Faq

[silentC]

This might be getting beyond the scope of the forum but there are two problems that I have found with forums in general (and by no means are these a criticism of them, or of this one in particular):

1. A lot of different people ask the same questions over and over.

2. There is some seriously useful information buried in amongst all the posts but it is often either hard to find or hard to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Take the recent thread on adjusting the saw in a Triton Workcentre. Amongst the various requests for help and the 'thankyou's, there are some excellent tips for dealing with this problem. But the thread runs to some 5 pages and it takes a lot of reading to get to the really useful bits.

The first thing that crossed my mind was that all of this will disappear into posterity and someone will pop up with the same question in a few days/weeks/months. If anyone can remember the thread, they'll put a link to it in reply, but then that person will have to read through all 4-5 pages again. Of course visitors with a bit of initiative will do a keyword search first and probably find it and several other threads.

I've seen two solutions to this problem. The first is to create an FAQ. This requires an editor to go through the threads and write a response to the commonly asked questions. That's a big job but I reckon worth doing if there are enough people with the time and inclination to tackle it.

The second is to create a searchable index of certain threads selected for their general applicability. The idea is to edit the thread and remove all of the usual commentary that goes on in a forum, just leaving the original question and selected replies. The idea is not to imply that some contributions are more worthy than others, but just to condense it down to the replies that perhaps best summarise the suggestions or steps to solving a problem etc.

I don't know how any of this would work with regard to this forum and the software that is being used, but it is an idea and I wondered if anyone has any comments to make etc.

[JackoH]

I have been on this board almost since its inception. What you say is quite right. Questions tend to crop up again and again. (Almost ad nauseum. in some cases)
There is one fairly easy answer Type a key word or two, such as 'dust extraction' in the"search" box at the top of this board and you will be presented with all you ever wanted to know, or were afraid to ask, that has ever appeared on th BB on that particular subject.
It is the very thing you are commenting on; namely the crap and rubbish that you have to sift through that makes this board most entertaining, we have to make allowances for the uniquely australian sense of humour, long may it continue. It's all there. You find it!
..

[JohnM]

You are right John!! I did a search on 'crap and rubbish' and came up with five references.

[silentC]

Well, see you misunderstand me. I wouldn't want to remove the crap & rubbish as you call it because that, as you say, is what makes a forum entertaining. I've certainly contributed my fair share of crap to this forum as you well know

But if you want to use a forum as a reference, which I often do, because of it's nature the information is not organised in a way that makes it easy to find. What I'm suggesting is a way of getting some of the really useful stuff organised so that you can find an answer to your question without having to do a keyword search and reading through possibly hundreds of posts to find the answer. I also have a very poor short term memory and I find I need to keep coming back to a thread to remind me of the details.

I'm talking about specific things though, not run of the mill topics like "I'm thinking of buying a Jet table saw". For a start you could have an FAQ on Cyclones and another on dust collection in general. Then there's all the Triton stuff like "how do I align the blade to the fence" etc. What about "how do I tune a handplane" or "what's the best finish to use on that timber".

Anyway, it's just a suggestion. There are already numerous woodwork-related FAQs on the web. It would just be nice to have one to capture some of the wisdom that comes out of this forum. You may not see any value in it, perhaps others do, or perhaps I'm the only one - in which case I'll pull my head in and just make my own FAQ

[DaveInOz]

The idea of a web page containing the collective wisdom of this board condensed in to relevent observations and answers would be an excellent resource. Witness how often we link to similar sites from other clubs etc.
A seperate FAQ for each forum might be best, and a function that allows you to search the BB and/or the FAQ on its own.
The investment in time by the editors of the FAQs would be significant to start with, but would decrease as the backlog was removed. (we don't solve great issues everyday).

ie
Sharpening methods pros and cons of each
What finish to get X result on Y timber (chart)
How to ......

[Sturdee]

I concur with the ideas expressed here, but how is it to be done.

The time needed would be great and who would volunteer, afterall we can't expect Neil to pay for it -- and if he paid for it who would continue to be a member if he had to charge a membership fee?

Meanwhile what I do if I see an idea that I may later wish to copy or adapt I print the page and file it for future reference.

Regards,


Peter.

[silentC]

You're right, it would be a mammoth task to try and go through what, 4 years worth of posts and pick out the best bits. The idea though is to start with a couple of obvious topics and build on it going forward. Then when people have the time they can go back through and pick out items of interest to work on.

Maybe there could be a forum for suggesting or posting FAQ items, with the moderators choosing the ones that get posted. There are many ways it could be done, I guess it comes down to whether or not UBeaut and co. are even interested in the idea and then who would be interested in doing, or have time to do, the work. Everyone has their pet topic and something to contribute to it.

[Sir Stinkalot]

I will be happy to volunteer my time to head up the .... FAQ Poll forum

[rodm]

The answer is we do it collectively. I have started a thread on the router forum about the perfect router table. I'm not sure how it will pan out but if we get everyone to contribute then it might just work. Have a look, make your suggestions and let's see where it goes.

[craigb]

Yes but would people bother to read the FAQ ?

I suppose some would but I'd bet you'd still get people asking the same old questions in the forums.

[silentC]

Well I would

It's not so much to stop people asking but to have it all sitting somewhere that it's easy to find. Let's say Wayne did a brain dump on Cyclones. If you wanted to build one, that's got to be better than having to read the 1000-odd posts that have been posted here on the subject, wouldn't you say?

And if someone pops their head up and says "I'm thinking of building a cyclone..." you can just reply "go read the FAQ". Then if they've still got a question after reading that, they can post it.

[Neil]

What are you thinking!!! At last count there were 35,838 posts, this one makes 35,839. That's a bloody lot of posts to wade through to set up a FAQ forum. The Search button begins to look pretty good when you think about the logistics of such a thing.

It often takes me 2 hours just to go through emails a day and then people get off when I say don't email me ring me it saves me lots of time, effort and money. The BB is the same. Leave it alone and it only costs me a couple of thousand dollars a year. Put in a FAQ section as suggested and it could cost that much a month to run.

I had considered putting together a resource book with the best and worst of the forums info with maybe annual or bi-annual editions. However as I said I barely get time to check the email let alone do that.

The logistics of setting up the FAQ forum or separate page would fall into the really hard basket, unless it were to be done by a bloody big team of volunteers. Then it would mean having to give lots of people access to the FTP site which is a bit of a no-no and having the forum as a closed one where responses were not allowed, otherwise the whole thing would end up getting hijacked. This would in turn mean having to keep an eye on all the original postings that make up the FAQ section so see if there was any new info that needed to be shifted to the FAQ section, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc..................

Get the picture.

By the way if you are thinking about setting up a FAQ page of your own using the info in these forums don't forget that all the info included in these forums is the Copyright of U-Beaut Enterprises, making it legally the property of U-Beaut Enterprises.

Cheers - Neil

PS Stinky - You as the king of the Polls are definitely in charge of the Poll section of the FAQ bit, and if we ever get one that is worthy of being included in that section I will let you know.

[silentC]

I wasn't suggesting that anyone wade through all of the posts to make an FAQ, just a few of the ones that looked particularly useful. Or that you do anything that was going to increase costs.

Anyway, your reply closes the issue.

BTW I wouldn't dream of trying to set up my own FAQ using your information. I was talking about something for my own use.

[JackoH]

Told you so! .I rest me case.

[silentC]

Mate, the Web is chock full of FAQs that have been put together by people who have enough of a devotion to a subject to volunteer their time to doing it. The majority are computer-related but the rest are on every subject you can think of. This either means that people are foolishly wasting their time, or that there is some merit in the idea. You can make up your own mind which.

Although I'm a bit put out by the tone of the reply (it was only a suggestion after all) it's fair enough and their call. But it doesn't follow that it's a bad idea in general. I think it was worth asking, even if you don't. They said no, subject closed. Let's get back to the woodwork.