Making a new topic for beginners

So recently, I’ve seen some posts that don’t clearly describe the issues the poster is facing, and are written fairly obfuscated, making it hard for the community to help the poster out.

Yes, it would be possible to create some automatic system to delete posts, but this wouldn’t contribute to anything, and only make the user frustrated.

However, there are things people can do to highly improve the quality of their topics, and make it much easier for the community to provide feedback.


Firstly, just fill out the templates. This is by far the most important point. If you have a question or you are facing a bug, it is much easier on yourself and the community if you fill out all of the fields.
For example, if you have an error in your code, ex) Python’s IndexError or something, but don’t provide your code, no one will be able to fix your problem as the community doesn’t have enough information to fix the error.

TLDR, unless you can format your own post well, fill out the templates. They provide all the necessary information for the community to provide feedback.


Secondly, title your post accordingly. Now, I can’t speak for the general public, but I personally do not read through topics I most likely can’t answer or find confusing. Naming your title can mean the difference between nobody even looking or half the community trying to help you at once.

Here are some examples,

efuhefhu - Not good, this title does not well explain the idea of the post or what issues you may be facing.
Python Error pls help - OK, this provides a better description of the issues you facing, but some more information could be provided.
Can't Fix Python IndexError - Good, this provides a good description of the problems you are facing and is likely to attract members that specialize in this topic.

TLDR, your title should be a description of the problem you are facing, not too long, but not so vague members have no idea what you are talking about.


Another common mistake is not putting topics in the right category. Now I have to admit, choosing a category can be confusing, but giving your best guess is a good start. If you receive feedback from other members to change the category, it is likely a good idea. Though, I would lay off on the Bug Reports topic a bit. This topic is specifically for bugs with Replit or the Forums, and it is not a suggestion or help for fixing a bug in your code. (See Feature Requests and Code Help)

Here’s an example,
let’s say you have been creating a Python program on your local Windows machine, and have uploaded it onto Replit.

# Example Program
import os
os.system("cls")

All is good, right? However, this will raise an error. If you aren’t aware, calling os.system() on Windows is different from calling os.system() on Linux, as Windows uses Batch/MS-DOS, and Linux uses Bash.
You may be asking, how does this have anything to do with choosing the right category? Well, some users may storm to Ask and choose the Bug Report category, because it was working beforehand. However, this isn’t an issue with Replit, something like this should be in Code Help, and doing some research could have solved this issue.

TLDR, choosing the right category is important, it helps members distinguish types of topics from others, and choosing the wrong ones can cause confusion or frustration.


This is in the community standards, but I find it extremely common for users to post topics, only for them to get closed because they didn’t look around enough. It might be just me, but I don’t find it that hard to search for a topic in Ask. There’s even a button in the top right next to your profile that specializes in exactly this.

TLDR, look for similar topics before creating new ones.


Lastly, formatting posts for readability is extremely important. If you have a long post similar to this one, using the <hr> tag or some other separator like “***” or “—” improves readability drastically. Using boldface and lists helps structure your post and makes it easy to navigate and find information quickly.

I’m not sure if many people are aware of this, but there is a settings button that has some nice BBCode features.
If you have large blocks of code, don’t just paste them into your post. It makes it extremely hard for the community to navigate your topic and the simple fix is to use the Hide Details option. If you’re replying to a post that includes some sensitive information, use the Blur Spoiler option.

Finally, and probably the most important, when typing code in replies, use the preformatted text. It’s so much nicer to read with its syntax highlighting and whatnot, and it is much easier to distinguish normal text from code.

TLDR, you have tools to improve readability and format concisely, and you should be using them.


I have a couple of other tips just in general,

  • Try to keep Forum posts and responses semi-formal, with decent spelling and punctuation.
  • Take advantage of editing posts. If you find your post confusing, it is likely confusing to others. Change as many times as you see fit to make your post as concise and readable as possible.
  • Use thumbs up and hearts when thanking other users rather than thanking them with a new reply.
  • If you solved the issue yourself, tell what you did to solve it in case others are facing similar problems.
  • Most importantly, mark users reply as the solution. This is important as it shows others that the user is a reliable source of information, contributes towards badges, and helps other users find what worked best.

I probably missed a bunch of points, and some of the points I said might be invalid or not very well explained, so I’m expecting a bunch of additions.

I hope this will improve the quality of future posts, and at least gets people to provide clear details of problems they are facing.

7 Likes

This is great, thank you @bobastley!

Not quite, in this case you should flag the original post and teach OP about Secrets.

You can also use --- and ***.

Your point is not invalid. Anyone can use BBCode, even if the option doesn’t show.

5 Likes

Thanks! I’ve gone in and changed a couple of things, but your probably the expert, so feel free to edit the post if you want.

Edit: I’ve also removed the hyperlink to the post I was talking about as it got closed and unlisted.

3 Likes

I love this! This would be good as a bunch of different guides I want to suggest and make a guide

2 Likes

Make this a wiki possibly?

1 Like

Hi, @not-ethan!

I just sent a message to @guideadmin, so hopefully this can be turned into a guide. @doxr did suggest turning this into a wiki, and I think that is a good idea, though I have no knowledge about setting that up.

Anyway, thanks for the reply!

2 Likes

You should probably add how to use code-fences because I see a lot of Repliters (specifically beginners) not using them. It makes it much harder to read code if it’s not formatted right.


Here are some examples:

```<language>
Code in here
```

Or:

~~~<language>
Code in here
~~~

Where <language> is the file extension or language to activate syntax highlighting

1 Like

Or, just link the guide on how to share your code.

1 Like