When I was (kind of) a teacher I used to lurk the forums (and other even more objectionable webs) and sometimes I was impresed with the way some of my pupils asked their questions and how they applied the advice received; so much so that I used to give them an extra half- of full-point.
Just been reading this after a correspondent's blog linked to it:
Also you're liable to need help in any C project of significant size; so you're liable to be social and work with others. You need to, just to get somewhere.
And all that, from the point of view of an employer, is attractive. Ten people who communicate, document things properly and work together are preferable to one BBM hacking Lisp who can only be replaced by another BBM (if you can find one) in the not unlikely event that he will, at some time, go down without being rebootable.
http://marktarver.com/bipolar.htmlSo yes, intelligent questions which state the problem clearly and treat contributors courteously are one thing. Questions with the subject line "WANT HELP NOW" and a poorly-stated description of what's needed and no indication of what's been attempted are something else entirely.
Back in my university (student and staff) days there were such things as librarians. Some of whom were elderly, quirky and not really the sort of company one would seek out... and were also vastly experienced and knowledgable, and sufficiently respected by students from the adjacent Library Studies department that if you had a /really/ challenging question you'd suddenly find you had a half-dozen enthusiastic researchers on your case (who had been set it as a project from which they could garner credits).
/Always/ be nice to librarians, doormen, janitors and facilities managers. And to forum members who you might think you're unlikely to meet :-)
MarkMLl