Frequently-asked Questions

The following is basic information about our forum. Please read this before posting questions or answers if you are unfamiliar with this sort of forum. Click on any question to show or hide the answer.

What kinds of questions should be avoided?

Please avoid asking questions that are not related to our community, too subjective or argumentative.
What should I avoid in my answers?

Help Lance is a question and answer site - it is not a discussion group. Please avoid holding debates in your answers as they tend to dilute the quality of the forum.

For brief discussion, or to thank someone for their answer, please post comments, not answers.
Who moderates this community?

The short answer is: you. This website is moderated by the users. Points system allows users to earn rights to perform a variety of moderation tasks.

How does point system work?

When a question or answer is voted up, the user who posted it will gain points. These points serve as a rough measure of the community trust in that person. Various moderation tasks are gradually assigned to the users based on those points.

For example, if you ask an interesting question or useful answer, it will likely be voted up. On the other hand if the question is poorly-worded or the answer is misleading - it will likely be voted down. Each up vote on a question will generate 1 points, whereas each vote against will subtract 1 points. The following table lists points gained per activity:

Posting a question:	+ 20 points
Selecting an answer for your question:	+ 30 points
Per up vote on your question:	+ 10 points
Per down vote on your question:	- 10 points
Limit from up votes on each question:	+ 100 points
Limit from down votes on each question:	– 30 points
Posting an answer:	+ 40 points
Having your answer selected as the best:	+ 300 points
Per up vote on your answer:	+ 20 points
Per down vote on your answer:	- 20 points
Limit from up votes on each answer:	+ 200 points
Limit from down votes on each answer:	– 50 points
Voting up a question:	+ 10 points
Voting down a question:	+ 10 points
Voting up an answer:	+ 10 points
Voting down an answer:	+ 10 points
Add for all users:	+ 100 points

The following table lists point requirements for each type of moderation task.

How to change my picture (gravatar), and what is gravatar?

The picture that appears in user profiles is called a gravatar, which means globally recognized avatar.

Here is how it works: You upload your picture (or your favorite alter ego image) to the website gravatar.com from where we later retrieve your image using a cryptographic key based on your email address.

This way all the websites you trust can show your image next to your posts and your email address remains private.

Please personalize your account with an image - just register at gravatar.com (just please be sure to use the same email address that you used to register with us). The default gray image is generated automatically.
Still have questions?

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