[Couchdb Wiki] Update of "Getting Help" by RogerBinns

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Dear Wiki user,

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The "Getting Help" page has been changed by RogerBinns.
The comment on this change is: Helpful hints on getting help.
http://wiki.apache.org/couchdb/Getting%20Help

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New page:
Please follow these steps if you have questions, think you have found a bug or have any other comments about CouchDB.

=== Has it happened before or already been answered? ===
 1. Search the mailing list.  Enter search terms in the green box at the bottom of http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.db.couchdb.user
 1. Search the bug tracking system at https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/COUCHDB
 1. The [[http://wiki.apache.org/couchdb/|wiki]] also has many useful guides and can also be searched (look in top right)

=== Preparing your question ===
In order for people to help you, please prepare your question.  Your goal is for the people who can answer to understand what you are doing with CouchDB, what you see and what you expected to see.  You should also include platform information (eg Windows or Linux), version information (which version of Couchdb), libraries and tools in use (eg are you talking directly to CouchDB using curl or a library such as [[http://code.google.com/p/couchdb-python/|python-couchdb]]).  These two links are helpful guides:

 * [[http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html|How to ask smart questions]]
 * [[http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html|How to report bugs effectively]]

=== Asking the question ===
The best place to get help, ask questions and receive answers is the [[http://couchdb.apache.org/community/lists.html|CouchDB users mailing list]].  Please post your question in only one place. (If you post it in multiple places then answerers won't see each others responses, people will be discouraged from answering suspecting they will be duplicating answers elsewhere, followups are fragmented etc.)

Make sure you will be able to see answers before posting.  For example you may want to subscribe to the mailing list, or bookmark the [[http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.db.couchdb.user/|GMane page]].  Ensure you keep checking back.  You should see answers or there may be more questions asking for further information in order to provide a better answer.  It is appreciated if you respond in a timely manner.

Once the issue or question is resolved it may be appropriate to post a followup summary.  Imagine that someone else in the future had the same thoughts as you so make the post easy to find via searches and for them to understand the resolution.  For example it may have been a bug in your code so you can say how to test for it or prevent it in the future, or it may be a bug in CouchDB in which case point to the ticket, or a wiki page may have been updated or created.