FAQ Forum

stevenmu

I'm not sure if this would be better suited to the Forums/Feedback forums, but maybe the idea can be thrashed out here and then move over when when appropriate, or if any passing mods feel inclined to move it right away that would be fine too.

As everyone is well aware there are many questions which come up over and over. For many of these the same responses apply each time and because of the acronyminous nature of technology it can often be hard or impossible for people to search for these old threads. There's also way too many of them for each to be sticky'd, there'd be pages of stickys before any real threads. For these reasons, and a few more I can't quite remember at the moment, I think it'd be a good idea if there was an 'FAQ' subforum of the Computers forum (or perhaps it would be better if it was placed under 'Comp' and served all the related forums?)

I would envision it working something like this. Only existing Computers forum mods (or mods of the related forums too) could actually post to it. This would prevent threads being filled up with arguments over who's got the biggest PSU. It would also prevent people who are unsure of how the system works asking questions that are almost, but not quite, entirely unrelated to the topic of the thread. i.e. Nothing would be in an FAQ thread except the FAQ entry itself (or to be more exact, one post with a disclaimer, another with the entry and a third with credits for people who contributed).

People wishing to contribute an entry would post a thread in the computers forum (or related) with FAQ in the title, e.g. "FAQ: What to do when the power button won't work" and write in their entry. People could then respond with suggestions and comments and when a concensus is reached a mod could be notified who would then copy the relevant bits to the FAQ forum.

Then a sticky could be placed in the computers (or related) forum pointing people to the FAQs and in the likely event that people still ask things already posted there they could be pointed in the right direction.

What think ye ? A good idea or a terrible one destined to be destroyed by bitter arguments over whether to put nVidia or ATi in the 'Which is the best video card' FAQ ?

CuLT

Sounds like a good idea.

This forum would also have been a valid place to place the request.

tman

seconded.
sounds like a handy forum

stevenmu

CuLT wrote:

Sounds like a good idea.

This forum would also have been a valid place to place the request.

I thought about that but it's more of a suggestion than a request, I thought people who use the board regularly would be more likely to notice it here and improve upon it. But like I said I don't really mind if it gets moved, and I apologise in advance to any mod who feels they have to do it.

aidan_walsh

It would need to be made very visible to work. People often don't serch the forums to begin with, so it needs to be visible enough for even the blindest, most computer-illiterate user to find it for it to be of any use. Not to mention n00bs who usually wouldn't even try to think to look for anything before posting...

CuLT

Well the nature of an embedded forum places it at the top of the forum as though it were some sort of super-stickey/announcement .

I thought about that but it's more of a suggestion than a request, I thought people who use the board regularly would be more likely to notice it here and improve upon it.

Fair enough, may as well get the ball rolling in Computers

kdouglas

yep, sounds like a good idea