Commercial Sponsorship of FAQs

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Bob McCormick (bobmcc@tcs.com)
Fri, 21 Jan 94 08:59:57 PST

As for commercial FAQs we already tolerate FAQs on commercial products when
they are maintained by people independent of the company that makes the
products. What is wrong with the same information being promulgated by
the company itself? (With full disclosure of the origin of the FAQ.)

The only "wrong" with a commercial product FAQ by the manufacturer is
that they won't tell you the bad or inconvienent things about the
product. In most products, the manuals show you how to easily do
things that the product does well, but they don't show you the
cumbersome work-arounds needed for things that they don't support
well. Independent FAQs are very good for this.

As for non-commercial FAQs, I doubt that there are many FAQ maintainers
that would not like to be able to spend more time researching and enhancing
their FAQ. By the same token, I am sure that most FAQ maintainers could
justify more time on their FAQ if it actually generated some direct income.

This might be true for some, but not others. I use my company's
computers to produce the FAQ and read Usenet. It may not be fair for
me to profit from their capital expenses.

=-=-=-=-=-
Bob McCormick email: bobmcc@tcs.com
Teknekron Communications Systems, Inc. vox: +1 510-649-3881
2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA, 94704 USA fax: +1 510-649-3600

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