How to Ask a Question Properly?

I feel the same way in the second language I speak sometimes. I can't imagine comfortably participating on the equivalent of HN in that language. So good going, at least you are asking this question.

I think a simple framework for this could be: Beginning, middle, end...

In the beginning I'd address HN. About half the community seems to respond less negative-emotionally if they are addressed in a friendly way up front, as if they are a contributor to a community. "Hey everyone in the HN community, thanks for being here, I am really learning a lot from HN."

Middle, "Asking in case anybody knows: What's a good new-ish underdog programming language with really good docs that have clear examples? I'd like to expand my horizons a bit and would appreciate any names you can share."

At the end, IMO it clearly helps to say, "English is not my first language, thanks for your patience".

This should cover your informational and social norms, which can cause issues if they are non-existent or if the post is too informational.

You will be misunderstood, but even more than that you will be scrutinized. People who are very logical often like to ask questions about others' questions. So I think you should just expect people to ask you to clarify, even though your English is probably fine. Hope that makes sense.

Good luck, good q, and I'm sure you'll do fine.

This is my go-to reference for how to ask a question: http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Of course, if I have a close relationship with someone or the question is trivial, I don't go through every step.

You just did it, and it was perfectly well-received by the community.

You approached a topic you are interested in, without causing any problem or offending anyone, and the question was not misunderstood.

Using this evidence, chances are you are already _sufficiently good_ at asking questions properly.

I think I know how you feel. I'm not a native speaker too, and for a long time I was not confident on how to properly communicate what I wanted.

Regarding HN, I think, you want to cut the fluff (contrary to what others said in the comments). You ask a question to get an answer. Here are two aspects of it:

- If you ask something, I expect you to have put at least some time and thought into your question beforehand. This could be a quick google search or go to Algolia [1] and see if someone asked a similar question before you. If you find something, but the question remains, attach it to your post. Others then don't have to start over again and can give you a better answer (or follow-up question).

- If you want to show good will (without clustering your post with disclaimers), actively avoid absolutisms. See what I did in my fist sentence in this comment: I can not possibly know how you feel. But I can tell you that I think I know it. I'm taking a step back and communicate that I might be wrong, but this is how I feel/ observe/ think/ reason/ etc. - you get it.

Edit: For example [1] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...