Welcome to all of our new community members in just the last two weeks! 
Whether you’re new to video streaming or a seasoned veteran, at some point you realized it can be an extremely broad topic. Because each streaming workflow is unique, it’s critical you know how to ask a good question.
Your peers do want to help. But, they need to understand your workflow and want to know what you’ve tried first. 
So, you’ve already used Google search or the forums search bar and couldn’t find your answer. Here is how to go ahead and ask a GOOD video streaming question.
Title of Your Question: Keep it precise and include some keywords.
For example, if you’re having an issue with audio in Webrtc, you could make your question title, “Audio not working in WebRTC”. When users like yourself search the forums, they’ll see titles of posts and if they see one describing their same issue, it saves time to click on the the most relevant one and maybe get to that answer as soon as possible.
What’s not helpful to the community are question titles such as “Need Help!!” or “Not working” with no use of streaming keywords.
What Are You Trying to Do?: Put effort into your question
As I mentioned above, streaming can be quite broad and complicated, so the golden rule is to overshare details of your current workflow or one you’d like to build. This doesn’t require posting your logs or long lines of code, but it will require providing a description of your streaming workflow. Here are some examples of what it should include:
- Camera source
- Encoder
- Protocols
- Codecs
- For Streaming Engine- what version?
- Player
- Error code
- Basic workflow description
Be Clear about the Problem: Don’t expect people to know
This is where you need to remember that community members aren’t being paid to help you, so they won’t want to take extra time in their day getting you to provide more information. If you’d like a useful answer, then here are some examples of what to include.
- Did it ever work?
- When did it break?
- What did the logs say?
- Link to the exact doc or tutorial you followed.
- What troubleshooting have you already tried?
- Could you replicate the problem on another device, browser or OS?
- Share a useful screenshot (don’t show private info)
Now, if you’re new to streaming and simply feel a little overwhelmed by it all, you’re not alone and not to worry! Just do your best to follow as many of the suggestions above.
What Not to Post: No sensitive data
- No passwords
- No private SSL certificate info
- No billing questions
Support the Community: Get involved
We are all here in the community to help guide each other, so please remember to take time to answer questions for others.
If someone helps you, please show your gratitude and take time to let them know their advice solved your streaming issue. It’s so rewarding for community members to get that sort of feedback and will encourage them to want to help more often.
Be sure to check the green “Solution” checkbox as as well!
Forums are NOT Wowza Technical Support: Submit a ticket
Finally, remember that the forums are not an official source of Wowza technical support and for any streaming code review requests, potential bug reports or advanced problems, you’ll need to submit a support ticket.
Thanks everyone! We truly appreciate you and are so happy you’re here streaming with us. 
-Rose
