How to write a good support request

Want help with an Exercism? Help boost your chances of getting a good response by learning how to write a good support request and encouraging our community to support you.

Here are some key tips.

Use code blocks, not images

When you want to share code (either that you've written, or instructions), use a code block, not an image.

As developers, we're much quicker at reading code than having to zoom into image to see things. And many of our users use screen readers, which cannot read out images. So if you want to want to be a good community citizen, encourage our volunteers to help you, and look like a pro, share your code as text not an image!

For example, you can type the following:

```
for number in range(10):
  total += number;
```

That will get rendered like this:

for number in range(10):
  total += number;

You can even get syntax highlighting by adding the language to the code block opening:

```python
for number in range(10):
  total += number;
```

which turns into:

for number in range(10):
  total += number;

Use inclusive language

Exercism is made up of people of different genders. If you turn up in our Discord and say things like "Hey boys", you're immediately excluding half of our community. That means they're less likely to help you, but it means that the rest of the community are less likely to help you too, as we value inclusivity at Exercism.

So if you want to get help, and you want to be a nice person, don't use gender-specific language. Try "Hey folks", "Hey everyone" or go really bold and choose "Hey fellow Exercists!"

For more on this read our article on the words that we use.