I recently stole Jon Skeet's excellent check list and [modified it for use on Server Fault][1]. I've left a link to it in quite a few comments recently and on a several occasions people have responded positively to it. Perhaps it (or something similar) could be used?

I think this has the advantage over @voretaq7's excellent [How can I ask a better question ...][2] simply because there is less to read but that should be considerer too.

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The people who need to read this are least likely to be bothered so I don't think there should be a lot of effort put into this.


  [1]: https://meta.serverfault.com/questions/6074/do-you-have-a-checklist-that-can-help-me-ask-a-better-question
  [2]: https://meta.serverfault.com/questions/3608/how-can-i-ask-better-questions-on-server-fault