How to ask a question

You want help from the community at large; you've decided where you're going to ask your question, but how do you phrase it?

Excellent "general" advice (how to ask questions of anyone) is contained in Eric Raymond's article on the topic. Eric's an extremely self-confident person, and this comes through in his advice; but his guidelines are very good, even for us in the un-self-confident majority. It's important to remember that you don't have a right to advice from the world, but that if you express yourself well, you will usually find someone who will be pleased to help.

So how do you express yourself in the (La)TeX world? There aren't any comprehensive rules, but a few guidelines may help in the application of your own common sense.

This question on the Web: http://www.tex.ac.uk/cgi-bin/texfaq2html?label=askquestion