Note: This page was originally sourced from our Blogger page: http://ncarrda.blogspot.com/2015/12/best-practices-when-asking-for-help.html

Get answers to your questions faster! Follow these best practices.

1. Check that you are logged in.  Log out, log back in to check that you set your current email and password correctly in your scripts.
2. Send the question to rdahelp@ucar.edu.  If you have a question about a specific dataset, cc the data specialist for that dataset as well for faster service.
3. Give us your name and how you would like to be addressed.
4. Give us the email address used for your RDA registration.  We look you up in our user database with this email address.  It would be even better if you also use this email address to write to us.
5. State the dataset number, dsnnn.n, if applicable.
6. Describe the nature of your problem in detail.  Include the error message(s) or a screen shot of what you see.  Tell us your system configuration, time you had the problem, the sequence of steps you took...
7. If you are having problems with a download script, substitute 'wget -d' for 'wget' (debug mode) for more descriptive error messages.  Then include the script that you used and the error messages in your email.

Click on the RDA About/Contact tab for contact information for the entire staff of the RDA http://rda.ucar.edu/#!about.