12) How to ask questions right
Questions or statements like "it doesn't work" will not supply enough data to explain the problem to the pros, and will not create the feeling you really tried solving the problem. The pros on newsgroups are bunch of people who read and reply to posts on a daily basis thanks to nothing but good will. Although they will help, they are quite impatient about questions such as given in the example above. When you try to solve a problem, do the following:
1) Read relevant HOWTOs. If you do not find one, asking where to find is a valid and good question.
2) Try understanding the nature of the problem - hardware related, for example. Search in older news posts ( http://www.deja.com ) for similar problems.
3) If you did not find anything, or it did not work for you, post your question in the relevant group. It will be of no use to post software some network related problem in comp.os.linux.software, and vice versa, unless it is related. Use subject line which will describe briefly your problem (like "no sound on Mandrake 8.1" ), and in the post itself, state what you have done, what happened, how does configuration files look like (copy-paste the relevant part), etc. If you truly have read the HOWTOs, or older posts and their answers, you will probably know by now what to state and where the problem might lie.
4) Check the suggested solutions, and keep the thread if there is more to say about it. Try to avoid creating a new thread about that issue. It make life hard following the support tips and what it did to you.