Should we have a F.A.Q. ?

Message

Wolven · #1 Post by **Wolven** » 2004-12-18 10:38

This forum is growing and more and more people are joining. What if we started to construct a F.A.Q. for the commonly asked and the most basic questions.
We (the users) could suggest questions/posts we see here in the forums to be added to it.

I know there is this post: http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=230 But i'm thinking of a 'dynamic' post where we can add questions and answers over time as they appear.

This is in my mind a good candidate for the F.A.Q. >> http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=452
Here is why: http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=471

What do you think?

peschmae · #2 Post by **peschmae** » 2004-12-18 16:04

I think the best solution would be a wiki. (Think i already suggested that once and was referred to *somewhere i don't remember*

)

Peschmä

Oracle · #3 Post by **Oracle** » 2004-12-18 17:33

WiKi or FAQ, I don't care about the media... but having a reference would be great...

Wolven · #4 Post by **Wolven** » 2004-12-18 18:10

peschmae wrote:I think the best solution would be a wiki. (Think i already suggested that once and was referred to *somewhere i don't remember* )

Peschmä

I wasn't thinking of something as elaborate as a wiki, but more like a sticky post with answers to questions asked over and over in the forums. Not that a wiki is a bad idea though.

Jeroen · #5 Post by **Jeroen** » 2004-12-18 23:50

A wiki is better, as a wiki can be edited by all, while a post can only be edited by its author and the forum admins.

http://wiki.debian.net is the canonical wiki for Debian, feel free to make some kind of FAQ there, and I can refence it in the right topics.

Wolven · #6 Post by **Wolven** » 2004-12-18 23:54

Jeroen wrote:A wiki is better, as a wiki can be edited by all, while a post can only be edited by its author and the forum admins.

http://wiki.debian.net is the canonical wiki for Debian, feel free to make some kind of FAQ there, and I can refence it in the right topics.

Oki. I'll have a look. I've never written in a wiki before, but I guess it's not to hard.

Oracle · #7 Post by **Oracle** » 2004-12-18 23:58

This is not very clear, and it's a bit complicated to find some piece of information... don't you have something cleaner ?

Jeroen · #8 Post by **Jeroen** » 2004-12-19 00:00

You can make a wiki as clear as you like, by reorganising it in section, for example, or adding a table of contents in the top. It's all within the power of a wiki.

labrador · #9 Post by **labrador** » 2005-05-26 02:24

Here is something for the FAQ:

Who runs the forum and why (who pays for it, what type of server is it,
capacities, etc.)

Jeroen · #10 Post by **Jeroen** » 2005-05-26 08:21

You're the first one to ask, honestly, so it's not really a *frequently* asked question.

But to answer it:
Currenly P3 1GHz with 512MB ram and 40+120G harddisk (40G on raid1, 80G general via LVM2). Internet connection provided via University Utrecht/surfnet, The Netherlands, 100MBit LAN. Running Debian Sarge, with the stock Debian phpbb2 package, running on apache1.3 with MySQL 4.0 and PHP 4.3.10.

Computer, hosting and admin provided by myself, Jeroen van Wolffelaar, second board admin Marc van Deursen, founder of debianplaza.net.

Intent to move in the near future (months at most) to an identically hosted AMD Sempron 2800+ with 1GB RAM and 2x160GB harddisk, generously provided to me from a German sponsor of Debian hardware. Fallback server at the moment is an AMD Athlon XP 2000+ with 512MB RAM and 160+60+80GB harddisks hosted at the University Utrecht, just in case something disasterous happens with the current hosting situation. As there is no replication enabled, this involves restoring from backups, so isn't an option for temporary outages (as it involves losing part of the newest posts).

With the current amount of users, this is very adequate, with about 8500 page requests daily, on average.

labrador · #11 Post by **labrador** » 2005-05-26 10:41

Ah, but Canon thinks that only 2% of their customers are Linux users so it
isn't worthwhile to develop drivers. The fallacy here is that if they did have
drivers, obviously the percentage would be higher. You don't know for
certain until you build it.

Likewise for an FAQ. If people don't register, or feel uneasy about
a site that has no statement of purpose, ownership, etc., perhaps
you won't see the question asked from the type of person
who has the concerns.

For me it is the first thing I want to know whenever I send any kind
of data to a webserver - whether an online store or someone that
will have my email address. I want to know something about
the physical location, the motive, the policies the owners have
(not the default policies that come from phpbb FAQ), and that
sort of thing. You know - the standard mission statement thing
that gives people the confidence that this isn't just a test install
of phpbb that could go away tomorrow when you decide you'd
rather use the server to host America's Army or whatever.

Anyway the raw numbers of poll respondants do want an FAQ
of some sort. Maybe some of them share my curiousity and
just didn't bother to say it specifically.

Oh, I just noticed the raw numbers are very low.
80% looked good though!

petteri · #12 Post by **petteri** » 2005-05-26 16:13

I don't really see pattern on questions (except why my resolution is 800x600 after first boot), but somekind of sticky for each forum would be nice when that happens.

sensovision · #13 Post by **sensovision** » 2005-06-26 15:49

I always prefer to get replies from people rather than checkin F.A.Q. and I don't really understand why members on some forums prefer to send to FAQ rather than give qucik reply which would take same amount of time. But anyway I believe that FAQ or Wiki would be useful addition.

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