How to ask a maintainer a question they'll want to answer

Maintainers answer questions all day, and the difference between questions that get thoughtful replies and questions that get ignored is almost always visible in the first two sentences. I've written both kinds. The second kind gets answers.

The anatomy of a good question

The goal, not just the step. "I'm trying to cache API responses for offline use" beats "how do I use the cache option?" The first lets a maintainer correct my approach if my step is wrong — which is often the actual gift.

What I already tried. Two lines: read the caching docs, tried option X, got error Y. This proves respect for their time and eliminates the "RTFM" reflex before it fires.

A minimal example. Ten lines that show the attempt. Not my whole repo — the distilled failure.

One question. Focused questions get focused answers. Three questions in one message get the easiest one answered and the rest forgotten.

The questions that get ignored

"Can you help me?" (with what?), "it doesn't work" (what happened?), anything answerable by the README's first paragraph. These aren't rude questions — they're unformed ones. Forming them is the contributor's half of the job.

The irony: writing a good question answers it half the time. The discipline of preparation is its own documentation.