I maintain a couple of faqs in the soc.religion* hierarchy.
One of them currently has bibliographies. These are not
exhaustive lists, but are fairly extensive. I am always changing
entries in them. What I do, since books are indeed both commercial
products as well as valuable resoutces for the readers, is to
maintain standards that must be met before something is included
on the list. Every once in a while I find it necessary to revise
those standards. You idea of a short review is rather like annotating
a bibliography or list of resources. MacUser, vor instance
used to carry short short product reviews with ratings ranging
from 1/2 a mouse to 4 o4 so mouses. This type of thing can be
a useful APPENDIX for the reader of a faq. I agree, however, with
your concerns that product info should not be the main
function of a faq.
BTW, I recently received a complementary and unsolicited copy of
a book from an author whose book was not listed in my
unannotated bibliography. A well maintained resource list is of
service not only to the readers, but also can be a source for authors
of articles, books and even software to let people know that their
products exist. As an appendix this seems fine to me providing a
sense of balance and objectivity is maintained.
Dean Edwards
faq-maintainer
Shamanism-General Overview
Gnosis-Overview
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