How to ask someone for help via email

Personally I disagree. If I want to help a user, I want to get down the the problem ASAP, not filter through unrelated content. A thankyou and appreciative tone is definitely nice, and I wouldn't give much regard to someone with a rude tone, but I would probably ditch an email that has lines filled with "thankyou thankyou ...". I am actually amazed how affective emoticons can be in this regard.