Re: How did you get into this business?

James D. Murray (jdm@netcom.com)
Sat, 3 Jun 1995 16:06:55 -0700 (PDT)

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>
>Here's a question I've been wondering about for some time: How and why
>do people get into the FAQ-maintaining business?
>
I started reading comp.graphics about 10 years ago and noticed there wasn't
any information archives specifically about graphics file formats (in the FAQ
or anywhere else). I started collecting info on such formats and ended up
writing a book about the subject many years later.

Nearly a year ago, I decided to write and maintain the Graphics File Format
FAQ, loosely based on the format of my book. The comp.graphics FAQ gives little
help in finding file format specs and answering other questions (despite the
high percentage of questions on comp.graphics about file formats). I decided
that since my interest in the subject was so high--and nobody else seemed
foolish enough in the last decade to claim it--the territory of Graphics File
Formats know-it-all (yeah, sure) on Usenet was mine.

(BTW, I am not slamming the comp.graphics FAQ or its maintainer. The subject
of computer graphics is so vast that it's not practical to attempt to cover
it all in only one FAQ).

I don't know how famous my FAQ has made me (I've never been invited to see the
Gator Bowl). I certainly get a few email questions each month, and the
occasional free graphical software evaluation package for my review. But,
so far my reward has been the fun of discovery in digging up the info for
the GFF FAQ, adding quality material to it, and watching the size of it grow.

James D. Murray POB 70 Tel: 714.288.0141 jdm@netcom.com Orange, CA 92666 USA Fax: 714.832.9924

Maintainer of the Graphics File Formats FAQ on comp.graphics and coauthor of the O'Reilly book "Encyclopedia of Graphics File Formats".

"I'm not only an INTJ, I'm smug about it!"

Next message: Rockn_Robin: "Re: How did *you* get into this business?"
Previous message: Terry Carroll: "Re: How did *you* get into this business?"
Maybe in reply to: Bill Keyes aka the Ferret-Meister: "How did *you* get into this business?"
Next in thread: John T. Grieggs: "Re: How did *you* get into this business?"
Next in thread: Rockn_Robin: "Re: How did *you* get into this business?"
Reply: John T. Grieggs: "Re: How did *you* get into this business?"

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