Getting Help

1. Did you Google it?
2. Did Google return any useful results on the first page?
3. Ask in the IRC channel, irc.freenode.net #rubyonrails. Connect using mIRC for Windows or XChat or Irssi for Linux.
4. Never EVER paste more than 3 lines in the channel.
5. Use pastie.org if you’d like to paste some code. Do not use rafb.net because the syntax highlighting sucks.
6. Always paste the relevant code and FULL (not application) trace.
7. Never get angry at the people helping you.
8. Make sure you detail your question just enough. Over explaining a problem can lead to people not wanting to read it and simply saying “I have a problem” makes people not want to read it even more.
9. Ask in the forums. http://railsforum.com and http://ruby-forum.com
10. Ask on the mailing list, http://groups.google.com/rubyonrails
11. Persist, day and night until you get it fixed.
12. Bask in the joy of solving a problem.
13. Thank the people that helped you fix it. Money and women are acceptable, but not necessary.

Helping Others

1. Treat everyone like they are your equal. Do not talk down to people or act “holier than thou”.
2. Did they explain the problem properly? No? Ask them to explain it in clearer terms.
3. Did they provide a code sample and a backtrace?
4. What plugins are they using?
5. What version of Rails?
6. Don’t link to google/tutorials if it’s a simple, one-lined answer. Type it out you lazy sod.
7. Give relevant links. Don’t link to something using Rails 1.1.2, as they will most likely run into problems.
8. Bask in the joy of helping someone else solve a problem, and possibly getting a little wiser.