Ask the Hacker Curmudgeon: How can I minimize the chance of getting a useful answer to my question?

Protect your question with an impenetrable cloak of vagueness.

1) Choose a subject line that conveys no information. This means that the subject matter expert needs to choose between spending more time on your message to figure out what it's about, or just moving on to other questions that can be triaged faster.

2) Bury your message in an towering pile of forwards, so that the meat of the question isn't even on the screen of the recipient.

Inspired, of course, by Raymond and the original ESR rant.