Preserved Topic: FAQ - Tutorial List

Hmm, this sort of defeats the purpose of a forum, but would anyone be interested in writing up a FAQ of some sort, seems like alot of the same questions are asked over and over, would be nice if someone would make a page with a question, and then like a list of all the ways people said to do it in there posts, in like a guestbook look type deal. It would be a great reference. And then if someone posted a tutorial, that could go in there, and be added to the question list. I wouldn't mind doing it, if i had some help, if it was popular enough, people could full blown tutorials for it. Im not really interested in making a big tutorial page, theres the gurus network for that, but hey....

what do you guys think?

I kinda like the fact that alot of the same questions are asked time and again. Because almost everytime, a new answer comes up. everyone sees a way of doing and explaing thing differently, that's what makes this forum special. If we come up wit 'block-n-stock' answers it defeats the purpose of being here.

just my .02

i think the first question to grace this FAQ area is "hey, why dont we have an area where we can send people if they ask a question that has been asked a dozen times before?"
heh heh heh - i kinda like repetitive questions. because i know nothing, these are the only questions i can answer. i just post a link to the earlier thread, or re-iterate what i read. makes me seem like i might actually know what im doing.

[This message has been edited by bunchapixels (edited 01-18-2001).]

Ya..I agree with F1, same question, different answers. The archievesis a nice refference, no need an FAQ page or sort of.

But, it would be nice if there's an FAQ. At least there'll be another ref.

OK, we once had an FAQ archive area, but for [whatever reason I once had] it was deleted. Now it's back, and maybe we should try and archive the really *defining* threads into there? There's a problem with the archives also, in that once they get put there, there's no real tool for getting them back out or moving them around. If this doesn't work out, I could always set up a "read only" forum called FAQ where we could copy some of the better theads. I'm not too sure which will be best, I hesitate to create another read only, moderator only forum, bad blood there, heh.

If anyone has simply *too* much time on their hands, compiling a true FAQ using quotes from existing threads would be a pretty damned useful thing to have here. I'm picturing two parts, the first a "how this place works" section, and the next an attempt at compiling short & sweet design truths mentioned here. (Two completely different FAQs! Which could be considered more ambitious? Hard to tell. The first would require some sense of humour, hmm? The second would have to be pretty damned good or else it would suck, heh.)

I'll look into setting up a framework for the first part, and see what happens and how it goes. I also like F1's take on the "asked and answered time and again" bit, it really does help us get better at explaining things at least! =)

Your pal, -doc-

I mean, you wouldnt have to send every new person who asks how to do a drop shadow, but after a while, with new posts added to the current how to's, it would turn into a great Database of knowledge.

"Best of Ozone"

If anyone ever decides to write a FAQ, this CGI script (FAQProcessor) can be very helpful. FAQProcessor can format plain-text files with question & answers to nice HTML files (of course, you can specify how the HTML files will look like) and maintenance would be easier, because you only need to edit those plain-text files...



[This message has been edited by mr.maX (edited 01-18-2001).]

Heh, not too bad. I worked for a while on a system called the "FAQ Generator", a custom Oracle tool for making and growing a multi-user FAQ. It was cool, new questions would be submitted and then passed on by an administrator to different "experts" who would then answer the question and then send it back to the admin for automatic inclusion. Way cool process, but the whole thing was built on a proprietary server package that I no longer work with, sigh. My long term plan for this thing was to spin it off as it's own web service, hosting FAQs for thousands of groups, coulda been a CONTENDAH! Ah well. Anyone want a million dollar idea? 2 for a buck! (Inflation, used to be a dime a dozen, heh.)

Your pal, -doc-

a dime dozen, doc? 2 for a buck?

*slaps his head*

I thought it was still two cents....

*doh*

Nah, 2 cents is what somebody's rambling ideas and commens are worth. Good ideas (used to be) a dime a dozen, but now they're worth marginally more, thanks to new web marketplaces to sell those ideas! Advice is still free, go figger.

Your pal, -doc-

well, with free advice you still get what you paid for..
my question is: why is it a penny for your thoughts but you hafta put your two cents in?
....somebody's making a penny...

still, this FAQ idea 'tickles my pickle'...
so, in fact, that it's not new to me... I've been already putting memorable Q&A posts into a text file for my personal reference...

lemme know if you want to see...

(P.S.-- I'd hafta get my computer on the net before I can do so, though, the modem is being a whore... guess I should have spilled the orange juice on it)



tskull@techie.com">
"War is a series of disasters which result in a winner." --Georges Clemenceau
ICQ: 67751342