I often hear complaints that the stackexchange sites are too mean to new users, that moderators are too quick to close a question that doesn't fit the guidelines or nitpick the questions to death. Also, that they didn't get a good answer anyway so what is the point. This talk will give you an introduction on how to ask a “good” question on gis.stackexchange.com from an experienced moderator of the site. As a bonus, you will also find out how to file a useful bug report (either internally or to an external project). This talk will cover the things that you might not think are useful but are in fact vital to someone who is trying to help you. I will discuss how the site works and how to make it work well for you, what sort of questions are “good” questions and which ones are better asked somewhere else. I will also cover what the difference between closing and deleting a question is and how to get your question reopened if it is closed. How the review queues work and how you can help improve the site for other users.