Should we have a FAQ?

[mwaters]

Hi Brian,

I see you have two 'what's that noise' posts. :-)
Shouldn't there be just one post here?:

Station Hardware and Firmware
Assembly, Setup, Optimization, Feature Requests
Sub Forums: Troubleshooting, Antennas, and 1 more.

[allsorts]

• The FAQ should only be on system blue, because that's where most questions of a general nature will come up.
  
• Only relative simple things should be included in the list (see below), specialized technical question will still need to go to the normal forum.
  
• The list should be short, otherwise people won't read it anyway. I think it should completely fit onto the screen, say less than 25 lines.
  
• The whole effort should be limited and we should gather feedback from readers before considering going on
  

All sensible, though I assume that the 25 line limit is per question/answer rather than the whole thing! And getting feedback from readers may well be next to impossible.

This list is an example of what could be in such a FAQ:

1. What do I have to know to be able to assemble and run such a system?
   
2. How do I get one of these system blue?
   
3. How do I check where I am on the waiting list?
   
4. I received the kit, how do I solder the stuff together?
   

That's the sort of stuff but IMHO 4. would be covered by 1. as that would say you need to be able to solder through hole components to a PCB or know a man who can...  B-)

So we want an FAQ, we have an outline of what it should contain. great but:

Who has access to maintain it?
Open access will have it vandalised within hours....

What software do we use to generate it?
Most CMS systems aren't really suited to this task. I have Perl script I used to make the HTML of an FAQ I wrote/maintained about 15 years ago. Single scrollable file, logically laid out so if read from start to finish told you everything you needed to know. The source is a simple custom tagged plain text file. It's offline but I could put in online for a while, it's plain, it's simple, as it follows "content over form" rather than "form over content" that many sites do these days. The style can be updated of course.

I'm not a fan of a page based systems, you can't search the whole FAQ with your browser for a start and clicking next/back/index buttons that move about the screen depending on answer length is a PITA. Scrolling is so much easier...

And a biggie, where do we host it?

[mwaters]

[quote pid='15859' dateline='1506510677']

I'm not a fan of a page based systems, you can't search the whole FAQ with your browser for a start and clicking next/back/index buttons that move about the screen depending on answer length is a PITA. Scrolling is so much easier...

And a biggie, where do we host it?
[/quote]

I thought it was going to be right here, nothing other than the way this site works right now.

[Rechard83]

Nice idea, thanks.

[gerbold]

Try this: https://docs.lightningmaps.org/doku.php?...upport:faq
It is basically a copy of the documentation from System RED but much applies to System BLUE as well.

[Beluga]

Hi admin, I am new in this forum so when I was reading this thread carefully I noticed that a member above (please see he has posted in this thread) has added a link to his I think weight loss blog or maybe something else blog I don't know in the quoted text above. I don't know if it is okay to do it but personally I felt that it is irrelevant to the topic that is why I am informing about this so that you can double check.

If I have done something wrong in posting this message then I apologize.

Thanks.

[mwaters]

You haven't done anything wrong. But the Report button would probably get the moderators' attention faster. In any case, I don't see the spam that you refer to, has it been deleted?

[Beluga]

You haven't done anything wrong. But the Report button would probably get the moderators' attention faster. In any case, I don't see the spam that you refer to, has it been deleted?

Sorry, I didn't notice the report button earlier but now I have reported because the spam link is still there at the time I am posting this message.

[mwaters]

Is/was it in this thread? I didn't see the spam link. Just curious.

[dupreezd]

You haven't done anything wrong. But the Report button would probably get the moderators' attention faster. In any case, I don't see the spam that you refer to, has it been deleted?

Sorry, I didn't notice the report button earlier but now I have reported because the spam link is still there at the time I am posting this message.

I had a look as well and could not find anything.

Please email me directly with a screen shot if you don't want to post here.

Thanks

[Beluga]

An FAQ would be wondeful, the forum search is, erm, "not very good" or at least I can spend ages trying to make it spit out a topic and or post that I *know* is in there somewhere. I've had half an idea to pull just my posts together into some form of mini "FAQ", that's why some of my posts about xxxxxxx reviews go into more detail than is probably required. I can also find all those, relatively painlessly, via my profile.
I quite like Wiki's but they can get out of control, they really need someone to set a style, create suitable templates and tidy up entries to match the style.

As a newbie, I would also suggest that an FAQ would be great for people like me who're just starting out. Right now, I'm trying to gather information from various posts.

Is/was it in this thread? I didn't see the spam link. Just curious.

You haven't done anything wrong. But the Report button would probably get the moderators' attention faster. In any case, I don't see the spam that you refer to, has it been deleted?

Sorry, I didn't notice the report button earlier but now I have reported because the spam link is still there at the time I am posting this message.

I had a look as well and could not find anything.

Please email me directly with a screen shot if you don't want to post here.

Thanks

Hi mwaters & moderator
I have quoted the text of EricJohnson and I have even highlighted the spam link in this message so that you can check it.
I am sorry, I had to post this link in my message also. @Moderator, after you are done checking the spam link, kindly edit it from this message also.

Thanks.

[cutty]

An FAQ would be wondeful, the forum search is, erm, "not very good" or at least I can spend ages trying to make it spit out a topic and or post that I *know* is in there somewhere. I've had half an idea to pull just my posts together into some form of mini "FAQ", that's why some of my posts about xxxxxxx reviews go into more detail than is probably required. I can also find all those, relatively painlessly, via my profile.
I quite like Wiki's but they can get out of control, they really need someone to set a style, create suitable templates and tidy up entries to match the style.

As a newbie, I would also suggest that an FAQ would be great for people like me who're just starting out. Right now, I'm trying to gather information from various posts.

......
Hi mwaters & moderator
I have quoted the text of EricJohnson and I have even highlighted the spam link in this message so that you can check it.
I am sorry, I had to post this link in my message also. @Moderator, after you are done checking the spam link, kindly edit it from this message also.

Thanks.

A very interesting distraction. Dave did NOT enter that link in quoted post. That was done in the 'quoted reply'  Any more games?

[mwaters]

A very interesting distraction. Neither Dave nor Eric made that addition to the original or secondary posts. Any more games?

Wow! This forum hacked? A look through the server logs should reveal who did that.

Perhaps it's time to change some moderator passwords??? Maybe someone got ahold of one.

I assume that we all know better than to use a word in the dictionary, etc. as a password. A random link from a Google search for secure password : https://blog.avast.com/strong-password-ideas

[cutty]

A very interesting distraction. Neither Dave nor Eric made that addition to the original or secondary posts. Any more games?

Wow! This forum hacked? A look through the server logs should reveal who did that.

Perhaps it's time to change some moderator passwords??? Maybe someone got ahold of one.

I assume that we all know better than to use a word in the dictionary, etc. as a password. A random link from a Google search for secure password : https://blog.avast.com/strong-password-ideas

I
I got confusee a bit... please see my post quoted here for revision to original. Spammer has been purged.

"  Edited: 'A very interesting distraction. Dave did NOT enter that link in quoted post. That was done in the 'quoted reply'  "

...and No, the forumm wan't hacked... just a sneaky bit of gamesmanship ...

@Beluga  GOOD CATCH, but was a 'game" to track since so sneaky.....best way on any questionable post is use the 'report' link... mods and admin are notified almost immediately using that method...

[mwaters]

Ah! Very good, Mike.

[Beluga]

@Cutty, I did use the report button after Mwaters suggested it but the spam link was still there so I thought may be the report button doesn't work.

Anyways, all's well that ends well

[Danalberto231]

I'm not ready to write down anything serious about the system, but I think there's something even better than a FAQ section: a collaborative Wiki.

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stock market courses

[cutty]

I'm not ready to write down anything serious about the system, but I think there's something even better than a FAQ section: a collaborative Wiki.

Way ahead of you:  WIKI Here Some restrictions apply.

[allsodeann]

I have tried several different power supplies and these two figure only vary by a very small amount.
Markomojo.com

[vinesweather]

Absolutely we need an FAQ. And in my opinion a better forum platform like SMF or Discourse.