Topic FAQ

[richard.york]

I have an idea about cutting down on some Frequently Asked Questions in certain forums..

For instance, in the PHP forums one question frequently asked is "why doesn't this code work?"
A question that typically relates to the register_globals setting, which Nik and I and others have answered hundreds of times.
The books are a bit dated, so people new to the language have no idea that this configuration directive is now turned off by default, thus making non-working code.

I thought it would be cool if each topic could have an FAQ category, where the posts could be locked and moderated and contain information on questions like the above. Where only certain members would be allowed to make posts to, such as the moderator or members with a certain 'karma' setting to keep all the other traffic in the other forums.

I don't think just posting topics in the regular forums with a sticky setting would do enough cause I'm sure for some topics there can be quite a few FAQ's. In the PHP forums I can think of error_reporting, sessions, file uploads, database management, image manipulation, etc. Obviously Wiley wants to encourage people to continue buying books for such information, but none-the-less this continues to result in the same questions being asked over and over. This would leave us more time for the truly clueless.

Just a thought!

: )
Rich

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The Spicy Peanut Project
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[jminatel]

Rich:
This is a good idea. From an implementation standpoint, it's "easy" because it doesn't require any changes to the forum software, just the new forums. The real challenge will be the human element - getting a critical mass of people willing to help with this. So if I set this with the PHP forums, you're volunteering to lead the way with the FAQ posting itself there?

Any other volunteers for FAQs to help Rich on PHP for any other topics?



Jim Minatel
Senior Acquisitions Editor
Wiley Technology Publishing
WROX Press

[richard.york]

Could we have the FAQ link in about 35pt font with dancing lights? haha!

I've already written alot of stuff that can go in there in various previous posts. I'm sure Nik has plenty of stuff that can go in there as well.

Here are a few more ideas for it:

* Send the entire FAQ list to new subscribers of that forum?
* No limit on topic count per page in the FAQ forum, or in other words all topics on one page.

: )
Rich

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The Spicy Peanut Project
http://www.spicypeanut.net
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[nikolai]

I'm not a fan of sending new subscribers a huge amount of information, since they're most likely going to say "this is more than a couple paragraphs, I'm just going to delete it."


Take care,

Nik
http://www.bigaction.org/

[Ben Horne]

Why not just send the link to all new subscribers? I think I'm like most people who use e-mail (I usually read e-mails fairly quickly and delete them when I'm done with them). Personally, I think sending the FAQ link to subscribers rather than sending the entire FAQ info in one e-mail.

What does everybody else think about this idea?

quote:Originally posted by nikolai
 I'm not a fan of sending new subscribers a huge amount of information, since they're most likely going to say "this is more than a couple paragraphs, I'm just going to delete it."


Take care,

Nik
http://www.bigaction.org/

Ben Horne
Madison Area Technical College student
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http://community.webshots.com/user/valerian114

Go there. I have a lot of awesome photos that I rendered myself

"A Person Who Claims To Be A Flash Junkie Isn't Really A Flash Junkie Unless He Can Prove It"

[richard.york]

quote:Originally posted by Nikolai

 I'm not a fan of sending new subscribers a huge amount of information, since they're most likely going to say "this is more than a couple paragraphs, I'm just going to delete it."

Yeah that would be annoying and probably bandwidth consuming! I should have been more specific, what I meant to say was just the FAQ list, as in topics and links. Though just an FAQ link would be helpful too.. I guess the challenge is getting through to the thick headed.. so I thought a list might be more attention getting.

: )
Rich

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The Spicy Peanut Project
http://www.spicypeanut.net
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