Here is some basic advice for first-time forum users (and long time users too):
1. If you are COMPLETELY new to Six Sigma and Lean, please do some basic research in the blue area on the left side of your screen before asking questions. We are here to help you, but we expect you to put in a little effort of your own.
2. Dont ask a question that could more easily be answered by doing a Google search. (i.e. When was Mikel Harry born? What is a control chart? Who was Demming?) Asking these types of questions just shows that you may be too lazy to do any thinking for yourself and want all of the answers just packaged neatly and laid at your feat. The irony is that it is probably more trouble to find this site, find the forum and ask your question than it would be to do a Google search on your topic to begin with.
3. Dont throw pebbles into Stans cage to agitate him. Yes, it is sometimes fun to watch him get upset, but we only have one Stan and we dont want to lose him to an embolism.
4. Dont post your homework questions and ask others to feed you the answers. If you are having trouble with a homework question, give us a flavor of what youre struggling with and well try to help you find a way to think about it so you can solve it for yourself.
5. Pay attention to the post dates of the topic threads that you respond to. It amuses us when someone puts their two cents in on a four-year-old topic.
6. If you post a response to someone who has offered to email information, you have to include your email address in your request! Im sure there are folks who believe that the email address they provided when they posted their reply is visible to the public. It is not. If you want someone to send you something, post your email address in the body of your message.
7. We welcome questions from people from all over the world. However, if you struggle with English, please have a friend or colleague help you word your question properly, or post it in your native language. There will surely be someone who speaks your language that may be able to help. If we cannot understand your question, we cannot help you.
8. Dont make Darth put down his cocktail and come in off the beach to answer a stupid question. Do your homework first and he will provide a lucid answer backed by experience and perhaps some wisdom passed on from Dead Ed.
9. Dont ask if your on-line Black Belt certification from Bobs House of Meat (and Lean/Six Sigma training) will land you that $200,000 job in corporate America. It wont. Certification is a tiny part of the equation. Experience coupled with solid, verifiable results matters more than where your certificate came from. You can fake a certificate but you cant fake experience (not for very long anyway).
10. If someone does take time to answer your carefully considered and well written question, please say Thank you. The animals in this zoo appreciate positive reinforcement. Its part of what makes them human (or nearly so in some cases).
Have I left out anything important?
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