**NOTE: THESE ARE NOT RULES OF THE FORUM, THEY ARE JUST A LIST OF SUGGESTIONS.**

Before asking a question, use this little check list to guide you:

***1. Search before asking.***
Your question has probably been asked dozens of times. Use the search button to find similar topics.


How to effectively search:
1. Type in keywords relating to your problem. If you have issues with your Thinkpad audio, try searching for audio, then Thinkpad, then finally Thinkpad audio.
2. Search by topic titles to find similar topics first.
3. Search by posts if you want to see posts.

***2. Make your posts as readable and comprehensive as possible.***
1. If English is not your primary language, that is OK, however, please try your best to be grammatically correct, so everyone can understand you.
2. Saying "OMG, it doesn't work, HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" tells us nothing. You have to tell us what is the matter.
3. At the end of your posts, post your Computer's specs so that we know what you are working with.

***3. Look through the Genius Bar (DO NOT POST THERE) to check for a guide.***
There are many helpful guides in the Genius Bar that cover a variety of topics, from changing monitor resolutions, to basic Terminal/Unix commands.

***4. If all else fails, make your topic.***
If none of the above helps you, then post your topic. Just make sure you post it in the correct category.

How about just posting someting like this on the IRC?


pimp: yo
pimp: Hey i need help with my wirelesss drivers
pimp: my comp doesn't recongnize my pci belkin wireless card
pimp: with the extendable antenna on the card
pimp: WAKY WAKY
pimp: WAKEEEEEYYYYY UP
pimp: YOOOOOO MAMAMAAMAAMAMA
pimp: wake up
pimp: yt?
pimp: anyone?
pimp: hahahaa

Now there's an example of what not to do.

I'd like to emphasize something with search. In order to help a lot of the newbies here, I end up doing a lot of searching. Something they either cannot comprehend or are too lazy to do themselves.

Many times an answer is in a topic having nothing to do with the answer. So, viewing the search by POSTS is very important. Also, the answer can be most anywhere in the forum. Don't restrict yourself to any one subforum unless you are positive it is there.

So, most of my searches are as follows:

In the upper left, place keywords: wireless and usb (for example)
In lower left: select All Forums
In lower right: select by posts

If you find a post that is interesting and you want to read the thread, click on the posting number in the bottom center of the post window.

best. thread. ever.

Yes it is. It needs to be stickied in every forum.

Sigh.. And the popular question nowadays is... ¨What is the best hackintosh hardware?¨ So many topics have started on it. It would be nice if those were cleaned a bit. Real pollution.

Search isn't working for some of us - and hasn't been for a while. Here's how to get around the broken feature ...

http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=89770


Now that I've found the workaround, I don't need to post any more dumb questions :-)

Bumping ancient threads ftl.

Then why did you just do it?

I hardly call it bumping when useful information is added :-)

No point telling newbies to use Search when the Search ain't working.

How do you bump a sticky?

Sounds like something that would make my grandmother blush and change channels ...

Yeah telling noobs to use a broken search function is good

I'm all for searching for information but when it's broken it's useless