[Gunther]

Posting guidelines and tips to get a faster help response

This forum is for general questions regarding the practical use of GIMP or its related tools.

• Do not post work breaking GTs general posting guidelines, even to show a problem.
  
• Never double post the same question in more than one thread. Your question will not be answered faster, instead you will only annoy moderators.
  
• If you have a specific question on something in a tutorial, it's courteous to ask in the tutorial thread instead of in this forum. Not only will you help give some exposure to the tutorial, you are also more likely to get the attention of the original author.

• If your question concerns the meaning of a particular term such as "C4D" or "Render", first check out our Glossary in this thread.
  
• If your question is something which is fairly basic, check the FAQ here first to see if it is answered there.
  
• If you want to ask for a particular Tutorial, first check out GIMPtalk's Official Tutorial Index and User-submitted Tutorial index to see if you can find what you need.
  
• You can effectively search gimptalk for a particular help by using our Search form. This way you can see if your question has been answered before.

• Choose a descriptive topic of your post! Do not name your post "Need help", "Help!", "Gimp trouble" or similar, those say absolutely nothing about what you are having trouble with. Be descriptive and people will faster notice your question among all the others and if they can help. This will also help the site search engine to work.
  
• If you have a technical problem with GIMP, supply as much information as you can about your system. People are not mind readers. Are you running Windows (XP,Vista etc)? Linux? Mac? Which version of GIMP? Any funky hardware? Do you have the latest drivers? Supply as much information as you think is pertinent to your problem. This may help people guess at your problem.
  
• If you have a complex problem, consider taking screenshots of eventual error screens or other symptoms. Check out the links given above (the FAQs) if you don't know how to upload images.
  
• Do not be impatient. No one here gets paid to help out. If your question isn't answered to your satisfaction, politely restate your question again with some clarification.

/staff

[XyllyX]

I would further add that if you use google, use the advanced search function and specify gimptalk as the site to be searched.

[PhotoComix]

I would add:
for problem with images :
often images speak clearer than words ,the description of the problem is useful but don't forget to post a link to a visual example of the problem or of what you want to achieve

Also for problem with gimp interface, error messages and so on ,if is possible always send a screenshot.

To post images you first have to upload somewhere there are a lot of free file host,...such as http://www.imageshack.com

If you use slang less people will be able to understand you so you will have less chance to be answered

[Griatch]

Also:

Check out the FAQ before posting. Chances are your query has been asked before.

If you're having technical difficulties with GIMP (i.e. not a pure artistic question), write what version (gimp 2.2.17, gimp 2.3.15 etc) and what platform (Windows, Linux etc) you are using. The program is supposed to be identical between platforms, but the way to solve issues vary a bit. Also, the various versions can vary in what features they offer and how stable they are.
.
Griatch

[pacman10]

ClayOgre said:

I would further add that if you use google, use the advanced search function and specify gimptalk as the site to be searched.

Just a tip here: to find things in gimptalk.com one can circumvent the Advanced Search function in Google by directly using the syntax site:gimptalk.com followed by the keywords being searched for, e.g. site:gimptalk.com levels auto or site:gimptalk.com layer transparency

This focusses Google exclusively on www.gimptalk.com

Paddy

[Rab Smith]

Good sensible advice there!