Thomas O'Dowd wrote:
> Well Michael, I see that you have been a busy man... I checked the page
> source for hidden wise words within comments, but I guess you managed to
get
> all those in the text of the FAQ anyway :)
When have ever I been known to have any wise words? ;-)
> So do you think it would work??? I think the first part is looking
> good, but personally, I don't think the second part is maintainable.
I absolutely agree. Right now, this format is just "Some flaming goofball's
links into all the Q&A he could see in a given month." I.e., not
useless, but still not much better than starting at www.google.com.
On the other hand, it does give contributors (as opposed to lurkers)
a chance to review what they've said recently and make suggestions.
Total strawman approach, and this strawman wishes he had a brain.
Lend him yours!
> As it currently appears anyway, you seem to be leaning towards pulling out
> every thread in keitai and sticking that on the faq. It would probably
> be a great way to catch up on a year (wow!!!) of keitai-l email, but the
> final result would be cluttered and not really usable not to mention
> maintainable (unless machine driven). Actually it would probably just
> look like the archive but through a different viewfinder.
The only ways in which this format improves on the archive at the
moment are that is (1) significantly shorter than threaded subject
header list, and (2) somewhat more revealing than these headers.
I would agree with you about automation as a more efficient
way to proceed in the current mode, except for one thing: I was
on a new list last year where some of us talked in circles for
weeks about how to make the whole thing database-backed
and form-driven yadda yadda yadda and then one day I noticed
that Tom Gally had somehow gotten www.jekai.org heavily
indexed at Google without any of our pie-in-the-sky
infrastructure contributions.
So I'm gonna wait until this embryo passes the gill stage
before contemplating much in the way of FAQ automation.
> .... As to the format of this FAQ, I haven't
> really thought about it, but I would think edited questions and answers
> would be the most useful and easy to navigate as well as perhaps having
> specialised sections on some of the main questions that come up, like
> java, melodies, keitai vibrator games or whatever.
Specialization of topics is absolutely mandatory, I agree. That's
coming.
With respect to navigability, I can see how it's cumbersome and
a little unsatisfying to be pointed into the list all the time, but
I think I'll keep doing this for while until people can agree on
what kinds of questions can be left out, and what sort of
categories contributions can be shuffled into.
That said, I'm now doubting my initial decision to link to the
first question wherever I could, rather than to the
first answer. The idea was to index threads rather than
answers (and more recent ones first, in the hopes of getting
fresher answers). I think I'll go to a first-answer approach
from now on, at least when there is one, and leave this
FAQ pointed at first question on the list when there has
been no answer that I can see.
There's another reason why I'm not going to link to
questions first: people posing questions often feel
embarrassed about it. Personally, I'd feel flattered
to be at the root of an interesting thread, but that's
just my trouble-making nature, I guess.
> I'd be in favour of hosting the FAQ on the current keitai-l server
> together with the list and archive which is the most obvious place
> to look for it.
I don't think there's any argument about that. I don't even want
people to bookmark my version, at the moment.
> ...Then again, the most frequently asked question could
> end up being... Mika, when is the new NM520i coming out :)
As the current-but-no-doubt-soon-to-be-ousted keitai-FAQ
official style fascist, I will ignore that question for the time being,
because it didn't have a question mark on it.
> By the way, the FAQ generated an interesting question in itself...
> How do you spell "i-mode" in English, is it imode or i-mode? But I
> guess I already answered that :)
As a sometime professional proofreader, I want to add small section
of mechanics questions for journalists, like "Is it i-mode? I-mode?
iMode? imode? Imode?...." and "Is 'iAppli' (however you intercap
that) singular, plural, or both?"; and all those other things that Japanese
marketers never think of when coining roman-character brand names.
-m
leap@gol.com
[ Did you check the archives? http://www.appelsiini.net/keitai-l/ ]
Received on Sat Mar 24 04:30:49 2001