Re: How to deal with people archiving your FAQ?

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Kent Landfield (Kent_Landfield@sterling.com)
Mon, 8 Aug 94 20:41:16 CDT

> > There's a fellow who's decided to do his own html
> > document at his site with a bunch of stuff, including all the
> > FAQs from r.a.b. The problem is that these are versions I posted
> > back in May--and I have had revisions since then.
> >
> > Does anyone have statements written on their FAQs regarding the
> > responsibility of people posting the most recent version? Can
> > you control that? My FAQs are growing all the time--I have
> > static sections, but some are revised on an almost monthly
> > basis.
>
> Only monthly? Mine are revised biweekly! :-)
>
> Anyway, here's the relevant section from the FAQ with which I have similar
> problems.

This is getting almost totally out of hand here folks. Time to backup and
take a powder...

As an FAQ author and maintainer I can understand your concern for assuring
that the data supplied to the community is the most current. Fine. But
speaking as an archive administrator, I can only do so much. I maintain a
large set of mirrors and additional archives. If I now need to start worrying
about conditions for including each individual FAQ in my archive then just
guess what I'll do... And who is really the looser here ? Not me, less
headaches, less resource usage, more room for other less demanding archived
material. You and the community become the loosers. Your information now
becomes harder and harder to find on the net as archive admins punt the
problem just as usenet admins have the picture groups due to copyright
violations. It's just not worth the trouble.

I am supplying the archives as a service. I am sure that the HTML version
is also being supplied as a service. I am sure that the archive admin at
that site would like to have the most current version available as well.
Remember that unless the HTML conversion is totally automated it takes time
and effort...

I can understand putting distribution restrictions in your FAQs for
commercial distribution but for archives providing a free service ????
Why was the FAQ written in the first place ? To provide information to the
general community. In most cases, the changes made from one month to the
next do not totally invalidate the information posted the month before.
There are exceptions, but not that many.... Is having no information available
better than information a couple months out of date ?

You have no way of tracking where the FAQ goes once it hits the net. Why
should you try to police it ? Just put a message in the FAQ informing the
user how to get the current version and put the date in a very visible
location. Also include the frequency of posting in that same visible
location. If the user cannot figure out that they may not be looking at
current data and cannot take the time to email for a current copy then why
bother with them ? Most of us have real jobs and net.faq.police is probably
not it.

> 3) Remove the FAQ from the site, possibly replacing it with the
> instructions for obtaining a copy (i.e., ftp to rtfm)

:) I really doubt that most archive admins would remove an FAQ from their
archive and then point people at that removed faq's proper location. It's
really not worth the extra effort...

-Kent+

-- 
Kent Landfield                        INTERNET: kent_landfield@sterling.com
Sterling Software                     UUCP:     uunet!kent || sparky!kent
Phone: (402) 291-8300                 FAX:     (402) 291-4362
Please send comp.sources.misc-related mail to kent@uunet.uu.net.

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