jsp#hi62.  If you do have first hand knowlege of what you recommend, say so.

Random Scripts: If another expert is working with the asker and has asked for clarification of the problem or information on what technology is available to solve the problem (for example, do you have PHP/ASP or Perl,) posting  a randon script hoping it might be able to be used by the asker and thus picking up some quick points, will almost always be deleted.  This is unprofessional and inconsiderate of the experts who are attempting to assist the user.  You may luck into a solution, but attempting to answer a question without having the information needed is almost always bad.

Understand the question:
http://www.experts-exchange.com/help.jsp#hi57 (e.g. respect the request for clarification and wait)
Use Common Sense
http://www.experts-exchange.com/help.jsp#hi241 (don't post if you don't know it is applicable)
Patience
http://www.experts-exchange.com/help.jsp#hi63 (wait for the clarification)
Professional
http://www.experts-exchange.com/help.jsp#hi61 (respect the other expert's efforts to help).

If you see something that wasn't addressed by the expert, or a way to solve the problem with the existing information, that is fine.  Clarify that in your post.  If you have worked with the asker in the past and have information not included in the question which makes your post applicable, say so in your post.