This is a continuation of a long topic, addressed by post number rather than by page. Start at post 1 · go to the accepted answer.
The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.
This is where my knowledge stops and I would rather mark the edge than blur it.
The FAQ link in the sidebar is maintained and worth ten hours of forum browsing. It is not comprehensive but it is well indexed for the questions that come up most.
I am describing what is, rather than arguing for what should be.
Marked solutions are the site's way of saying that someone asked a good question and someone else gave an answer that actually worked. It is not a competition and it does not appear on your record — it is just how the site learns which topics stay useful six months later.
On the reading order question specifically: start with the how-to-ask materials in this category, then read the one to three subcategories where your main questions live. The rest will be discoverable by tag once you understand the structure.
The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.
That is my reading. Someone else read the same page differently and was reasonable.
There is no stupid-questions rule and no penalty for asking badly. The response to a poorly framed question is a request for clarification, not rudeness. That is a deliberately cultivated norm here.
Worth checking against a second source before it gets quoted onward.
Trust levels accumulate over time and they give you access to small things like the ability to edit your own posts without a timestamp. They are not a status symbol and they do not make you more right. Someone at trust level zero with a good question gets better answers than someone at trust level four with a bad one.
Happy to expand any of that if it is the useful part.
Nobody is going to check your credentials and nobody is going to ask. What gets asked for is the basis of a claim, which is a different thing and applies equally to everyone.
Nothing here requires expertise. The experienced members here got that way by posting questions, not by knowing the answer before they showed up. If you know something useful, post it. If you do not, ask.
That is the version I would defend. It is not the version I started with.
The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.
If you want a fast orientation, read three solved topics in the subcategory you care about. Solved means somebody said the answer worked, which is more signal than reply count.
If that reads as pedantic, it is, and it has saved me twice.
The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.
I have separated what I observed from what I concluded, which does not always happen.
The answer to the reading-order question is: the how-to-ask page, then whichever compound page applies to you, then the sourcing standard. Forty minutes and it saves weeks.
Adding a data point of agreement rather than a data point.
Useful. I have added it to my own notes with the date on it.
Do not feel obliged to reply to every reply on your own topic. A single "that answered it" and a marked solution is the most useful thing you can do for the next person who searches.
It is the sort of thing that seems obvious in retrospect and was not at the time.
The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.
Likes here mean "this helped", not "I agree". People like posts that argue against them, and that is deliberate.
Trust levels accumulate over time and they give you access to small things like the ability to edit your own posts without a timestamp. They are not a status symbol and they do not make you more right. Someone at trust level zero with a good question gets better answers than someone at trust level four with a bad one.
Someone should write this up properly, and it should probably not be me.
The Lounge is a real category rather than a dumping ground. The sourcing rule still applies there, which surprises people, but the register is looser and nobody minds a digression.
The FAQ link in the sidebar is maintained and worth ten hours of forum browsing. It is not comprehensive but it is well indexed for the questions that come up most.
Nobody is going to check your credentials and nobody is going to ask. What gets asked for is the basis of a claim, which is a different thing and applies equally to everyone.
Not the whole picture, but the part of it I can speak to.