How can I start answering questions and contributing to the Community?

How can I start answering questions and contributing?

Read the terms and conditions for these forums, as some behavior is encouraged, and other behavior is frowned upon or not accepted.

Pick a product/topic from the lists below that interests you, start reading a question with an interesting title/subject.

⓵ Front page (+“See more topics”) - ② Site map (even more topics) - ③ Browse newly added questions/replies

Some lists have an eye icon for number of views, and a speech balloon for number of replies.

If a question has no answers yet, then you have a chance to bring the first reply to help out with an issue. That also helps out in the effort that all questions should get attention. No need to search old treads; questions from the last few days are the most effective. Inactive threads get locked after a while anyway.

Formulate your answers for OP as well as future readers. These forums are effective landing pages for Google searches (and other search engines).

If you can and when appropriate, cite your sources with links, preferably Apple Support pages if available. Not required per se, but that is my approach.

iPhone is by far the busiest topic, so that could always do with help from additional contributors.

Some more obscure topics may have very few contributors, so those may be at risk for zero replies. Review if you can assist.

If you notice very good answers from your ‘colleagues’, then consider an upvote for that reply. That helps out the contributor as well as future readers.

Skip what you are not sure about, and can't test.

A next day or when you have time, review if there were replies to your contribution. There might be follow-up questions or answers, for further replies.

Welcome! There is always work for willing hands here!

Some thoughts in addition to Urquhart1244's excellent guidance:

—Plus 1 on bookmarking the site map. It is an excellent tool.

—I recommending working the most recent posts. Older posts get locked for inactivity and cannot be answered. Even ones still open that have not been addressed after a week or two may be "orphaned" because few posters seem to return after even after short period to check for replies, or the don't have notifications set to allow incoming status emails from ASC.

—For quick access to tech specs and model designators, I highly recommend the free (in the Mac App Store) MacTracker database app. It is far easier to find models than using Apple's in-site search function for tech specs. It is also available for iOS and iPadOS. It also provide history of models.

—As these are international forums, some users do not realize these are the English-language version. You can, at your discretion, offer users posting in their native tongue a localized Apple community available in seven other languages as outlined in this excellent User Tip: Apple Support Communities in Other Langua… - Apple Community

Looking forward to watching you advance here,

Allan

In addition to the excellent advice given by Urquhart1244 and Allan Jones, I recommend that you read LOTS of posts, especially ones by people like Urquhart1244 and Allan Jones, who have been doing this for a while. If you see someone like that who tends to answer in the same threads that interest you, follow them (click on their user name and tap "Follow") and see how they answer posts. It is absolutely amazing what you can learn from fellow users even if you've been doing this for a while.

Best of luck.

I recommend that you read LOTS of posts…

That's what I did. After years of using PCs (our first was an IBM XT clone) my first Mac was a used 7600, which I slogged around with without any notable issues. But when I got my first new Mac - a G4 tower - I joined here when I was having an odd problem with a piece of third party hardware. Don Archibald figured it out.

But then I saw the incredible range of knowledge here and started reading, reading, reading. I think I did that for over a month before I even tried to answer my first question.

That's the beauty of this forum. It isn't just a place to help others, it's an almost endless source of free knowledge from folks who have been using computers for a long time.

Kurt Lang wrote:

But then I saw the incredible range of knowledge here and started reading, reading, reading. I think I did that for over a month before I even tried to answer my first question.

Back in the Usenet days, that was considered proper etiquette. If you posted just after joining, you often got roundly criticized.

Aloha!