I’ve always wondered why. I rarely ever get any replies to my queries. I’ve noticed a similar trend on different forums and I don’t understand why. Is something wrong with my English? Am I being unintentionally rude? Is my sentence construction ambiguous? I was surprised by the number of replies I got for my first thread on sitepoint because I wasn’t expecting so many.
People are strange…They like strange threads 
Isn’t it nice to be pleasantly surprised like that? Those moments are fab 
Great replies guys.
Be specific and point out what you need. An attractive title would help as well.
Once you learn how to get responses, then it’s time to master the fine art of thread hijacking and killing! Hijacking and killing is easier than eliciting responses anyway. Effectiveness/effort ratio. Keep it in mind.
Don’t take it personally. Most people ignore me around this place as well.
Same here. I’ve had to conclude that people just don’t like deep thinking. Or, like me, by the time they get online, they don’t want to be having too much brain processing.
It may have to do with the forums you are on. I find smaller forums to be much friendlier and helpful.
I can only find two other threads on these forums that you have started. One is a site review which got 16 replies (not counting yours), which I’d consider quite good. The other is a normal question that only had a few replies, two of which were direct solutions to your problem. So I don’t think you need to worry about your reception here at SitePoint Forums.
In general, there are a few things – in addition to what has already been mentioned above – to think about when posting a question in a discussion forum:
[list][]Make sure you post in the right subforum.
[]Use a descriptive (but short) thread title.
[]Explain the problem as clearly as succinctly as possible, but don’t be overly verbose.
[]Provide sample code, where relevant. It should be enough to show the problem, but no more than that.
[]Show that you have tried and aren’t just expecting others to do the work for you. (E.g., validate markup and CSS before posting.)
[]Pay attention to spelling and grammar – it does affect the way people perceive you!
[]Be courteous and patient – we’re all volunteers and sometimes have other priorities.
[]Stay alert for replies and provide additional information when requested.
[*]Remember to say ‘thank you’ to those who provide help – even if it doesn’t completely solve the problem.[/list]
Please note that I’m not accusing you of not doing any of these things in any way! It’s just a list of things everyone should think about on forums.
Maybe you’re more intelligent than your average forum user.
I find that if you do all your homework and make an effort to solve a problem before posting that you will get less responses because it eliminates the fluffier posts with little actual value.
For example
“What CMS should I use for my new politics site” will get a lot more responses than “I’m looking to launch a new politics site and was looking at various CMSs. I’ve narrowed my choices down to Drupal and Joomla but I’m concerned about load speeds due to various comments I have read for similar sites. I’m looking at 5-10k users a day and probably 200k page loads. Anyone have thoughts/experience with this type of set up?”.
Thank you, Rudy!
But of course I managed a typo after pointing out the importance of grammar and spelling. I knew I would, and I checked and double-checked, but still the ‘as clearly as succinctly as possible’ slipped by. It should be ‘as clearly and succinctly as possible’, of course.
nice post, tommy – your points should/could be added to the “How to be a Great Online Community Member” article
I have the identical experience as you have. I don’t know why that is.
I have to say, however, that I am almost never a thread starter. In my 6 years on SitePoint, I have started less than 5 threads. Perhaps that figure is even lower.
That might be due to the fact that I never ask anything before having done tons of research because I’m ashamed to ask something that I can figure out myself with the information available.
So, usually the reason to start a thread is non-existent, unless it’s a matter I really cannot tackle alone.
However, I also get the same kind of meager input when I ask a philosophical/theoretical/hypothetical question and hope to stir a good debate. Doesn’t work either. All I usually get are one or two responses, if I’m lucky that is. I haven’t a clue as to the why.
I’m just uncool like that. 