How (not) to get your thread ignored in SD space

The recognition as a Member of the Month took me by surprise, because it came at a time, when I almost stopped participating in the forum.

Now I feel that the right thing to do is to explain why and spoil the initial good impression.

The reason is simple – the decreasing quality of content in the forum space.

I will not discuss the topics about violating The Rules of Engagement – the moderators already do a really good job in keeping the forum clean.

This is about the things that will not result in thread rejection, but still make me close the tab without writing a response.

1. Title is important. Make it short and informative.

If you are new to SCN, it serves as your business card. Try to make a good first impression as a professional.

Don’t copy/paste the whole main content as a subject title

You know how funny and cute 5 year-olds are, when they rush at you and start telling you a story from the middle?

Except that you are not 5, it is creepy when a grown-up tries to trigger nurturing responses with infant-like behavior, and it is sad that you skipped classes at school.

Yes. It looks that bad.

Poor choice of title:

Credit issue

You are either too busy to put an effort and explain the problem or you have no knowledge on the topic.

If the first is true – I would prefer to spend my time helping people who value my time as much as theirs.

In the second case – you did not follow the advice in ‘The Rules of Engagement’ to search before posting. What are the chances that you will take any of my advices – like “read carefully note xxxxx before you make any changes“?

Better:

Account balance difference in RFCORR40 

This shows that the OP has identified the issue, but has a problem troubleshooting it.

I could be wrong, but if I have the time, I would read further.

Even better:

Account balance difference in RFCORR40 even after balance carry-forward

It appears that the OP has tried to do some troubleshooting and understands the idea behind the report.

I would definitely read the details.

I will not spoil you with an example how an excellent choice of title would look like.

2. Addressing the audience.

Dear Sirs/Dear Gurus

I am not in the target group (obviously), but you are either making fun of the people, from whom you seek help (not a wise choice), or you are grovelling (unnecessary).

The best consultants/developers I have met, are highly resistant to such form of flattery, anyway.

And this is not because they are extremely modest or have reached some spiritual level, they simply realize that there is a lot more to learn.

If you wish to be treated with respect among professionals, you need to behave as a professional.

And if you cannot think of a better way to address the fellow forum members, you can safely omit this part and get directly to the point.

3. Main content.

Present the problem in a well-structured manner, use paragraphs and additional formatting to make the content more readable.

If you wish to bounce ideas for a new business process, describe it as a sequence of business steps.

Avoid using company-specific terminology or at least explain briefly the meaning.

If you do that:

a) you will avoid potential misunderstanding and

b) more people will read your complete post.

If this does not happen, you will get either no responses or low-quality ones, and you want none of these.

Don’t just copy/paste your client requirements or urgent tickets and expect that people will do all the work for you (consultants).

If you don’t try by yourself, you will always depend on the mercy of others and this would not work as a strategy even in a forum full of tolerant and helpful people.

I am guilty of having very low tolerance on spec-dumping, so I would need a compelling reason to “help the needy”.

On the second thought – no, I won’t do that, sorry. I prefer not to assist you in committing a fraud.

Problem tickets posted by end users.

I am always glad when an end user wishes to learn more about how things work and will do my best to explain you that “technical stuff” in business terms – you wish to become a better professional and I admire that.

This does not mean that I am willing to act as a free-of-charge help desk. Please contact your support consultant to assist you with solving urgent issues.

You company does not wish to spend money on proper support

It is a bad idea to give you an advice based on incomplete information and you can’t give me all the details, because you have no authorization to view/change any settings.

Present a proper business case to your superiors, make them listen to your concerns!

When you spend your day on workarounds or manually fixing errors, they are losing money and market share.

You just don’t get on well with your support consultant

Both of you get paid to do your job. Find a way to work together.

Don’t ask for step-by-step guides with screenshots or demand to be spoon-fed.

I won’t do that to my end users (I ask the key users to prepare end-user manuals, which I have to approve before they are distributed), why would I treat you differently?

Picturing somebody clicking in SPRO/SNOTE with little or no understanding scares me. Please do not do that!

Search the web, read sap notes, use your sandbox.

You would be pleasantly surprised how many of your colleagues would be willing to lend you a book if you ask them nicely.

You need help creating a new z-report and post the question here, because the development is SD-related

There are more developers in the ABAP forums working on SD reports than techno-functionals visiting the SD space.

You will increase greatly the chances of receiving helpful replies if you add the proper tags – and it takes less than a minute to do that!

Provide the relevant screenshots from customizing and the results of troubleshooting you have performed so far.

Example:

You face an issue with incorrect values in S066/S067:

Share your OVA8 settings and the result of CHECK_CM for a problematic document.

If you use non-standard item categories or document types, people will ask you for VOV7, VOV8, copy control settings.

You wish to get the problem resolved as soon as possible, why would you wait for a forum member to ask you for additional information?

Describe what you have tried so far/which notes you have read.

It is pointless that both of us spend time doing the same thing – you have already eliminated several options and, if you share these details, it would definitely speed up the investigation.

If you are not a native English speaker and struggle to describe the problem or cannot fully understand the responses.

If you can’t get help from a friend/colleague/relative, list the languages, in which you can explain better.

If I happen to speak any of them, even if I am not an expert on the subject, I will do my best to help you as an interpreter via PM.

4. When you have not provided all the information I would need to investigate further.

You did your best, but still failed to see something obvious?

Don’t feel bad about that – if you already knew that you have to check and provide information also on zzzz setting, you might have already solved the issue without my help.

This is why you posted here – to get a different view on the subject, isn’t it?

Now here comes the really bad part.

Before I ask for additional clarification, I will have a look at your profile.

No, not the reputation tab – your points and badges are absolutely irrelevant in this case.

I will read your previous posts.

If it takes you a week or more to respond to requests for more information or provide feedback

I would have already forgotten what it was all about by the time you respond and will have to start all over.

If you feel comfortable with the idea to leave your customers waiting for resolution for weeks, then why would I push you?

If I see a long list of posts with multiple replies and some good suggestions, but none of them marked as helpful/correct

I would probably choose not to participate in your current discussion.

Don’t get me wrong – I am not obsessed with getting these 5 or 10 points or acquiring a shiny badge.

C in SCN stands for community. You can’t be a good member and just take without giving back.

If you don’t have the time or knowledge or are too shy to post content and participate in discussions – I respect your decision.

This does not change the fact that you can still help – all it takes is to mark the posts, which helped you resolve the issue.

The next person who searches the forum would find your thread and try first the option marked as ‘correct’ before re-posting.

A thank you to the people who tried to assist you, even if you have solved the problem by yourself, is a nice touch. I will remember you being polite and will be even more inclined to help you in the future.

What has my previous behavior got to do with my current discussion/This is not fair/This is against ROE

Not much really (unless you believe that everything you do has consequences).

I have never said that it is.

Please read the disclaimer.

Disclaimer:

The content represents my personal view on the subject and does not imply or suggest that any other forum member would feel or react in the same way.

The aim of this blog post is not to berate or insult any SCN member, but to share some ideas on how to improve the quality of content posted in the SD space.

Even if you follow 1.-4. there is no guarantee that you will get even a single response. It could be that your question is really difficult to answer. Probably there are very few people in the forum still using BGADDON on 4.6. I wish I could help you somehow, sorry.

If you do the exact opposite of 1-4. you could get replies. There are helpful and generous people who may still choose to help, there are also point-chasers always coming to rescue. I don’t belong to any of these groups and will ignore the thread.