RFC. First Draft of proposed, shortform, guide to posting SOPW. Cuts, refs, negatives (but, yes, we all know that some people won't read guidance, no matter how brief) welcomed!

5 Jan update: Reviewing Marto's suggestion, below, and the ++'s -- which in this case, I read as agreement -- how say ye to adding (as I've done below) li 7? Or do you lean to Eliya's view?   I've also replaced the "Ditto" in li 3. Also, reordered to keep code questions together.

So, you're gonna' post a SOPW? Unneeded in last-second checklist. Stricken 5 Jan

Here's a brief checklist for your question.
  1. Code tags ( <c> ... </c> ) tags around data and code?
  2. Includes a tiny snippet of (compilable) code that reproduces/illustrates your problem?
  3. Narrative description (not "doesn't work") of how that code falls short of your needs or expectations?
  4. Also provides sample data?
  5. Quoted, verbatim, all error messages and warnings (again, inside code tags!)?
  6. A title that identifies your topic (and no, that doesn't mean "Help, please" or a module name alone)?
  7. Post your OS, Perl (perl -v) and module (if relevant) versions?
Here's some additional reference material:
On asking for help   |   How do I post a question effectively?
I know what I mean. Why don't you?   |   Markup in the Monastery

... and read the formatting tips around the the text-input and preview-edit boxes!

 See luis.roca's Re: RFC - shortform posting guidance for newcomers.

In reply to RFC - shortform posting guidance for newcomers by ww

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.