Improving "How to Ask" sidebar?

Question

I particularly enjoyed the Google Webmaster Central blog entry Tips for getting help with your site.

It covers how to ask questions in a public forum rather well, and I think almost all the rules apply to our Q&A engine:

1. Ask in public.
2. Do your homework.
3. Be specific.
4. Make it relevant to others.
5. Let us know if you’ve found a bug.
6. Stay on-topic.
7. Stay calm.
8. Listen, even when it’s not what you wanted to hear.

I think the only one that isn't relevant (except on meta) is #5 and possibly #7.

As for all the others, I believe we've discussed them in some detail here on meta, and I was wondering if we could somehow incorporate this advice, maybe in the "how to ask" sidebar?

Answer 1

The way you've bolded "Is your question about programming" makes it seem that this sidebar is more about what's on-topic.

I would suggest the following

Asking Good Questions

Good questions are more likely to get good answers.

• Be specific
• Stay on-topic
• Do your homework
• Make it relevant to others
• Listen, even when it’s not what you wanted to hear

[faq link, just like you already have it]

I would make "Asking Good Questions" a link to a more detailed page.

Answer 2

Well, you've already linked to my (excessively?) detailed article... so how about including some form of my golden rule: read the question you've just written, and see whether it's the kind of question you'd want to answer.

In case I haven't made it clear elsewhere, btw, you're very welcome to take that blog post and adapt / expand / trim it as much as you like, and post it wherever you want.

Answer 3

This is now completed as

https://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/10/asking-better-questions/