These "Do's" and "Don'ts" are not rules, but rather guidelines on proper etiquette for the PHP Chatroom. Following them helps keeps the room clutter free, user friendly, and reduces annoyances.

Try to think of these as "tips" for making the room better for everyone.

PHP Chatroom

Chatroom Do's

  1. Be respectful toward everyone.

  2. Use common sense.

  3. Use gist.github.com to post code when asking for help (other services such as 3v4l.org are also available)

    This is to prevent large wall of texts that may become obstrusive to conversations.

  4. Format your code when asking for help.

  5. Extend charity outward to the SO community; if you get help, then help someone else.

  6. Large images (includes animated GIFs), should be un-oneboxed by appending ?x to file extension.

  7. Feel free to paste a link to your question. Introduce it first with a brief description.

Chatroom Don'ts

  1. Repeatedly paste a link to your question (spamming). If nobody responded the first time, the pasting again will likely just make people mad.

  2. Randomly ping people. Particularly, don't ping many people at once (usually you're just being nice, but it's annoying).

  3. Ask to ask a question. "I have a problem, can anyone help?!"

    Please just ask your question and wait patiently for other people to answer.

  4. Ask JavaScript questions here. That's what the JavaScript Room is for.

  5. Repeat the same question. Every 30 seconds, since no-one replied to you yet!

    We are offering help for free here so please be patient. If somebody wants to help you, they will.

  6. Tell us your problem is urgent. It's not going to motivate anyone to help you any faster.

  7. Star messages that are too specific to understand in general context, or random messages without interest.

    Please only star messages where most of the visitors can relate. The star function is not similar to a "like" so please don't abuse it.

  8. Use the room as a replacement for the main site. We are not the question banned users refugee camp.

  9. Start religious or political discussions. (go make your own room)

  10. Dump a link to this document as a response to someone doing a "don't".

    Instead, explain to the person what the better approach would be.